Marcus Bezerra

I am Marcus Bezerra, a postdoctoral researcher in the Lisa Westerberg Group at Karolinska Institutet. I am bringing my expertise in molecular biology, protein engineering and antibody discovery to the our study of pediatric lymphoma. My current work centers on immune organoid development as a platform to evaluate lymphoma clonal evolution, offering a controlled system to study how malignant B cell clones emerge and expand over time, and in vitro characterization of proteins to correlate with immunodysregulation conditions.

A key aspect of this line of research involves screening for antibody clones to characterize their properties, assess self-reactivity, and determine antigen specificity to provide a mechanistic understanding of how pediatric lymphomas develop. We apply single-cell technologies including PixelGen and 10x Genomics platforms, enabling the identification of lymphoma vulnerabilities, functional VDJ sequences, and the validation of potential therapeutic targets.

Combining these technologies with molecular biology, our team is also investigating the role of cytoskeletal regulation in lymphocyte biology and malignancy, a central theme in Westerberg's Group. We are exploring how WASp (Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome protein), a key regulator of actin dynamics in immune cells, connects to lymphoma development.

I am interested in the intersection of immunology, cancer biology, and translational technology. The research I am involved focuses on understanding how B cell identity and antibody repertoire dynamics contribute to lymphoma initiation and progression. I am particularly interested in how self-reactive antibody clones may play a role in pediatric lymphoma development, and in applying immune organoid systems to model these processes ex vivo.

A translational branch of my work interests includes mapping lymphoma vulnerabilities and how clonal hierarchies have the potential to inform novel strategies for targeting cancer cells with precision. I am interested in the development of next-generation immunotherapies, where antibodies identified through single-cell research could serve as the basis for therapeutic or diagnostic applications.

By combining protein engineering and in vitro functional assays, we have been able to connect clinical and cell biology data (generated from other colleagues in the group and collaborators) to undestand molecular aspects of immunodeficiencies/cancer conditions.