PhD (by Research, Duration 3 Years) in the field of Pharm-Biotechnology and Traditional Medicine with the following thematic areas of focus:

1. Understanding Traditional Medicine Philosophy of Health and Disease Prevention and Control
2. Traditional/Herbal Medicine Quality and Safety Standards
3. Herbal Medicine Production/Manufacturing and Quality Control Standard
4. Traditional/Herbal Medicine Knowledge and Material Conservation and Propagation- in-situ, ex situ
5. Traditional/Herbal Medicine/ Clinical Validation Protocols and Standards
6. Pharmaco-Biotechnology-Application of Biotechnology to Drug Discovery, and Drug Production
7. Pharmaceutical Business Management/Regulation

1. Understanding Traditional Medicine Philosophy of Health and Disease Prevention and Control
This PhD programme is designed to harness traditional medicine knowledge from the practitioners in communities for possible scientific interpretation, documentation, validation, standardization and development into curriculum for training in traditional medicine at undergraduate and master level. The research will focus on practitioners’ understanding of health and disease, their diagnosis of disease, treatment and prevention of disease as well as materials used and their preparation methods and precautions.
Admission Requirements: Applicants must have Master of Science or M. Med (or equivalent) degree in field related to Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Clinical Pharmacy, Public Health, and Epidemiology.

2. Traditional/Herbal Medicine Quality and Safety Standards
This PhD programme is designed to investigate safety of traditional/ herbal medicines and set attainable and acceptable standards for traditional/herbal medicine products produced on commercial scale. It will identify harmful or toxic substances and set limits on the use. It is designed to guide and inform regulation of herbal products in the region.
Admission Requirements: Applicants must have Master of Science or equivalent degree in the field related to Pharmacy, Pharmacology, Pharmacognosy, Pharmaceutical Technology, Microbiology or Pathology.

3. Herbal Medicine Production/Manufacturing and Quality Control Standards
This PhD programme is designed to evaluate various herbal medicine production systems aimed at designing an appropriate technology and a for production of high quality and safe traditional/herbal medicine products in the region. The programme will also evaluate and develop appropriate quality control tests and standards for traditional/herbal medicines in the region. This will
be done in collaboration with pharmaceutical/herbal medicine industries and drug regulatory bodies in the region.
Admission Requirements: Applicants must have Master of Science or equivalent degree in the field related to Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Science, Industrial Chemistry, Pharmaceutics, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Pharmacognosy, or chemistry.

4.  Traditional/Herbal Medicine Knowledge and Material Conservation and Propagation- in-situ, ex-situ.
This PhD programme is designed to harness traditional/herbal medicine material (plant, animal, etc), their conservation and propagation knowledge from the communities in the region and to design the most appropriate scientific methods for their conservation, domestication and propagation in the region. The
conservation will include ex-situ in living gene banks, protected areas, and in-situ as cells, tissues, seeds or organs.
Admission Requirements: Applicants must have Master of Science (or equivalent) degree in the field related to Pharmacognosy, Ethno-botany, Agronomy, Horticulture, Agroforestry, Biotechnology, Forestry, Applied Botany or Biology.

5. Traditional/Herbal Medicine/ Clinical Validation Protocols and Standards
This PhD programme is designed to evaluate and compare the various methods of clinical drug evaluation and aimed at designing the most feasible and robust protocols and standards for clinical studies and validation of traditional/herbal medicines in the region.
Admission Requirements: Applicants must have Master of Science or M. Med (or equivalent) degree in field related to Internal Medicine, Clinical Pharmacy, Nursing, Medical Laboratory Science/Technology, Public Health or Epidemiology.

6. Pharmaco-Biotechnology-Application of Biotechnology to Drug Discovery, and Drug Production
This PhD programme is designed to apply the principles of systems biology and metabolomics to identify drug molecules and drug targets particularly macromolecules for development and production of modern drugs, particularly Biopharmaceuticals and Bio-products to tackle various disease burdens in the region especially Tumours, Cancers, HIV, Tuberculosis, Malaria, Diabetes, etc.
Admission Requirements: Applicants must have Master of Science or M. Med (or equivalent) degree in the field related to Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Science, Biological Sciences, Biotechnology, Biochemistry, Microbiology or Molecular Biology

7. Pharmaceutical Business Management/Regulation
This PhD programme is designed to evaluate the pharmaceutical business industry, value chain from active pharmaceutical ingredients production, to pharmaceutical product production, registration/regulation, Marketing and distribution. The programme will evaluate the challenges faced and the region’s comparative advantage aimed at designing strategies for the establishment of industries for production and sale of high quality pharmaceutical active ingredients and pharmaceuticals/ herbal medicines in the region.
Admission Requirements: Applicants must have Bachelor’s degree in field related to Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Industrial Chemistry, Regulatory sciences with Masters of Businesses Degree (bias to pharmaceuticals).

Additional Admission Requirements for PhD Candidates:
Applicants must submit a research concept note relevant to the thematic areas of focus for PhD programme as outlined above.
The concept notes (PDF format) should not exceed 2500 words (Times New Roman, Font Size 12, & 1.5 Line Spacing).
The concept note should clearly define the research problem, elucidate research done so far to address the problem with annotated references, identify gaps, justify the research work to be done, formulate clear objectives, methods, and indicate expected outcomes, and how the outcomes will tackle health
challenges faced by the region using the approach proposed by PHARMBIOTRAC.
Applicants should also submit a copy of the abstract of their Master’s dissertation/thesis (or equivalent) as well as copies of their scientific publications (if any).
Applicants are encouraged to demonstrate ability to think and work independently in a multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary work environment.
Applicants must pass an interview for admission into the PhD programmes (via Skype for applicants residing outside Uganda
and in person for those residing within Uganda).
Applicants should demonstrate proficiency in English, which will be the medium of instruction. However, where possible, English
language support will be provided to the candidates who may not have sufficient knowledge of English during the course of their stay at MUST.