The Department of Human Physiology was established in 1974
as the first department in the School of Medicine at Flinders University.
There are currently over 50 members, including 6 full-time academic staff,
6 research fellows, 6 postdoctoral researchers and 11 PhD students. Staff
are organised into 8 research laboratories occupying around 740 square metres
of laboratory and office space in the Flinders Medical Centre, adjacent
to the main Flinders University campus. Staff of the Department of Human
Physiology play a major role in the Graduate Entry Medical Program at Flinders
and contribute substantial teaching to undergraduate science students, particularly
in the Bachelor of Medical Science Course.
The department has a research focus in neuroscience in three major areas;
sensory and autonomic neurobiology, roles of neurotrophic factors and neurodegenerative
diseases. The Department has consistently attracted a level of research
funding which, on a per capita basis, puts the Department at the forefront
of the discipline of physiology in Australia. Members of the Department
publish between 20 and 30 papers per year in refereed international journals
and in 2006 were awarded over $2.3 million from the National Health and
Medical Research Council. Staff have developed extensive collaborative research
links locally, nationally and internationally with both basic scientists
and clinicians. There are excellent common service facilities; fluorescence,
confocal and electron microscopy are available, together with significant
proteomics capabilities, molecular biology resources, biomedical workshops
and animal house.
Members of the department have close ties with the highly successful Centre
for Neuroscience at Flinders University; a collegial association of researchers
in all parts of the university who share an interest in the nervous system
and behaviour. The success of neuroscience research at Flinders has been
recently recognised by the award of status as an Area of Strategic Research
Investment (ASRI) by the University in 2004.
The Department and the Centre for Neuroscience offer scholarships for honours
projects, for PhD research and, by negotiation, for summer vacation projects.
Members welcome enquiries about research, honours and PhD studies from undergraduates,
postgraduates and established researchers. These should be directed, in
the first instance, to the Departmental Administrator: physiology@flinders.edu.au,
(tel: +61 8 8204 4201, fax: +61 8 8204 5768)