Department of Cell and Molecular Biology of Drugs

The Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology of the Faculty of Pharmacy at Comenius University was founded in 1960 by professor Antonín Jindra, DrSc., who as the first, in the former Czechoslovak Republic, established a research school of xenobiochemistry. In 1979 professor Peter Kovács, DrSc. became the head of the Department and significantly expanded foreign co-operation in the area of the enzymology of the biosynthesis of opium alkaloids in poppy seed plants. Professor Mikuláš Pšenák, CSc. became the head of the Department in 1996 and the research under his leadership started to focus more closely on the molecular nature of regulatory processes in the cell. The Section of Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene was founded within the Department by associated professor Juraj Keleti, CSc. and associated professor Dionýz Georch, CSc. In 1964 the team of professors was extended by professor Dušan Mlynarčík, DrSc., who became the head of the Department in 2003. The Department's research area was focused on the study of membrane lipopolysaccharides of certain Gram-negative bacteria. In 2006 associated professor Lýdia Bezáková, CSc. became the new head of the Department and expanded the knowledge of transduction processes. Her deputy associated professor Marián Bukovský, PhD. largely accounted for the development of immunology at the Section of Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene.

In the years 2010-2017 the head of the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology of Drugs was associated professor Ingrid Pauliková, CSc. who has established a research school of biochemical and molecular biological characterization of cholinesterases under physiological and pathological conditions towards pharmacotherapeutical consequences.

The current head of Department is associated professor Marek Obložinský, PhD., whose scientific scope of interest is signal transduction in opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L.) and production of pharmaceutically interesting secondary metabolites.

The Department currently provides teaching of 22 courses within Master and Bachelor Study Programmes conducted both in English and Slovak languages. Department also belongs to the most demanded department by ERASMUS students. It is a place of positive and constructive atmosphere and scientific competition.