Ken Croitoru

Professor of Medicine
University of Toronto
Division of Gastroenterology

Mount Sinai Hospital
Toronto, ON

Dr. Kenneth Croitoru joined the Division of Gastroenterology at Mount Sinai Hospital in January 2008. He completed McGill University Medical School in 1981 and then trained in internal medicine and gastroenterology from 1982-1986. He did post-doctoral training as an MRC Research Fellow in Mucosal Immunology with Dr. John Bienenstock at McMaster University and joined the Division of Gastroenterology at McMaster in 1992 serving as Training Program Director and Associate Director of the Division. During this time he developed his research program with an Ontario Ministry of Health Career Scientist award for 10 years and a 5 year CCFC IBD Research Scientist Award. He served as the Chair of the CCFC Medical Advisory Board and helped develop the CCFC IBD Research Institute where he served as Chair of the Executive Committee until 2008.

Dr. Croitoru joined the Department of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital as a Clinician Scientist in 2008 and is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto.  His research is focused on investigating the fundamental mechanisms of intestinal inflammation, in particular the role of effector and regulatory T cell function in the intestinal mucosal in animal models of Inflammatory Bowel Disease. The goal of his work is to understand how T cell function serves to maintain intestinal homeostasis in health and what defects in regulatory T cells allow for the breakdown of these mechanisms.

Dr. Croitoru is Project Leader of, the CCFC funded GEM Project (www.GEMPROJECT.ca) a multi-centered and global clinical study that is coordinated out of the IBD Research Group at Mount Sinai Hospital. The study is a prospective cohort study of healthy subjects at risk of developing Crohn’s disease. This study will examine the Genetic, Environmental and Microbial factors that lead to Cohn’s disease. Dr Croitoru has also secured CIHR funding to examine the genetic control of the intestinal microbiome using this unique cohort of healthy subjects with an increased prevalence of Crohn’s disease risk alleles.