Visiting Research Professorship
Biography
2025-26 CAG Visiting Research Professor
ARTHUR MORTHA
Associate Professor, Department of Immunology, University of Toronto
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 Diefenabch) 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 is a Clarivate highly cited-researcher with over 15,000 citations on over 60 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. These reports were published in high-impact journals like Cell, Nature, Science or Gastroenterology. He and his team further collaborated on, or led several projects funded by CIHR, NSERC, CFI, the Scotia Trust and the Helmsley Charitable Trust.
Within 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 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. He currently holds the Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Mucosal Immunology. His efforts in educating and training the next generation of scientists becomes evident through a recently developed teaching course (the preprint club) for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows that uses community peer-reviewing of preprint articles as collaborative tool to train article reviewing to trainees at the University of Toronto and trainees at University of Oxford, the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, the MD Anderson Cancer Center and the Icahn School of Medicine in New York.
Potential Topics of Presentation:
- Control of tissue-resident innate immune cell niches in the gut.
- Gut commensal protozoa regulate mucosal barrier immunity.
Selected Publications (Trainees Underlined):
A gut commensal protozoa determines respiratory disease outcomes by shaping pulmonary immunity.
Burrows K, Ngai L, Chiaranunt P, Watt J, Popple S, Forde B, Denha S, Olyntho VM, Tai SL, Cao EY, Tejeda-Garibay S, Koenig JFE, Mayer-Barber KD, Streutker CJ, Hoyer KK, Osborne L, Liu J, O’Mahony L and Mortha A. Cell. 2025 Jan 12:S0092-8674(24)01336-9.doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.11.020.
The protozoan commensal Tritrichomonas musculis is a natural adjuvant for mucosal IgA.
Cao EY, Burrows K, Chiaranunt P, Popovic A, Zhou X, Xie C, Thakur A, Britton G, Spindler M, Ngai L, Tai SL, Dasoveanu DC, Nguyen A, Faith JJ, Parkinson J, Gommerman JL, Mortha A. J Exp Med. 2024 Dec 2;221(12) doi: 10.1084/jem.20221727
Microbial energy metabolism fuels an intestinal macrophage niche in solitary isolated lymphoid tissues through purinergic signaling.
Chiaranunt P, Burrows K, Ngai L, Cao EY, Tai SL, Liang H, Hamidzada H, Wong A, Gschwend J, Flüchter P, Kuypers M, Despot T, Momen A, Lim SM, Malleavey T, Schneider C, Conway T, Imamura H, Epelman S, Mortha A. Sci Immunol. 2023 Aug 4;8(86):eabq4573.
Neutralizing Anti-Granulocyte Macrophage-Colony Stimulating Factor Autoantibodies Recognize Post-Translational Glycosylations on Granulocyte Macrophage-Colony Stimulating Factor Years Before Diagnosis and Predict Complicated Crohn's Disease.
Mortha A, Remark R, Del Valle DM, Chuang LS, Chai Z, Alves I, Azevedo C, Gaifem J, Martin J, Petralia F, Tuballes K, Barcessat V, Tai SL, Huang HH, Laface I, Jerez YA, Boschetti G, Villaverde N, Wang MD, Korie UM, Murray J, Choung RS, Sato T, Laird RM, Plevy S, Rahman A, Torres J, Porter C, Riddle MS, Kenigsberg E, Pinho SS, Cho JH, Merad M, Colombel JF, Gnjatic S. Gastroenterology. 2022 Sep;163(3):659-670.
NLRP1B and NLRP3 Control the Host Response following Colonization with the Commensal Protist Tritrichomonas musculis.
Chiaranunt P, Burrows K, Ngai L, Cao EY, Liang H, Tai SL, Streutker CJ, Girardin SE, Mortha A. J Immunol. 2022 Apr 1;208(7):1782-1789.
Tissue-Dependent Adaptations and Functions of Innate Lymphoid Cells.
Murphy JM, Ngai L, Mortha A, Crome SQ. Front Immunol. 2022 Mar 10;13:836999.
Macrophage control of Crohn's disease.
Tai SL, Mortha A. Int Rev Cell Mol Biol. 2022;367:29-64. 2022 Feb 21.
Beyond Immunity: Underappreciated Functions of Intestinal Macrophages.
Chiaranunt P, Tai SL, Ngai L, Mortha A. Front Immunol. 2021 Sep 28;12:749708.