Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy

History

In 1694 Constantin Brâncoveanu , ruler of Wallachia, had founded the Princely Academy of Saint Sava in Bucharest with lectures delivered in Greek. In 1776, Alexander Ypsilantis (1725–1805) ruler of Wallachia, reformed the curriculum of the Saint Sava Academy, where courses of French, Italian and Latin were now taught. In 1859, the Faculty of Law was created. In 1857, Carol Davila created the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy. In 1857, the foundation stone of the University Palace in Bucharest was laid.It was initially established in 1857 under the name National School of Medicine and Pharmacy by the French expatriate physician, Carol Davila. In 1869 it was incorporated as a department in the newly created University of Bucharest. The first doctoral degrees were granted in 1873, and the doctoral degree became the de facto graduation in 1888.

Carol Davila was a prestigious Romanian physician of Italian ancestry.Davila studied medicine at the University of Paris, graduating in February 1853. In March 1853, he arrived in Romania. He was the organizer of the military medical service for the Romanian Army and of the country's public health system. Davila, together with Nicolae Kretzulescu , inaugurated medical training in Romania in 1857, by founding the National School of Medicine and Pharmacy. It was he who had determined government authorities to issue the first official instructions concerning the health care of factory workers and the organisation of medical districts in the country.

It was due to his many activities that several scientific associations appeared in Romania: the Medical Society (1857), the Red Cross Society (1876), the Natural Sciences Society (1876). With his assistance, two medical journals entered print: the Medical Register (1862) and the Medical Gazette (1865). During the Independence War (1877-1878) he was the head of the Army's sanitary service.

Davila is also credited with the invention of the Davila tincture for the treatment of cholera, an opioid-based oral solution in use for symptomatic management of diarrhea.

Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine awarded George Emil Palade who was described as "the most influential cell biologist ever" studied at the University of Carol Davila and later served as a Professor and head of the department of Human Biology and Physiology. The School of Pharmacy was founded in 1889 and it was renamed, as the Faculty of Pharmacy in 1923.

The Faculty of Pharmacy of Carol Davila University is the place where insulin was isolated for the first time by Nicolae Paulescu in 1921, causing to Nobel Prize academy a controversy

Paulescu Nobel Prize controversy

In February 1922, doctor Frederick Grant Banting and biochemist John James Rickard Macleod from the University of Toronto, Canada, published their paper on the successful use of a different, alcohol based pancreatic extract for normalizing blood sugar (glucose) levels (glycemia) in a human patient. An unsuccessful attempt had been made on January 11, 1922, and a successful administration followed on January 25, 1922. The Toronto team felt confident in the purity of their insulin and injected it intravenously into the patient, clearing up his glycosuria and ketonuria and restoring normal blood sugar.

Paulescu's 1921 papers mentioned that the extract caused toxic side effects on dogs, which made it unusable in humans ("qui la rendent inapplicable dans la pratique médicale"). Therefore, when he tested his pancreatic extract on humans on February 25, 1922, he administered the extract rectally. The patients seemed to show some reduction in glycosuria. This apparent success emboldened him to inject his extract intravenously into a diabetic patient on March 24, after which the patient's blood sugar apparently fell to zero (".000", "véritable AGLYCÉMIE"). A blood sugar level of zero should have placed the patient into a diabetic coma, but he made no mention of this effect in any of his papers. In contrast, the Toronto team had known for several months that dogs could be placed into a diabetic coma by an overdose of insulin, so they prepared orange juice and candy for the clinical trials.

After Banting and Macleod were awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Nicolae Paulescu wrote to the Nobel Prize committee claiming that he had discovered insulin first. However, his claims to priority cannot be sustained. Paulescu prepared pancreatic extract in 1916 and tested it in dogs, but Israel Kleiner tested pancreatic extract in dogs in 1915, as did George Ludwig Zuelzer in 1906. Zuelzer also wrote to the Nobel Prize committee asserting priority. All of these earlier attempts had produced pancreatic extracts that caused side effects in dogs or humans. The Toronto team had noticed the same side effects with their earlier extracts, but they continued working on the problem until they had purified insulin.

Professor Ian Murray was particularly active in working to correct "the historical wrong" against Paulescu. Murray was a professor of physiology at the Anderson College of Medicine in Glasgow, Scotland, the head of the department of Metabolic Diseases at a leading Glasgow hospital, vice-president of the British Association of Diabetes, and a founding member of the International Diabetes Federation. In an article for a 1971 issue of the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Murray wrote:

"Insufficient recognition has been given to Paulesco, the distinguished Roumanian scientist, who at the time when the Toronto team were commencing their research had already succeeded in extracting the antidiabetic hormone of the pancreas and proving its efficacy in reducing the hyperglycaemia in diabetic dogs."

"In a recent private communication Professor Tiselius, head of the Nobel Institute, has expressed his personal opinion that Paulesco was equally worthy of the award in 1923."

Ranking

In 1869 it was incorporated as a department in the newly created University of Bucharest, which In the 2012 QS World University Rankings University of Bucharest was included in the Top 700 universities of the world, together with three other Romanian universities. According to the Scimago Lab, based on data collected between 2007 and 2011, Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy ranked 1168 in the World, 121 regionally and 12 in the country by number of publications.

Faculties

Faculty of Medicine

The higher medical and pharmaceutical education in Bucharest dates back more than a century. Carol Davila, a Romanian physician of French origin, in collaboration with Nicholae Kretzulescu founded the Medical education in Romania, by establishing the National School of Medicine and Pharmacy in 1857. Thanks to his activity a number of scientific societies were created, such as "The Medical Society", "The Red Cross Society", "The Natural Sciences Society" and two medical journals, "The Medical Monitor" and "The Medical Gazette" .

The building of the Faculty of Medicine was fully completed and inaugurated on 12 October 1903. The initiative to erect a monument to Carol Davila on the same day, was taken at the first national medical conference, which was held in Bucharest in October 1884. The statue, valued work of Carol Storck, was cast in bronze in the School of arts and crafts workshops in Bucharest.

The inauguration of the faculty building is an important date in the evolution of medical education in Bucharest. The new building brought great improvements in the functioning of laboratories and the organization of practical work, as well as in the full didactic activity.Moreover in the faculty building it is created a fully oranized sports center that includes an autonomous indoor swimming pool for the Universities representative team and in addition an indoor stadium.

Departments

Faculty of Pharmacy

The Faculty of Pharmacy was created in 1858.

Departments

Departments

Notable Alumni