“By integrating diverse data sources, we can reconstruct not only where outbreaks are happening but also how they evolve and spread between communities,” explained Rodríguez-Barraquer. “This gives us a powerful tool to design better interventions that can actually stop transmission in its tracks.” This project has gained momentum through funding from the UC Noyce Initiative, which has enabled the recruitment of Paula Weidemüller, a postdoctoral fellow from the University of Cambridge and the European Bioinformatics Institute. Together, the team is refining new models that will revolutionize outbreak forecasting. Real-World Impact: From Dengue to COVID and Beyond The potential of this research goes far beyond theory—it has direct, life-saving applications. The ability to predict how an outbreak will unfold may allow public health officials to allocate resources more effectively, by implementing targeted data-driven interventions. The current project work builds on a recent study currently under review, “MASCOT-Skyline,” by Müller, which enhances phylogeographic reconstructions—a technique that tracks how diseases spread between different locations. By modeling outbreaks as a non-parametric function, her approach allows for seamless integration of genomic, seroprevalence, wastewater, and PCR data, making disease modeling more sophisticated than ever before.
Leading the Fight Against Future Pandemics Beyond her own research, Rodríguez-Barraquer is playing a key leadership role in pandemic preparedness. She is a co-leader of the newly established California Center for Outbreak Readiness (C-CORE), a joint initiative between UC Berkeley, Kaiser Permanente Southern California, and the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), C-CORE aims to develop advanced modeling methods to prepare for future pandemics. She also co-directs the Experimental and Population Based Pathogen Investigation Center (EPPIcenter) at UCSF, an interdisciplinary research and training program in infectious diseases. “Infectious diseases are not just a problem of the past or of the developing world,” Rodríguez-Barraquer. “They are a global challenge, and our ability to track and predict outbreaks in real-time will be crucial in preventing the next pandemic before it even starts.”
Stock image: Flu COVID-19 virus cell
Prestigious Recognition For her groundbreaking work, Rodríguez-Barraquer was selected as a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub investigator in 2022 and honored with the 2024 Teri Liegler Young Scientist Award, prestigious recognitions of her contributions to computational epidemiology and infectious disease modeling. Her research is not only expanding the frontiers of science but also helping public health leaders make data-driven decisions that could save millions of lives. The Importance of Prediction With new viruses emerging at an alarming rate and old ones finding new footholds, Rodríguez-Barraquer and Müller’s work has never been more critical. By combining computational power with public health data, she is bringing us closer to a world where disease outbreaks no longer catch us by surprise. As she and her UCNI-funded project push the boundaries of epidemic forecasting, one thing is clear: the future of infectious disease surveillance is not just about reacting to outbreaks—it’s about predicting and stopping them before they begin. ◆
64 Impact Report 2023 - 24 | UC NI
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