Maria Angelica Cortez, Ph.D. Titles and Appointments Assistant Professor School Medical School Department Children's Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern | Pediatrics Biography Maria Angelica Freitas-Cortez earned her bachelor’s in biomedical sciences from the University of Franca in São Paulo, Brazil, before pursuing a master's in Cancer Biology at the University of São Paulo (USP). At USP, she focused on the mechanisms of therapy resistance in lymphoblastic and myeloblastic leukemias. Dr. Cortez continued her studies at USP, earning a Ph.D. in cancer biology, where she investigated therapy resistance mechanisms in solid tumors involving microRNAs. Following her Ph.D., she became a postdoctoral fellow at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, where she furthered her research on how cancer cells develop resistance to therapies, including immunotherapy. In 2024, Dr. Cortez joined the Morrison Lab at Children's Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) as research assistant professor. Her current research is dedicated to exploring the complex relationships between bone marrow innervation and cancer. Her work aims to shed new light on the complex interactions that underpin cancer progression and resistance to treatments, potentially paving the way for innovative therapeutic strategies. Research Interest Bone marrow innervation Hematopoietic regeneration Leukemia, cancer progression Publications Featured Publications Periarteriolar niches become inflamed in aging bone marrow, remodeling the stromal microenvironment and depleting lymphoid progenitors. Du L, Freitas-Cortez MA, Zhang J, Xue Y, Veettil RT, Zhao Z, Morrison SJ, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2025 Mar 122 11 e2412317122 Cancer cells avoid ferroptosis induced by immune cells via fatty acid binding proteins. Freitas-Cortez MA, Masrorpour F, Jiang H, Mahmud I, Lu Y, Huang A, Duong LK, Wang Q, Voss TA, Kettlun Leyton CS, Wei B, Chan WK, Lin K, Zhang J, Tsouko E, Ganjoo S, Barsoumian HB, Riad TS, Hu Y, Leuschner C, Puebla-Osorio N, Wang J, Hu J, Davies MA, Puduvalli VK, Billon C, Burris TP, Lorenzi PL, Gan B, Welsh JW, Mol Cancer 2025 Feb 24 1 40 Bone morphogenetic protein 7 promotes resistance to immunotherapy. Cortez MA, Masrorpour F, Ivan C, Zhang J, Younes AI, Lu Y, Estecio MR, Barsoumian HB, Menon H, Caetano MDS, Ramapriyan R, Schoenhals JE, Wang X, Skoulidis F, Wasley MD, Calin G, Hwu P, Welsh JW, Nat Commun 2020 Sep 11 1 4840 PDL1 Regulation by p53 via miR-34. Cortez MA, Ivan C, Valdecanas D, Wang X, Peltier HJ, Ye Y, Araujo L, Carbone DP, Shilo K, Giri DK, Kelnar K, Martin D, Komaki R, Gomez DR, Krishnan S, Calin GA, Bader AG, Welsh JW, J Natl Cancer Inst 2016 Jan 108 1 Co-occurring genomic alterations define major subsets of KRAS-mutant lung adenocarcinoma with distinct biology, immune profiles, and therapeutic vulnerabilities. Skoulidis F, Byers LA, Diao L, Papadimitrakopoulou VA, Tong P, Izzo J, Behrens C, Kadara H, Parra ER, Canales JR, Zhang J, Giri U, Gudikote J, Cortez MA, Yang C, Fan Y, Peyton M, Girard L, Coombes KR, Toniatti C, Heffernan TP, Choi M, Frampton GM, Miller V, Weinstein JN, Herbst RS, Wong KK, Zhang J, Sharma P, Mills GB, Hong WK, Minna JD, Allison JP, Futreal A, Wang J, Wistuba II, Heymach JV, Cancer Discov 2015 Aug 5 8 860-77 Metastasis is regulated via microRNA-200/ZEB1 axis control of tumour cell PD-L1 expression and intratumoral immunosuppression. Chen L, Gibbons DL, Goswami S, Cortez MA, Ahn YH, Byers LA, Zhang X, Yi X, Dwyer D, Lin W, Diao L, Wang J, Roybal J, Patel M, Ungewiss C, Peng D, Antonia S, Mediavilla-Varela M, Robertson G, Suraokar M, Welsh JW, Erez B, Wistuba II, Chen L, Peng D, Wang S, Ullrich SE, Heymach JV, Kurie JM, Qin FX, Nat Commun 2014 Oct 5 5241 MicroRNAs in body fluids--the mix of hormones and biomarkers. Cortez MA, Bueso-Ramos C, Ferdin J, Lopez-Berestein G, Sood AK, Calin GA, Nat Rev Clin Oncol 2011 Jun 8 8 467-77 Results 1-7 of 7 1 Professional Associations/Affiliations Children's Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern
