Department of Physiology and Pharmacology

Brief History of the Department

To trace the history of the present department, it is first necessary to summarize the history of the Medical College of Ohio at Toledo (MCO).  This institution was established in 1964, as a free-standing medical school by the State of Ohio.  MCO accepted its first class in 1969.  Eventually, MCO became a health science center, consisting of schools of Medicine, Nursing, Allied Health, and a Graduate School of biomedical sciences, on an attractive campus of about 450 acres within the city of Toledo.  In 2005, MCO’s name was changed to the Medical University of Ohio (MUO).  On January 1, 2006, MUO’s College of Medicine merged its Physiology and Pharmacology departments, creating the present department.  On July 1, 2006, MUO merged with the University of Toledo, which was also a part of the State of Ohio’s higher education system.  Hence, we are now the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, College of Medicine and Life Sciences, the Health Science Campus, the University of Toledo.  Following are the brief histories of the leaderships of the parent and the present departments.  On September 1, 2009, Nader G. Abraham, Dr. HC, Ph.D., FAHA, became the Chairman of the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology.  He left on January 30, 2013 to become vice dean for research at Marshall University.  On February 1, 2013, Howard Rosenberg, M.D., Ph.D., former chair for the Department of Pharmacology, became the Interim Chairman of the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology. July 1, 2015 Bina Joe, Ph.D. became the current Chair of the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology.

Physiology:  The founding chair of Physiology was Leonard Nelson, Ph.D., who came to MCO in 1967, from Emory University.  He led the department until 1988.  William Jacobus, Ph.D., coming from Johns Hopkins, occupied the chair until 1990.  He was followed by capable acting chairs until 1994, when John Rapp, Ph.D., was appointed to the chair, moving from MCO’s Department of Medicine.  Dr. Rapp retired in 2004.  The department was then led by an interim head until Physiology and Pharmacology were merged on January 1, 2006.

Pharmacology:  The founding chair of Pharmacology was Edward J. Cafruny, M.D., Ph.D., who came to MCO in 1968, from the University of Minnesota.  Dr. Cafruny left the institution in 1973, to head the Sterling Winthrop Research Institute.  The department was then led by a capable interim chair until 1975, when Amir Askari, Ph.D., from Cornell University Medical College, assumed the chairmanship of the department.  He relinquished the chair in 1997, but remained as a faculty member.  Howard Rosenberg, M.D., Ph.D., who was already a department  faculty member, was appointed as the chair in 1997, and continued in this capacity until Physiology and Pharmacology were merged on January 1, 2006. 

 

 

 

Last Updated: 6/27/22