Michel Enamorado, PhD
CRI Postdoctoral Fellow
Yasmine Belkaid Laboratory
Metaorganism Immunity Section. Laboratory of Host Immunity and Microbiome 
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Bethesda, USA

Twitter: @Michel_Enamorad

LinkedIn: Michel Enamorado

Michel Enamorado received his B.S. in Biochemistry from University of Havana, Cuba. He completed his Ph.D. research in the Immunobiology Laboratory at CNIC, and received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biosciences/Immunology from Autonomous University of Madrid in Spain. During his Ph.D., he studied the interaction between circulating and tissue-resident memory CD8+ T cells in tumor immunity. 

Currently, Michel is a CRI Irvington Postdoctoral fellow in Yasmine Belkaid laboratory at the National Institutes of Health. He is studying how the skin commensal microbiota regulates the interaction between peripheral nervous and immune (neuroimmune) systems and the consequences in nerve regeneration. In the context of infection or injury, host survival requires protection and restoration of all tissue components, each requiring specific repair programs. He has shown that, upon injury, adaptive responses to the microbiota directly promote sensory neuron regeneration. At homeostasis, commensal-specific Th17 cells colocalize with sensory nerve fibers within the dermis and express a transcriptional program associated with neuronal repair. Following injury, commensal-specific Th17 cells promote axon growth and local nerve regeneration. Mechanistically, his data reveal that the cytokine interleukin 17 A (IL-17A) produced by commensal-specific T cells directly signal to sensory neurons via the IL-17 receptor A, the transcription of which is specifically upregulated in injured neurons. Collectively, his work reveals that microbiota-specific T cells can bridge biological systems by directly promoting neuronal repair, and identifies IL-17A as a major determinant of this fundamental process. His findings that upregulation of the IL-17A/IL-17RA axis represents a conserved response in injured neurons open the door to novel therapeutic approaches to potentiate sensory recovery after injury, or limit neuropathies in the context of diabetes and chemotherapy.

As an extremely enthusiastic investigator Michel’s long-term goals include to open an independent research program to continue understanding the cellular mechanisms underlying the communication between the immune and peripheral nervous systems at different barrier sites in response to the microbiota.

Lightning Talk Presentation in Cytokines Lightning Talks 1 – Cytokine regulation and consequences:  “IMMUNITY TO THE MICROBIOTA PROMOTES SENSORY NEURON REGENERATION”