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Fields of study
Theoretical biology, ecology and evolution of infectious diseases
Research interests
Until recently, biologists have tended to separate processes operating on ecological time scales, such as cycling by two populations, from coevolution over longer time scales. This distinction poses a problem with some infectious diseases: parasites’ relatively short generation times and large population sizes ensure rapid, though often asymmetric, feedback between the evolutionary strategies and population dynamics of hosts and pathogens. I am currently studying the consequences of these shared time scales for influenza viruses. I hope this approach can yield insight into problems of host shifts by viruses and antiviral and vaccine strategies. Recent work with Katia Koelle has also highlighted the role of phenotypic neutrality in evolutionary and epidemiological dynamics. I am interested in how this neutrality may be mediated not only by the rules governing the structures of the viral surface proteins but also by immune specificity in the host population. In all this work, I hope to bring evolutionary methods (e.g., inference of phylogenies and selection pressures) to bear on ecological methods (such as population models for the diversity and abundance of hosts and pathogens), and vice-versa.
Academic background
I graduated from Princeton University in 2002 with an AB in ecology and evolutionary biology. I received certificates in environmental studies and Russian studies. I began my doctoral studies as a research assistant for Mercedes Pascual at the University of Michigan in the fall of 2004.
As an undergraduate I studied infectious disease ecology with Andy Dobson. Following graduation, I worked with Peter Daszak at the Consortium for Conservation Medicine on henipavirus emergence. I served as assistant program officer at IUCN-The World Conservation Union in Lao PDR for one year before joining Mercedes’ lab.
Recent publications
Koelle, K., Cobey, S., Grenfell, B. and M. Pascual. “Epochal evolution shapes the phylodynamics of interpandemic influenza A (H3N2) in humans.” Science. In press.
Cobey, S. 2005. “Sea lampreys in the Great Lakes food webs.” In Ecological Networks. J.A. Dunne and M.P. Pascual, eds. Oxford University Press.
Current funding: NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (2005-2008)
Advisor
Mercedes Pascual
View Sarah Cobey's C.V.
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