Division of Respirology
Kjetil Ask
PhD
Assistant Professor, Division of Respirology, Department of Medicine
Education and Professional Standing
Dr. Kjetil Ask recently joined McMaster University and the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health as an Assistant Professor of Medicine. His research focus will be on molecular mechanisms of chronic lung disease, with a specific interest on the role of immunophillins in Endoplasmic Stress and the Unfolded Protein Response. Dr. Kjetil Ask, originally from Norway, did his University studies in Burgundy, France. He began to study pulmonary pathology in 1997 as an undergraduate student in Dr Phillippe Camus’ laboratory in Dijon, France. After completing a Master’s degree equivalent, the Diplome d’Etude Approfondie, in 1999, he spent 4 years as PhD student working on mechanisms of drug-induced lung disease with Dr Camus. After defending his PhD in Pharmaceutical Biochemistry in 2003, he moved to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada to join the group of Dr Jack Gauldie at McMaster University.
Dr. Ask worked for four years as a Post-Doctoral fellow with Drs Jack Gauldie and Martin Kolb in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine. The focus of his work was to study the pathobiology of pulmonary fibrosis, for instance by performing therapeutic interventions in animal models. In 2008, he started his second post-doctoral fellowship at the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, USA. Dr Ask worked in the Translational Medicine Branch under the supervision of Drs Martha Vaughan and Joel Moss, where he investigated the role of an Endoplasmic Stress resident immunophillin linked to vesicular trafficking.
