Mauricio Goncalves Da Costa Sousa

My research investigates how microbes shape the immune landscape of oral squamous cell carcinoma. I am particularly interested in Fusobacterium nucleatum animalis, a bacterium enriched in oral tumours, and whether it acts as a bystander or an active driver of immune evasion.

To address this, I develop microphysiological systems, or organ-on-a-chip models, that reconstruct the human oral mucosa with its vasculature, immune cells and bacteria in a single environment, allowing host, microbe and immune interactions to be observed in real time. Building on my doctoral work in host defense peptides, I also explore whether these molecules can selectively modulate tumour-associated bacteria without disrupting the healthy oral flora. Trained as a dentist and biotechnologist in Brazil, Canada, and the United States, I joined the Department of Dental Medicine at Karolinska Institutet in 2026.

oral squamous cell carcinoma; tumour immune microenvironment; oral microbiology; Fusobacterium nucleatum; host defense peptides; microphysiological systems; organ-on-a-chip; mucosal immunology.