Mission

Physiology is the study of life processes:

• how living systems work - from the molecular to the organ system to the whole organism levels
• how organisms respond to physical activity and their environment
• how disease affects living systems
• how the genome translates into function both within the cell and throughout the whole organism

The academic mission of the Department of Physiology is to foster research and teaching that elucidates the functioning of tissues and organisms. With complete genomes available for a growing number of organisms, there is an increasing need to incorporate molecular and cellular information into the context of the whole organism. To achieve this goal, the Department seeks to integrate information from studies on single molecules and cells with studies from isolated tissues and intact organisms.