VOLUME 1 - ISSUE 1 - PHARMACOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL

The Bristol Department of Pharmacology was founded a little over 50 years ago when Hans Heller was appointed as Professor and Head of Department. In 1971, when Professor Heller retired, Jimmy Mitchell arrived on the scene, from Cambridge, and, whereas Neuroendocrinology had previously featured large, a strong "neurotransmitter amino acid flavour" soon became apparent in the Department's research (particularly with the recruitment of Jeff Watkins). Over this period, the Department became renowned not only for its academic excellence, but especially for its friendly, informal atmosphere in which to work, whether as staff member or student.

In 1973 Jimmy Mitchell had the vision to move the department on from its mostly "service" undergraduate teaching to medics, vets and dentists, and to introduce a B.Sc. Honours degree in Pharmacology, followed shortly after by an M.Sc. in Advanced Neuro- and Molecular Pharmacology. Most recently, in 1994, after much encouragement from colleagues in industry, we introduced a Pharmacology B.Sc. "with Study in Industry". Today, around half of our students are selected for the opportunity to spend a year undertaking research in blue-chip pharmaceutical companies around the world.

In 1991, Graeme Henderson also followed the Cambridge - Bristol trail to become Head of Department. However, with this no longer being a life-sentence, in 1999 he handed over the reins to Peter Roberts (who had re-joined the Department in 1993, some 20 years on from being Jimmy Mitchell's first Bristol Ph.D. student). The Department now comprises 15 academic staff (of whom 5 are women), and around 35-40 post-docs and Ph.D. students, carrying out research on the pharmacology of cell signalling, with emphasis on receptors, ion channels and second messenger pathways, especially within the nervous and cardiovascular systems. Particular areas of investigation include biophysical studies of neuronal calcium and potassium channels; chemistry and pharmacology of glutamate and GABA receptor ligands; GPCR desensitisation; platelet activation pathways; role of ADP-ribosylation factors; chloride channels, and ryanodine receptor function in the cardiovascular system. Embedded within the Department is the Psychopharmacology Research Unit, led by David Nutt, which combines an array of clinical and basic scientific approaches for the development of potential new therapies for neuropsychiatric disorders.

At a time when many Departments of Pharmacology have been assimilated into monolithic Schools of Biological or Biomedical Sciences, Bristol's strongly individual Medical Sciences Departments continue to go from strength to strength, in a spirit of mutual cooperativity. This has enabled much-needed expansion of the Department into new state-of-the-art facilities, including the Wellcome Trust-funded "Cardiovascular Research Laboratories", the "Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Integrated Cell Signalling" (completed this July) " and the new Medical Sciences Teaching Laboratories (October 2000). There has also been development of shared infrastructure facilities such as the MRC Imaging Centre and SRIF-funded "Functional Genomics Facility. Pharmacology staff have major involvement in the inter-departmental MRC Centre for Synaptic Plasticity and the 2 MRC Co-operative Groups in "Signalling in Excitable Cells" (centred in the Department) and "Molecular Mechanisms of Regulation of Cardiac and Vascular Function".

Members of the Department of Pharmacology have always been amongst the most enthusiastic in their attendance at meetings of the BPS and in becoming involved with the organisation of the Society. We were delighted to have been invited to host the inaugural focused meeting of the British Pharmacological Society, on a topic for which Bristol is renowned: 'Basic and Clinical Aspects of Glutamate Pharmacology'.

Over a hundred delegates attended the day and a half meeting. There were no parallel sessions; instead, the programme consisted of invited lectures and short talks selected from the submitted abstracts as well as a late afternoon poster session. A couple of the invited speakers from the USA called off just before the meeting. They may have thought that Bristol was too close for comfort to Baghdad! Fortunately their places were filled by home-grown speakers.

In the evening we were all whisked from the poster approval session to the Pump Rooms in Bath for a sumptuous meal in magnificent Roman bath surroundings. Our thanks go to Peter Roberts, Eamonn Kelly and David Jane for putting on such an interesting meeting.

The Focused Meeting in Bristol was also a first for another reason - it was the first meeting from which abstracts were published online. Building on the success of this focused meeting, we are planning to hold two Focused Meetings next Easter on 'Transporters and Drug Resistance' and 'Obesity'. In addition, the next James Black Conference will be held in the Autumn of 2004 on the subject of 'Pain and Inflammation'.