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Judith M. Martin, MD

  • Professor of Pediatrics

Martin earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and her MD from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She completed her training at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, which included a pediatric residency, a year as pediatric chief resident, and a fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases. Martin began her career at UPMC Children’s as an instructor in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, and was promoted to Assistant Professor the following year. In 2006, she advanced to Associate Professor, transitioning to the Division of General Academic Pediatrics in 2013, and became a Professor of Pediatrics in 2018.

Since 1998, Martin has been continuously funded by agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American Heart Association, and industry groups. Her research focuses on common pediatric infectious diseases and evaluating the effectiveness of vaccines and treatments. She is nationally recognized for her expertise in managing streptococcal pharyngitis, having conducted longitudinal studies on group A streptococcal infections in school-aged children. Her clinical research also covers acute otitis media, community-acquired pneumonia, urinary tract infections, sinusitis, respiratory viral infections, and vaccine studies. Recent projects include investigations into influenza vaccine immunogenicity, meningococcal vaccines for infants, and monoclonal antibody treatments in infants.

Since 2016, Martin has directed the General Academic Pediatrics Clinical Trials Unit, following her leadership of the Infectious Disease Clinical Trials Unit. She leads a team of seven physicians and over 20 staff members. Under her leadership, the unit became a sub-site of Vanderbilt University’s Vaccine Treatment and Evaluation Unit (VTEU) in 2019. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Martin’s team enrolled over 800 participants, including children, in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine clinical trials as part of the COVID Prevention Network. She actively participates in studies supported by the Infectious Disease Research Consortium (IDCRC), with a long-term goal of improving the diagnosis and management of common pediatric infections that significantly impact healthcare resources.

Martin has a longstanding commitment to the safe and ethical conduct of clinical research. She joined the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at the University of Pittsburgh in 2007, became vice-chair of a full review board committee in 2013, and recently assumed additional responsibilities as Executive Vice-Chair of the Human Research Protection Office.

Professional and Scientific Society Memberships

  • American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), 1991-Present
  • Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, 1994-Present
  • Infectious Disease Society of America, 1995-Present
  • Pediatric Infectious Disease Society, 1995-Present
  • The Lancefield Society, 1998-Present
  • The Society for Pediatric Research, 2004-Present
  • Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (PRIM&R), 2014-Present

Education & Training

  • AB, Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania, 1987
  • MD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1991
  • Residency in Pediatrics, UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, 1991-1994
  • Chief Pediatrics Resident, UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, 1994-1995
  • Fellowship in Pediatric Infectious Diseases, UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, 1995-1998
  • Certificate in Clinical Research, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Graduate School of Public Health, 2002

Selected Publications

Martin JM, Hoberman A, Barbadora KA, Shaikh N, Bhatnagar S, Shope T, Block SL, Haralam MA, Kurs-Lasky M, Green M.  Changes Over Time in Nasopharyngeal Colonization in Children under 2 Years of Age at the Time of Diagnosis of Acute Otitis Media (1999-2014). Open Forum Infect Dis. 2018 Feb 17;5(3):ofy036. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofy036. eCollection 2018 Mar.PMID:29588912

Martin JM, Avula R, Nowalk MP, Lin C, Horne WT, Chandran UR, Nagg JP, Zimmerman RK, Cole KS, Alcorn JF. Inflammatory Mediator Expression Associated with Antibody Response Induced by Live Attenuated Inactivated versus Inactivated Influenza Virus Vaccine in Children. Open Forum Infectious Diseases, Volume 5, Issue 11, 1 November 2018, ofy277, doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofy277.

Martin JM, Simonian A, Muniz G, Green M, Shaikh N. Comparison of Bacterial Culture Results Obtained from Nasopharyngeal and Mid-turbinate Swabs in Children with Upper Respiratory Tract Infection Symptoms. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2018 Nov;37(11) e275-7. doi: 10.1097/INF.0000000000002027

Shaikh N, Martin JM, Hoberman A, Skae M, Milkovich L, Nowalk A, McElheny C, Hickey RW, Kearney D, Majd M, Shalaby-Rana E, Tseng G, Alcorn JF, Kolls J, Kurs-Lasky M, Huo Z, Horne W, Lockhart G, Pohl H, Shope TR. Host and Bacterial Markers that Differ in Children with Cystitis and Pyelonephritis. J Pediatr. 2019 Mar 21. pii: S0022-3476(19)30027-7. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2019.01.012

Lopez SMC, Martin JM, Johnson M, Kurs-Lasky M, Horne WT, Marshall CW, Cooper VS, Williams JV, Shaikh N. A method of processing nasopharyngeal swabs to enable multiple testing. Pediatr Res. 2019 Jul 9. doi: 10.1038/s41390-019-0498-1.

