Research - Our Team

Marta Ribes is a predoctoral researcher on noma epidemiology at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health. She earned her bachelor’s in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Barcelona, and master's degree in Neuroscience from Sorbonne Université and Global Health from the University of Barcelona. 

In the past, Marta has been involved in several COVID-19 projects, focusing on its epidemiology and immune response under the supervisión of Carlos Chaccour and Gemma Moncunill. Additionally, she participated in the implementation of a clinical trial in Mozambique and Kenya which tested a new vector control tool for malaria.

Since 2022 she has been raising awareness on noma through research and outreach activities. In January 2024, she led a project in Zambezia, Mozambique, which evidenced the presence of noma in the country after decades of neglect. She now devotes herself full-time to noma, and envisions this project as a catalyst for future research and awareness on the disease in Mozambique and beyond.

Main publications

• Ortega N*, Ribes M*, et al, Moncunill G, Dobaño G. Seven-month kinetics of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and protective role of pre-existing antibodies to seasonal human coronaviruses on COVID-19. Nat Commun 12, 4740 (2021). *Equal contribution
• Ribes M, Chaccour C, Moncunill G. Adapt or perish: SARS-CoV-2 antibody escape variants defined by deletions in the Spike N-terminal Domain. Nature Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy (2021). 
• Ribes M, Marín C, Chaccour C, Montañà J, Ramírez O, Briones B, Fanjul G, Pajín L. COVID19 Policy Reports for Recovery in the Eastern Caribbean. Programa de Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo e ISGlobal (2021).
• Moncunill G, Aguilar R, Ribes M, et al, García-Basteiro Al, Dobaño C. Determinants of early antibody responses to COVID-19 mRNA vaccines in exposed and naive healthcare workers (2021). Preprint at: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.08.21263232v1
• Garcia-Basteiro A, Moncunill G, Tortajada M, Vidal M, Guinovart C, Jiménez A, Santano R, Sanz S, Méndez S, Llupià A, Ribes M, et al, Mayor A, Dobaño C. Seroprevalence of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 among Health care workers in a large Spanish reference hospital. Nat Commun 11, 3500 (2020).