Where Ideas Grow
Maria João Azevedo
PhD Student

Maria João Azevedo graduated, in 2018, at Faculty of Dental Medicine of University of Porto, where she obtained her master degree in Dental Medicine. For her master thesis, she researched within the fields of oral microbiology and biomaterials and, since her graduation, she already published three articles in international journal (two as first author) and presented several posters, in national and international congresses. Maria João was distincted as one of the Best Oral Communications in 12th edition of IJUP and received an honorable mention in the 2nd edition of the Competition "Communication of Science in Microbiology" - Junior Category, promoted by the Portuguese Society of Microbiology. At the moment, she is working in her doctoral project "Project OralBioBorn - The oral Microbiome during the first Year of life and the influence of maternal factors in the acquisition of the new-born oral microbiome in a Portuguese population", a collaboration between the Academic Center for Dentistry Amsterdam (ACTA, University of Amsterdam), Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde (I3S), Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto (FMUP), Centro Hospitalar Universitário de São João and FMDUP, for which she was granted an FCT Doctoral Studentship. Moreover, Maria João was one of the 2021 ESCMID Research Grants awardees, with the project "Maternal mycobiome dysbiosis and its Influence on the mycobiome of the child", which will allow her to gain a deeper insight on the bacteria-fungi interaction within the OralBioBorn cohort. Moreover, in April 2021, MJA was part of the team awarded with the 2021 Biocodex Microbiota Foundation - Portuguese National Call and she will also study the impact of the maternally-acquired obesity-associated gut microbiota on the immune system priming of the child. Her current fields of research are oral microbiome, oral mycobiome, immune system priming and preventive dentistry.