Nicolas Manel PhD
Course and current status
Current
Junior Group Leader "Human Innate Immunity", "Immunity and Cancer" department (head: Sebastian Amigorena), INSERM U932, Institut Curie, Paris, France
2005-2009
Post-doctoral Fellow, Skirball Institute for Biomolecular Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, Laboratory of Dan Littman, M.D., Ph.D.
2001-2005
Ph.D. in the laboratory of Marc Sitbon, Institut de Génétique Moléculaire et Cellulaire de Montpellier, France (CNRS UMR 5535). Identification and characterization of the Human T-cell Leukemia Virus (HTLV) envelope receptor, the glucose transporter GLUT1.
Scientific summary
Innate immune responses are considered the first defensive line against harmful conditions, including cancer. Human dendritic cells play a key role in the control of these responses and are a promising constituent of rational immune therapies. Indeed, dendritic cells possess a unique machinery to detect and sense injured tissues, cellular fragments and pathogens. Upon detection, dendritic cells become licensed to activate adaptive immunity and thus couple innate and adaptive responses. We use HIV-1, an important human pathogen that causes AIDS, as a model to understand the regulation of innate immunity in human dendritic cells. Investigating how the innate response to HIV-1 is regulated will increase our knowledge of the fundamental and general mechanisms of innate immunity.
