Jérémie Le Pen

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Biography

Jérémie received his formal training in Genetics and Systems Biology at École Normale Supérieure in Paris, France. He then joined Prof. Eric Miska’s laboratory at the University of Cambridge, UK, as a graduate student, focusing on small RNA biology in C. elegans. His graduate studies coincided with the discovery of the first natural virus in C. elegans, providing him with a unique opportunity to contribute to early research on viral infection and antiviral immunity in nematodes.

In 2017, Jérémie joined virologist Charles Rice’s group at Rockefeller University, NY, as a postdoctoral researcher. There, he worked on projects combining human genetics and functional genetic screens in cell culture to better understand how the human innate immune system controls RNA viruses and live-attenuated vaccines.

Jérémie established his lab in December 2024 at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases. The Le Pen Lab studies the cell-intrinsic mechanisms of innate immunity that determine the outcome of RNA virus infections. The lab investigates how cells distinguish viral from self RNA, control viral replication while preserving essential cellular functions, and resolve antiviral and inflammatory responses once infection has been cleared. By studying these processes across diverse biological systems, the lab seeks to understand why common viral infections are harmless in most individuals yet cause severe disease in others.

Jérémie has received a DP2 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (NIAID program).

Publications

• Enhanced TLR7-dependent production of type I interferon by pDCs underlies pandemic chilblains.

  Saidoune F, Lee D, Di Domizio J, Le Floc'h C, Jenelten R, Le Pen J, Bondet V, Joncic A, Morren MA, Béziat V, Zhang SY, Jouanguy E, Duffy D, Rice CM, Conrad C, Fellay J, Casanova JL, Gilliet M, Yatim A. J Exp Med 2025 Jul 07

  PMID: 40227192

• A common form of dominant human IFNAR1 deficiency impairs IFN-a and -? but not IFN-ß-dependent immunity.

  Al Qureshah F, Le Pen J, de Weerd NA, Moncada-Velez M, Materna M, Lin DC, Milisavljevic B, Vianna F, Bizien L, Lorenzo L, Lecuit M, Pommier JD, Keles S, Ozcelik T, Pedraza-Sanchez S, de Prost N, El Zein L, Hammoud H, Ng LFP, Halwani R, Saheb Sharif-Askari N, Lau YL, Tam AR, Singh N, Bhattad S, Berkun Y, Chantratita W, Aguilar-López R, Shahrooei M, Abel L, Bastard P, Jouanguy E, Béziat V, Zhang P, Rice CM, Cobat A, Zhang SY, Hertzog PJ, Casanova JL, Zhang Q. J Exp Med 2025 Feb 03

  PMID: 39680367

• A genome-wide arrayed CRISPR screen identifies PLSCR1 as an intrinsic barrier to SARS-CoV-2 entry that recent virus variants have evolved to resist.

  Le Pen J, Paniccia G, Kinast V, Moncada-Velez M, Ashbrook AW, Bauer M, Hoffmann HH, Pinharanda A, Ricardo-Lax I, Stenzel AF, Rosado-Olivieri EA, Dinnon KH, Doyle WC, Freije CA, Hong SH, Lee D, Lewy T, Luna JM, Peace A, Schmidt C, Schneider WM, Winkler R, Yip EZ, Larson C, McGinn T, Menezes MR, Ramos-Espiritu L, Banerjee P, Poirier JT, Sànchez-Rivera FJ, Cobat A, Zhang Q, Casanova JL, Carroll TS, Glickman JF, Michailidis E, Razooky B, MacDonald MR, Rice CM. PLoS Biol 2024 09

  PMID: 39316623

• SARS-CoV-2 brainstem encephalitis in human inherited DBR1 deficiency.

  Chan YH, Lundberg V, Le Pen J, Yuan J, Lee D, Pinci F, Volpi S, Nakajima K, Bondet V, Åkesson S, Khobrekar NV, Bodansky A, Du L, Melander T, Mariaggi AA, Seeleuthner Y, Saleh TS, Chakravarty D, Marits P, Dobbs K, Vonlanthen S, Hennings V, Thörn K, Rinchai D, Bizien L, Chaldebas M, Sobh A, Özçelik T, Keles S, AlKhater SA, Prando C, Meyts I, Wilson MR, Rosain J, Jouanguy E, Aubart M, Abel L, Mogensen TH, Pan-Hammarström Q, Gao D, Duffy D, Cobat A, Berg S, Notarangelo LD, Harschnitz O, Rice CM, Studer L, Casanova JL, Ekwall O, Zhang SY. J Exp Med 2024 09 02

  PMID: 39023559

• The antiviral state of the cell: lessons from SARS-CoV-2.

  Le Pen J, Rice CM. Curr Opin Immunol 2024

  PMID: 38795501