Physiology seeks to understand biological function spanning the range from molecular mechanisms to medical problems. No other field has such an important task or is as cross-disciplinary in nature. The Department of Physiology is an internationally recognized research center in which this broad perspective is collaboratively embraced by the entire faculty.

Areas of systems level investigation include the cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, endocrine, immune and central nervous systems. We also explore cellular processes such as synaptic transmission, the immune response and muscle excitation-contraction coupling as well as molecular mechanisms of ion channels and transporters. At the level of disease, efforts are focused on spinocerebellar ataxia, epilepsy, blindness, cardiac hypertrophy and failure, diabetes, immune deficiencies, muscular dystrophy, channelopathies, transport deficiencies and others.

Research approaches are multidisciplinary, including electrophysiology and biophysics, molecular, cellular and whole-animal imaging, proteomics and X-ray crystallography Moreover, the Department has a strong track record of being at the forefront of emerging new approaches.

There are active collaborative ties with clinical departments and institutes throughout the David Geffen School of Medicine, including the Cardiovascular Research Laboratory and the Departments of Medicine, Pharmacology, Neurology and Anesthesiology.