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Chairman’s
Welcome Welcome to the Department of Physiology
and Biophysics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. The
Department of Physiology and Biophysics is one of five basic science
departments in the College of Medicine. There are currently 19 primary
faculty in the department. An additional 24 faculty from eight other
departments in the College of Medicine have secondary appointments in the
Department of Physiology and Biophysics.
Education: Our educational mission is to
teach medical students (in Medical Physiology, Medical Cell Biology, summer
research projects, and senior electives) and graduate students in the
departmental
Master of Science and
Doctor of Philosophy programs as well as
in the newly established interdisciplinary (IBS) Ph.D. Program. Within the
Physiology and Biophysics Ph.D. Program, doctoral students may choose to
enter specialized tracks in Pathophysiology or Neuroscience. Currently, the
departmental graduate program includes 23 students pursuing the Ph.D. and 5
students pursuing the M.S. degree.
Research: The research mission of the
department is to carry out high quality, extramurally funded research that
has lasting impact on basic knowledge and human health. A central theme in
the department is the regulation of life processes, studied mainly at the
level of the cell. Departmental research programs focus on many aspects of
physiological regulation, including gene transcription, protein targeting,
post-translational protein modification, subcellular signaling, cell-cell
communication, and control of growth and differentiation. Another major
theme in the department is membrane biology, e.g., membrane receptors, ion
channels, transporters, and subcellular membrane trafficking. The
experimental systems of interest to faculty in the department include
musculoskeletal, vascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal, renal, central
nervous system, as well as model cells and organisms (see
individual faculty pages).
Research funding in the department has
increased dramatically over the past several years.
In the most recent national rankings (2005), the
department ranked 36th among physiology departments in NIH
funding.Faculty research is
supported by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation,
United States Department of Agriculture, National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, American Cancer Society, and the National Multiple Sclerosis
Society. Two major federally funded programs at UAMS are led by
departmental faculty: the United States Departmental of Agriculture
Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center,
directed by
Thomas M. Badger, and the
National Institutes of Health
IDeA Network
of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE), directed by
Lawrence E. Cornett.
Facilities: In February, 2004, the
department moved into the second floor of the new Biomedical Research Center
Building 2, adjacent to existing departmental space in the original
Biomedical Research Center. Within this space, individual laboratories and
departmental shared facilities contain a wide array of equipment needed for
research in modern cellular and molecular biology. A new Zeiss confocal
microscope purchased from an NIH Shared Instrumentation Grant
was
installed in the department in the fall of 2005.
A protein crystallography laboratory, equipped with a
Rigaku R-axis X-ray diffractometer, was established in the fall of 2006 by
new faculty members
K.I. Varughese and
R. Celikel.
Other shared facilities
are available on campus, including
DNA microarray,
protein mass spectrometry and proteomics,
skeletal imaging,
PET imaging,
nuclear magnetic
resonance,
DNA sequencing, and transgenic mouse preparation. The physical
facilities and collegial atmosphere make the Department of Physiology and
Biophysics an excellent place to pursue career opportunities in biomedical
research.
Questions about this page? Send us an email.
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updated
12/20/06
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