The Division of of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology was established in 1966 as a joint division of the Departments of Medicine and Pharmacology. There are five core faculty members based in geographic space of the Division: Curt R. Freed, MD, Division Head; Joseph Gal, PhD, W. Michael Zawada, PhD, Wenbo Zhou, PhD and Alberto Costa MD, PhD. In addition, Richard Dart, MD, PhD is a toxicologist with an appointment in the Division and the Department of Medicine. Dr. Dart is Professor and Director of the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center. The Division works with MD, Kennon Heard Associate Professor of Surgery and Medicine to coordinate the Clinical Pharmacology/Toxicology Consult Service which is staffed by Jeffrey Brent, MD, Scott Phillips, MD, David Gilmore, MD, Kennon Heard, MD, Michael Kosnett, MD, Edward Cetaruk, MD, and Curt R. Freed, MD.

             Faculty in the Division have traditionally had extensive teaching responsibilities in the Departments of Medicine and Pharmacology. In Internal Medicine, Division faculty present a 50 lecture course in therapeutics each year for fourth year medical students.While an elective, the course has proven very popular, attracting a majority of the fourth year class. In Pharmacology, particular emphasis has been in the second year Pharmacology course for medical students. Clinically, Division faculty serve as ward attendings and as consultants. The Division created and currently supervises the Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (TDM) Laboratory for the University of Colorado Hospital. The laboratory is directed by Joseph Gal, PhD and performs over 100,000 drug assays per year.

             As researchers, the five core Clinical Pharmacology faculty have been awarded over $1,000,000 per year in external support to fund a variety of projects. Dr. Freed is primarily interested in neurotransplantation for Parkinson's Disease in man and experimental animals and in stem cell therapy. He is currently Director of the Neural Transplant Program at the University of Colorado, a multidisciplinary Center that combines basic research and clinical activity. Dr. Gal's interest is stereospecific drug analysis and stereoselective drug metabolism; Dr. Zawada studies the mechanisms responsible for neuron survival and death. Dr. Zhou does research on mechanism of Parkinson's disease and on converting stem cells to dopamine neurons. Dr. Costa is an expert on Down Syndrome with research spanning animal models to clinical treatments.