Twenty percent of the nation’s Ph.Ds in Neuroscience were trained right here at Meharry. Graduate, medical, and dental scholars are trained to conduct basic, translational, clinical, social, and behavioral research, generating new knowledge that contributes to the nation’s effort to reduce health disparities in the areas of neurological disease, mental health, and drug abuse/addiction—including alcoholism.

Along those same lines, we provide students with an intensive knowledge of pharmacology as a science, exposing them to pharmacological research methodologies that provide skill in the practice of the science, and the opportunity to apply these skills in pharmacological research. Students gain a problem-solving approach to the understanding of pharmacology that makes a reasoned, objective correlation between pharmacological and other types of knowledge; this approach serves as both a foundation and methodology toward solutions.

To this end, our strong research program rounds out the student experience.

Students perform research with faculty whose interests range from the molecular neurobiology of cellular signaling and synaptic plasticity, to the neurobiology of complex animal behavior, to toxin/environmentally based neurological disorders.

Department News

Dr. Clivel Charlton, Chair and Professor of Neuroscience and Pharmacology at Meharry Medical College, recently had his article entitled “Methylation reactions at dopaminergic nerve endings, serving as biological off-switches in managing dopaminergic functions” published in Neural Regeneration Research. Click here to access the article.

Department Events

Journal Club/Works in Progress
Open to the entire college and held on each Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. in the West Basic Sciences Building, Room 3011.

Lab Meetings for Prospective Members
Prospective lab members are invited to attend any of our weekly lab meetings:

• Dr. Clivel Charlton’s lab: Tuesdays from 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
• Dr. Sukhbir Mokha’s lab: Fridays from 10:30 a.m.– 1:00 p.m. (Dr. Subodh Nag is part of Dr. Mokha’s lab)
• Dr. Sanika Chirwa’s lab: Mondays at 4:00 p.m.

Please note that Dr. Tultul Nayyar participates in Dr. Charlton’s lab meetings.

The Ralph J. Cazort Heritage Lecture Series
Held on the first Wednesday of April each year, the annual Ralph J. Cazort Heritage Lecture series is sponsored by an endowment from The Sterling Drug Visiting Professor Program in honor of department founder Ralph Jerry Cazort, M.D. Established in 1984 to finance a Visiting Professorship in Pharmacology and promote the interchange of knowledge between colleges and universities in the field of pharmacology, each visiting professor should be a scholar of superior distinction in a discipline of interest and significance to the students and faculty of the college.