Rate My Professor Vladimir Balcar

Vladimir Balcar is an Associate Professor in the School of Medical Sciences at the University of Sydney, serving in the Neuroscience Research Theme and previously in the Discipline of Anatomy and Histology within the Bosch Institute. He holds a BSc Honours in Physiology and Chemistry from the University of Sheffield (1970), a PhD from the Australian National University, John Curtin School of Medical Research (1974), with a thesis on high affinity uptake in central nervous tissue, and a DSc from the University of Sydney, Faculty of Science (2007), titled Neurochemistry of Excitatory and Inhibitory Synapses. His academic career includes postdoctoral fellowships at the Centre de Neurochimie in Strasbourg, France (1975-1977), CIBA-GEIGY AG in Basel, Switzerland (1978-1980), and the Max Planck Institut für Biophysikalische Chemie and Universität Göttingen in Germany (1980-1986). At the University of Sydney, he progressed from Senior Research Officer in the Department of Pharmacology (1986-1987) and Research Fellow in the Department of Anatomy (1987-1991) to Lecturer (1991-1992), Senior Lecturer in Anatomy and Histology (1993-2006), and Associate Professor since 2007. Additional appointments include Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology at Kanazawa University, Japan (2000-2002), and Senior Research Fellow (Honorary) at Neuroscience Australia (2006-2011).

Balcar's research specializations encompass the neurochemistry of synaptic transmission, glutamate transporters such as GLAST/EAAT1, genetic polymorphisms in genes linked to Alzheimer's disease (e.g., ABCB1, CD36, CLU, TNK1, CHAT), neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson's, Huntington's, and ALS, neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, alcohol effects on brain GABA receptors and glutamate transport, and blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier functions. He has published over 150 papers in international journals, achieving an h-index of 29 and over 3,500 citations. Key publications include 'Neuroprotection beyond neurons: integrated biomarker-based and astroglia- or microglia-targeted approaches to combat neurodegenerative diseases' (2026), 'Aspartate in the Brain: A Review' (2025), 'ABCB1 Gene Polymorphisms and Their Contribution to Cognitive Decline in Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Next-Generation Sequencing Study' (2025), 'GLAST but not least—distribution, function, genetics and epigenetics of L-glutamate transport in brain—focus on GLAST/EAAT1' (2015), and 'The missing brain glutamate transporters: what we missed and how this changes our understanding of the excitable brain' (2015). Awards and honors include the International Society for Neurochemistry Travel Award (1987), a Citation Classic recognition for his 1972 paper in Journal of Neurochemistry (1990), Fellow of the European Science Foundation (1981), and Mobility Funds from the Czech Academy of Sciences (2005, 2007) for collaborative projects on schizophrenia and mental diseases.