Physiology

The Department of Physiology is part of the School of Biomedical Sciences in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. It is a department within the school, which in turn sits in the faculty.

Its research strengths, as shown by the publication data, include thermoregulation, sleep science, cardiovascular function, pain mechanisms and neurobiology. Work in these areas covers temperature regulation linked to menopause, neuropathic pain therapies, inflammatory cardiac dysfunction and HIV-associated vascular disease, combining clinical insight with experimental work and systematic evidence synthesis.

Further themes include hypertension and stroke in African populations and the use of advanced mass spectrometry imaging in neurobiological research. The department's studies address mechanistic discovery, therapeutic innovation and public health relevance, with research focused on African populations.