Gina Cuomo-Dannenburg Post-doc

  • gcuomodannenburg@schmidtsciencefellows.org

Biographical sketch

Gina completed an integrated master’s degree in Mathematics (MMath) at Durham University, UK (2013-2017), specialising in dynamical systems and mathematical biology. She then pursued a PhD at Imperial College London (2018-2024) under the supervision of Dr Lucy Okell, focusing on the impact of antimalarial drug resistance on seasonal malaria chemoprevention. During her PhD, she collaborated closely with the Malaria Consortium and the National Malaria Elimination Division of Uganda, applying models of malaria transmission dynamics to address policy-relevant questions on the implementation of seasonal malaria chemoprevention across East and Southern Africa, with a particular focus on Uganda. Her work integrated techniques from infectious disease modelling, including stochastic transmission models and Bayesian methods to estimate parameters from clinical trials, to predict the potential impact of interventions and optimise public health strategies.

Following her PhD, Gina undertook a postdoctoral position with Dr Bob Verity, working with collaborators at Brown University, the University of California San Francisco, and the University of North Carolina. This research aimed to map the spread of kelch13 mutations in Africa, which play a key role in resistance to first-line malaria treatments globally.

Between 2020 and 2022, Gina took an interruption of studies to join the Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team as a researcher. Her work involved cleaning and integrating large data sources to support real-time pandemic analyses worldwide. She contributed to a systematic review on the severity and transmissibility of COVID-19 in children, applied novel methods to estimate the reproduction number and quantify the impact of quarantine, and assessed the effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions in Japan, South Korea, and other global settings. Gina also contributed to broader pandemic preparedness initiatives, particularly through the Pathogen Epidemiology Review Group. This was an effort to collate epidemiological parameters, serology data, historical outbreaks, and mathematical models of WHO Blueprint Priority Pathogens, in collaboration with the WHO Collaboratory. She led the first systematic review characterising Marburg virus disease, which was circulated by the WHO, the UK FCDO, and other public health organisations to inform outbreak responses in Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea, and Rwanda (2023–2024).

In 2025, Gina was selected as one of 32 early-career researchers worldwide to receive the prestigious Schmidt Science Fellowship. The program identifies emerging scientific leaders and supports them in pivoting to a new discipline through an independent research placement, alongside mentoring and leadership training. For her fellowship, Gina is transitioning from epidemiology to genetics and genomics, undertaking her research placement under the supervision of Professor Philippe Lemey (Rega Institute, KU Leuven) and Professor Simon Dellicour (SpELL, Université Libre de Bruxelles). Her fellowship project explores how changing weather patterns and extreme events such as floods and droughts influence mosquito-borne diseases, including West Nile virus and dengue. By linking viral genetic data from past outbreaks with environmental information, Gina aims to understand how climate variability shapes pathogen evolution and whether extreme events are associated with the emergence of more virulent strains.

Publications

Impact of dhps mutations on sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine protective efficacy and implications for malaria chemoprevention
A. Mousa, G. Cuomo-Dannenburg, H. A. Thompson, D. J. Bell, U. D’Alessandro, R. Gosling, A. Nahum, K. I. Barnes, J. Raman, L. Workmann, Y. S. Foo, J. A. Flegg, E. F. Hocke, H. Hansson, A. Chopo-Pizarro, K. B. Beshir, M. Alifrangis, R. M. Chico, C. J. Sutherland, L. C. Okell, and C. Roper. "Nature Communications", Vol. 16, Issue 1, Pages 4268, 2025.

Marburg virus disease outbreaks, mathematical models, and disease parameters: a systematic review
G. Cuomo-Dannenburg, K. McCain, R. McCabe, H. J. T. Unwin, P. Doohan, R. K. Nash, J. T. Hicks, K. Charniga, C. Geismar, and B. Lambert. "The Lancet Infectious Diseases", Vol. 24, Issue 5, Pages e307-e317, 2024.

Lassa fever outbreaks, mathematical models, and disease parameters: a systematic review and meta-analysis
P. Doohan, D. Jorgensen, T. M. Naidoo, K. McCain, J. T. Hicks, R. McCabe, S. Bhatia, K. Charniga, G. Cuomo-Dannenburg, and A. Hamlet. "The Lancet Global Health", Vol. 12, Issue 12, Pages e1962-e1972, 2024.

Measuring protective efficacy and quantifying the impact of drug resistance: A novel malaria chemoprevention trial design and methodology
A. Mousa, G. Cuomo-Dannenburg, H. A. Thompson, R. M. Chico, K. B. Beshir, C. J. Sutherland, D. Schellenberg, R. Gosling, M. Alifrangis, and E. F. Hocke. "PLoS Medicine", Vol. 21, Issue 5, Pages e1004376, 2024.

