Pamela Martinez

My scientific interest lies at the intersection of biological and epidemiological mechanisms that govern the population dynamics of infectious diseases. My group uses mathematical and statistical approaches to investigate the effects of pathogen diversity, host heterogeneity, and environmental factors on the transmission and control of human pathogens. We are particularly interested in the following aims:

• Understand the emergence and maintenance of pathogen diversity and its impacts on disease control. We especially focus on how reassortment and immune responses affect rotavirus dynamics in endemic settings and interfere with public health interventions.
• Disentangle the effects of sociodemographic factors on viral disease transmission. By examining how age, race/ethnicity, income, and/or past exposures impact the transmission of different pathogens, we can better understand how population heterogeneity influences disease dynamics.
• Understand within-host dynamics of viral infections and their implications for disease transmission and severity. We aim to characterize individual-level heterogeneity in infectiousness across different respiratory infections to further investigate viral shedding and clearance dynamics.
• Quantify the impact of temperature and specific humidity on the seasonality and long-term dynamics of acute infections. By fitting long time series of disease incidence to mechanistic models of transmission, we can measure the interannual effect of environmental drivers on the seasonality of climate-sensitive diseases.