Marta Nunes is the director of the Center of Excellence in Respiratory Pathogens (CERP) in Lyon, France, since September 2022, she is a professor at the Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 and a visiting professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. She did her PhD thesis work at the Weill Medical College of the Cornell University in New York, USA. Her post-doctoral training was at the Parasitology Department of the Institut Pasteur in Paris. In 2009 she moved to South Africa where the focus of her research was on reducing under-5 childhood morbidity and mortality from leading causes of death, including the evaluation of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines in settings with high HIV burden, and describing the clinical and molecular epidemiology of respiratory viral associated pneumonias. To approach the problem of infant morbidity and mortality related to infections she explored the potential of vaccination during pregnancy to protect the women and their babies against infections. Moreover, Marta led large hospital-based surveillance projects on Covid-19, influenza, respiratory syncytial virus and pertussis; and Covid-19 vaccine effectiveness studies. At the CERP they current develop evidence generating research to support decision making related to respiratory pathogens.