Ebola virus disease mathematical models and epidemiological parameters: a systematic review
R. K. Nash, S. Bhatia, C. Morgenstern, P. Doohan, D. Jorgensen, K. McCain, R. McCabe, D. Nikitin, G. Cuomo-Dannenburg, and J. T. Hicks. "The Lancet Infectious Diseases", Vol. 24, Issue 12, Pages e762-e773, 2024.

Seasonal dynamics of Anopheles stephensi and its implications for mosquito detection and emergent malaria control in the Horn of Africa
C. Whittaker, A. Hamlet, E. Sherrard-Smith, P. Winskill, G. Cuomo-Dannenburg, P. G. Walker, M. Sinka, S. Pironon, A. Kumar, and A. Ghani. "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA", Vol. 120, Issue 8, Pages e2216142120, 2023.

COVID-19 in Japan, January–March 2020: insights from the first three months of the epidemic
N. Imai, K. A. Gaythorpe, S. Bhatia, T. D. Mangal, G. Cuomo-Dannenburg, H. J. T. Unwin, E. Jauneikaite, and N. M. Ferguson. "BMC Infectious Diseases", Vol. 22, Issue 1, Pages 493, 2022.

Leveraging community mortality indicators to infer COVID-19 mortality and transmission dynamics in Damascus, Syria
O. J. Watson, M. Alhaffar, Z. Mehchy, C. Whittaker, Z. Akil, N. F. Brazeau, G. Cuomo-Dannenburg, A. Hamlet, H. A. Thompson, and M. Baguelin. "Nature Communications", Vol. 12, Issue 1, Pages 2394, 2021.

Estimating the number of undetected COVID-19 cases among travellers from mainland China
S. Bhatia, N. Imai, G. Cuomo-Dannenburg, M. Baguelin, A. Boonyasiri, A. Cori, Z. Cucunubá, I. Dorigatti, R. FitzJohn, and H. Fu. "Wellcome Open Research", Vol. 5, Pages 143, 2021.

Children’s role in the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review of early surveillance data on susceptibility, severity, and transmissibility
K. A. Gaythorpe, S. Bhatia, T. Mangal, H. J. T. Unwin, N. Imai, G. Cuomo-Dannenburg, C. E. Walters, E. Jauneikaite, H. Bayley, and M. D. Kont. "Scientific Reports", Vol. 11, Issue 1, Pages 13903, 2021.

The impact of COVID-19 and strategies for mitigation and suppression in low- and middle-income countries
P. G. T. Walker, C. Whittaker, O. J. Watson, M. Baguelin, P. Winskill, A. Hamlet, B. A. Djafaara, Z. Cucunubá, D. Olivera Mesa, W. Green, H. Thompson, S. Nayagam, K. E. C. Ainslie, S. Bhatia, S. Bhatt, A. Boonyasiri, O. Boyd, N. F. Brazeau, L. Cattarino, G. Cuomo-Dannenburg, A. Dighe, C. A. Donnelly, I. Dorigatti, S. L. van Elsland, R. FitzJohn, H. Fu, K. A. M. Gaythorpe, L. Geidelberg, N. Grassly, D. Haw, S. Hayes, W. Hinsley, N. Imai, D. Jorgensen, E. Knock, D. Laydon, S. Mishra, G. Nedjati-Gilani, L. C. Okell, H. J. Unwin, R. Verity, M. Vollmer, C. E. Walters, H. Wang, Y. Wang, X. Xi, D. G. Lalloo, N. M. Ferguson, and A. C. Ghani. "Science", Vol. 369, Issue 6502, Pages 413-422, 2020.

Response to COVID-19 in South Korea and implications for lifting stringent interventions
A. Dighe, L. Cattarino, G. Cuomo-Dannenburg, J. Skarp, N. Imai, S. Bhatia, K. A. Gaythorpe, K. E. Ainslie, M. Baguelin, and S. Bhatt. "BMC Medicine", Vol. 18, Issue 1, Pages 321, 2020.

Suppression of a SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in the Italian municipality of Vo’
E. Lavezzo, E. Franchin, C. Ciavarella, G. Cuomo-Dannenburg, L. Barzon, C. Del Vecchio, L. Rossi, R. Manganelli, A. Loregian, and N. Navarin. "Nature", Vol. 584, Issue 7821, Pages 425-429, 2020.

Estimates of the severity of coronavirus disease 2019: a model-based analysis
R. Verity, L. C. Okell, I. Dorigatti, P. Winskill, C. Whittaker, N. Imai, G. Cuomo-Dannenburg, H. Thompson, P. G. Walker, and H. Fu. "The Lancet Infectious Diseases", Vol. 20, Issue 6, Pages 669-677, 2020.