Instytut Farmakologii im. Jerzego Maja Polskiej Akademii Nauk (IF PAN) in Krakow, founded in 1974 (since 1954 the Department of Pharmacology of the Polish Academy of Sciences), is now a leading scientific center in Poland, specializing in the field of neuropsychopharmacology.
Scientific research, carried out in 14 departments, laboratories and a state-of-the-art animal facility, focuses on disorders of nervous system function and the search for new biologically active substances that act on the central nervous system and may find use as drugs in the treatment of mental and neurological diseases.
Priority areas of research underway at the Institute of Pharmacology include depression, schizophrenia, drug addiction and natural rewards, and chronic pain. Research is also being conducted here on anxiety, post-traumatic stress, neurodegenerative and immunoendocrine processes, and in phytochemistry.
The research directions being pursued involve the search for novel therapeutic strategies and biomarkers of certain pathological processes in the central nervous system using genomics, proteomics and transcriptomics.
The institute’s state-of-the-art infrastructure and a wide range of in vitro and ex vivo research techniques, such as flow cytometry, mass spectrometry, confocal and fluorescence microscopy, optogenetics, microdialysis, chromatography, immunohistochemistry, modern electrophysiological methods, as well as transgenic models and bioinformatics tools, enable the study of brain function at multiple levels.
The institute is working on the design and synthesis of new drugs, using molecular modeling and computer analysis of receptor-drug interactions.
IF PAN has advanced tools and apparatus for behavioral research
in animal models and tests: automated “Intellicage” cages, tests for assessing anxiety behavior (e.g., open-field test, “Hole Board” test), depression (chronic mild stress, prenatal stress), mood disorders and disorders typical of schizophrenia (sensorimotor gating), for testing learning, memory and attention (e.g. object recognition test, Barnes maze, T maze, attention span test), and behavioral effects of taking addictive substances (e.g., self-administration).
In 2018, the institute launched the Environmental Proteomics and Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, which offers analysis using MALDI-TOF/TOF spectrometry.
The institute successfully participates in the competition for obtaining domestic and foreign funds for scientific research.
The institute’s staff carries out long-term scientific projects in cooperation with many of the world’s leading research centers.
The scientific activity of the institute’s employees is expressed in the number of publications, which is growing from year to year
in high-scoring scientific journals and the number of patents.
Employees are also involved in the popularization of knowledge, through active participation in Brain Week and the Festival of Science and Art, and participate in the publishing process of the popular science journal Universe.
The Institute is authorized to confer doctoral and postdoctoral degrees in the field of medical sciences.
Among the important tasks of the Institute is third-level education within the framework of a thriving Doctoral Program, which received high honors in the PROPAN competition in 2016 and 2017.
In July 2012.
the institute was granted the status of a leading National Research Center (KNOW) within the framework of the Scientific Consortium with the Faculty of Medicine of the Jagiellonian University Medical College in the area of medical and health sciences.
A bimonthly scientific journal Pharmacological Reports is published in cooperation with Elsevier publishing house.
The Institute of Pharmacology is the organizer or co-organizer of periodic scientific conferences: Winter School, Central European Biomedical Congress, and European School of Pain.
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