Shope TR, Walker BH, Aird L, Southward L, McCown JS, Martin JM. Influenza Vaccine Requirements in US Child Care Centers. J Pediatric Infect Dis Soc. 2019 Dec 12;. doi: 10.1093/jpids/piz078.  PubMed PMID: 31828319.

Lewnard JA, Whittles JK, Rick AM, Martin JM.  Naturally-acquired Immunity Against Group A Streptococcusin a Longitudinal Cohort Study.  Clin Infect Dis. 2020 Jan 19;. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa044.  PubMed PMID: 31955205.

Shaikh N, Martin JM, Hoberman A, Skae M, Milkovich L, McElheny C, Hickey RW, Gabriel LV, Kearney DH, Majd M, Shalaby-Rana E, Tseng G, Kolls J, Horne W, Huo Z, Shope TR.  Biomarkers that differentiate false positive urinalyses from true urinary tract infection. Pediatr Nephrol. 2020 Feb;35(2):321-329. doi: 10.1007/s00467-019-04403-7. Epub 2019 Nov 22. PubMed PMID: 31758242; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6942213..

Rick AM, Zaheer HA, Martin JM.  Clinical Features of Group A Streptococcus in Symptomatic Children: Carriers versus Acute Infection. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2020 June, 39(6):483-488.

Alcorn JF, Avula R, Chakka A, Nowalk MP, Lin C, Ortiz MA, Horne WT, Chandran UR, Nagg JP, Zimmerman RK, Cole KS, Moehling KK, Martin JM. Differential Gene Expression in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells from Children Immunized with Inactivated Influenza Vaccine; Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2020 Apr 16:1-9. doi: 10.1080/21645515.2020.1711677. [Epub ahead of print] PMID:32298194.

Koenig L, Martin JM.  Prescriptions for Community-acquired Pneumonia in Outpatient vs. Emergency Department Settings.  Submitted to Ped Infect Dis J February 2020.

Full Publication List via NIH PubMed »

Research Grants

NIH 1U01IP001051-01, Enhanced Active Surveillance of Pediatric Respiratory Infections and Vaccine Preventable Diseases. (NVSN) (Site PI, 10% effort, PI: Williams), 2016-2021, $200,655 per year.

NIH 1U01IP001035-01, Immunological response to influenza vaccination in children and adolescents CORE: Influenza surveillance and vaccine effectiveness in a large diverse network (Site PI, 10% effort, PI: Zimmerman), 2014-2021, ADC $83,046.

NIH R01AI125642, Risk Stratification and Decision Support to Improve Care and Outcomes in Children with Pneumonia (Site PI, 10% effort, 2019-2021), $130,443.

Novus Therapeutics, A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study to assess the safety and preliminary efficacy of OP-02, in addition to amoxicillin-clavulanate (A/C), in children 6 to 24 Months with Acute (Co-I, 10% effort, PI: Hoberman), 2018-2020, $1,798,448.

SRA0000017, Assessment of Otopathogens in Young Children with Acute Otitis Media (Co-I, 10% effort, PI: Hoberman), 2019-2021, $3,328,489.

Merck Outpatient Antimicrobial Stewardship, Outpatient Pediatric Antimicrobial Stewardship Program: Optimizing Antimicrobial Prescription Choices and De-labelling Drug Allergies in Community Offices (PI, 10% effort), 2020.

Medimmune Melody Study, A Phase 3 Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled Study to Evaluate the Safety and Efficacy of MEDI8897, a Monoclonal Antibody With an Extended Half-life Against Respiratory Syncytial Virus, in Healthy Late Preterm and Term Infants (MELODY) (Site PI, 10% effort), 2019-2021.

GSK Bexsero, GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) Safety and Immunogenicity study of GSK Meningococcal Group B and 13 valent pneumococcal vaccines administered together with routine infant vaccines in healthy infants (Site PI, 10% effort), 2019-2023.

NIH, Vaccine Treatment and Evaluation Unit (VTUE) (Site PI, 10% effort), 2020-2026.

CV

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