Pamela P. Martinez

Profile picture for Pamela P. Martinez
pamelapm@illinois.edu

Research Areas

Eukaryotic Virology
Host-Pathogen Interactions
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Assistant Professor of Microbiology

Research Interests

Research Topics

Computational Biology, Host-Pathogen Interactions

Disease Research Interests

Infectious Diseases

Research Description

In most pathogens, epidemiological and evolutionary processes occur on similar time scales due to the large population sizes and short generation times. This makes infectious diseases amenable to study and the interplay of their ecology and evolution particularly relevant for both fundamental biology and applied public health. However, temporal and spatial changes in infectious disease dynamics are difficult to anticipate due to the effects of environmental drivers on the transmission of pathogens and the complex diversity that these microorganisms exhibit.

To address these challenges, my research on the ecology and evolution of infectious diseases focuses on the following general questions:

  1. How do climatic and demographic factors shape the population dynamics of infectious diseases in space and time?
  2. How does pathogen diversity interact and interfere with public health interventions?

For answering these questions, I use mathematical and computational tools that are applied to different types of time series data.

Additional Campus Affiliations

Department of Statistics

Highlighted Publications

Mena, G.E.*, Martinez, P.P.*, Mahmud, A., Marquet, P., Buckee, C. and Santillana, M., 2021. Socioeconomic status determines COVID-19 incidence and related mortality in Santiago, Chile. Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.abg5298

Smith, R.L., Gibson, L.L., Martinez, P.P., Ke, R., Mirza, A., Conte, M., ..., and Brooke, C. B., 2021. Longitudinal assessment of diagnostic test performance over the course of acute SARS-CoV-2 infection. medRxiv.

Kishore, N.*, Kahn, R.*, Martinez, P.P., De Salazar, P.M., Mahmud, A.S., and Buckee, C. 2021. Lockdowns result in changes in human mobility which may impact the epidemiologic dynamics of SARS-CoV-2. Sci Rep 11, 6995.

Rodó, X., Martinez, P.P., Siraj, A., and Pascual, M., 2021. Malaria trends in Ethiopian highlands track the 2000 'slowdown' in global warming. Nature Communications, 12(1), pp.1-12. 

Azarian, T.*, Martinez, P.P.*, Arnold, B.J., Qiu, X., Grant, L.R., Corander, J., Fraser, C., Croucher, N.J., Hammitt, L.L., Reid, R. and Santosham, M., 2020. Frequency-dependent selection can forecast evolution in Streptococcus pneumoniae. PLoS biology, 18(10), p.e3000878.

Mahmud, A.S., Martinez, P.P., He, J. and Baker, R.E., 2020. The Impact of Climate Change on Vaccine-Preventable Diseases: Insights From Current Research and New Directions. Current environmental health reports, pp.1-8

Martinez, P.P.*, Mahmud A.S.*, Yunus, M., Faruque, A.S.G., Ahmed T., Pascual, M., Buckee, C.O., 2019. Tube Well Use as Protection Against Rotavirus Infection During the Monsoons in an Urban Setting, The Journal of Infectious Diseases, jiz436.

Martinez, P.P., King, A.A., Yunus, M., Faruque, A.S.G., Pascual, M., 2016. Differential and enhanced response to climate forcing in diarrheal disease due to rotavirus across a megacity of the developing world. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(15), pp.4092-4097.

Recent Publications

Mahmud, A. S., Bhattacharjee, J., Baker, R. E., & Martinez, P. P. (2024). Alarming trends in dengue incidence and mortality in Bangladesh. The Journal of infectious diseases, 229(1), 4-6. Article jiad529. https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiad529

Larsen, S. L., Shin, I., Joseph, J., West, H., Anorga, R., Mena, G. E., Mahmud, A. S., & Martinez, P. P. (2023). Quantifying the impact of SARS-CoV-2 temporal vaccination trends and disparities on disease control. Science Advances, 9(31), Article eadh9920. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adh9920

Mahmud, A. S., Martinez, P. P., & Baker, R. E. (2023). The impact of current and future climates on spatiotemporal dynamics of influenza in a tropical setting. PNAS Nexus, 2(9), Article pgad307. https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad307

Ke, R., Martinez, P. P., Smith, R. L., Gibson, L. L., Mirza, A., Conte, M., Gallagher, N., Luo, C. H., Jarrett, J., Zhou, R., Conte, A., Liu, T., Farjo, M., Walden, K. K. O., Rendon, G., Fields, C. J., Wang, L., Fredrickson, R., Edmonson, D. C., ... Brooke, C. B. (2022). Daily longitudinal sampling of SARS-CoV-2 infection reveals substantial heterogeneity in infectiousness. Nature Microbiology, 7(5), 640-652. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.12.21260208, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-022-01105-z

Ke, R., Martinez, P. P., Smith, R. L., Gibson, L. L., Achenbach, C. J., McFall, S., Qi, C., Jacob, J., Dembele, E., Bundy, C., Simons, L. M., Ozer, E. A., Hultquist, J. F., Lorenzo-Redondo, R., Opdycke, A. K., Hawkins, C., Murphy, R. L., Mirza, A., Conte, M., ... Brooke, C. B. (2022). Longitudinal Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Breakthrough Infections Reveals Limited Infectious Virus Shedding and Restricted Tissue Distribution. Open Forum Infectious Diseases, 9(7), Article ofac192. https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofac192

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