The University of Florida Emerging Pathogens Institute has expanded its leadership team with four new members to help bolster the institute’s research resources, international relations, biostatistics efforts and data infrastructure.
“The 21st century is a moment of incredible opportunity for collaboration,” said EPI Interim Director Marco Salemi. “The limitation of science makes science great, and our efforts at the institute aim to propel discovery in a time of uncertainty. Through this growth in our leadership, we will further bridge the gap between covering differences across language, disciplines and professions.”
Mattia Prosperi appointed EPI Chief Research Information Officer
EPI member Mattia Prosperi, Ph.D., joins the leadership team as the EPI Chief Research Information Officer. In this role, he will provide direction and support in implementing the vision and strategic plans to develop the foundation of the EPI’s data infrastructure. This effort will include coordinating with the UF Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research to leverage the newest biotechnologies. In addition, this role will actively engage in opportunities to create pipelines to fund research intelligence and data infrastructure.
Prosperi is a professor and the associate dean for AI and innovation at the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions. His background is in computer engineering, and he worked in bio-health informatics and epidemiology for over 20 years, establishing strong research programs in the European Union and the United States. He contributed to advancing biomedical informatics by developing multidomain, multilevel real-world data integration approaches — fusing socioeconomic, ecological, clinical, -omics data — toward true precision health. Furthermore, he continues to pioneer the field of causal AI to change the future rather than predict its course.
Prosperi aims to enhance UF’s research capacity and infrastructure by strengthening data integration and usability through interactions with the Emerging Pathogens Institute, the College of Public Health and Health Professions and UF Health, among others. He also serves as the editor of the Journal of Healthcare Informatics Research and BMC Artificial Intelligence and is a fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics.
Carla Mavian appointed EPI Associate Director for International Relations and Surveillance
EPI member Carla Mavian, Ph.D., serves as the EPI Associate Director for International Relations and Surveillance. In this role, Mavian aims to strengthen international outreach, research and collaborations on large-scale extramural funding opportunities overseas. She will also develop strategies for integrating pathogen genomics into broader surveillance efforts and create an expert panel to include international collaborators and stakeholders. Mavian plans to engage with the UF International Center as the EPI’s representative to support joint efforts as part of the International Center’s Global Research Engagement (OGRE).
Mavian is an assistant professor in the UF College of Medicine. She has published over 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals, including Nature, EID and PNAS. She has worked with various pathogens, from bacteria like Vibrio cholerae to viruses, such as poxviruses, Zika, dengue, Oropouche, HIV and SARS-CoV-2. Her research investigates the evolution and the population dynamics of zoonotic and emerging pathogens across ecosystems covering several integral areas: detecting climate-driven shifts in transmission zones and host-vector-pathogen equilibrium, enabling rapid risk assessment; understanding host/pathogens transmission dynamics; and decreasing spillover events in rural/peri-urban communities. She conducts field, laboratory and analytic research on infectious diseases worldwide, including Colombia, Ghana, Panama, Thailand, and South Africa.
Mavian is a member of the Evolutionary Biology & Systematics panel for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program, and she serves as a judge for the Young Investigator Award and the scientific virology committee for the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH). She also organizes the NGS module at the international VEME workshop, which brings together students from academia and public health settings.
Jason Blackburn appointed EPI Associate Director for Research Resources
EPI member Jason Blackburn, Ph.D., replaces Maureen Long, D.V.M., as the new EPI Associate Director for Research Resources. In this role, Blackburn will examine, plan and oversee the provision of resources, equipment and services open to EPI members. He will develop and expand long-term strategies for centralizing existing and future EPI research instrumentation and services, including policies and plans to sustain access and usage. Building on more than two decades of training scientists worldwide, he will also create and implement training courses and workshops targeting EPI members.
Blackburn is a professor of geography at the UF College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, specializing in medical geography with an emphasis on zoonotic diseases – diseases that spread from animals to humans (or the other way around). He has been the graduate coordinator for the UF Department of Geography since 2020 and has been a PI at the EPI since joining UF in 2009. Blackburn’s work globally to establish and maintain computer (GIS/Remote Sensing) and biosafety labs has prepared him for this role at the EPI. He has been the PI on nearly 30 projects funded by agencies, such as the NIH, DTRA, and DOE, addressing various topics and modeling disease transmission mechanisms in wildlife, livestock, and human populations.
Blackburn leads the Spatial Epidemiology and Ecology Research Laboratory, which is jointly housed in the EPI and geography department. The SEER Lab houses a GIS/Remote Sensing facility in the geography department. In addition, the lab hosts a full Federal Select Agent BSL-2/BSL-3 operation at the EPI, focused on bacterial pathogens, including an extensive collection of low passage wild strains and the Martin E. Hugh-Jones Bacillus anthracis Collection. The SEER Lab combines pathogen characterization from diagnosis to whole genome sequencing with spatial modeling to better predict outbreak timing, spatial extent, and intensity.
Matt Hitchings appointed EPI Associate Director for Biostatistics Consulting Core
Matt Hitchings, Ph.D., serves as the EPI Associate Director for Biostatistics Consulting Core. In this role, he will evaluate and lead the provision of biostatistical core services to EPI members. This includes, but is not limited to, developing biostatistical support plans, sourcing award funding, and consulting for study support. This role aims to provide members with a crucial resource by allowing them open and fair access to biostatistical support services to further their research efforts.
Hitchings is an assistant professor at the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions. He is a Guest Researcher with the CDC, collaborating with researchers at the CDC Dengue Branch on studies to uncover the drivers of transmission of arboviruses, including dengue, chikungunya and Zika in Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories. In addition, Hitchings serves as a co-investigator on NIH- and CDC-funded grants focused on the development of immunity to SARS-CoV-2, interventions to reduce arbovirus incidence in Brazil and methods to improve surveillance and forecasting of infectious diseases in the U.S.
Hitchings’s research uses serological data, meaning data on antibody responses to pathogens, to understand infectious disease dynamics, evaluate interventions and identify high-risk populations to target disease mitigation efforts more effectively. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Hitchings led studies assessing the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in Brazil using observational study designs and surveillance data, which directly informed the WHO’s guidance regarding vaccine schedules in older individuals. He has published over 40 papers on topics ranging from clinical trial design during outbreaks to household transmission of respiratory viruses to immune response to pathogens.