Dr Alan Cruchley

Profile

Alan Cruchley is non clinical Senior Lecturer in Oral Pathology in the Centre for Clinical and Diagnostic Oral Sciences.  He was awarded his PhD in 1995 by the University of London for his thesis "The relationship between epithelial permeability and the Langerhans cell population of normal oral mucosa and skin".  He was subsequently appointed as Lecturer in 1995 becoming Senior Lecturer in 2001.  The main focus of his research is mucosal defense and protection and he has developed an assay to investigate the response of the oral mucosa to challenge.

He has extensive experience in teaching both undergraduate and graduate dental students. He is the   teaching lead within the Centre for Clinical and Diagnostic Oral Sciences. He currently acts as Module Convener for Clinical Oral Cavity and has responsibility for the Oral Pathology teaching for the Undergraduate Dental Course.  In 2005 he became Course Tutor for the MSc in Experimental Oral Sciences (Pathology) and has successfully revitalised the course which has led to a large increase in student applications.  His other contribution to the Institutes teaching programme includes participating in the intercalated BSc in Oral Biology and the Diploma in Dental Clinical Sciences.  Through his teaching he has been involved with the academic and research supervision of students from within the United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil, Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Syria, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Thailand, Sri Lanka and China.

Centre: Centre for Teaching and Innovation

Research

Research Interests:

Alan Cruchley's research activity has built on his work for his PhD and has been primarily concerned with the defensive and protective capacity of oral mucosa.  He has published on the role of the permeability barrier in oral disease, the role of saliva derived growth factors in mucosal protection and drug delivery across the oral mucosa.

He has developed an in vitro assay to study the role of the mucosal barrier in mucosal health and disease.  His work with the model has attracted significant industrial funding exploring of the effect of oral health products and components on the oral mucosa and investigating the mechanisms underlying the responses of the epithelium.  He is currently using this model to investigate mucosal barrier homeostasis, the pathogenesis of oral submucous fibrosis and oral cancer; and the role of the barrier in the response of the mucosa to host commensal and pathogenic organisms.

He has published over 40 peer reviewed papers and has been invited to present on mucosal defense and protection both nationally and internationally and hosted a "Lunch and Learning" seminar on the Barrier Properties of the Oral Mucosa for the International Association for Dental Research .