Sites of interest on the World Wide Web—edited by Rick Neubig
Drug Information
“Where can I get drug information online?” is a frequent question. Two sites that provide professionally monitored information about drugs are RxList (www.rxlist.com) and Clinical Pharmacology 2000 (www.cp.gsm.com). Both have monographs aimed at professionals plus information designed to educate patients about drugs. RxList is probably more accessible to the layperson, has an interesting list of the top-selling 200 drugs in the US, and has relatively quick downloads. It also has listings of herbal and alternative medicines, and provides a bulletin board for lay discussions of the most frequently accessed drugs. Clinical Pharmacology 2000 is mainly directed at health professionals, but is currently implementing a program of paid membership. It has useful overviews of major therapeutic classes, provides pricing information, and has a handy drug comparison tool to create custom tables.
Brain Anatomy
If you don't know your amygdala from your marginal sulcus, then you might do well to consult The Whole Brain Atlas (http://www.med.harvard.edu/AANLIB/home.html). Even if your specialty is not in the area of neuropharmacology, you'll be able to get real insights into the anatomy of the human brain as revealed by serial tomographic images. The site is easy to navigate, and is constructed to help students learn and test their knowledge with regard to the “Top 100 Brain Structures.” The atlas also offers images of brains affected by many diseases of interest to pharmacologists, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, stroke, and more.
Drug Receptors 101
The Pharmacology Guide posted by GlaxoWellcome (science.glaxowellcome.com/science/) gives a brief, basic introduction to concepts of receptor pharmacology. It has a useful guide to pharmacological terms and includes many equations and analytical methods for dose-response and ligand binding analysis.
Molecular Pharmacology
The ASPET Division for Molecular Pharmacology sponsors a bulletin board for announcements and discussions of topics of interest to the members of the Division and other researchers in the areas of molecular pharmacology. The Mol Pharm BBS (webboard.med.umich.edu/~molpharm) is open to everyone in the pharmacology community. The information is arranged in a bulletin-board format, and the user must set up a free account at the first login. The main discussions have been on G protein coupled receptors and receptor theory, although other topics are also addressed.
If you have suggestions of Web sites that would be of interest, or would like to advertise your own, please contact
Rick Neubig (rneubig{at}med.umich.edu).
- © American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Theraputics 2001
