Welcome to the Department of Pharmacology
Welcome to the Department of Pharmacology in the UC Davis School of Medicine. 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 of novel understanding of physiological and pathological mechanisms, identification of potential therapeutic targets and development of new strategies for a variety of human diseases.
The Department is led by Chair Donald Bers, Ph.D. and the Executive Advisory Group that includes Johannes W. Hell, Ph.D. (Vice-Chair for Academic Development), Crystal M. Ripplinger, Ph.D., (Vice-Chair for Research and Administration) and Heike Wulff, Ph.D. (Vice-Chair for Education). The Pharmacology Department is part of the basic biomedical sciences in the School of Medicine. The Department and its Faculty have strong connections with multiple UC Davis Graduate Groups, other Departments (in multiple colleges) and Research Centers constituting a powerful interactive high-quality research team. The faculty are also committed to excellence in teaching and service (both at UC Davis and beyond). UC Davis Pharmacology is one of the nation's top ranked pharmacology departments in federal research funding and hosts a diverse group of postdoctoral trainees and graduate students from different Graduate Groups.
Two of the strongest research areas within the department are Cardiovascular and Neuroscience at multiple levels, and in a highly collaborative environment of considerable international reputation. Along with other research areas, our work is 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.
Spotlight on Our Pharmacology Team
Kevin Xiang and Manuel Navedo elected Fellows of APS Cardiovascular Section
We are proud to announce that Dr. Yang Kevin Xiang and Dr. Manuel F. Navedo have been elected Fellows of the American Physiological Society – Cardiovascular Section. Fellows are elected based on their continuous and meritorious research in cardiovascular physiology. This distinction recognizes Drs. Xiang’s and Navedo’s exciting research programs, commitment to the development and progression of the cardiovascular field, and contributions to APS and the cardiovascular physiology community. These recognitions also highlight the excellent research, service, and outreach performed by the Department faculty.
Department Early Career Researchers Received Prestigious AHA Career Awards
Proud to announce that Dr. Charlotte Smith, a postdoc in Drs. Crystal Ripplinger and Ele Grandi’s labs, and Dr. Haibo Ni, an assistant project scientist in Dr. Ele Grandi’s lab, received the prestigious AHA Career Development Award. We celebrate not just their achievements but their passion, dedication, and unwavering commitment to their craft. Both of them are an inspiration to our trainees, faculty and staff.
Dr. Smith’s project will use a combined experimental and computational approach to investigate why some aged hearts develop atrial fibrillation, while others do not. She will also determine underlying sex differences in atrial electrophysiology that may inform sex-specific strategies for arrhythmia prevention and treatment.
Dr. Ni’s project will combine atrial-like engineered cardiac tissue and multiscale computational models of human atria to identify novel strategies to combat atrial fibrillation. By leveraging multi-target synergy, Dr. Ni seeks to enhance antiarrhythmic efficacy while minimizing impact on the ventricles, focusing on atrial-selective targets.
Elva Diaz receives the 2024 ADVANCE Award!
Elva Diaz, Ph.D.
We are proud to announce that Dr. Elva Diaz is the co-recipient of the 2024 ADVANCE Award. The ADVANCE Award Symposium (Wednesday, April 24, 2024 at 12:30-4:30 p.m.) celebrates the contributions made by the ADVANCE awardees and is an opportunity for the UC Davis community to join together around the awardees’ research and commitment to mentoring, social impact, and public outreach.
The ADVANCE Award for mid-career and senior UC Davis faculty who advance diverse perspectives and gender equity in STEMM through their teaching, research and service. Dr. Diaz was recognized for her project on “How to Change Your Mind: Broadening Access to Neuroscience by Understanding Mechanisms of Brain Function in Learning and Memory”. Congratulations Elva, and THANK YOU for your service to our community!!!
- For more News see Department News.
Pharmacology Training Program
UC Davis Cardiovascular Symposium