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Welcome to the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology

I welcome you to the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, one of the largest academic departments within the University of Calgary's Faculty of Medicine, and invite you to browse through our website.

The department includes 36 primary members plus numerous secondary and adjunct appointees. Our primary departmental membership has representation from four of the Faculty of Medicine's six research institutes - the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, the Snyder Institute of Infection, Immunity & Inflammation, the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta, and the Institute of Maternal and Child Health.  New recruitment activities at the Assistant Professor level will involve partnerships with these and other research institutes in our faculty, building primarily on existing strengths in the areas of Neuroscience, Cardiovascular Science, and Inflammation/Immunology Research.  In addition, the department leads the development of a faculty wide program in the area of Therapeutics, and in the process of developing a translational pain research program in partnership with the Department of Clinical Neurosciences. 

The Department of Physiology and Pharmacology takes considerable pride in a strong commitment to excellence in research and education. Over half of our primary department members hold external salary awards from agencies such as the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Canada Research Chair program, and the vast majority are funded through CIHR operating grants. Department members published well over 900 peer reviewed papers over the past 5 years, making our department one of the strongest departments in the country in the areas of Physiology and Pharmacology.

The department is actively engaged in a range of educational activities, including both classroom teaching, as well as the training of high quality graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Graduate student training is conducted under the umbrella of the Faculty of Graduate studies in one of the many graduate programs such as Neuroscience, Immunology, Medical Science, Cardiovascular & Respiratory Sciences, Gastrointestinal Sciences, and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology. Department members are actively engaged in classroom teaching in numerous graduate and undergraduate courses. The department actively participates in the Undergraduate medical curriculum, and plays a major teaching role in the Bachelor of Health Sciences program.

On behalf of our department, I wish to express our pride in being an integral part of the Faculty of Medicine the University of Calgary.

Sincerely

Gerald W Zamponi, PhD, FRSC
Head, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology