Rate My Professor Gerard Kaiko

A/Prof Kaiko's research interests encompass adult stem cells, asthma, colorectal cancer, cystic fibrosis, inflammatory bowel disease, mucosal immunology, regenerative medicine, and tissue repair. His fields of research are respiratory diseases (35%), gastroenterology and hepatology (35%), and regenerative medicine including stem cells (30%). During his time in the USA, he contributed to high-impact publications, including 'The Colonic Crypt Protects Stem Cells from Microbiota-Derived Metabolites' in Cell (2016), 'The microbial metabolite desaminotyrosine protects from influenza through type I interferon' in Science (2017), 'PAI-1 augments mucosal damage in colitis' in Science Translational Medicine (2019), and 'Interaction between smoking and ATG16L1T300A triggers Paneth cell defects in Crohn's disease' in the Journal of Clinical Investigation (2018). His research group focuses on developing mucosal organoids from the lung and gastrointestinal tract for drug discovery in inflammatory bowel diseases, cystic fibrosis, asthma, and lung cancer; the role of mucosal stem cells in tissue regeneration and their interactions with stromal and immune cells; mining the gut microbiome for novel drug targets; organoid screening assays for translational and precision medicine, including a national clinical trial for cystic fibrosis; and humanised organoid assays for environmental toxicological analysis. He lectures in courses such as HUBS2206 Human Biochemistry and Cell Biology, MED2101 Medicine - Genetics, and HUBS3602 Clinical Immunology and Infection.