Pharmacological science is a discipline that exists at the interface between basic and clinical science of medicine.Department of Pharmacology of school of basic medicine of Lanzhou University was founded in 1954. This institute commits to all the teaching tasts of pharmacology for undergraduates and postgraduates in clinical medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, preventive medicine, medical laboratory science, medical imaging, nursing, et al in Lanzhou Universty. It began to recruit Master's degree graduate in 1978.

Currently, the Department of Pharmacology consists of 11 faculty, including three professors, three associate professors and five lectures.The Department comprises a dynamic group of faculty, researchers and postgraduates from diverse backgrounds undertaking investigations to reveal biological mechanisms of drugs that will ultimately lead to discovery and development of new drugs and drug targets for a variety of human diseases.The faculty of Department of Pharmacology are with strong connections with other Departments and Research Centers constituting a powerful interactive team engaged in research and teaching. The faculty of Department of Pharmacology are also staffs of the Key Laboratory of Preclinical Study for New Drugs of Gansu Province.

Key research areas within the department involves the application of experimental technologies brought from a variety of different disciplines including physiology, biochemistry, molecular and cellular biology and clinical medicine to develop a better understanding of drug action and its mechanism. The faculty of the department has diverse backgrounds and is actively involved in research in the broad areas of: cardiovascular pharmacology,  anti-inflammatory pharmacology and tumor pharmacology.

Department of Pharmacology at Lanzhou University has a rich history of preclinical study in drug discovery, indeed it has finished preclinical study of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of over twenty drugs for applying clinical trial. In recent years, the Department has accomplished significant achievements in study for activity of peptide,protein and natural medicines against metabolic disease(e.g. diabetes, hyperlipemia, obesity, etc), inflammatory bowal disease and cancers.