Â鶹ԭ´´

Discipline overview

The Pharmacology Discipline is actively engaged in a vigorous research programme which is centred around the areas of neuropharmacology (the study of the effects of drugs on the central nervous system), immunopharmacology (the study of the effects of drugs on the immune system), and signalling in vertebrate development.

The Discipline has research links with other national and international centres, including Biochemistry, Anatomy, Physiology, the National Centre for Biomedical Engineering Science, the Regenerative Medicine Institute, and the Network of Excellence for Functional Biomaterials at University of Galway, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Nottingham, University College London, Cardiff University, Lund University, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, the University of Pennsylvania, and H/S Lund beck, Denmark. The research activities of the Discipline are funded from a variety of competitive sources.

Research Areas

• Molecular and cellular biology of vertebrate embryo development
• Antidepressants; novel targets; modulating immune responses
• Non-animal alternatives for toxicological assessment of drugs
• Novel cell, gene and pharmacological therapies for Parkinson's disease
• Molecular mechanisms of intestinal injury, repair and carcinogenesis; inflammatory bowel disease, colon cancer and radiation injury to the intestinal tract
• Caspases, cell death and differentiation;, chemotherapy-induced apoptosis and cancer
• Neurochemical, neuroendocrine and molecular mechanisms underlying pain, anxiety and depression
• Neuropharmacology of cannabinoid and opioid receptors; The endocannabinoid system in pain, anxiety, Parkinson’s disease and neuroimmune function
• Toll-like receptors and the brain-gut axis