Agnes Lehuen is director of the Laboratory “Immunology of diabetes” at Cochin Institute and University Paris City, France. She is cofounder of the Laboratory of Excellence INFLAMEX.

Dr Lehuen research concerns immune regulation in several contexts including autoimmunity and metabolic diseases. Her laboratory has highlighted the key role of innate immune cells in the initiation or the prevention of type 1 diabetes, with a particular interest on NKT and MAIT cells. Her studies in patients and mouse models revealed the alterations and functions of MAIT cells in type 1 and type 2 diabetes, obesity and liver diseases. During the recent pandemic, her studies on SARS-CoV-2 infection showed that MAIT cell activation and cytotoxic function are associated with disease severity and mortality of COVID-19 patients. She presently investigates the role of MAIT cells in tissue damage upon enterovirus infection, as well as the crosstalk between MAIT cells and microbiota in diabetes.