Prof. Elena Verdu

Prof. Verdu has had a longstanding interest in microbial commensal influence on chronic inflammatory diseases. After completing an MD degree and Internal Medicine residency at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, she trained in clinical research in Gastroenterology, focused on Helicobacter pylori infection and chronic gastritis at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. She studied the interaction between chronic infection with Helicobacter pylori and proton pump inhibitors on acid secretion, bacterial overgrowth, and chronic gastritis in humans.

She earned a doctoral degree in Human Physiology for her thesis on the interaction between chronic H. pylori infection and inhibition of gastric acid secretion, under the direction of Prof. André Blum. She then undertook PhD studies at the Institute of Microbiology and Gnotobiology of the Czech Academy of Science in Prague, where she investigated the effect of commensal bacterial antigens in animal models of inflammatory bowel disease and celiac disease.

As a post-doctoral fellow at McMaster University, she worked on the role of probiotic in animal models of gut functional diseases, and in 2006, she became faculty at McMaster University. Her research program investigates host-microbial and dietary interactions in the gastrointestinal tract. In particular, she is interested in the role microbial factors play in modulating immune responses in chronic intestinal conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease and celiac disease. Mechanistically, she focusses on commensal and opportunistic pathogen metabolism and proteolytic activity, with the long-term objective to develop therapies to prevent or treat chronic inflammatory and autoimmune conditions.

She holds a Canadian Research Chair in Intestinal Inflammation, Microbiota, and Nutrition, and directs the Axenic Gnotobiotic Unit at McMaster University. She is the Associate Director of the Farncombe Family Digestive Health Research Institute at McMaster University.

She has been honored by the 2007 New Investigator Award (Canadian Celiac Association; CCA), the 2011 Master’s Award in Gastroenterology in Basic Science (American Gastroenterology Association), the 2012 Canadian Association of Gastroenterology (CAG) Young Investigator Award, the 2017 CAG Visiting Research Professor Award, the 2019 CAG Education Excellence Award, the 2020 CAG Research Excellence Award, and the 2020 Crohn’s and Colitis of Canada (CCC)-Pfizer Women in IBD: Outstanding Research Achievement Award.