Dr. Natalia Niño-Machado

Principal Investigator

Dr. Niño-Machado is an anthropologist and a scholar in Science and Technology Studies. Her research examines the social and cultural factors shaping infectious diseases, nutrition, and maternal and child health in the Latin American context. She also investigates the use of data science and software development in global infectious disease analysis and response, focusing on sociotechnical and ethnographic perspectives. In addition, Dr. Niño-Machado has experience developing gender-responsive research approaches in health. She has conducted extensive research with and about a wide range of stakeholders—including scientific experts, policymakers, practitioners, and civil society leaders—to explore how collaboration, knowledge exchange, and coordinated action occur in everyday practice.

Dr. Mauricio Santos Vega

Principal Investigator

Dr Santos-Vega is a quantitative epidemiologist with  experience in using complex datasets to understand the role of climate  on health outcomes, specifically disease transmission. His research focuses on several key areas: examining the effects of climate on infectious diseases and investigating how climatic variations influence their spread and severity; studying the interactions between climatic, demographic, and behavioral factors in the dynamics of vector-borne diseases to analyze their impact  on transmission and control; understanding the evolutionary patterns of pathogens resulting from eco epidemiological changes by exploring how environmental and ecological alterations affect pathogen evolution; and developing software tools that combine artificial intelligence, big data, and mathematical  models to enhance understanding and decision-making in the context of health and climate. Dr. Santos Vega addresses these questions by integrating big data, mathematical and statistical models, qualitative  research, and software development tools. His work has been funded by agencies such as the Wellcome Trust, NSF, NIH, the Gates Foundation, and IDRC.

Anamaria Paez Capador

Research Assistant

Anamaria is a biologist and microbiologist with an interest in infectious disease ecology and different ecological processes across scales, including biodiversity conservation and One Health. She is a second-year master’s student in Computational Biology, with a focus on mathematical and computational modeling to explore ecological and epidemiological dynamics of tropical infectious diseases such as malaria, dengue, and Chagas disease. Her research experience includes chemical, molecular, and microbial ecology.