Pardis Christine Sabeti
Primary Faculty

Pardis Christine Sabeti

Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases

Immunology and Infectious Diseases

psabeti@oeb.harvard.edu

Other Positions

Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology

OEB Instruction + Org Res -Other Academic

Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences


Overview

Dr. Sabeti's lab focuses on developing new analytical and genomic methods to study evolutionary adaptation and genetic diversity in humans and pathogens, with three current research foci: (1) Identifying and characterizing the underlying adaptive changes that have shaped the human species over time; and (2) Investigating genetic diversity in pathogens such as Lassa virus, Ebola virus, Zika virus, and Babesia microti, towards improved diagnostics, surveillance, and interventions, and (3) Developing novels tools to detect and diagnose microbes causing human morbidity and mortality.

Dr. Sabeti's computational genomic lab has contributed to widely varying fields — including human evolutionary biology, gene therapy, microbial sequencing, information theory, and disease surveillance. They aim to create comprehensive approaches for detecting, containing, and treating deadly infectious diseases, including Lassa virus, Ebola virus, Zika virus, and SARS-CoV-2. She has invested in capacity building and education throughout, co-founding the African Center for Excellence of Genomic of Infectious Disease, enabling the first diagnosis of Ebola in Sierra Leone and Nigeria, training thousands of scientists through extended educational programs, and establishing genome centers in West Africa.

B.S., 1997
M.I.T.

M.Sc., 1998
University of Oxford

D.Phil., 2003
University of Oxford

M.D., 2006
Harvard Medical School


Bibliography

Vocal learning-associated convergent evolution in mammalian proteins and regulatory elements.

Wirthlin ME, Schmid TA, Elie JE, Zhang X, Kowalczyk A, Redlich R, Shvareva VA, Rakuljic A, Ji MB, Bhat NS, Kaplow IM, Schäffer DE, Lawler AJ, Wang AZ, Phan BN, Annaldasula S, Brown AR, Lu T, Lim BK, Azim E, Clark NL, Meyer WK, Pond SLK, Chikina M, Yartsev MM, Pfenning AR, Andrews G, Armstrong JC, Bianchi M, Birren BW, Bredemeyer KR, Breit AM, Christmas MJ, Clawson H, Damas J, Di Palma F, Diekhans M, Dong MX, Eizirik E, Fan K, Fanter C, Foley NM, Forsberg-Nilsson K, Garcia CJ, Gatesy J, Gazal S, Genereux DP, Goodman L, Grimshaw J, Halsey MK, Harris AJ, Hickey G, Hiller M, Hindle AG, Hubley RM, Hughes GM, Johnson J, Juan D, Kaplow IM, Karlsson EK, Keough KC, Kirilenko B, Koepfli KP, Korstian JM, Kowalczyk A, Kozyrev SV, Lawler AJ, Lawless C, Lehmann T, Levesque DL, Lewin HA, Li X, Lind A, Lindblad-Toh K, Mackay-Smith A, Marinescu VD, Marques-Bonet T, Mason VC, Meadows JRS, Meyer WK, Moore JE, Moreira LR, Moreno-Santillan DD, Morrill KM, Muntané G, Murphy WJ, Navarro A, Nweeia M, Ortmann S, Osmanski A, Paten B, Paulat NS, Pfenning AR, Phan BN, Pollard KS, Pratt HE, Ray DA, Reilly SK, Rosen JR, Ruf I, Ryan L, Ryder OA, Sabeti PC, Schäffer DE, Serres A, Shapiro B, Smit AFA, Springer M, Srinivasan C, Steiner C, Storer JM, Sullivan KAM, Sullivan PF, Sundström E, Supple MA, Swofford R, Talbot JE, Teeling E, Turner-Maier J, Valenzuela A, Wagner F, Wallerman O, Wang C, Wang J, Weng Z, Wilder AP, Wirthlin ME, Xue JR, Zhang X.

