Maria de Sousa

Maria de Sousa GCSE GOSE GOIH
Born	Maria Ângela Brito de Sousa (1939-10-17)17 October 1939 Lisbon, Portugal
Died	14 April 2020(2020-04-14) (aged 80) Arroios, Lisbon, Portugal
Occupation	Immunologist

Maria de Sousa GCSE GOSE GOIH (17 October 1939 – 14 April 2020) was a Portuguese immunologist, poet and writer. She gained international recognition as a medical researcher, as the author of several seminal scientific papers: she was the first to describe thymus-dependent (or T cell) areas in 1966, a fundamental discovery in the mapping of peripheral lymphoid organs; and coined the term "ecotaxis" in 1971, to describe the phenomenon of cells of different origins to migrate and to organize among themselves in very specific lymphoid areas. Later, in the 1980s she focused on the study of hereditary hemochromatosis, an iron overload genetic disease.

Maria de Sousa died in Lisbon on 14 April 2020, a victim of that year's coronavirus pandemic, after a week in the intensive care unit of São José Hospital. Among the many top figures in Portuguese science and society that paid homage to Sousa, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, issued a statement offering his condolences to the family, referring to her as a "unmatched figure in Portuguese science" and underscoring her "inescapable legacy in science and great example in rigor, exigence, and civic and cultural commitment".

Distinctions

National orders

• Grand Officer of the Order of Prince Henry (9 June 1995)
• Grand Officer of the Order of Saint James of the Sword (20 January 2012)
• Grand Cross of the Order of Saint James of the Sword (18 November 2016)

Selected publications

• Parrott, DMV, de Sousa, MAB, and East, J. "Thymus dependent areas in the lymphoid organs of neonatally thymectomized mice". J. Exp. Med.; l23: 191–1966.
• Parrott, DMV and De Sousa, MAB. "Changes in thymus-dependent areas of lymph nodes after immunological stimulation". Nature, 212: 1316-,1966.
• De Sousa, MAB, Parrott, DMV and Pantelouris. "Lymphoid tissues in mice with congenital aplasia of the thymus". Clin.exp.Immunol. 4: 637-,1969.
• Sousa, MD "Kinetics of distribution of thymus and marrow cells in peripheral organs of the mouse – Ecotaxis". Clin.exp.Immunol. 9: 371-,1971.
• Broxmeyer, HE, Smithyman, A, Eger, RR, Meyer, PA and De Sousa, M. "Identification of Lactoferrin as granulocyte derived inhibitor of colony stimulating activity production". J. Exp. Med. 148: 1052–1067, 1977.
• Dörner, M., Silverstone, A., Nishyia, K.,de Sostoa, A.,Munn, G and De Sousa, M. "Ferritin synthesis by Human T lymphocytes". Science, 209: 1019–1021.
• De Sousa M., Reimão, R., Lacerda, R., Hugo, P. and Kaufman. S. "Iron overload in ß2 microglobulin deficient mice". Immunol. Lett. 39: 105–111. 1994.
• Santos, M., Schilham, MW, Rademakers, LHPM, Marx, JJM, de Sousa, M. and Clevers, H. "Defective iron homeostasis in beta 2-microglobulin knockout mice recapitulates Hereditary Hemochromatosis in man". J.Exp.Med, 184: 1975–1985. 1996.
• De Almeida SF, Carvalho IF, Cardoso CS, Cordeiro JV, Azevedo JE, Neefjes J, De Sousa M. (2005) "HFE crosstalks with the MHC class I antigen presentation pathway". Blood 106:971-7.
• De Sousa, M. 2011. "An outsider's perspective-ecotaxis revisited: an integrative review of cancer environment, iron and immune system cells". Integr. Biol., 3, 343–349.
• Hoshino A, Costa-Silva B, Shen TL, et al. (2015). "Tumour exosome integrins determine organotropic metastasis". Nature 527(7578):329-35. Epub 2015 Oct 28.