Dr. Otoniel Martinez's research focuses on immune dysfunction and cancer, as well as AIDS pathogenesis.

A major objective of Mart¡nez-Maza's work over the last several years has been to define HIV infection-associated immune system changes that precede, and contribute to, AIDS-associated non-Hodgkin's B cell lymphoma (AIDS-lymphoma). This includes studies to determine if elevated levels of B cell-stimulatory cytokines precede the development of AIDS-lymphoma, and/or if polymorphisms in the genes encoding B cell-stimulatory cytokines are associated with an elevated risk for the development of AIDS-lymphoma. In recent work, it was seen that elevated IL10 production, as well as a genetic predisposition toward higher production of IL10 (an IL10 promoter SNP at -592 associated with relatively higher expression of this cytokine), were risk factors for the development of AIDS-lymphoma. In other work, Martinez-Maza's group has examined the immunobiology of the HHV8-encoded IL6 homologue (viral interleukin-6 - vIL6), as well as the role of immune dysfunction in the pathogenesis of gynecologic cancers, including those associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) infection.

Mart¡nez-Maza is actively involved in several national and international multi-center studies of cancer or AIDS and HIV infection. He serves as the chairman of the Malignancies Working Group in the Multi-center AIDS Cohort Study, is a member of the Laboratory Working Group in the AIDS Malignancies Consortium, and participates in Interlymph, an international consortium of researchers with an interest in the epidemiology and pathogenesis of lymphoma.