Midwestern University’s College of Pharmacy, Downers Grove Campus offers you various opportunities to learn about and participate in extra-curricular research studies with faculty members.

Research opportunities range from traditional bench research in a laboratory, to clinical research both on and off campus. Participation is “hands on” and may include a variety of activities such as experimental conduct, literature reviews, data collection, data analysis, and presentation of research findings.

Portions of the pharmacy curriculum will introduce you to the various aspects of formal scientific research. If you wish to engage in bench research, additional training is provided and required.

Research Options

Participation in research is welcomed and encouraged as a means to better understand the dynamics of patient care. If you have an interest in participating outside of your pharmacy coursework, there are multiple options for you:

Elective Credit - You may opt to do an independent study research course mentored by a faculty member, where you may receive elective credit of one to two hours per quarter.

Federal Work Study - You may work with faculty as a Research Assistant through the Federal Work Study (FWS) Program. To qualify for this, you must have a FAFSA form on file with the Office of Student Financial Services and select “Yes” to question #31.

Student Research Fellowship Program – This annual opportunity allows you to earn a stipend for your research efforts and requires a formal presentation of your research outcomes. This option is a competitive application process for proposed research and is awarded to a limited number of students each year.

Volunteer – If you are interested in simply getting familiar with how research works, you may volunteer to assist faculty in their research endeavors, where no elective credit, FWS earnings, or stipend funds are received. This involvement is a good learning experience and often leads to more formal participation.

Faculty’s Areas of Research

Our faculty are experts in their fields and involved in numerous areas of pharmacy research. To learn more, review our pharmacy faculty’s research areas listed next to each of their names at Our Faculty.

In addition, several pharmacy faculty comprise the Pharmacometrics Center of Excellence that partners a strong faculty knowledge base in computer modeling of drug efficacy and toxicity with wet-lab analytic approaches. This group is highly expert in conducting pre-clinical through post-marketing studies. Their work is regularly featured in peer-reviewed research publications, and they train many pharmacy students in cutting-edge scientific research each year.

Connecting with Faculty for Research

To connect with a particular faculty member who may be doing research in an area of interest to you, you should first speak with your faculty mentor, whom you will meet when you begin pharmacy coursework at Midwestern University. He or she may facilitate connecting you with this faculty member.

In addition, pharmacy students are invited to attend the Research Showcase each year, where researching faculty provide briefs about their studies, as well as present options for student participation. After the formal presentation, students are invited to connect with those faculty as desired.

Research Participation Stats

Our research teams are busy each year! Following is a summary of the College’s research activity in the 2019-2020 academic year:

67 pharmacy students earned elective credit for their independent study in pharmacy-related research.

38 pharmacy students did research through the Federal Work Study program.

5 pharmacy students participated in the Student Research Fellowship Program.

In December 2019, 57 of our students presented their research on 38 posters at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Midyear Clinical Meeting in Las Vegas.

29 pharmacy faculty had their research published in 54 articles in peer-reviewed research journals and authored 9 book chapters. Published research often includes our pharmacy students listed among the authors.

Collectively, our pharmacy faculty did 69 presentations (virtually or in-person) of their research to live audiences of their peers, as well as 35 poster presentations at state and national conferences and venues. Student contributions are often recognized.