Stefan K. Plontke studied Medicine at the Humboldt-University Medical School (Charitè) in Berlin (Germany) and Aberdeen (UK) with clinical electives at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston, and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (USA). He trained as an otolaryngologist at the University of Tübingen (Germany), Chairman: Professor Dr. med. Dr. h.c. mult. Hans-Peter Zenner. For his doctoral thesis he worked in the auditory research lab of James C. Saunders, Ph.D., at the University of Pennsylvania (USA) on regeneration of hearing after noise induced hearing loss in the chicken. He became an extraordinary Professor of Otorhinolaryngology at the University of Tübingen in 2009. Since 2001, he regularly worked with Alec N. Salt, Ph.D., at Washington University in St. Louis (USA) and led the ‘Inner Ear Pharmacology Lab’ and the ‘Clinical Trials Group’ at the ‘Tübingen Hearing Research Center’ focusing on pharmacokinetic principles of the inner ear and drug delivery to the inner ear.
Since 2010 he is full Professor and Chairman of the Department of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg in Halle (Saale), (Germany). He received several research prizes from various scientific national and international societies and teaching prizes from the Universities of Tübingen and Halle. Prof. Plontke is member of the steering committee of the ‘German Study Centre for Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery’, member of the executive board of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery’. He is regional secretary for Germany and member of the ‘Working group research’ of the European Academy of Otology & Neurotology (EAONO), member of the board of directors of the Prosper Menière Society, member of several editorial boards and editor in chief of the Journal ‘HNO’ (Springer Medicine at Springer Nature).
He currently is study coordinator and grant recipient for the national clinical trial: ‘Efficacy and safety of high dose glucocorticosteroid treatment for idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss – a three-armed, randomized, triple-blind, multicenter trial.’, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education, and Research, Germany, (BMBF) with a budget of 2 Mio Euro. His clinical research interests focus on otology, including cochlear implants and implantable hearing systems, on lateral skull base surgery, neurotology, and audiology with an emphasize on outcome parameters for clinical trials. The work of his research laboratory specializes on inner ear pharmacology and drug delivery to the ear.
Photo: University Medicine Halle/Germany
