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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.
Select publications
Koelle, K., S. Cobey, B. Grenfell, 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. 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.
News
NCID funds part of EEB’s recruitment efforts
EEB graduate students Shalene Jha, Brian Sedio, and SNRE grad Jose Gonzalez visited the University of Puerto Rico in February 2009 to present a research symposium and to take part in a panel to answer questions about graduate school and U-M. The segment of EEB’s recruiting program that seeks to increase the diversity of the graduate student body is funded by a grant from the National Center for Institutional Diversity. The long-term goal is to ensure that the diversity of graduate students in the discipline, and ultimately of the professoriate, matches that of society at large. The $30,000 grant is for one-and-a-half years, and began in 2007.
As part of the program, select students from partner universities visit UM’s campus to meet faculty and students in EEB and the School of Natural Resources and the Environment and participate in a field ecology course for the weekend. Partners for 2008 were: University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras and Mayaguez Campuses, Morehouse College and Howard University. So far, 12 students have visited campus through the program.
EEB and SNRE students began visiting partner universities as part of the NCID program in 2007. Jha and EEB grad Mike Sheehan traveled to Morehouse College in 2008 where many Spelman College students were in attendance. EEB grads Sarah Cobey, Jahi Chappell and SNRE grad Solomon David visited Howard University in 2007.
Professor John Vandermeer, chair of EEB’s Diversity Committee, presented a seminar and touted graduate school in EEB at Howard University in 2008. He travels to Morehouse College in April 2009. Future plans include expanding the program to include Tuskegee University.
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