CAUSAL GENES AND PATHOGENIC MECHANISMS UNDERLYING GASTROINTESTINAL DISEASES
Professor Mauro D’Amato
Professor of Medical Genetics, Department of Medicine and Surgery,
LUM University in Casamassima, Italy &
Ikerbasque Research Professor and Head of the Gastrointestinal Genetics Lab
CIC bioGUNE, Derio, Spain
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed online | January 2025
Mauro D’Amato is Professor of Medical Genetics at the Department of Medicine and Surgery at LUM University in Casamassima – Italy, and Ikerbasque Research Professor and Head of the Gastrointestinal Genetics Lab in CIC bioGUNE, Derio – Spain. His career has developed through an important international trajectory, holding research and academic positions at several institutions including the Wellcome Trust Center for Human Genetics in Oxford – UK, the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm – Sweden, Biodonostia HRI in San Sebastian – Spain and Monash University in Melbourne – Australia.
Professor D’Amato has more than 25 years research experience in the field of human genetics and complex diseases, with activities most recently geared towards a translational application for therapeutic precision in gastroenterology. His team, the Gastrointestinal Genetics Laboratory, combine leading expertise in genomic, computational and pre-clinical research, and have contributed important breakthroughs linking specific genes and pathogenetic mechanisms to a number of gastrointestinal diseases like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), microscopic colitis (MC) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
He is also the coordinator of the bellygenes initiative on the genetics of IBS, and biobank-scale research from his lab contributes to multiple scientific consortia and collaborative networks studying the genetic makeup of millions of people across EU, USA and Australasia.
Professor D’Amato has an H-index of 74, has edited 2 books and published extensively in the field of human genetics and gastrointestinal disease; he provides expert feedback to international journals and research funding agencies, and has supervised more than 40 PhD students and postdocs.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2743-5197
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Paramedics in the Community
Dr Brendan Shannon is a registered paramedic and Head of Postgraduate Programs and Deputy Head of Department of Paramedicine at Monash University.
Brendan has a keen research interest in alternative care pathways, non-transport, referral services, paramedic practitioners and community paramedicine. His Doctoral research focused on investigating the experiences of health services when implementing alternative care pathways.
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Ocular disease and early onset myopia
Dr Mountford has successfully established Western Australia’s first and only ocular genetic screening platform using zebrafish and utilises this model to help elucidate some of the complex gene-environment interactions responsible for the development of myopia.
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Pancreatic and lung cancers driven by mutations in the cancer gene KRAS
Dr Mara Zeissig is a recently appointed Lab Head within the Tumour Inflammation and Immunotherapy Program at the South Australian immunoGENomics Cancer Institute (SAiGENCI).
Her research focuses on studying immune evasion mechanisms in lung and pancreatic cancers to identify novel ways to increase response to immunotherapy. Her expertise is in genetically engineered mouse models of lung cancer, CRISPR-Cas9 screening technologies and T cell based immunotherapies (e.g Checkpoint inhibitors).
