• Question: what is your favourite part in Pharmacology and how much biology is involved?

    Asked by 470prmc52 to Alex, Laura, Lesley, Richard, vediacan on 22 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Laura Newton

      Laura Newton answered on 22 Jun 2015:

      Hey 470!

      I didn’t actually study Pharmacology at university so I can’t really tell you what my favourite bit was. But pharmacology is all about how drugs interact with the body so there is a fair amount of biology in it. But it’s biology of humans and human cells, you won’t be doing any plants or evolutionary biology. Here you can see all the modules you’d be studying if you did Pharmacology at Bath uni. It’ll be pretty similar to most other uni courses. http://www.bath.ac.uk/study/ug/prospectus/subject/pharmacology/detail/

      Thanks for your question!
      Laura

    • Photo: Richard Prince

      Richard Prince answered on 22 Jun 2015:

      Hi 470,
      I love trying to understand how receptors work and using toxins as probes to find that information. You don’t have to do huge amounts of general biology – most pharmacology courses have a lot of optional modules so you can tailor them to your interests to a certain amount.
      When I worked on nerve to muscle signalling, we used a lot of cobra toxin (or rather, a snake related to cobras). Cobra toxin blocks one of the proteins that muscle uses to receive signals from neurones. If you block the signal, you can’t contract your muscles and move. The cobra uses this to paralyse its prey.
      I was fascinated to find out that cobras are resistant to their own venom because their version of the toxin target protein is a bit different to that of their prey. If they bite their tongues, it doesn’t matter!
      Best wishes
      Richard

    • Photo: Vedia Can

      Vedia Can answered on 22 Jun 2015:

      Hey 470prmc52,

      My favourite part of Pharmacology is the action of receptors (I like learning how they work in the body, their action fascinates me), and I can analyse their effect or even identify their presence by carrying out simple experiments. Identification of a receptor in the human body (in my case a cartilage sample) is very exciting. Then observing their mechanical activation by performing a simple experiment called a CyclicAMP assay.

      At a PhD Level I think you can decide how much Biology you want to include in Pharmacology (you can look at the metabolic effects of the drug and examine these effects using cell viability assays, which looks at how many cells are alive (decided by what part of the cell takes up the dye; via cell membrane etc).

      Best Wishes,

      Vedia

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