Please welcome Dr. Ruscher from James Cook University!

Dr. Roland Ruscher is a new visiting scientist at iBAM! He is on sabbatical at the University of Minnesota to establish a project with Dr. Niedernhofer, Dr. Robbins, and other collaborators at the Center for Immunology. This project will investigate how aging and senescence affects the gut immune system. 

Roland obtained a MSc from the University of Cologne and the German Aerospace Center in Germany, and a PhD in the field of immunology from the University of Queensland in Australia. He then joined Dr. Kristin Hogquist’s lab at the University of Minnesota Center for Immunology as a Postdoctoral Fellow and returned to Australia in 2018, where he initially worked in an industry setting and more recently transitioned back into academia. He now runs his own lab at the James Cook University in Queensland.

Roland’s research interests encompass mucosal and T cell immunology, including the development, ontogeny and biology of T cell subsets at barrier surfaces such as the gut epithelium, and at distinct stages in life. Another arm of his research investigates how molecules secreted by intestinal parasites and shaped by co-evolution modulate immune responses in their mammalian hosts, and how they could be used to combat inflammatory diseases. He is an inventor on a patent on novel anti-inflammatory therapeutics based on this work. Welcome to iBAM, Roland!