Biography
Cisca Wijmenga (PhD) is currently a full professor of human genetics at GroningenUniversity and is head of the Genetics department of the Univerisy Medical Centre Groningen. She also runs a moderately-sized research group of approx. 10 individuals focussing on the genetics of intestinal inflammatory disorders, including celiac disease and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). She has contributed significantly to the identification of non-HLA genes and loci for celiac disease, including the discovery of myosin IXb and the Il2/IL21 locus. In addition, her lab performs gene expression profiling experiments to gain insight into disease pathogenesis. Her research group already delivered four PhD’s in celiac disease at UtrechtUniversity (she moved to Groningen as of January 2007). Over the past years she published >30 article on celiac disease and many more on the genetics of complex traits. She is involved in a number of international collaborations with scientists both within Europe and other countries. She is a member of the American Gastroenterology Association, chief scientific officer of the Celiac Disease Consortium CDC (funded by the Dutch government), and serves on many national committees of the Dutch Research Council. The mission of the CDC is to develop the scientific bases for safer foods and for effective diagnosis, prevention and therapy of CD. The CDC brings together the leaders from industry, the Dutch patient communityand Dutch knowledge-based institutions.As a work package leader the CDEUSSA project she will contribute with her leading experience in genetics. Her research lab is well equipped to perform large-scale genetic studies and has ample experience in statistical data analysis.