About Miguel Fribourg, PhD
I am an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Medicine (Nephrology) and Immunology & Immunotherapy at the Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Combining engineering and immunology expertise through postdoctoral degrees in Signal Processing from the Polytechnical University in Madrid and Biomedical Sciences from Mount Sinai, I research cellular signaling in transplant immunology. Trained in artificial intelligence and emerging technologies in medicine, disease mechanisms, and immunology, I’m the principal investigator of the Fribourg Lab where I direct theoretical and experimental research on interferon-beta in transplantation and develop biosensors for monitoring regulatory T cell function, with the aim of guiding clinical intervention.
I have had an unconventional career in which I have acquired rigorous training in signal processing, chemistry, biophysics, biomedical sciences, data science, computational biology, immunology, and transplantation. My multidisciplinary training has shaped me to think creatively about problems in biology and medicine and provided me with a unique toolbox of strategies to solve them. I have also been extremely fortunate to have had generous mentors along the way who have trusted, supported, guided, and embraced my out-of-the-box ideas, which have crystallized into highly innovative research.
Contact Information
Mount Sinai, Icahn School of Medicine
Annenberg Building, 23-16
1 Gustave L. Levy Pl, New York, NY 10029
+1-212-241-4534
Appointments & Positions
Assistant Professor (Oct 2018 - current)
Translational Transplant Research Center
Department of Medicine
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA
Research Assistant Professor (Oct 2016 – Sept 2018)
Department of Neurology
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA
Mentor: Stuart Sealfon
Technical Consultant (Oct 2003 – Jun 2006)
Corfri, Madrid, Spain
Radio Engineer (Sept 2000 – Sept 2003)
Wireless Transmission Division
Alcatel Lucent, Paris, France
Education & Training
PhD in Signal Processing (parallel to postdoctoral training and Assistant Professor position), 2014 – 2019, Polytechnical University of Madrid (UPM), Madrid, Spain. Mentors: Vladimir Brezina, Fernando Las Heras, and Belén Galocha. Focus on the application of system identification tools to biological systems.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, 2011 – 2016, Department of Neurology Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA. Mentor: Stuart Sealfon. Focus on systems biology and type I interferons in innate immunity.
PhD in Biomedical Sciences, 2006 – 2011, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA. Mentor: Diomedes Logothetis. Focus on receptor signaling and electrophysiology.
BSc in Chemistry (parallel to Radio Engineer position), 2004 – 2006, National Distance University (UNED), Spain. Focus on organic chemistry.
MSc in Telecommunication Engineering, 1999 – 2000, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway. Focus on high-frequency systems.
BSc in Telecommunication Engineering, 1995 – 1999, Polytechnical University of Madrid (UPM), Madrid, Spain. Major in Radiocommunications
Research Impact
My research studies have:
Elucidated a mechanism of action of anti-psychotic drugs through the GPCR heterocomplex involved in schizophrenia formed by the Gi-coupled metabotropic glutamate receptor 2 (mGluR2) and the Gq-coupled serotonin receptor 2A (2AR). These results provided an integrated theory to explain psychosis and hallucinations through the action of anti-psychotic drugs targeting the serotonin/glutamate systems.
Created data-integration resources for the research community to study immune genomics. The distillation of 38,088 genome-scale experiments into immunological networks of functional relationships between molecular entities (ImmuNet), and tools to mine this resource, are publicly accessible (http//immunet.princeton.edu).
Generated computational models and techniques to study the innate and adaptive immune responses. These include stochastic models of viral infection and type I interferon signal propagation, Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE) models of alloimmune responses, biosensors, and FRET-based techniques to measure T cell function.
Unveiled the mechanism of action of interferon-beta treatment in multiple sclerosis and its potential application in transplant. Type I interferons (IFN) are pleiotropic cytokines with potent antiviral properties that promote protective T cell and humoral immunity. Using an experimental transplant model, an in silico computational model, and analysis of human immune cells, we demonstrated that IFN-beta directly promotes regulatory T cell (Treg) induction via STAT1- and P300-dependent Foxp3 acetylation. Together with our observations that IFN-beta prolongs allograft survival in a murine transplant model, the findings have identified an unexpected mechanistic connection with therapeutic implications for transplantation, autoimmunity, and malignancy.
Identified transcriptomic and phenotypic signatures of T cells in transplant recipients associated with improved allograft function. These include transcriptomic signatures in peripheral blood mononuclear cells associated with successful withdrawal from calcineurin inhibitor tacrolimus, and T cell exhaustion phenotypic markers linked to improved allograft function. We have also developed a pipeline for spatial transcriptomic analysis of kidney transplant biopsies and identified gene patterns in tubular regions associated with acute T cell mediated rejection.
