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Professor of Pediatrics
University of Pittsburgh
Disclosure(s): Merck Sharp and Dhome: Advisor/Consultant
Martin earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and then her MD from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She came to UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh where she completed her training: a pediatric residency, one year as pediatric chief resident, followed by a fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases. She began her career at Children's as an instructor in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, and one year later received a faculty appointment as an Assistant Professor. In 2006 she was promoted to associate professor; in 2013 she transferred from the Division of Infectious Diseases to the Division of General Academic Pediatrics, and in 2018, was promoted to professor of pediatrics.
Martin has been continuously funded since 1998, from sources such as the NIH, CDC, the American Heart Association, and industry groups. Her research investigates common infectious diseases in pediatric populations and the effectiveness of specific vaccines and treatments. She has conducted several longitudinal studies of group A streptococcal infections in school-aged children and is a nationally recognized expert in the management of Streptococcal pharyngitis. Other areas of clinical research studies include: management of acute otitis media, community-acquired pneumonia, urinary tract infections, and sinusitis. Martin has also participated in several surveillance studies of respiratory viral infections as well as numerous vaccine studies. These include recent studies of immunogenicity following influenza vaccination, a meningococcal vaccine in infants, and a monoclonal antibody study in infants. In addition, Martin has been the Director of the General Academic Pediatrics Clinical Trials Unit since 2016, having previously directed the Infectious Disease Clinical Trials Unit in the Division of Infectious Diseases. She leads a group of 6 physicians and over 20 staff members. The long-term goal of this research group is to improve the diagnosis and management of common pediatric infections that result in substantial utilization of health care resources.
In 2020 Martin established the Pittsburgh Vaccine Trials Unit and research registry (PVTU.org) specifically to be able to conduct phase 3 clinical studies of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. The University of Pittsburgh is a subsite of Vanderbilt University as part of the Vaccine Treatment and Evaluation Units (VTEUs). She is currently the site principal investigator of one pediatric and two adult COVID19 vaccine studies as well as one study of booster doses funded through DMID.
Having long held an interest in the safe and ethical conduct of clinical research trials, Martin has held leadership positions in the university and the health system. She became a committee member for the Institutional Review Board at the University of Pittsburgh in 2007. In 2013, she became vice-chair of two full review board committees in the Human Research Protection Office. Recently, she assumed additional duties as the Executive Vice-Chair.