The University of Toledo

Overview

In 2005, guided by a new institutional strategic plan, the Medical University of Ohio identified five featured academic tracks, each with basic and clinical components, and designated these tracks for significant investment and growth during the next few years.  One of these featured tracks focused on the sciences related to the cardiovascular disorders and their underlying metabolic diseases.  To align the organization of the basic science departments of the College of Medicine with the above plan, on January 1, 2006, the separate departments of Physiology and Pharmacology were merged into a new unit because the major strengths of the College of Medicine in cardiovascular and endocrine research were in these two departments. 

Building on the outstanding records and the proud traditions of our former departments of Physiology and Pharmacology, the new department is in the midst of integrating its resources, and strengthening its research and educational programs.  The Center for Diabetes and Endocrine Research (CeDER) has already been established within the new department, and recruitment of additional new faculty for this center is well under way. Organization of other programs of excellence in the department is also anticipated, based on our present strengths in Molecular Genetics of Hypertension, and molecular mechanisms involved in cardiac hypertrophy/failure, and ischemic heart disease.  The planned expansion of these featured areas notwithstanding, the department is also firmly committed to the support of the other outstanding research of its present faculty in molecular, cellular, and integrative physiology and pharmacology.

On July 1, 2006, six months after the merger of the two departments, the Medical University of Ohio (formerly the Medical College of Ohio) merged with the University of Toledo.  Hence, the newly expanded Department became the department in the College of Medicine on the Health Science Campus of an expanded University of Toledo.

The department remains responsible for, and committed to, the teaching of the contemporary contents of the traditional disciplines of physiology, pharmacology, and therapeutics within the integrated curriculum of the College of Medicine, and participates in the interdisciplinary Ph.D. and M.S. programs that are designed to prepare students for careers in biomedical sciences.