About the Department
With 22 independent research groups, 50 research workers, 50 research students and 30 technical and support staff, we are the largest department of Pharmacology in the United Kingdom. The Department is housed in modern accommodation in central Cambridge where it enjoys close proximity to other biological sciences departments, to excellent library facilities and to the attractive city centre. The over-arching theme of research in the Department is to discover the fundamental mechanisms which underlie important problems in Pharmacology. Major research areas of the Department include cellular neuroscience (6 research groups), systems neuroscience (3 groups), cell signalling (4 groups), ion and drug transport mechanisms (5 groups), biomolecular imaging using atomic force microscopy (2 groups) and vascular biology (2 groups). Research interests are described in detail on the individual staff research pages.
Our main teaching commitments are to undergraduate students studying Natural Science, Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, and we teach in the broad areas of Pharmacology and Neuroscience. All academic staff share a commitment to top-quality teaching which emphasises general principles and integrates into it the latest findings of modern research. The Department received the top rating of 24/24 in a recent external Teaching Quality Assessment.
The department has good facilities for students with disabilities. The department is accessible throughout, and the lecture theatre has electrically operated adjustable platforms for wheelchairs.