Menno joined Amgen in January 2019 where he has been leading discovery research efforts in immuno-oncology, inflammation and autoimmunity. By combining Amgen’s strength in human genetics and therapeutic discovery, novel pathways are being explored for therapeutic intervention in chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. In turn, genetically validated pathways associated with autoimmunity are being leveraged to fight cancer.

Menno joined Amgen from Genentech where he was leading programs from the target discovery phase to clinical development in the areas of inflammation, neurology and ophthalmology. Equipped with a multidisciplinary background, Menno contributed to first-in-class programs targeting the IL33 axis in asthma and ophthalmic diseases and targeting complement factor D in age-related macular degeneration. Menno has a strong interest in identifying new pathways that regulate myeloid function and exploring their contribution to human disease. He and his team discovered a novel complement receptor, CRIg, that plays a critical role in pathogen clearance and characterized a novel inhibitory receptor, CLM1, that regulates antigen presenting cells. Using genetics as a starting point, Menno and his team discovered how a missense variant in the autophagy gene ATG16L1 associates with Crohn’s disease, placing cellular stress, caspase activation and impaired autophagy in a unified pathway associated with disease risk.

As a Ph.D. student, Menno studied the role of a growth-associated protein GAP43 in neuronal development and he did his postdoctoral work on cerebral ischemia. Menno has published over 90 papers and is inventor on 27 published patents related to novel therapeutic approaches for the treatment of inflammatory, ophthalmic and neurological diseases.

Featured Publications

Cox, C. B., E. E. Storm, V. N. Kapoor, J. Chavarria-Smith, D. L. Lin, L. Wang, Y. Li, N. Kljavin, N. Ota, T. W. Bainbridge, K. Anderson, M. Roose-Girma, S. Warming, J. R. Arron, S. J. Turley, F. J. de Sauvage and M. van Lookeren Campagne (2021). "IL-1R1-dependent signaling coordinates epithelial regeneration in response to intestinal damage." Sci Immunol 6(59).
https://immunology.sciencemag.org/content/6/59/eabe8856.long

Xi, H., K. J. Katschke, Jr., Y. Li, T. Truong, W. P. Lee, L. Diehl, L. Rangell, J. Tao, R. Arceo, J. Eastham-Anderson, J. A. Hackney, A. Iglesias, J. Cote-Sierra, J. Elstrott, R. M. Weimer and M. van Lookeren Campagne (2016). "IL-33 amplifies an innate immune response in the degenerating retina." J Exp Med 213(2): 189-207.
https://rupress.org/jem/article/213/2/189/42027/IL-33-amplifies-an-innate-immune-response-in-the

Murthy, A., Y. Li, I. Peng, M. Reichelt, A. K. Katakam, R. Noubade, M. Roose-Girma, J. DeVoss, L. Diehl, R. R. Graham and M. van Lookeren Campagne (2014). "A Crohn's disease variant in Atg16l1 enhances its degradation by caspase 3." Nature 506(7489): 456-462.
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature13044

Xi, H., K. J. Katschke, Jr., K. Y. Helmy, P. A. Wark, N. Kljavin, H. Clark, J. Eastham-Anderson, T. Shek, M. Roose-Girma, N. Ghilardi and M. van Lookeren Campagne (2010). "Negative regulation of autoimmune demyelination by the inhibitory receptor CLM-1." J Exp Med 207(1): 7-16.
https://rupress.org/jem/article/207/1/7/40560/Negative-regulation-of-autoimmune-demyelination-by

Helmy, K. Y., K. J. Katschke, Jr., N. N. Gorgani, N. M. Kljavin, J. M. Elliott, L. Diehl, S. J. Scales, N. Ghilardi and M. van Lookeren Campagne (2006). "CRIg: a macrophage complement receptor required for phagocytosis of circulating pathogens." Cell 124(5): 915-927.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867406001243?via%3Dihub

Education

Postdoctoral Fellowship, Genentech, South San Francisco, USA
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Roche, Basel, Switzerland
Ph.D., Neuroscience, University of Utrecht, Netherlands