RSTMH Hemingway Award 2021 Lecture: Dr Maria Eugenia Grillet
In this free webinar, Dr Maria Eugenia Grillet presented her 2021 Hemingway Award talk. After being introduced by her nominator, Professor Alicia Ponte-Sucre, Dr Grillet spoke on the subject of Eco-Epidemiology of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases in Venezuela: Unravelling Mechanisms and Processes of Pathogen Transmission in the Neotropics.
The Hemingway Award is a joint honour from RSTMH and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), who jointly delivered the webinar. The award recognises Professor Janet Hemingway’s achievements in advancing and encouraging translational science during her leadership at LSTM.
Dr Grillet, a professor and principal investigator at the Instituto de Zoología y Ecología Tropical at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, discussed how Onchocerca volvulus–Simulium interactions have shaped the population dynamics of onchocerciasis infections and contributed to the epidemiological patterns of this disease in Latin America. She also examined how local adaptation of parasite–vector complexes has influenced the feasibility and success of eliminating the parasite reservoir in different foci in the region, particularly in Venezuela.
Regarding malaria, Dr Grillet described how the spatial and temporal epidemiology of the disease in Venezuela over the past 25 years enabled researchers to disentangle the effects of local and global spatial variation on infection, as well as the role of local and regional climate factors on long-term malaria dynamics. She also highlighted how land cover changes caused by mining activity in the Venezuelan Amazonian forests contributed to the upsurge and re-emergence of malaria, with ongoing spillover of cases across Latin America.
Finally, Dr Grillet assessed the impact of Venezuela’s health crisis on mosquito-borne infectious diseases (MBIDs), explaining how it reshaped the country’s epidemiological landscape. She positioned Venezuela as both the current epicentre of malaria in the region and one of the few countries currently reporting yellow fever outbreaks in the Americas.
It is an honour be the recipient of the 2021 Hemingway Award. I am grateful to the two sponsoring institutions, RSTMH and LSTM, institutions that I greatly admire, and the academic home of some of my research colleagues.
My research has always moved across disciplines and methodologies and looked to inform effective public health policies to control and eliminate of vector-borne infectious diseases such as malaria and onchocerciasis.
Dr Maria Eugenia Grillet studied biology at the Universidad Central de Venezuela (Venezuela) where she also got a Ph.D. in Ecology and started to do research on tropical insect vector ecology and mosquito-borne infectious diseases ecology. She did Postdoctoral studies in Canada (Montreal University) and currently she is a Full Professor at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, Venezuela.
Her research mainly focuses on understanding how pathogen–vector interactions shape epidemiological patterns, and how entomological, pathogen-related, sociological and ecological factors drive the emergence and/or reemergence of some tropical insect-borne infectious diseases such as malaria, some arboviruses, and onchocerciasis. She works in the framework of the landscape ecology and epidemiology disciplines by using a multidisciplinary approach involving field- and laboratory-based studies as well as statistical/mathematical modeling.
With more than 12 years of public health experience, she has been part of several technical or expert (steering) international and national committees for the WHO, PAHO, Carter Center, Task for Global Health and OEPA in the field of medical entomology and vector control. In 2005, she was a visiting scholar of the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, at the Imperial College (United Kingdom) thanks to a Royal Society Short Incoming Visit Award. Since then, she has been a visiting scholar in several Universities such as the University of Toronto, University of Groningen (Netherlands) and University of Ottawa, among others. Currently, she is a member of the Venezuelan Academy of Natural, Physical and Mathematical Sciences and the Latin American Academy of Sciences.
Dr Grillet was nominated by Professor Alicia Ponte-Sucre, who gave the introduction to the webinar. During her remarks, Professor Ponte-Sucre spoke about María Eugenia Grillet’s research on the ecology of vector-borne infectious diseases, describing it as a solid and widely recognised body of work. She noted that Dr Grillet’s findings have contributed to understanding how and why stable pathogen–host relationships exist, and how disrupting these interactions can help minimise the impact of disease.
Professor Ponte-Sucre also highlighted Dr Grillet’s tenacity and dedication to producing translational science, despite the challenges posed by the environment and broader crisis in Venezuela. She emphasised how this perseverance has enabled Dr Grillet to advance her research and sustain high-quality collaborations with both Venezuelan and international scientists.
Full Professor and Head of the Molecular Physiology Laboratory of the UCV School of Medicine. She has occupied diverse academic positions at the UCV: Chair of Human Physiology, Director of the Physiological Sciences PhD program, Research Coordinator of the Faculty of Medicine, as well as Professor of PhD Courses in Physiological Sciences and Pharmacology. She is member of the Board of Directors of the Venezuelan Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Vice President of the Fundadiagnóstica University Foundation. She is a Correspondent Member of the Venezuelan Academy of Natural, Physical and Mathematical Sciences. Her research focuses on the molecular mechanisms that allow microorganisms to develop resistance against drugs. Since 1995 she has participated in research projects at the University of Würzburg (Germany), on drug resistance and development of drugs against tropical diseases. Her findings have been the subject of numerous international scientific publications, she acts as a reviewer for many international scientific journals, and is editor of books for drug resistance specialists. Dr. Ponte-Sucre enjoys important international relations, mainly with Germany and Great Britain, but also with Canada, India, Australia, France, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, etc.
