Ganna Rozhnova

Dr. Ganna Rozhnova is an Associate Professor in Infectious Disease Modeling at the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands and the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Lisbon in Portugal. She is a group leader at the BioISI—Biosystems & Integrative Sciences Institute in Lisbon. Her research focuses on applying infectious disease modeling to address questions and support evidence-based policymaking in public health. Her mission as a researcher is to contribute to improving people’s health by providing guidance to stakeholders on the implementation of public health measures. She concentrates on highly relevant emerging and established infectious diseases that require massive control efforts and have a large societal impact. Dr. Rozhnova is interested in understanding the emergence, evolution, and spatio-temporal dynamics of infectious diseases on various scales (e.g., host, hospital/school, or population) and evaluating the impact of interventions on disease transmission. Her most recent research aims to explore the prospects of HIV elimination, promising HIV cure strategies, and the (post-)pandemic dynamics of SARS-CoV-2. Other applications include influenza, CMV, and childhood infections. 

Dr Rozhnova is a recipient of highly competitive awards (PhD and postdoctoral fellowships from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, Award "Stimulus for Research" from Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation), institutional excellence programs (Research Career Development Program) and grants (list below). She held official appointments as an invited visiting scientist at the University of California (Santa Barbara, USA), the Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences (Cambridge, UK), the Gladstone Institute of Immunology and Virology (San Francisco, USA), and the MRC Biostatistics Unit (Cambridge, UK). The main funders of her current research are Aidsfonds, FCT, NWO, ZonMw and European Commission. 

Selected recent scientific publications:

• Boldea O, Alipoor A, Pei S, Shaman J, Rozhnova G. Age-specific transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 during the first 2 years of the pandemic. PNAS Nexus 3(2), pgae024 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae024 [OA]
• Rouzine IM, Rozhnova G. Evolutionary implications of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination for the future design of vaccination strategies. Communications Medicine 3(1), 86 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43856-023-00320-x [OA]
• Romijnders K, de Groot L, Vervoort S, Basten M, van Welzen B, Kretzschmar M, Reiss P, Davidovich U, Rozhnova G. The perceived impact of an HIV cure by people living with HIV and key populations vulnerable to HIV in the Netherlands: A qualitative study. Journal of Virus Eradication 8(1), 100066 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jve.2022.100066 [OA]
• Viana J, van Dorp CH, Nunes A, Gomes MC, van Boven M, Kretzschmar ME, Veldhoen M, Rozhnova G. Controlling the pandemic during the SARS-CoV-2 vaccination rollout. Nature Communications 12, 3674 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23938-8 [OA]
• Rozhnova G, van Dorp CH, Bruijning-Verhagen P, Bootsma MCJ, van de Wijgert JHHM, Bonten MJM, Kretzschmar ME. Model-based evaluation of school- and non-school-related measures to control the COVID-19 pandemic. Nature Communications 12, 1614 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21899-6 [OA]
• Teslya A, Pham TM, Godijk NG, Kretzschmar ME, Bootsma MCJ, Rozhnova G. Impact of self-imposed prevention measures and short-term government-imposed social distancing on mitigating and delaying a COVID-19 epidemic: A modelling study. PLoS Medicine 17(7), e1003166 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003166 [OA]
• Rouzine IM, Rozhnova G. Antigenic evolution of viruses in host populations. PLoS Pathogens 14(9), e1007291 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1007291 [OA]