Rate My Professor Marcela Pasetti

Marcela F. Pasetti, PhD, is a Professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, holding a primary appointment in the Department of Pediatrics and a secondary appointment in Microbiology and Immunology. She is the Chief of the Applied Immunology Section at the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health, where she directs a basic research program. This program develops, refines, standardizes, and validates immunological methods for assessing immune responses to infection and vaccination. Pasetti conducts immunological assays under quality programs to evaluate vaccine-induced responses in human clinical studies. Her tenure at the University of Maryland School of Medicine began with a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Vaccine Development from 1996 to 2001.

Pasetti earned her PhD in Immunology from the University of Buenos Aires in 1994, preceded by an orientation in Microbiology and Immunology at the same institution in 1990. She also completed a Diplome d’Immunologie Générale at the Institut Pasteur from 1994 to 1995. Her research specializes in vaccines and immunology, examining protective immunity mechanisms in animal models and humans post-infection or vaccination. Key focuses include pediatric vaccines, neonatal and infant immunology, maternal immunization, novel vaccine strategies, antigen delivery systems, adjuvants, and regimens against pediatric pathogens. She studies maternal immunity's impact on infant responses, vaccine combinations' effects on health, and candidates like live attenuated Salmonella and Shigella, protein subunits, and polysaccharide conjugates. Ongoing work features a broadly protective vaccine against Salmonella, Shigella, and Yersinia via Type III secretion proteins; shigellosis protection in infants; Shigella serological assays; immune enteroid models for mucosal immunity; and pertussis IgG mechanisms. Notable publications encompass 'Serological monitoring is key to sustain progress of the maternal and neonatal tetanus elimination initiative' (Clinical and Vaccine Immunology, 2016), 'Maternal immunisation with trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine for prevention of influenza in infants in Mali: a prospective, active-controlled, observer-blind, randomised phase 4 trial' (The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 2016), 'Safety and immunogenicity of a Vi polysaccharide-tetanus toxoid conjugate vaccine (Typbar-TCV) in healthy infants, children, and adults' (Clinical Infectious Diseases, 2015), 'Intradermal delivery of Shigella IpaB and IpaD Type III secretion proteins: kinetics of cell recruitment and antigen uptake, mucosal and systemic immunity and protection across serotypes' (Journal of Immunology, 2014), and 'Evaluation of immunogenicity and protective efficacy of orally delivered Shigella type III secretion system proteins IpaB and IpaD' (Vaccine, 2013). In 2022, Pasetti was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. Her scholarship has exceeded 8,800 citations.