Gustavo Monasterio Team

Our lab works at the interface between exocrine gland biology and aerodigestive barrier physiology. We are driven by a fundamental curiosity about how salivary glands, far from being passive secretors, function as highly evolutionarily conserved organs with dual exocrine and endocrine capacities. We seek to understand how these glands sense and respond to aerodigestive signals, and how they coordinate adaptive and homeostatic responses in both health and disease. Our overarching mission is to mechanistically define the role of salivary organs in systemic physiological circuits. Toward this goal, our lab currently focuses on three main research areas:

Research Area 1: Biology of a newly discovered gland at the aerodigestive gate

Building on our discovery and characterization of a previously unknown gland at the junction of the airway and digestive tract, our lab is using molecular and cellular tools across animal models and human samples to build a comprehensive map of this gland’s structure and biological roles. We aim to understand how it contributes to health and disease at this critical anatomical interface, and how the nervous system and environment shape its function.

Research Area 2: Salivary glands as regulators of aerodigestive physiology

Beyond their established role in digestion, salivary glands may act as key coordinators of broader physiological processes across the airway and gut. Our lab investigates how these glands communicate with distant organs through neural and chemical signals, characterizes the molecules they release, and examines how disruptions to these pathways contribute to inflammation and disease at aerodigestive mucosal surfaces.

Research Area 3: Exploiting salivary gland biology for therapeutic innovation

Our lab is building foundational knowledge on the unique physiological properties of salivary glands with the long-term goal of harnessing them for therapeutic purposes. By deepening our understanding of how these glands integrate and respond to systemic signals, we aim to establish the scientific basis for novel intervention strategies targeting diseases of the aerodigestive tract, with broad implications for precision medicine.

Gustavo Monasterio Ocares, Assistant Professor/Principal Investigator, DMD, PhD. gustavo.monasterio@ki.se.

Brief bio:

Clinician-scientist with 7 years of training as a Doctor of Dental Medicine, with expertise in craniofacial physiology and surgery, and 8 years of PhD and postdoctoral training (Villablanca Lab) in cellular and molecular gastrointestinal mucosal immunology and physiology. Leveraging this combined clinical and mechanistic background, Dr. Monasterio has helped pioneer the “oral-gut” axis as a research field, including co-founding the Oral-Gut Conferences, and is contributing to positioning salivary glands as clinically relevant organs with underexplored roles in systemic physiology in national and international contexts. He is committed to strengthening academic career development, co-founding the Improving Academia working group within the Young Federation of European Immunology Societies (YEFIS). Dr. Monasterio has extensive teaching and supervision experience, having formally trained 19 BSc and MSc students, mentored PhD trainees, and served as a lecturer in multiple national and international courses and conferences.

Samuel Villalobos, BSc intern. savillavar@gmail.com

Matteo Friederich, MD/MSc intern. matteo.paul.freddy.friederich@ki.se

2024-Current. Co-Founder and board member. Oral-Gut Conferences.

2024-Current. Co-founder and member. Improving Academia working group – Task Force Young European Federation of Immunologists (yEFIS)

2022-Current.     President, Vice-president and founder member. Association of Chilean Researchers in Sweden (AICHIS), Stockholm, Sweden.

2023-Current.  Member. Beyond Sciences Initiative (BSI)

2025. Karolinska Institute Doctoral Student Grant
2026. Ruth and Richard Julin Foundation Research Grant
2027. Swedish Research Council (VR) Starting Grant
2028. European Crohn’s and Colitis Organization Research Grant
2029. Karolinska Institute foundation Research Grant
2030. Cancerfonden (The Swedish Cancer Society) Postdoctoral Grant
2031. Lars Hierta Memorial Foundation Research Grant
2032. Loo and Hans Osterman Foundation Research Grant
2033. Osteology Young Researcher Grant

2024: Best Poster presentation. European Congress of Immunology (ECI). Dublin, Ireland

2023: Best Poster presentation. 3rd Interdisciplinary Signalling Workshop, Visegrad, Hungary.

2023: International Association for Dental Research (IADR) Osteology Foundation Young Investigator Award in Oral Tissue Regeneration.

Email: gustavo.monasterio@ki.se

ORCID: 0000-0001-6336-132X

URL for website:  www.monasteriolab.com

Social Media: LinkedIn, KI Staff Portal, BlueSky

Address: Visionsgatan 18, Center for Molecular Medicine (CMM)

L8:03, Karolinska University Hospital, 171 76, Stockholm, Sweden.

(*) Equal contribution

B cell expansion hinders the stroma-epithelium regenerative crosstalk during mucosal healing. Frede A*, Czarnewski P*, Monasterio G(*), Tripathi KP., Bejarano DA., Ramirez RA., Sorini C., Larsson L., Luo X., Geerlings L., Novella-Rausell C., Zagami C., Kuiper A., Morales RA., Castillo F., Hunt M., Mariano LL., Hu YOO., Engblom C., Lennon-Duménil AM., Mittenzwei R., Westendorf AM., Hövelmeyer N., Lundeberg J., Saez-Rodriguez J., Schlitzer A., Das S., & Villablanca EJ. 2022. Immunity PMID: 36462502

A versatile tissue rolling technique for spatial-omics analyses of the entire murine gastrointestinal tract. Monasterio G(*), Morales RA*, Bejarano DA., Abalo X., Fransson J., Larsson L., Schlitzer A., Lundeberg J., Das S., & Villablanca EJ. 2024. Nature Protocols PMID: 38906985

Liver X receptor unlinks intestinal regeneration and tumorigenesis. Das S., Parigi M., Luo X., Fransson J., Kern B., Scharaw S., Diaz O., Sorini C., Czarnewski P., Webb A., Morales R., Lebon S., Monasterio G., Castillo F., Tripathi K., He N., Pelczar P., Schaltenberg N., De la Fuente M., Lopez-Köstner F., Nyle S., Larsen H., Kuiper R., Antonson P., Hermoso M., Huber S., Biton M., Gustafsson JÅ., Katajisto P., & Villablanca EJ. 2025. Nature PMID: 39567700

The spatial transcriptomic landscape of the healing mouse intestine following damage. Parigi SM., Larsson L, Das S, Ramirez-Flores RO, Frede A, Tripathi KP, Diaz OE, Selin K, Morales R, Luo X, Monasterio G., Engblom C., Gagliani N., Saez-Rodriguez J., Lundeberg J. & Villablanca EJ. 2022. Nature Communications PMID: 35149721

O-polysaccharide Plays a Major Role on the Virulence and Immunostimulatory Potential of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans During Periodontal Infection. Monasterio G, Castillo C, Astorga J, Hoare A, Terraza-Aguirre C, Cafferata E, Villablanca EJ, Vernal R. 2020. Frontiers in Immunology PMID: 33193431