“Protozoa gut commensals as modulators of tissue homeostasis and disease outcomes”

Seminar details

Dr. Mortha is a trained biologist and chemist holding a M.Sc. from the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen in Germany. He obtained his Ph.D. in Immunology from the Albert-Ludwigs University in Freiburg, Germany (supervisor Dr. Andreas Diefenbach) and conducted his postdoctoral training, funded by the German Research Foundation, at the Icahn School of Medicine at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York (supervisor Dr. Miriam Merad). In 2017, Dr. Mortha started his independent research group as tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Immunology, in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. He obtained an appointment as tenured Associate Professor at the same institution in April 2023.  

Dr. Mortha’s laboratory research projects focus on the diagnosis, prediction and therapeutic intervention of Crohn’s Disease and IBD, the fundamental signals that direct the development and function of macrophages and innate lymphoid cells, as well as the role of gut commensal protozoan microbes and their function as regulators of health and disease at mucosal barrier sites.

Dr. Mortha is a Clarivate highly cited-researcher with over 16,000 citations in approx. 65 peer-reviewed research articles, review articles and book chapters. His investigations made fundamental contributions to the field of mucosal immunology, coining new concepts for the development of macrophages and innate lymphoid cells, the pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of Crohn’s Disease and the molecular basis of host-microbiota interactions.

Dr. Mortha received several awards, including the Canadian Society for Immunology New Investigator Travel Award, the CIHR Bhagirath Singh Early Career Award and the Yakult Science for Health Award for Young Investigators and the Visiting Professorship by the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology. He is currently the Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Mucosal Immunology and recipient of the Early Career Investigator Award by the Government of Ontario. His efforts in educating and training the next generation of scientists are evident by a recently developed teaching course termed “the preprint club” in which graduate students and postdoctoral fellows are trained on peer-reviewing using  community peer-reviewing of preprint articles through an interinstitutional initiative between trainees from the University of Toronto, the University of Oxford, the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, the MD Anderson Cancer Center and the Icahn School of Medicine in New York.  

Hosted by: Dr. Michele Ardolino

Contact