Pharmaceutical Sciences
School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Central South University was founded in April, 2002, originated from the Department of Pharmacy and the Institute of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology Research Centre of Hunan Medical University, as well as the Pharmacy Departments of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Xiangya Hospitals. The Pharmacy Departments of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Xiangya Hospitals was founded in 1907, 1958, and 1993, respectively. And the Institute of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology Research Centre of Hunan Medical University was developed primarily from the Pharmacology Department of National Xiangya Medical School in 1945.
Since its foundation, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences has been committed to the mission of achieve national excellence in education, research and professional services in pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences through its well-recognized undergraduate and postgraduate education programs as well as its high level research programs. Currently, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences has three main disciplines, i.e. pharmacology, pharmaceutical chemistry, and pharmaceutics. Among them, pharmacology is the national key discipline and has been rated as the national quality course for undergraduate education. According to the third round of disciplinary assessment organized by Chinese Ministry of Education in 2013, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences was ranked 10th accompanied with the Pharmaceutical Schools of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Sun Yat-Sen University.
The School recruits a team of excellent domestic and overseas scientists with expertise in pharmaceutical research and education. Among them, 71% of the staff holds senior professional title and 74% of the staff holds Doctoral degree. Some eminent faculty members have been conferred with honorable titles, including 1 winner of “National Recruitment Program of Global Experts” (the Dean, Prof. Fengyuan Chen), 1 winner of the “National Outstanding Youth Funding”, 1 winner of “Ministry of Education Cross-Century Talents Program”, 2 winners of “Ministry of Education New Century Talents Program”, and 3 winners of “Cultivation Program of Academic Leaders in Hunan Province”, etc. Meanwhile, 3 members of the School are national new drug review experts and 10 members of the School are new drug review experts of Hunan Province. Academician of China Academy of Engineering, Sixun Peng, is employed as Honorary Professor in the School.
The School has been successful in undergraduate education and postgraduate supervision. The School enrolls around 90 undergraduates and 80 postgraduates yearly. Now, there are 557 full-time students (326 undergraduates and 231 postgraduates) and over 200 part-time students in the School. Since 2002, the undergraduates have been granted for 33 University Innovation Projects. Among the graduates, 2 of them won National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Awards, 5 of them won National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Nomination Awards, 9 of them won Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Awards of Hunan Province, and over 30 of them won Outstanding Master Thesis Awards of Hunan Province.
In the past 5 years, the School has received a great number of research grants from various funding agencies and programs (total amount of 53.32 million RMB), such as the National Basic Research Program (“973 Program”), the National High-Tech R & D Program (“863 Program”), National Key New Drug Discovery" projects, and National Natural Science Foundation projects. The major outcomes including the application of 54 patents (15 granted), 161 SCI /EI journal articles, 2 Second Class “National Science and Technology Award”, 1 Second Class “Chinese Medical Science Award”, and 1 First Class “Medical science and Technology Achievement Award of Hunan Province” etc.
The School has been targeting a spectrum of ways to interact with pharmaceutical industry through research collaborations, contract services, and internship programs. It has established several platforms such as "R&D Demonstration Base of Hunan Province for new drug discovery" with Hunan Hansen Pharmaceutical co. ltd., and "Innovative Postgraduate Training Base of Hunan Province" with Institutes for Food and Drug Control of Hunan Province. It is also the Herbal Medicine Extraction Engineering Center of Hunan Province, Chiral Drugs Engineering Research Center of Hunan Province, vice chairman unit of Pharmaceutical Technology Innovation Alliance of Hunan Province, vice chairman unit of the Pharmaceutical Excipients Strategic Alliance of Hunan Province, etc.
The major priority of the School for the coming years will be to build an internationally accredited curriculum offering BS, MS and PhD degrees with graduates prepared for modern career challenges; to establish a world-class core facility to support research and teaching; and to expand the capability to build bridges between the academic and industry.
The current leaders of the School include Secretary of the Party committee, Professor Lin Peng; Dean, Professor Fengyuan Chen; Associate Secretary of the Party committee, Hao Wang; Associate Deans, Professor Wenbin Zeng, Professor Changping Hu, and Associate Professor Qianbin Li.
