Dr. Felipe Melo

Young Investigator, Universidad Andrés Bello.

Felipe Melo González is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Life Sciences of the Andrés Bello University. He obtained a degree in biochemistry from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and subsequently completed a PhD in immunology at the University of Manchester, UK, under the supervision of Dr. Mark Travis and Dr. David Thornton. His research focused on the regulation of intestinal immunity by dendritic cells and their interaction with intestinal mucins.

During his postdoctoral training, he worked under the supervision of Dr Matthew Hepworth at the University of Manchester and explored the regulation of intestinal adaptive immunity mediated by innate lymphoid cells (ILC3) and its importance in the control of intestinal inflammation. During her second postdoctoral position in the laboratory of Dr Susan Bueno, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, he collaborated in different projects related to the study of mucosal pathogens and their impact on lung and intestinal immunity, as well as participating in the phase 3 clinical study of the CoronaVac vaccine. His research interests focus on the regulation of mucosal immunity during health and infectious or inflammatory conditions. His current research focuses on understanding lung-gut communication and the role of gut microbiota in susceptibility to human metapneumovirus-induced viral pneumonia. Additionally, his laboratory studies the inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects of outer membrane vesicles secreted by commensal bacteria on host immune cells.