Marina is a physician from Spain pursuing a PhD in Children’s Health Sciences at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada. She completed my MBBS in 2020, and worked as a general practitioner during the COVID-19 pandemic. This experience deepened my commitment to vaccine-preventable respiratory infections, specially in pediatric populations.
Her doctoral research, funded by the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation, focuses on the burden of RSV in children and the implementation of impactful prevention programs. Based at BC Children’s Hospital, she works with interdisciplinary teams across UBC, including the Vaccine Evaluation Center and the BC Centre for Disease Control, combining epidemiological analysis, immunological research, and public health implementation sciences.
During this time, Marina led real-time RSV surveillance in British Columbia, identifying an age shift and increase in hospitalizations during the 2021–2023 seasons. My findings have informed local public health responses and were published in Lancet Regional Health – Americas. Through a retrospective, population-based cohort, she utilized a novel, agnostic approach to identify children with chronic conditions at ongoing high risk for RSV in their second season. This work led to updated provincial guidelines, and our publication in JAMA Network Open aims to support similar changes globally.
Marina presented at the 13th RSV Symposium (Brazil) and other international meetings (PAS, CIC, ESPID), she received the Dr. Bernard Duval Vaccinology Award, PAS Top Abstract, and BCCHR Outstanding Achievement Award and collaborated in several studies on respiratory virus epidemiology and immunology, published in JID, JPIDS, Vaccines...
As she completes her PhD and prepare to begin pediatric training at CHUV (Switzerland) in 2026, she remains committed to engage in research to prevent severe respiratory infections in early life and to contribute to the international community of researchers and clinicians devoted to respiratory viruses.