Departmental overview

The research interests of IBP faculty are directed at the cell biology, physiology and pharmacology of cell regulation and signaling. Major research themes include the molecular mechanisms of membrane signaling, metabolic regulation, neuronal signal transduction, and the development of systems approaches for studying cellular dynamics. These efforts are directed at understanding how normal and abnormal cell function translates into whole animal physiology and pathophysiology.  In this context special focus is given to cancer biology, inflammation, cardiovascular biology and metabolic dysfunction.

 

This research is supported by outstanding core facilities located within the Medical School for proteomics, microarray analysis, high content/high throughput screening, high throughput real-time qPCR, high throughput quantitative ELISA, electrophysiology, sequencing and a departmental facility for cellular imaging using advanced light, confocal and electron microscopy. IBP faculty teach physiology and pharmacology to medical and dental students, run a graduate studies program in Cell and Regulatory Biology, and are involved in the training of postdoctoral fellows and physician-scientists.

 

IBP is embarking on a major recruitment drive under the new chair, Dr John Hancock, which will double the size of the department over the next few years. We plan to recruit new faculty who can build on our research strengths and bring new in vitro and animal models, technologies, computational and systems approaches relevant to the integration of cell signaling with biological function.