About Department

The Department of Physiology of the Kazan State Medical University, one of the oldest in Russia, was established as a part of the Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Medical Jurisprudence of the Kazan Imperial University in 1806. In 2006 the department celebrated the 200th anniversary of its foundation.  In honor of this event, the members of the department were awarded the Medal of the Physiological Society named after I.P. Pavlov, Russian Academy of Sciences.

 

The department conducts lectures and practical classes on normal physiology, on physiological bases of the traditional medicine, on clinical and molecular physiology for students of the KSMU. Modern technologies are widely used in the educational process: a PowerLab learning mini-laboratory, multimedia projectors, computers, multimedia training programs, modern equipment, allowing to record  different physiological parameters of the human organism. To assess students' knowledge a lot of computer tests and tasks are used in addition to oral questioning.

 

Members of the department carry out the scientific researches in the following fields: cellular-molecular mechanisms of synaptic transmission and plasticity; fundamental basis of the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases; mechanisms of regulation of heart function in health and disease; mechanisms of skeletal and smooth muscle functioning and regulation; the development of modern methods of nervous system disorders treatment.  

The department of  Physiology of the KSMU is a "Leading Russian Scientific School". This high academic title was awarded by Council for Grants of the President of the Russian Federation, and Department receives this title for the fifth time. In 2001, the staff of the department was the initiator and organizer of the Kazan XVIII Congress of Russia Physiologists. Research Department of Normal Physiology, supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, grants the President of the Russian Federation, Federal target programs, the British Physiological Society, the Academy of Sciences.

 

Scientific investigations at the department are conducted in a close cooperation with other departments of KSMU, scientific laboratories of Russia and some foreign countries: the United States, Hungary, Finland and others.

In 2010, the Education and Research Center of KSMU "Fundamental and Applied Neurophysiology" was created on the basis of Medical  physiology department (Leader - Professor A.L. Zefirov).

 

Since 1991, the Head of department is Zefirov Andrew L. - corresponding member of  RAS, MD, Professor, Dean of the Medical Faculty of KSMU, Honored Scientist of Russia and Tatarstan, Winner of the State Prize of the Republic of Tatarstan , Soros Professor, Chairman of the Tatarstan Branch and vice president of the Physiological Society by I.P. Pavlov.

 

Today, the members of the department of  Medical physiology are one of the most dynamically developing scientific schools of Russia, performing priority studies at the international level, a solid team of highly skilled professionals in the fields of science, medical education and innovation, which is well known and well respected not only in Russia, but also far beyond its borders.