Alan Brichta

Prof Alan Brichta is Head of Anatomy, and his research interests include the structure and function of the peripheral and central balance (vestibular) system.

His recent studies have focused on vestibular hair cells of the inner ear and their complex relationship with closely associated nerve fibres. To study these structures in detail, he and his colleagues have developed several preparations that allow access to the inner ear organs of balance. Unlike previous approaches, these preparations preserve much of the cellular micro-architecture that they now believe is critical for normal function. Results from these studies are helping them understand some of the unique and little understood mechanisms underlying normal and abnormal balance activity in these exquisitely sensitive inner ear motion detectors.

He has published over 70 papers in neuroscience and physiology journals, and he has been consistently funded including grants from National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC), Australian Research Council (ARC), Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI), and was awarded a five-year Garnett Passe and Rodney Williams Memorial Foundation Senior/Principal Research Fellowship. He works with collaborators in the USA and UK. He has also served on Grant Review Panels here in Australia and abroad and is a reviewer for several international journals.

He has been an invited speaker at national and international meetings and institutions including, The Ear Institute University College London, The Royal Society of Medicine (London), Barany Society Meeting, Reykjavik (Iceland), Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (Boston). He is currently Associate Editor for the Journal of Association for Research in Otolaryngology and was the recent Chair of the Association’s International Committee.