Raquel Martins Lana is a Beatriu de Pinós Postdoctoral Fellow in the Global Health Resilience (GHR) group led by Prof. Rachel Lowe. Raquel's background is in quantitative epidemiology. She investigates the relationship between climate, environment, health, and socio-economic factors in the emergence, transmission and spread of infectious diseases. She works in HARMONIZE and Mosqlimate projects at BSC, and collaborates in SinBiose, Infodengue, Infogripe, and Syphilis in indigenous population from Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) in Brazil.

Raquel obtained a PhD in Epidemiology in Public Health at the National School of Public Health in 2017 (ENSP/Fiocruz-RJ, Brazil). Her thesis combined global and local epidemiological studies to understand malaria's geographical retraction and maintenance and the introduction and spread of dengue in the Brazilian Amazon Basin. During the PhD, She won a CNPq scholarship to spend six months at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (UK). Her thesis was awarded the 2017 Oswaldo Cruz Thesis Award. 

She was a postdoctoral researcher in the Scientific Computing Program (PROCC/Fiocruz-RJ, Brazil) and a visiting researcher at the Center for Integration of Data and Knowledge for Health (CIDACS/Fiocruz-Bahia, Brazil) from September 2018 to February 2022. During this period, Raquel researched malaria transmission heterogeneity throughout Brazil, collaborating on developing a malaria transmission model to measure the impact of tafenoquine implementation in Brazil. She visited the Pasteur Institute (Paris) to develop the transmission model with leading experts in the field. Also, she worked on the Infodengue alert system, improving the dengue epidemiological profile classification and developing weather-driven mathematical models for Aedes aegypti population dynamics and dynamic transmission models for dengue. Dr. Lana served as an adviser to the Brazilian government in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil, working in Infogripe. 

Raquel also worked as a lecturer at the Department of Public Health at the University of Brasília (2018) and in the Post-graduate Epidemiology in Public Health program from the National School of Public Health, Fiocruz (2019-2021). Since 2019, She has co-supervised master and PhD students from Fiocruz and the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil. 

 

 

 

Posdoctoral researcher, Scientific Computing Science (PROCC), Infogripe group, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Nov 2020 – Feb 2022)
I was a postdoctoral researcher in the Infogripe alert system project specifically in a sub project entitled “Development of analytical methods in epidemiological surveillance to assess patterns of transmission dynamics and mitigation strategies of COVID-19 in Brazilª funding by INOVA covid-19 Geração de conhecimento, coordinated by Dr Leonardo Soares Bastos (PROCC/Fiocruz) and Dr Marcelo F. C. Gomes (PROCC/Fiocruz). The Infogripe project is a commissioned project by the
Ministry of Health. The goal is to develop analytical methods to improve the surveillance of acute respiratory syndromes in Brazil. Currently, the focus is to provide fast analytical knowledge to inform COVID-19 mitigation strategies. Since March 2020, our group developed a collection of reports (5), articles (8), book chapter (2) and outreach material in response to this public health emergency. Particularly, I have worked on the characterization of the populations at risk during the introduction phase, and later, contributed to the identification of priority groups for vaccination. I also assessed the synchronicity of the epidemic in different settings, first in the Rio de Janeiro state, and later, in the whole of Brazil. I continue the collaboration with the group as a researcher and co-supervising a master student (Lea de Freitas).

Visiting researcher (CIDACS), Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Jul 2021 – Mar 2022)
As a visiting researcher in the project “Improvement of the indigenous health care subsystem, through the development of technical studies, scientific research, and strategic actions, essential for the diversification, expansion, and quality of health services provided to indigenous”, I have been worked on the development of a model for the calculation of risk factors for syphilis using a national health database linked to socioeconomic data and contributing to the conception of an estimation of subnotification method (manuscript in preparation) and also a quality evaluation of the data. The project is funded by Programa INOVA Fiocruz and Chamada para submissão de propostas Nº 1/2021 - Saúde Indígena Encomendas Estratégicas, coordinated by Dr Andrey Moreira Cardoso (ENSP/Fiocruz).

 

Researcher in SESYNC, USA (Ago 2018 – Ago 2020)
I was a researcher in the project “Synergistic interactions of environmental degradation, socio-economic development and infectious disease dynamics in the Amazon region” that investigated the mechanistic linkages between land-use changes, socioeconomic conditions, human decision-making, and infectious diseases in frontier regions of the Amazon. The project was funded by National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC), University of Maryland, and coordinated by Dr Mercedes Pascual (University of Chicago) and Dr Andrés Baeza (Arizona State University). I contributed to the consolidation of a set of secondary databases, several debates and contextualization of the Amazon situation, studies design conception, analysis, and papers.

Posdoctoral researcher, Scientific Computing Science (PROCC), Infodengue group, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Sep 2019 – Oct 2020)
As a postdoctoral researcher in the project “Actions to strengthen integrated surveillance of arboviruses” funding by Brazilian Ministry of Health and Fiocruz 2019 INOVA coordinated by Cláudia Torres Codeço (PROCC/Fiocruz), I conducted a literature review of introduction and spreading of chikungunya in Brazil and analyzed the incidence data using descriptive methods. As a part of the project, I also co-supervised a MSc. project developing a methodology for classifying arbovirus transmission profiles and a Ph.D. project developing a climate-driven mathematical transmission model for dengue. I continue to collaborate with the group as a researcher, co-supervising 3 PhD students and in the context of HARMONIZE project.

 

 

 

Distancing Learning (2010–2021):
• Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (2021):
  Training course for the general population with a focus on health managers, entitled “InfoDengue e Infogripe: Vigilância de doenças transmissíveis”. The course provides training in methodologies for analyzing the situation of transmission of        arboviruses and Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) used in the Infodengue and Infogripe alert systems.
  Contribution: organization and content.

 

Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP), Ouro Preto, MG, Brazil (2010–2011)
• Graduation in Pedagogy (2011).
  Supervisor of ten undergrad final projects in environmental education theme.
  Undergrad level.

 

• Sustainable Schools course (2010).
  Instructor.
  Undergrad and graduate level.

 

Environmental Education (2010):
Populations affected by mining, Environmental Attitude Program, VALE, Itabira, MG.
Course for the general public between 12 to 19 years old.
Contribution: teaching and instructional material elaboration.