Igor Mitrovic, MD

Vice Dean of PharmD Education
Professor
Department of Physiology7
Mitrovic
igor.mitrovic@ucsf.edu8
Phone: +1 415 476-8465
Fax: +1 415 476-2322
513 Parnassus Avenue, MSB, Rm 001
UCSF Box 0150
San Francisco, CA 94143
United States

Links

UCSF Profiles9

Affiliations

Education programs

PharmD Degree Program10

What I do

As vice dean of PharmD education I work with Conan MacDougall, PharmD, MAS11, on all matters related to the education of our PharmD students. This includes oversight of the integrated core curriculum (the didactic portion of our curriculum) and experiential education, as well as the PharmD Education Unit12 charged with admissions and student support, curricular administrative support, and curricular assessment and review (Assessment Team). We are also responsible for communication with local, state and national organizations involved in pharmacy education, licensing, and curricular accreditation.

In addition to these tasks, I am responsible for physiology education across UCSF’s health professional schools. I teach physiology and pathophysiology and I direct Renal Theme, one of the first-year integrated courses administered through the Department of Clinical Pharmacy.

Biography

Dr. Igor Mitrovic is Professor of Physiology and Clinical Pharmacy and Co-Vice Dean for PharmD Education at University of California San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Mitrovic received his M.D. at University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia (at the time) in 1991. However, majority of his studies were completed at University of Zagreb (up to 1991). After conducting neurobiology of addiction research at Loyola University Medical School in Chicago and research in neurobiology of pain at UCSF, Dr. Mitrovic joined Department of Physiology, UCSF in 2001 as a teaching faculty. Dr. Mitrovic is responsible for the physiology curriculum across the professional schools at UCSF (Medicine, Pharmacy, Dentistry and Program in Physical Therapy). Dr Mitrovic has served on numerous committees (including 18 years on Admissions Committee at the UCSF School of Medicine). Dr. Mitrovic has also done international work in curricular and faculty development.

Over the years, he has received numerous teaching awards as a teacher in the School of Pharmacy, School of Medicine and School of Dentistry including Long Awards in the School of Pharmacy, Excellence of Teaching Awards in the School of Dentistry, Kaiser Teaching Awards in the School of Medicine as well as Distinction in Teaching Award from the UCSF Academic Senate. Also Dr. Mitrovic has received an honorary Doctorate from University of Kragujevac Republic of Serbia.

Dr. Mitrovic is a designer of a completely new, competency-based curriculum in UCSF School of Pharmacy which is based on the cutting edge educational and neuroscience of learning research.

Dr. Mitrovic has made significant contributions to development of Emotional Brain Training, a new neuroscience-based psychotherapeutic method designed to increase stress resilience and promote well-being.

Dr. Mitrovic deeply cares about equitable access educational opportunities and he has mentored many high school, undergraduate as well as UCSF underrepresented students. He has also mentored numerous postdoctoral fellows, residents and junior faculty to help them excel as educators. Dr. Mitrovic believes teaching to be his calling and he deeply values the importance of proper guidance and mentorship in the development of an aspiring healthcare professional and/or biomedical scientist.

Research keywords

  • Clonidine
  • Narcotics
  • Analgesics
  • Receptors, Opioid, kappa
  • Globus Pallidus
  • Iontophoresis
  • Substance P
  • Potassium Channels, Inwardly Rectifying
  • Adrenergic alpha-Agonists
  • Potassium Channels
  • Ventral Tegmental Area
  • Enkephalins
  • morphine
  • Enkephalin, Ala(2)-MePhe(4)-Gly(5)-
  • Receptors, Opioid, mu

Publications

Webber KH, Mellin L, Mayes L, Mitrovic I, Saulnier M. Pilot Investigation of 2 Nondiet Approaches to Improve Weight and Health. Altern Ther Health Med. 2018 Jan; 24(1):16-20.
Igor Mitrovic, Lindsey Fish de Peña, Lynda Frassetto, Laurel Mellin. Hypothesis. Rewiring the stress response: A new paradigm for health care. 2011; 9(1).
Heidenreich BA, Mitrovic I, Battaglia G, Napier TC. Limbic pallidal adaptations following long-term cessation of dopaminergic transmission: lack of upregulation of dopamine receptor function. Exp Neurol. 2004 Apr; 186(2):145-57.
Mitrovic I, Margeta-Mitrovic M, Bader S, Stoffel M, Jan LY, Basbaum AI. Contribution of GIRK2-mediated postsynaptic signaling to opiate and alpha 2-adrenergic analgesia and analgesic sex differences. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2003 Jan 07; 100(1):271-6.
Mitrovic I, Napier TC. Mu and kappa opioid agonists modulate ventral tegmental area input to the ventral pallidum. Eur J Neurosci. 2002 Jan; 15(2):257-68.
Muma NA, Lee JM, Gorman L, Heidenreich BA, Mitrovic I, Napier TC. 6-hydroxydopamine-induced lesions of dopaminergic neurons alter the function of postsynaptic cholinergic neurons without changing cytoskeletal proteins. Exp Neurol. 2001 Mar; 168(1):135-43.
Napier TC, Mitrovic I. Opioid modulation of ventral pallidal inputs. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1999 Jun 29; 877:176-201.
Margeta-Mitrovic M, Mitrovic I, Riley RC, Jan LY, Basbaum AI. Immunohistochemical localization of GABA(B) receptors in the rat central nervous system. J Comp Neurol. 1999 Mar 15; 405(3):299-321.
Abbadie C, Skinner K, Mitrovic I, Basbaum AI. Neurons in the dorsal column white matter of the spinal cord: complex neuropil in an unexpected location. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1999 Jan 05; 96(1):260-5.
Mitrovic I, Napier TC. Substance P attenuates and DAMGO potentiates amygdala glutamatergic neurotransmission within the ventral pallidum. Brain Res. 1998 May 11; 792(2):193-206.
Mitrovic I, Napier TC. Interactions between the mu opioid agonist DAMGO and substance P in regulation of the ventral pallidum. Synapse. 1996 Jul; 23(3):142-51.
Napier TC, Mitrovic I, Churchill L, Klitenick MA, Lu XY, Kalivas PW. Substance P in the ventral pallidum: projection from the ventral striatum, and electrophysiological and behavioral consequences of pallidal substance P. Neuroscience. 1995 Nov; 69(1):59-70.
Mitrovic I, Napier TC. Electrophysiological demonstration of mu, delta and kappa opioid receptors in the ventral pallidum. J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 1995 Mar; 272(3):1260-70.