Enhancing pathogen surveillance approaches

Using modelling and network-based approaches to understand malaria parasite diversity and transmission

A further contribution of my work has been to use modeling, network-based, and population genetic approaches to better understand how malaria parasite diversity and strain structure are shaped by recombination, immune selection, and transmission dynamics. My work has shown that patterns of genetic similarity among P. falciparum parasites can reflect fine-scale transmission dynamics, rather than simply reflecting neutral shared ancestry. More broadly, my research has used population genetic and epidemiological frameworks to interpret variation in parasite diversity in relation to transmission intensity, intervention history, and geographic population structure. This work has contributed to a stronger conceptual basis for understanding when parasite genetic patterns are likely to reflect local persistence, recent transmission, or broader population connectivity. I am now extending this line of work through new network-based approaches that integrate parasite genetic data with transmission modelling, supported by my La Caixa Foundation Junior Leader Fellowship.

Leveraging molecular markers for malaria surveillance

My work has contributed to this area by developing guidance on how to choose molecular markers for different surveillance applications and how to interpret resulting genetic data in operational contexts, addressing a key gap between methodological innovation and real-world use ( Ruybal-Pesántez et al., 2024). I have also helped define analytical workflows that map genetic data through to operationally useful outputs, including through the PGEforge open analysis ecosystem for Plasmodium genomic epidemiology.

Multi-pathogen surveillance

Beyond malaria, my research increasingly focuses on how genomic, serological, and environmental surveillance approaches can be integrated to support broader epidemic intelligence systems. This includes the development and application of sero-epidemiological methods to better understand pathogen exposure histories, population immunity, and transmission heterogeneity across endemic and emerging infectious diseases. I am also interested in how environmental surveillance approaches, including wastewater and metagenomics, can complement traditional case-based surveillance by providing scalable, community-level indicators of pathogen circulation. This involves collaborative projects with colleagues at Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador on wastewater pathogen genomic surveillance and existing links as co-lead of the Infectious Disease Modelling and Analytics for Pandemic Preparedness in Latin America consortium ( IDMAPP-LATAM).

Systematic reviews of vector-borne pathogens

As a member of the Pathogen Epidemiology Review Group, we have been undertaking a series of systematic literature reviews for priority pathogens identified by the WHO as most likely to cause a future epidemic or pandemic. The aim is to create a central standardised database of epidemiological parameters to aid in the design and implementation of modelling, including an open-source R package epireview that hosts these databases with additional functionalities.