Physiology and Biophysics

Research:  The central research theme in the department is the regulation of biological processes.  Our faculty study physiological regulation at many different levels, including gene transcription, protein targeting, post-translational protein processing, subcellular signaling, cell-cell communication, and control of differentiation and growth, including tumorigenesis.   The experimental systems used by faculty in the department include mouse models of human disease, mammalian tissue culture, and model organisms such as yeast.  The physiological systems of interest to faculty in the department include musculoskeletal, vascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal, endocirine, and central nervous system (see individual faculty pages).

Faculty research is supported by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, United States Department of Agriculture, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.  Two of the largest federally funded programs at UAMS are led by departmental faculty: the United States Departmental of Agriculture Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center, directed by Thomas M. Badger, and the National Institutes of Health IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE), directed by Lawrence E. Cornett.

Education:   Our Graduate Program has been renamed and is now the Ph.D. Program in Cellular Physiology and Molecular Biophysics, to reflect the cellular and molecular level of much of the research in the department.  There are currently 9 students in the program pursuing the Ph.D. and 5 students pursuing the M.S. degree.  In addition to students in the departmental graduate program, several students in the Interdisciplinary Biomedical Sciences (IBS) Ph.D. Program are pursuing their degrees in the laboratories of departmental faculty.

Courses offered by departmental faculty include those for medical students (Medical Physiology, Medical Cell Biology, summer research projects, and senior electives), core courses for first year graduate students in all programs (Gene Expression, Cell Biology, General Physiology), and graduate electives (Cellular Endocrinology, Molecular Cell Biology, Molecular Biophysics).

Facilities:  The department is housed mainly on the second floor of the Biomedical Research Center.  Within this space, individual laboratories and departmental shared facilities contain a wide variety of equipment needed for research in modern cellular and molecular biology.  K.I. Varughese, an established protein crystallographer, was recruited to the department in June, 2006, and has established a core facility in the department for X-ray diffraction and protein crystallization.  A new integrated fluorescence and electron microscopy core facility was completed in December, 2010, and is located on the first floor of the Biomedical Research Center.  The facility houses a 200 KEV transmission electron microscope (FEI Technai G2 TF20) and sample preparation equipment, all of which were purchased from a $1.48M NSF shared instrumentation grant (Brian Storrie, PI).  The facility also includes a Zeiss LSM510 confocal microscope and several other fluorescence microscopes.  In addition shared equipment and core facilities within the department, several additional shared facilities are available on campus.  The physical facilities and collegial atmosphere within the department and across campus make the UAMS Department of Physiology and Biophysics an excellent place to pursue an academic career in biomedical science.