Pharmaceutical Biomaterials

ABOUT

Description

Pharmaceutical Biomaterials is a multidisciplinary field of study combining Pharmaceutics and Biomaterials. This field, commonly deals with the strategies related to the manipulation of bio-originated or bio-applicable materials. These approaches serve towards diagnosis, treatment and/or prevention of various diseases.

Aims:

Development of novel materials to enhance stability and biocompatibility of medical devices and advanced drug delivery systems.

Development and modernization of the industrial companies dealing with pharmaceutical biomaterials to pave the path for the production of novel intelligent drug delivery systems and biomedical devices.

Training of competent and well educated scientists with spectacular expertise to design, discover, synthesize and develop novel biomaterials in order to prevent, diagnose and treat various diseases.

Implementation of modern high-tech and state of the art approaches (NEMS, MEMS, etc) to the field of Pharmacy.

Admission

The national competent applicants will be selected from the successful students who passed the written entrance exam conducted by the Ministry of Health of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The selected candidate will be interviewed and then be accepted once their ambition, enthusiasm, courage and talents are approved by the admission committee of the department.

The international applicants can apply directly through the corresponding department, where their CV, academic records, achievements, publications as well as enthusiasm, courage and talents will be considered and act accordingly.

Due to interdisciplinary nature of the course, the graduates of different fields of studies including Pharmacy, Medicine, Dentistry, Chemistry, Physics, Biology and related fields can sit for the entrance examination.

The entrance exam will be held at the early summer each year and the selected applicants (twice the capacity of the departments) will be nominated at last one month after the exam. They will be then invited to attend the interview that will be held in late summer. The first semester of the academic year will be started in autumn and last till early winter when the second semester starts. The academic year will be finalized at late spring in the following year. The students are expected to finish their studies in four years unless an unprecedented event occurs when it will be extended to one more year.

Education

Different aspects of materials, systems, approaches, techniques and standards, ethics and managements will be thought to the students in practical, theoretical manner. The course will be taught by the academic experts of the university who are conducting different research projects in different departments. In order to familiarize the students to the real world of Pharmaceutical Biomaterials they are required to visit various private and governmental pharmaceutical companies to learn different aspects of design, production, packaging, quality control involved in the field. Moreover, they will be prepared to establish and fund their own science-based companies, independently.

Educational Strategies, Methods and Techniques

Different from the classic manner of education, the Pharmaceutical Biomaterials was designed in a way to train the most talented students based on the modern education and research protocols. The supervisor and the thesis project will be defined at the beginning of the course through mutual understanding and agreement of student and the supervisor(s). An ongoing communication between the student, tutor and supervisor(s) at the teaching and research phases is the must to achieve the goals designed. Accordingly, brain storming, Journal club, update discussion, problem based education, project design and survey and etc., form the foundation of a dynamic course that will be monitored continuously by the Board of Pharmaceutical Biomaterials of Ministry of the Health.

Student assessment

The scientific progress of the students will be monitored during the course of study by all members of the academics in the department. Based on the nature of different courses, the student will sit for oral and/or written examination during and/or at the end of the semester. Furthermore, there are subjects where the student is required to give a seminar and presentation which will be evaluated by the tutor. Following the completion of the course and getting a minimum total score of 15 out of 20, the student will be directed to sit for the General Transferring Exam (GTE). The successful students who passed the GTE will officially start their research project and pursue their studies towards PhD degree. Following the completion of the thesis research project and approval of the supervisor and assessment committee, the student will defend his/her thesis in an open session before the internal and external referees. Once the referees found the thesis, presentation and defend of the student satisfactory, they will approve awarding PhD degree otherwise, the student might be asked to conduct further research or fail him/her altogether awarding him/her a M.Phil degree.

Head of Department

	Mohammad abdolahad   Assistant Professor   Office:     Tel: (+98 21) 6111 4307      Email: m.abdolahad@ut.ac.ir		Hamid Akbari Javar   Associate Professor   Office: 1-113    Tel: (+98 21)      Email: akbarijo@tums.ac.ir		Mohsen Amini   Professor   Office: 1- B1 131    Tel: (+98 21) 6695 9090   Email: moamini@tums.ac.ir
	Saeed Balalaie Professor   Office:     Tel: (+98 21) 2288 6575      Email: balalaie@kntu.ac.ir		Saman Hosseinkhani   Professor   Office:    Tel: (+98 21) 4407 8288   Email: saman_h@modares.ac.ir		Mehdi Khoobi   Assistant Professor   office:   Tel: (+98 21) 6648 2607   Email: m-khoobi@tums.ac.ir
	Mazda Rad-Malekshahi   Assistant Professor   Office:    Tel: (+98 21) 6412 1511   Email: m-radmalekshahi@sina.tums.ac.ir		Seyed Naser Ostad   Professor   Office: 2-314    Tel: (+98 21) 6695 9105   Email: ostadnas@tums.ac.ir		Masoud Soleimani   Associate Professor   Office:    Tel: (+98 21) 8288 4508   Email: soleim_m@modares.ac.ir