Department of Pharmacology

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LabHEART is a very user-friendly interactive computer model of integrated Cardiac Myocyte ion channel and Ca transport. It is useful for both students and researchers to understand the cardiac action potential, ion channel properties and Ca transients.

MaxChelator is an easy to use program to calculate complex ionic solutions (e.g. using Ca-EGTA-Mg-ATP etc). That is, if you need to make a solution with a specific free [Ca] and [Mg] and include Ca buffers like EGTA, EDTA, BAPTA... this will tell you how much total Ca, EGTA... to use to achieve it.

The Shannon-Bers Model is an integrated mathematical model of cardiac excitation-contraction coupling, focusing on detailed Ca handling with four compartments of junctional cleft, subsarcolemmal space, cytosolic bulk, and sarcoplasmic reticulum.

SparkMaster is a plugin for ImageJ which allows rapid and reliable Ca spark analysis in line scan images.

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Welcome to our Department

Welcome to the Department of Pharmacology in the School of Medicine at UC Davis. The Department comprises a dynamic group of faculty, researchers and students from diverse backgrounds undertaking investigations to reveal biological mechanisms that will ultimately lead to discovery and development of new drugs and drug targets for a variety of human diseases.

Under the direction of Chairman Donald Bers, Ph.D., the Department is part of the basic biomedical sciences in the School of Medicine. The Department and its Faculty has strong connections with other Departments, Graduate Groups and Research Centers constituting a powerful interactive team engaged in research, teaching and service. UC Davis Pharmacology is one of the nation's top ranked pharmacology departments in federal research funding and hosts many postdoctoral trainees and graduate students from different Graduate Groups.

Key research areas within the Department include cardiovascular and neural physiology/pharmacology, genetic basis of disease, synaptic plasticity and development, autoimmune disorders and infectious diseases. These diverse areas of study are unified by a common goal - to understand mechanistically the critical building blocks of biological systems from molecules to cells and organ systems, in health and disease, and to identify components that can be modified through pharmacology or other therapeutic strategies to cure disease. Please visit our Research Overview page and Faculty Research pages for details of ongoing work in the individual Departmental laboratories.

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

	Dr. Angela Gelli, Associate Professor, was awarded the 2012 Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Award and designation as a Hartwell Investigator. Dr. Gelli’s winning research proposal represents innovative and cutting edge research that aims to develop a novel drug delivery system targeting the blood-brain barrier for the treatment of childhood brain tumors. To learn more about this honor, Please go to the Hartwell Foundation's website.

	Dr. Donald M. Bers, the Department’s Distinguished Professor and Chair, was awarded the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association's Distinguished Scientist designation in November 2012, for his contribution to cardiovascular research. To learn more about this honor, please view the American Heart Association’s website.

RECENT ADDITIONS TO OUR FACULTY

We are pleased to announce our new faculty members:

Manuel Navedo, Ph.D.

Yang K. Xiang, Ph.D.