As part of the launch of the inter-university cooperation with Saarland University, representatives of the Department of Pharmacology of the Second Faculty of Medicine, Assoc. Prof. Eva Kmoníčková and PharmDr. Jana Mlíchová, met with their colleagues in Saarland in the first half of June 2024. Their goal was to identify common themes in pharmacology teaching and explore possibilities for collaboration on joint research.
The University of Saarland (Universität des Saarlandes) was founded in 1948 and is located in Saarbrücken (Faculty of Natural Sciences and Technology), while the Faculty of Medicine is situated in the nearby Homburg (theoretical institutes and clinical departments of the University Hospital). The Saarbrücken campus also includes research centres, which the two representatives visited. These include, for example, the INM (Leibniz Institute for New Materials) or the HIPS (Helmholtz Institut for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland), which is currently working, among other things, on the development of new antibiotics in close cooperation with partners from academia and industry, with the support of governmental and non-governmental organisations.
About two thousand students are currently studying at the Faculty of Medicine in Homburg, which is about thirty kilometres from Saarbrücken. In addition to teaching, intensive experimental research is carried out at the local Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology. There is also a toxicology unit, which is used by the Saarland and the other federal states for regular toxicological analysis. It also serves as an emergency department in the case of various intoxications. Construction is currently being completed on a new sixty-million-euro building for pharmacology and related disciplines (biochemistry, molecular biology), which will house fully equipped laboratories and an animal facility covering over 4,000 square metres.
Regarding the teaching of pharmacology, an attempt was made to find a common way for cooperation, although the curricula of the faculties have some differences. The advantage of teaching pharmacology at the Medical Faculty in Homburg is that it takes place in blocks with a lecture in the morning and a seminar in the afternoon from 13.00 to 18.00. The University of Saarland has a department focusing on innovative teaching methods and the digitisation of teaching materials, and provides information support for both students and lecturers of all faculties.
