While this is true, it seems as though Matlab is the tool used for her work at her laboratory, she needs to join an already going project.
Matlab (and/or numpy / sage / any of the "math" packages) work best performing operations on vectors and matrices of data (long strings of values / grids & cubes (&hyper cubes) of values ).
Expanding on the "little mathematics background" is more important than the "no matlab" issue, one follows from the other.
If she's headed into epidemiology and other such areas then make sure she's read "How To Lie With Statistics" at the very least.
I would offer her every encouragement to take the time and absorb the basics of both programming and math. At the moment, a grounding in these topics is essential, and in the future, it will be even more of a necessity than it is now.