UCL FACULTY OF LIFE SCIENCES

Physiology and Pharmacology study how living organisms work and how chemical compounds, endogenous and exogenous, interact with them to affect their function. They are the basic sciences underlying modern medicine and research aimed at understanding human health and disease.

"In the first half of the 20th century […] pharmacology really established its identity and its status among the biomedical sciences. In parallel with the exuberant proliferation of therapeutic molecules-driven mainly by chemistry-which gave pharmacologists so much to think about, physiology was also making rapid progress, particularly in relation to chemical mediators[…]. Many hormones, neurotransmitters and inflammatory mediators were discovered in this period, and the realisation that chemical communication plays a central role in almost every regulatory mechanism that our bodies possess immediately established a large area of common ground between physiology and pharmacology, for interactions between chemical substances and living systems were exactly what pharmacologists had been preoccupied with from the outset."
Rang et al., Pharmacology

Programme Tutor:

• Dr Paola Vergani, p.vergani@ucl.ac.uk
• phone: 020 7679 7666 (Lab), 020 7679 7908 (Office) 
• internal-phone: 37666 (Lab), 37908 (Office) 
• 240 or 245, Medical Sciences Building

Administrator:

• Tracy Boot, t.boot@ucl.ac.uk
• phone: 020 7679 3751 internal-phone: 33751 
• G10 Medawar Building

Programme

Reflecting the excellence of science carried out in the Department, the final year courses available to IBSc students aim at teaching established fundamental principles alongside the latest research advances. You will be given scientific papers to read and present, you will be required to independently research and write about specific topics, you will be given the chance to exercise your critical thinking skills. No need to panic, you'll rise up to the challenge!

Students take courses to a total of 4.0 course-units (cu), of which at least 1 taught cu is in physiology modules, 1 taught cu is in pharmacology modules.

Compulsory Modules

• Taught core module choosing from:
• PHAR3003 - Molecular Pharmacology (0.5 cu)
• PHOL3004 - Cell Signalling in Health and Disease (1 cu)

• Research Project choosing from:
• PHAR3009 - Library Research Project (1 cu) web-page
• PHAR3010 - Laboratory Research Project (1.5 cu) web-page
• PHOL3904 -Research Project in Physiology (Laboratory) (1.5 cu) web-page
• PHOL3902 - Research Project in Physiology (Reading) (1cu) web-page

Other Modules (see Year 3)

download leaflet (pdf)