Course Descriptions

General principles of cell physiology, chemical and physical structure of membranes, membrane transport and electrical phenomena, action potentials, muscle contraction, energy transduction, nerve impulse conduction, and synaptic transmission.

Physiology of the mammalian nervous system. Course is intensive, adapted to the schedule of the medical curriculum and comprising roughly five hours of lecture and four hours of conference weekly for five to six weeks. A lecture course coordinated with neuroanatomy.

Physiology of the mammalian cardiovascular, respiratory, renal, digestive, endocrine, and reproductive systems. Course is intensive and adapted to the schedule of the medical curriculum, occupying the equivalent of about two days a week for most of semester. Lecture and laboratory are included.

Course discusses chemical and physical structure of membranes, model systems, permeability and transport, membrane potential, ionic channels, excitability in nerve and muscle, ionophores, active transport, and membrane receptors. Identical with MCP 641.”

Course topics include osmosis and cell volume, tracer analysis of permeability and compartmentation, theory of channels and carriers, cable properties, Hodgkin-Huxley formalism, Na, K, and Ca ion channels, regulation of cellular Na, Ca activities, single-channel analysis, chemical synapses, membrane receptors, cell junctions, excitation and E-C coupling in muscle. Identical with MCP 642.

Development of the nervous system in all its aspects: origins of neurons and glia; nerve cell differentiation; cellular interactions during neurogenesis; formation of synaptic connections and neuronal circuits; development of nervous functions and ontogeny of behavior; mechanisms of repair and reorganization in the nervous systems; and theories of neuronal plasticity.

An intensive seminar course for advanced students covering the mechanism of action of drugs on basic neural processes, including action potentials, neurotransmission (storage, release, reception, and metabolism of transmitters), and central nervous activity, taught jointly by staff members of Pharmacology and Physiology/Biophysics.

An advanced seminar course in the basic mechanisms underlying the propagated nerve impulse and synaptic transmission, including second messengers, neuromodulation, memory mechanisms, and integrative mechanisms underlying behavior.

The NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts stipulates that Institutions receiving support for National Research Service Award Training Grants are required to develop a program in the principles of scientific integrity. This program should be an integral part of the proposed training effort.

Required of all candidates for the Ph.D. The student will enroll for credit as determined by his/her advisor but not for less than a total of 24. Not more than 12 hours of PHS 730 may be taken in a regular semester, nor more than six in a summer session. Where a student has passed his/her (a) qualifying examinations, and (b) is engaged in an assistantship, he/she may still take the maximum allowable credit stated above.

Required for all PhD candidates. The student will enroll for credits as determined by the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.

Used to establish research in residence for the Ph.D., after the student has been enrolled for the permissible cumulative total in appropriate doctoral research. Credit not granted. May be regarded as full-time residence as determined by the Dean of the Graduate School.