Science. 2024 Feb 29. eabn3263. PMID: 38422184

Genome-wide association study identifies human genetic variants associated with fatal outcome from Lassa fever.

Kotliar D, Raju S, Tabrizi S, Odia I, Goba A, Momoh M, Sandi JD, Nair P, Phelan E, Tariyal R, Eromon PE, Mehta S, Robles-Sikisaka R, Siddle KJ, Stremlau M, Jalloh S, Gire SK, Winnicki S, Chak B, Schaffner SF, Pauthner M, Karlsson EK, Chapin SR, Kennedy SG, Branco LM, Kanneh L, Vitti JJ, Broodie N, Gladden-Young A, Omoniwa O, Jiang PP, Yozwiak N, Heuklom S, Moses LM, Akpede GO, Asogun DA, Rubins K, Kales S, Happi AN, Iruolagbe CO, Dic-Ijiewere M, Iraoyah K, Osazuwa OO, Okonkwo AK, Kunz S, McCormick JB, Khan SH, Honko AN, Lander ES, Oldstone MBA, Hensley L, Folarin OA, Okogbenin SA, Günther S, Ollila HM, Tewhey R, Okokhere PO, Schieffelin JS, Andersen KG, Reilly SK, Grant DS, Garry RF, Barnes KG, Happi CT, Sabeti PC.

Nat Microbiol. 2024 Mar. 9(3):751-762. PMID: 38326571

Author Correction: Multiplexed CRISPR-based microfluidic platform for clinical testing of respiratory viruses and identification of SARS-CoV-2 variants.

Welch NL, Zhu M, Hua C, Weller J, Mirhashemi ME, Nguyen TG, Mantena S, Bauer MR, Shaw BM, Ackerman CM, Thakku SG, Tse MW, Kehe J, Uwera MM, Eversley JS, Bielwaski DA, McGrath G, Braidt J, Johnson J, Cerrato F, Moreno GK, Krasilnikova LA, Petros BA, Gionet GL, King E, Huard RC, Jalbert SK, Cleary ML, Fitzgerald NA, Gabriel SB, Gallagher GR, Smole SC, Madoff LC, Brown CM, Keller MW, Wilson MM, Kirby MK, Barnes JR, Park DJ, Siddle KJ, Happi CT, Hung DT, Springer M, MacInnis BL, Lemieux JE, Rosenberg E, Branda JA, Blainey PC, Sabeti PC, Myhrvold C.

Nat Med. 2024 Jan. 30(1):307. PMID: 37946059

The HLA-II immunopeptidome of SARS-CoV-2.

Weingarten-Gabbay S, Chen DY, Sarkizova S, Taylor HB, Gentili M, Hernandez GM, Pearlman LR, Bauer MR, Rice CM, Clauser KR, Hacohen N, Carr SA, Abelin JG, Saeed M, Sabeti PC.

Cell Rep. 2024 01 23. 43(1):113596. PMID: 38117652

Natural history of Ebola virus disease in rhesus monkeys shows viral variant emergence dynamics and tissue-specific host responses.

Normandin E, Triana S, Raju SS, Lan TCT, Lagerborg K, Rudy M, Adams GC, DeRuff KC, Logue J, Liu D, Strebinger D, Rao A, Messer KS, Sacks M, Adams RD, Janosko K, Kotliar D, Shah R, Crozier I, Rinn JL, Melé M, Honko AN, Zhang F, Babadi M, Luban J, Bennett RS, Shalek AK, Barkas N, Lin AE, Hensley LE, Sabeti PC, Siddle KJ.

Cell Genom. 2023 Dec 13. 3(12):100440. PMID: 38169842


News

At a small Colorado university, COVID tracking goes high-tech

A collaboration between Colorado Mesa University and the Broad Institute of M.I.T. and Harvard has yielded “the most sophisticated system in the country to track outbreaks” of COVID-19, according Pardis Sabeti, a professor of immunology and infectious diseases…