Maria Plaza 2

Gruppenleiterin Human Exposure Science

Dr. Maria Plaza

+49 821 400 168403 maria.plazaspam prevention@helmholtz.muenchen.de

Gebäude / Raum: UK Augsburg, administrative building 3 / 036

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Forschungsbereiche

Maria P. Plaza hat Forsttechnik (BSc), Natürliche Umwelt und Forstwirtschaft (MSc), Bioinformatik und Biostatistik (MSc) studiert und promovierte in Biologie. Sie ist seit 2012 in der Forschung tätig, immer im interdisziplinären Bereich der Umweltexposition und der gesundheitlichen Auswirkungen. Ihre Expertise liegt insbesondere in der Aerobiologie, der Erkennung und Quantifizierung von Aeroallergenen, den Auswirkungen auf die menschliche Gesundheit und der Vorhersage räumlich-zeitlicher Interaktionen auf allen Ebenen, um genaue und zeitnahe Risikowarnungen bereitzustellen.

Als junge Forscherin hat Maria mehr als 15 internationale wissenschaftliche Publikationen in transnationalen wissenschaftlichen Zeitschriften mit Peer-Review veröffentlicht, auch dank der Zusammenarbeit und Erfahrungen in der Forschungsgruppe mit internationaler Anerkennung in Spanien, Dänemark, Portugal und Deutschland. Maria beteiligt sich an den COST-Netzwerken ADOPT (https://adopt-bioaerosol.eu/) als aktives Mitglied der Arbeitsgruppe für neue Ansätze beim Nachweis von Krankheitserregern und Aeroallergenen.

Heute leitet Maria zusammen mit Dac-Loc Nguyen die Gruppe Human Exposure Science am Lehrstuhl und Institut für Umweltmedizin in Augsburg. Die Forschung innerhalb dieser Gruppe konzentriert sich auf Atmosphärenwissenschaft und Gesundheit, die sowohl die Überwachung als auch die Entwicklung neuer Methoden für die Erforschung von Bioaerosolen und deren Einfluss auf die menschliche Gesundheit umfasst. Ihr Bereich umfasst auch die Entwicklung einer Recheneinrichtung, die in der Atmosphärenwissenschaft und verwandten Disziplinen wie Fernerkundung, Aerobiologie und Symptomatologie eingesetzt werden kann. Darüber hinaus ist Maria die Juniorleiterin in der vom BMBF finanzierten Gruppe IMPACCT (Improved decision-support for Managing the risk from Environmental disease to Public Health in a Climate Change perspective), deren Hauptziel über das bloße Verständnis der hochkomplexen Rückkopplungsschleifen in der Atmosphäre und der vielfältigen Einflussfaktoren hinausgeht, und sie integriert über die Identifizierung wichtiger atmosphärischer IMPACCT Beobachtungen, Fernerkundung, vergangene und zukünftige Umweltdaten, Patientendaten und neue Technologien in Big Data Management und Modellierung. Sie arbeitet als innovative Gruppe innerhalb eines Netzwerks internationaler und nationaler Partner.

Arbeitsfelder und Fachwissen

Big Data Luftqualität Umweltwissenschaft Gesundheit Klimawandel Aerobiologie Pollenüberwachung Angewandte Biostatistik Ökologie Prognose

Lebenslauf

2017 -2019

Dissertation: "Airborne pollen and major allergens of olive trees and grasses in the atmosphere of Córdoba, Spain"

2018 - 2021

Mitglied am UNIKA-T, Universität Augsburg

2021 - Now

Mitglied am Helmholtz Zentrum München

2022 - Now

Gruppenleiterin Human Exposure Science

  • 2022 BMBF Zuschuss
  • 2019 Preis für die beste Abschlussarbeit Verband der spanischsprachigen Palynologen

Publikationen

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2020 Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Athanasios Damialis, Daniela Bayr, Vivien Leier-Wirtz, Franziska Kolek, Maria Plaza, Sigrid Kaschuba, Stefanie Gilles, Jose Oteros, Jeroen Buters, Annette Menzel, Annette Straub, Stefanie Seubert, Claudia Traidl-Hoffmann, Michael Gerstlauer, Christoph Beck, Andreas Philipp

