This publication discusses the many different ways medicines work in the body and how this information guides the hunt for drugs of the future. The science of pharmacology--understanding the basics of how our bodies react to medicines and how medicines affect our bodies--is already a vital part of 21st-century research. Pharmacology is a broad discipline encompassing every aspect of the study of drugs, including their discovery and development and the testing of their action in the body. Four chapters comprise this publication. Chapter 1, "ABCs of Pharmacology," tracks a medicine's journey through the body and describes different avenues of pharmacology research today. Chapter 2,"Body, Heal Thyself," describes how new knowledge about the body's own molecular machinery is pointing to new drugs. Topics in Chapter 3,"Drugs From Nature, Then and Now," brings the reader up to speed on how scientists are looking to nature for a treasure trove of information and resources to manufacture drugs. Finally, Chapter 4, "Molecules to Medicines," describes how cutting-edge research is advancing progress by helping get drugs to diseased sites and away from healthy cells. (Contains a glossary.)