Joaquín Martínez Martínez

I am a biological oceanographer and virus ecologist. My research centers on aquatic host-virus ecology and how viral infection, directly and indirectly, influences interactions between other marine organisms and the environment. Viruses are the most abundant biological agents on Earth and one of the largest reservoirs of unexplored genetic diversity, making them an important source for fundamental discoveries in environmental, molecular, and cell biology with potential applications for biotechnology and bioremediation. All forms of life are susceptible to viruses, and the impact of viral infection goes beyond host disease or mortality alone. Viruses are lubricants of healthy functioning ecosystems. The metabolic rewiring of individual infected host cells leads to significant changes in the host's physiology and chemical profile that cascade through the ecosystem, including changes in population and community dynamics, primary and secondary production, trophic transfer through planktonic food webs, biogeochemical cycling, and evolution.

My research portfolio connects to all those aspects of marine ecology and biological oceanography. Current projects in my laboratory include harmful algal bloom dynamics, determining the mechanisms and consequences of viral infection in phytoplankton across a continuum between pathogenicity and symbiosis, investigating virus-virus interactions, and quantifying the direct contribution of virus particles ingestion (virovory) to sustaining protist populations and the transfer of nutrients and energy in microbial food web across temporal and spatial scales.

I employ a multidisciplinary approach in my laboratory and field research, including microbiology, flow cytometry, molecular biology, and large-data bioinformatic methods.