Thunderstorm Asthma: In Search For Relationships With Airborne Pollen And Fungal Spores From 23 Sites In Bavaria, Germany. A Rare Incident Or A Common Threat?
2021 PNAS

Athanasios Damialis, Stefanie Gilles, Mikhail Sofiev, Viktoria Sofieva, Franziska Kolek , Daniela Bayr, Maria P Plaza, Vivien Leier-Wirtz, Sigrid Kaschuba, Lewis H Ziska, Leonard Bielory, László Makra, Maria Del Mar Trigo; COVID-19/POLLEN study group; Claudia Traidl-Hoffmann

Higher airborne pollen concentrations correlated with increased SARS-CoV-2 infection rates, as evidenced from 31 countries across the globe Pollen exposure weakens the immunity against certain seasonal respiratory viruses by diminishing the antiviral interferon response. Here we investigate whether the same applies to the pandemic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is sensitive to antiviral interferons, if infection waves coincide with high airborne pollen concentrations. Our original hypothesis was that more airborne pollen would lead to increases in infection rates. To examine this, we performed a cross-sectional and longitudinal data analysis on SARS-CoV-2 infection, airborne pollen, and meteorological factors. Our dataset is the most comprehensive, largest possible worldwide from 130 stations, across 31 countries and five continents. To explicitly investigate the effects of social contact, we additionally considered population density of each study area, as well as lockdown effects, in all possible combinations: without any lockdown, with mixed lockdown-no lockdown regime, and under complete lockdown. We found that airborne pollen, sometimes in synergy with humidity and temperature, explained, on average, 44% of the infection rate variability. Infection rates increased after higher pollen concentrations most frequently during the four previous days. Without lockdown, an increase of pollen abundance by 100 pollen/m3 resulted in a 4% average increase of infection rates. Lockdown halved infection rates under similar pollen concentrations. As there can be no preventive measures against airborne pollen exposure, we suggest wide dissemination of pollen-virus coexposure dire effect information to encourage high-risk individuals to wear particle filter masks during high springtime pollen concentrations.
2021 International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Franziska Kolek, Maria Del Pilar Plaza, Vivien Leier-Wirtz, Arne Friedmann, Claudia Traidl-Hoffmann, Athanasios Damialis

Earlier Flowering of Betula pendula Roth in Augsburg, Germany, Due to Higher Temperature, NO2 and Urbanity, and Relationship with Betula spp. Pollen Season Flowering and pollen seasons are sensitive to environmental variability and are considered climate change indicators. However, it has not been concluded to what extent flowering phenology is indeed reflected in airborne pollen season locally. The aim of this study was to investigate, for the commonly represented in temperate climates and with highly allergenic pollen Betula pendula Roth, the responsiveness of flowering to different environmental regimes and also to check for commensurate changes in the respective pollen seasons. The region of Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany, was initially screened for birch trees, which were geolocated at a radius of 25 km. Random trees across the city were then investigated during three full flowering years, 2015–2017. Flowering observations were made 3–7 times a week, from flower differentiation to flower desiccation, in a total of 43 plant individuals. Data were regressed against meteorological parameters and air pollutant levels in an attempt to identify the driving factors of flowering onset and offset. Flowering dates were compared with dates of the related airborne pollen seasons per taxon; airborne pollen monitoring took place daily using a Hirst-type volumetric sampler. The salient finding was that flowering occurred earlier during warmer years; it also started earlier at locations with higher urbanity, and peaked and ended earlier at sites with higher NO2 concentrations. Airborne pollen season of Betula spp. frequently did not coincide locally with the flowering period of Betula pendula: while flowering and pollen season were synchronized particularly in their onset, local flowering phenology alone could explain only 57.3% of the pollen season variability. This raises questions about the relationship between flowering times and airborne pollen seasons and on the rather underestimated role of the long-distance transport of pollen.
2022 International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Maria Pilar Plaza, Franziska Kolek, Vivien Leier-Wirtz, Jens Otto Brunner, Claudia Traidl-Hoffmann, Athanasios Damialis

