Signal Transduction: regulation of intracellular second messengers, ion channels and metabolism

All living tissue must respond to environmental cues to survive. The cells in our body need to detect and respond to small changes in the concentration of many different molecules or stimuli in their extracellular milieu. How biological systems interpret environmental signals to execute appropriate physiological responses is the business of signal transduction.

The molecular choreography of transmitting information across cellular membranes is essential for normal cellular behaviour and is subverted in many diseases. It is therefore unsurprising that the majority of drugs used in the clinic target receptor proteins that coordinate cellular responses to the environment. To design new therapeutics, we need to discover such targets and understand how they work at the cellular level.

Joining the Graduate Program in Pharmacology offers the opportunity to work on many different thematic areas of signal transduction, and utilize an array of experimental techniques spanning from single molecules to whole animals. Our faculty listed below are interested in the dysfunction of signaling pathways in CNS disorders, cancer, addiction, infectious disease and cardiac pathology. Contact us!

Faculty List

Brock Grill         Paulo Kofuji         Carol Lange                   Ping-Yee Law     Jonathan Marchant      Lincoln Potter     Sabita Roy     Virginia Seybold

Stan Thayer       Tim Walseth       Elizabeth Wattenberg     Li-Na Wei            Kevin Wickman          Lilian Yuan