Mission

The main part of our mission is the education of undergraduate and postgraduate students. The department participates in teaching medical and dental students enrolled in the Phases 1 and 2 of the Faculty of Medicine, which includes Biology course in year 1, Foundation Block in year 2 and physiology / pathophysiology of organ systems in 8 modules during years 3 and 4. In addition, we offer several physiology courses to undergraduate students enrolled in Faculty of Allied Health and Faculty of Pharmacy. We run 2 full-time graduate programs, M. Sc. and Ph.D. in physiology and contribute to 2 inter-departmental graduate programs: M.Sc. in Biomedical Sciences and M.Sc. in Molecular Biology.

The second part of our mission is research in basic and applied medical sciences that is aimed at exploring various pathophysiological mechanisms involved in pathogenesis of diseases that represent a specific challenge to the Gulf region or to modern society in general.

Objectives

The main objective is to provide students with comprehensive and contemporary knowledge of the functions and regulations of human physiological systems at the cellular, organ, and whole body levels. At the end of various courses that we offer or modules in which we participate, the students should be able to:

• Understand the role and basic underlying principles of the different body systems in regulating the internal environment.

• Understand how the different body systems achieve their functions and how these functions are regulated and interrelated.

• Recall the normal values of important physiological parameters and interpret them.

• Recognize effects of pathophysiological processes on body / organ functions and physiological compensations that occur.