Dr Menno Oudhoff [Faculty of Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)Trondheim, Norway]

Host: A/Prof William Horsnell [IDM/Div of Immunology]

Menno Oudhoff received his PhD in biochemistry from the VU University in Amsterdam in December 2006. During his PhD, he studied human saliva and how salivary peptides help oral wound healing. This work included the discovery of Histatin as the major active component to stimulate epithelial migration, and the finding that cyclization of the normally linear Histatin potentiates its activity ~1,000 fold. In early 2010, He moved to UBC in Vancouver, Canada, to join the lab of Colby Zaph in mucosal immunology. Here he worked on the role of the lysine methyltransferase SETD7 in its role in intestinal regeneration, tumorigenesis, and immunity. In the spring of 2016, he started his own group at CEMIR in Trondheim, Norway. His lab studies intestinal epithelial regeneration, a process that is linked to development, inflammation, infection, and tumorigenesis. They specifically focus on how reparative programs are controlled intrinsically by epigenetic modifiers, and by cues from other cells such as niche factors from mesenchymal cells and cytokines from immune cells. He will be hosted by Bill Horsnell for his sabbatical at the IDM/Division of Immunology from January to July 2020.