Membranes and Receptors

The unit aims to enable students to make progress towards meeting some of the learning outcomes described in 'Outcome for Graduates' (2018) relevant to 'The Doctor as a Scholar and Scientist' and 'the Doctor as a Professional'. The specific aims of this second term unit are that students should understand membrane structure and function and be able to relate this to cell behaviour; understand how the movement of ions and molecules across membranes may contribute to pH and cell volume regulation and electrical excitability and nerve impulse conduction, appreciate how chemical messengers, such as hormones and neurotransmitters, influence the activity of cells and organs by interacting with receptors; understand in principle how drugs might modify the action of such chemical messengers.