Ken Croitoru

Eaton Scholar Researcher of the Year (Basic Science)

Ken Croitoru

Biography

Dr. Croitoru, received his medical degree and completed clinical training in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology at McGill. After a Research Fellowship in mucosal immunology he joined the GI Division at McMaster in 1989, where he developed a strong research program focused on mucosal T cell biology and Inflammatory Bowel Disease. He moved to Mt Sinai and the University of Toronto in 2007 where he is now a Professor of Medicine and Immunology. At Mt Sinai he holds a Clinician Scientist position in the Division of Gastroenterology and at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute. In addition to his funding from CIHR, The Crohn’s Colitis Canada and Helmsley Charitable Trust, he helped develop a successful application with members of the Department of Immunology, for a $15 M CFI grant to build the University of Toronto Host Microbe Network. This helped establish the germ free facility at the University of Toronto and a translational research lab with a research dedicated MRI at LTRI/Sinai.

His research explores the role of T cells in the regulation of animal models of colitis and the interaction of host and microbes in the gut. In 2008, he launched the largest prospective cohort study of healthy first degree relatives of Crohn’s Disease patients as a way to identify the triggers of IBD. This work has identified a physiological measure of gut barrier, gut microbiome composition and anti- microbial Ab’s that predict Crohn’s disease. This sets the stage for new prevention and treatment strategies in IBD. His research work has been published in J Immunology, Gut Microbes, Mucosal Immunology, Gastroenterology and Nature Genetics. He was recently awarded a Canada Research Chair in IBD.