Marco Salemi, Ph.D.
Holloway Professor in Experimental Pathology and Interim Director, Emerging Pathogens Institute
College of Medicine
Marco Salemi is a global leader in molecular epidemiology and the evolution of viral and bacterial pathogens. His research spans over three decades and bridges molecular biology, computational science and public health. He specializes in understanding how infectious diseases emerge and evolve. His research focuses on helping and combating outbreaks by developing cutting-edge tools from artificial intelligence algorithms to advanced phylogenetic models.
Salemi became the interim director of the University of Florida Emerging Pathogens Institute in November 2024. As the institute’s previous associate director for Research Initiatives, he has helped shape the university’s interdisciplinary approach to studying and controlling infectious diseases. He is also a tenured professor of experimental pathology in the College of Medicine’s Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine.
He joined UF in 2004 after postdoctoral work with molecular phylogenetics pioneer Walter M. Fitch at the University of California, Irvine. Salemi earned degrees in chemistry and biotechnology in Italy before completing his Ph.D. in science at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, where he was also a Marie Curie Fellow at the Rega Institute.
Over the past 15 years at UF his research has focused on molecular epidemiology, intra-host viral evolution and using phylogenetic and population genetic methods to study human and simian pathogenic viruses. Recently, Salemi applied the Bayesian coalescent framework to investigate the molecular evolution and phylogeography of emerging bacterial pathogens like MRSA, Shigella and Vibrio cholerae using genome-wide SNPs. His laboratory also developed custom protocols for generating high-throughput sequencing, droplet digital PCR analysis and automated bioinformatics and machine learning pipelines for large dataset analysis.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, his group has monitored SARS-CoV-2 variants in Florida and now sequences hundreds of samples weekly from infected patients in Florida and the Caribbean.
Salemi is an internationally recognized author in microbial evolution and phylogenetic analysis. He has over 230 peer-reviewed publications, including in Nature, Science and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. His research has been exceptionally well-funded, with nearly $11 million from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and private institutions. He currently serves as the principal investigator on six active grants and co-principal investigator on one.
His recent work integrates machine learning and AI to forecast epidemics and understand host-pathogen interactions. It continues to influence public health strategies worldwide.