Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology

Characteristics of the department

The main purpose of the department is to provide to the students of accredited study programs, as follows: general veterinary medicine, pharmacy, food hygiene, feed and food safety, and relationship between animal and human, high quality knowledge on the fields of pharmacology and toxicology at today's level of veterinary and pharmaceutical science as well as environmental education and training. The education in the Slovak language but in the program of general veterinary medicine and the combined study program "bachelor in animal science" is in English language. The students will be able the acquired theoretical and practical knowledge to apply in their future daily veterinary and pharmaceutical practices. The Department provides education not only in the pre-university level, but also in the postgraduate level in the form of training courses and study programs of doctoral study and rigorous study. The scientific research activities of the department are on the field of the effects of drugs, pesticides and other xenobiotics on human and animal organisms directly as well as through alternative in vitro tests. Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology is divided into 3 institutes: Institute of Pharmacology, Institute of Toxicology and Institute of Human and Clinical Pharmacology.

Institute of Pharmacology

The Institute of Pharmacology provides the teaching of compulsory subjects "Pharmacology, Pharmacy and Pharmacotherapy" in the study programs General Veterinary Medicine and Food Hygiene in Slovak language. Within the compulsory optional course, "Clinical Pharmacology" is taught. In the study program "Pharmacy", the institute provides the compulsory subject "Veterinary Pharmacology" and compulsory optional subject "Veterinary Therapeutics". For foreign student in English language is taught compulsory subjects "Pharmacology, Pharmacy and Therapeutics" and compulsory optional subject "Clinical Pharmacology". In the Joint study program "Animal Science” the subject "Introduction to Pharmacology" is taught. In scientific research activities, the Institute of Pharmacology focuses on the issues of pharmacology of drugs and therapeutic preparations and their residues in the animal organism. Research is also focused on effects of natural substances and xenobiotics on live organisms at molecular and cellular levels. The institute solves different tasks in pharmacological and clinical field as well.

Institute of Toxicology

Institute of Toxicology provides the pregraduate teaching of the compulsory subject - toxicology in the study programs General Veterinary Medicine, Pharmacy and Food Hygiene in the Slovak language. The obligatory elective subject - ecotoxicology is in the Study Program of the General Veterinary Medicine. Toxicology and ecotoxicology are presented to foreign students in English. The Institute also provides the compulsory subject – the analysis of contaminants in feed and food in the study program - food and feed safety and the compulsory elective subject - the basis of scientific work in the study programs - general veterinary medicine and food hygiene. The Institute occupies the research tasks related to the effect of xenobiotics, especially pesticides, on the organisms (livestock, domestic and wild animals), as well as the assessment of the health and environmental risks of these substances, both for animals and humans.

Institute of Human and Clinical Pharmacology

The Institute of Human and Clinical Pharmacology (IHCP) was established on 1 September 2012. At present, the pedagogical activities of IHCP covered teaching of undergraduate compulsory subjects "Pharmacology" and "Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy" for the students of pharmacy. In addition, several optional subjects as "Free radicals and antioxidants", "Phytopharmaceuticals", "Drugs applied during pregnancy and lactation" and “First aid” are also covered by IHCP. The IHCP is involved in preparation of diploma theses and rigorous theses for students of pharmacy. In co-operation with external scientific institutions, the main research topics of IHCP: 1) The pharmacological influence on the central regulation of food intake, and 2) The antitumor effect of substances isolated from natural sources, are currently performed.