Detecting airborne pollen using an automatic, real-time monitoring system: evidence from two sites Airborne pollen monitoring has been an arduous task, making ecological applications and allergy management virtually disconnected from everyday practice. Over the last decade, intensive research has been conducted worldwide to automate this task and to obtain real-time measurements. The aim of this study was to evaluate such an automated biomonitoring system vs. the conventional 'gold-standard' Hirst-type technique, attempting to assess which may more accurately provide the genuine exposure to airborne pollen. Airborne pollen was monitored in Augsburg since 2015 with two different methods, a novel automatic Bio-Aerosol Analyser, and with the conventional 7-day recording Hirst-type volumetric trap, in two different sites. The reliability, performance, accuracy, and comparability of the BAA500 Pollen Monitor (PoMo) vs. the conventional device were investigated, by use of approximately 2.5 million particles sampled during the study period. The observations made by the automated PoMo showed an average accuracy of approximately 85%. However, it also exhibited reliability problems, with information gaps within the main pollen season of between 17 to 19 days. The PoMo automated algorithm had identification issues, mainly confusing the taxa of Populus, Salix and Tilia. Hirst-type measurements consistently exhibited lower pollen abundances (median of annual pollen integral: 2080), however, seasonal traits were more comparable, with the PoMo pollen season starting slightly later (median: 3 days), peaking later (median: 5 days) but also ending later (median: 14 days). Daily pollen concentrations reported by Hirst-type traps vs. PoMo were significantly, but not closely, correlated (r = 0.53-0.55), even after manual classification. Automatic pollen monitoring has already shown signs of efficiency and accuracy, despite its young age; here it is suggested that automatic pollen monitoring systems may be more effective in capturing a larger proportion of the airborne pollen diversity. Even though reliability issues still exist, we expect that this new generation of automated bioaerosol monitoring will eventually change the aerobiological era, as known for almost 70 years now.
2023 Science of The Total Environment

Daniela Bayr, Maria P Plaza, Stefanie Gilles, Franziska Kolek, Vivien Leier-Wirtz, Claudia Traidl-Hoffmann, Athanasios Damialis

Pollen long-distance transport associated with symptoms in pollen allergics on the German Alps: An old story with a new ending? Pollen grains are among the main causes of respiratory allergies worldwide and hence they are routinely monitored in urban environments. However, their sources can be located farther, outside cities' borders. So, the fundamental question remains as to how frequent longer-range pollen transport incidents are and if they may actually comprise high-risk allergy cases. The aim was to study the pollen exposure on a high-altitude location where only scarce vegetation exists, by biomonitoring airborne pollen and symptoms of grass pollen allergic individuals, locally. The research was carried out in 2016 in the alpine research station UFS, located at 2650 m height, on the Zugspitze Mountain in Bavaria, Germany. Airborne pollen was monitored by use of portable Hirst-type volumetric traps. As a case study, grass pollen-allergic human volunteers were registering their symptoms daily during the peak of the grass pollen season in 2016, during a 2-week stay on Zugspitze, 13-24 June. The possible origin of some pollen types was identified using back trajectory model HYSPLIT for 27 air mass backward trajectories up to 24 h. We found that episodes of high aeroallergen concentrations may occur even at such a high-altitude location. More than 1000 pollen grains m-3 of air were measured on the UFS within only 4 days. It was confirmed that the locally detected bioaerosols originated from at least Switzerland, and up to northwest France, even eastern American Continent, because of frequent long-distance transport. Such far-transported pollen may explain the observed allergic symptoms in sensitized individuals at a remarkable rate of 87 % during the study period. Long-distance transport of aeroallergens can cause allergic symptoms in sensitized individuals, as evidenced in a sparse-vegetation, low-exposure, 'low-risk' alpine environment. We strongly suggest that we need cross-border pollen monitoring to investigate long-distance pollen transport, as its occurrence seems both frequent and clinically relevant.