Degree of the future

The University of Delaware has launched the nation's first master's program in quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP), a fast-growing field that aims to make drug development more efficient, predictable and cost-effective.

Today, bringing a new drug to market costs an estimated $1 billion, with many potential therapies failing along the way. One reason? Traditional drug discovery often focuses on single biological targets, like a disease-causing protein variant, even though the human body is a complex, interconnected system.

QSP takes a different approach, integrating computational modeling with experimental data to better predict how therapies will behave in the body.

Pharmaceutical companies and regulatory agencies are increasingly adopting these methods. But as demand grows, so, too, does the need for scientists who can work fluidly across biology, mathematics and computation.