Message from Professor Laura Itzhaki, Head of Department

2023 has been another busy year in the Department of Pharmacology. As I reflect on it, I feel immensely proud of what our community has achieved. Alongside seeing vital outputs from our researchers, we have delivered outstanding undergraduate teaching to our medicine, veterinary medicine and natural sciences students supported by a new Senior Teaching Associate, Assistant Teaching Professor, and Teaching Administrator. Looking ahead, 2024 is set to be an equally exciting year - as part of our mailing list, you’ll receive the news straight to your inbox, but make sure you’re following us on X (@UnivCamPharm) or LinkedIn for more frequent updates.

We have drawn up plans to refurbish space for one of the two new lecturers to be recruited in 2024. These will be the last of a wave of recruitments following many retirements over the last 10 years. With 14 new groups in that time, we have seen rapid growth, and some of the highlights of their research are described below. Our overarching research mission is to understand how drugs work at the molecular, cellular and physiological levels, and to translate these fundamentals into innovative treatments and diagnostic approaches, and with recent faculty appointments we are leveraging our particular strengths in the areas of pain, ageing, and molecular therapeutics. We are leading research collaborations both with industry, including AstraZeneca, our neighbours here in Cambridge, as well as colleagues across the University and beyond.

Thank you for taking the time to read about the Department’s progress in 2023. Your support could contribute to our ongoing success in the future, both in delivering world-class research as well as training the next generation of scientists - for example providing a bursary for an undergraduate student to gain invaluable research experience over the summer vacation, contributing towards a PhD Scholarship, towards piloting new exploratory projects, or helping with equipment purchase for our new research groups to be recruited this year.