CV Science

Maria LEITE DE MORAES PhD Immunology

Course and current status

Maria LEITE DE MORAES is a former student of the UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). She received her BSc in Immunology at the FIOCRUZ (Oswaldo Cruz Fondation, Rio de Janeiro) and the UFRJ, in 1989, and her PhD at the Pasteur Institute and the University Pierre and Marie Curie, Paris, in 1993. She carried out her postdoctoral research in CNRS UMR 8603 in Necker Hospital. There she worked on the ontogeny and function of invariant Natural Killer T (iNKT) and on their role in experimental and clinical allergic asthma. She described iNKT17 cells as a distinct lineage. In 2000, she was recruited as CNRS Research and in 2014 as Research Director 1^st class. In 2014, she was appointed as a Group Leader at the Institute Necker Enfants Malades (INEM), Paris.

Positions and Employment

• 2014-  :     Co-Group Leader of the team “Immunoregulation and Immunopathology”, INEM, Paris
• 2014-  :     CNRS Research Director 1^st class (DR1).
• 2010-3:     Co-Group Leader of the team ‘Cytokines and innate immune response’, CNRS UMR 8253, Necker Hospital, Paris
• 2006-9:     Co-Group Leader of the team ‘Cytokines, NKT cells and TLR during the physiological and pathological immune response’, CNRS UMR 8147, Necker Hospital, Paris
• 2008:        CNRS Research Director 2^nd class (DR2).
• 2004:        CNRS Research 1^st class (CR1).
• 2000 :       CNRS Research 2^nd class (CR2).
• 1993-9 :    Post-Doctorat CNRS UMR 8603, Necker Hospital, Paris.
• 1990-3 :    PhD student, FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro and Institut Pasteur, Paris

Honors and Awards

• 2021 :       Prime d'encadrement doctoral et de la recherche (PEDR) - CNRS
• 2010 :       Prime d'Excellence Scientifique (PES) - CNRS  

Honorary activities

• 2021-:       Associated Editor in Immunological Tolerance and Regulation, Frontiers in Immunology
• 2021-:       Guest Associated Editor in Food Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Nutrients (MDPI)
• 2021-:       Member of the Editorial Board of IJMS
• 2021 :       Co-organiser of the 11^th Institut Cochin / Miltenyi Symposium “Innate T cells : from basic research to therapeutic applications”
• 2020-:       Founding member of the Club Innate T cells
• 2019-:       Guest Associated Editor in Molecular Innate Immunity, Frontiers in Immunology
• 2016 :       Co-organiser of the Annual Meeting of the French Society for Immunology (50 years), Paris
• 2014-7 :    Member of the Scientific Committee of the French Society for Immunology
• 2012-4 :    Member of the Club Cytokines
• 2012- :      Member of the Scientific Committee of the legs Poix, Académie de Paris
• 2012- :      Member of the Editorial Board of PlosOne

Scientific summary

Maria LEITE DE MORAES made seminal discoveries on the ontogeny and function of invariant Natural Killer T (iNKT) and on their role in experimental and clinical allergic asthma. Her current focus is the role of iNKT and mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells on pathogenic and regulatory immune mechanisms in allergy and asthma in experimental models and pediatric patients. She has authored > 80 articles in international peer-reviewed journals with an H Factor of 39. ORCID: 0000-0002-2891-2269.

Selection of recent publications:

Adel-Patient K, Grauso M, Abou-Taam R, Guillon B, Dietrich C, Machavoine F, Garcelon N, Briard M, Faour H, Neuraz A, Delacourt C, Molina TJ, Leite-de-Moraes M, Lezmi G. Immune signatures distinguish frequent from non-frequent exacerbators among children with severe asthma. Allergy. 2021. Epub 2021/02/06. doi: 10.1111/all.14759.

Victor JR, Lezmi G, Leite-de-Moraes M. New Insights into Asthma Inflammation: Focus on iNKT, MAIT, and gammadeltaT Cells. Clin Rev Allergy Immunol. 2020;59(3):371-81. Epub 2020/04/05. doi: 10.1007/s12016-020-08784-8.

Leite-de-Moraes M, Belo R, Dietrich C, Soussan D, Aubier M, Pretolani M. Circulating IL-4, IFNgamma and IL-17 conventional and Innate-like T-cell producers in adult asthma. Allergy. 2020;75(12):3283-6. Epub 2020/07/01. doi: 10.1111/all.14474.

Foray AP, Dietrich C, Pecquet C, Machavoine F, Chatenoud L, Leite-de-Moraes M. IL-4 and IL-17 Are Required for House Dust Mite-Driven Airway Hyperresponsiveness in Autoimmune Diabetes-Prone Non-Obese Diabetic Mice. Front Immunol. 2020;11:595003. Epub 2021/03/02. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.595003.

Baranek T, Lebrigand K, de Amat Herbozo C, Gonzalez L, Bogard G, Dietrich C, Magnone V, Boisseau C, Jouan Y, Trottein F, Si-Tahar M, Leite-de-Moraes M, Mallevaey T, Paget C. High Dimensional Single-Cell Analysis Reveals iNKT Cell Developmental Trajectories and Effector Fate Decision. Cell Rep. 2020;32(10):108116. Epub 2020/09/10. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.108116.

Lezmi G, Abou-Taam R, Garcelon N, Dietrich C, Machavoine F, Delacourt C, Adel-Patient K, Leite-de-Moraes M. Evidence for a MAIT-17-high phenotype in children with severe asthma. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2019;144(6):1714-6 e6. Epub 2019/08/20. doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2019.08.003.

Belkadi A, Dietrich C, Machavoine F, Victor JR, Leite-de-Moraes M. gammadelta T cells amplify Blomia tropicalis-induced allergic airway disease. Allergy. 2019;74(2):395-8. Epub 2018/10/07. doi: 10.1111/all.13618.

Rignault-Bricard R, Machavoine F, Mecheri S, Hermine O, Schneider E, Dy M, Leite-de-Moraes M. IL-3-producing basophils are required to exacerbate airway hyperresponsiveness in a murine inflammatory model. Allergy. 2018;73(12):2342-51. doi: 10.1111/all.13480.

Lezmi G, Abou Taam R, Dietrich C, Chatenoud L, de Blic J, Leite-de-Moraes M. Circulating IL-17-producing mucosal-associated invariant T cells (MAIT) are associated with symptoms in children with asthma. Clin Immunol. 2018;188:7-11. doi: 10.1016/j.clim.2017.11.009.

Massot B, Michel ML, Diem S, Ohnmacht C, Latour S, Dy M, Eberl G, Leite-de-Moraes MC. TLR-induced cytokines promote effective proinflammatory natural Th17 cell responses. J Immunol. 2014;192(12):5635-42. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1302089.

Rubio MT, Moreira-Teixeira L, Bachy E, Bouillie M, Milpied P, Coman T, Suarez F, Marcais A, Sibon D, Buzyn A, Caillat-Zucman S, Cavazzana-Calvo M, Varet B, Dy M, Hermine O, Leite-de-Moraes M. Early posttransplantation donor-derived invariant natural killer T-cell recovery predicts the occurrence of acute graft-versus-host disease and overall survival. Blood. 2012;120(10):2144-54. doi: 10.1182/blood-2012-01-404673.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Leite%20de%20moraes%20M[Author]

https://publons.com/researcher/3826629/maria-leite-de-moraes/

https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=fr&user=VZkzOVkAAAAJ