Pardis Sabeti, MD, Dphil

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Pardis Sabeti, MD, DPhil Summer Lab Size: 35 Local Summer Program: No URL Available Program Dates: June 5-August 4, 2017 (Dates for 2018 should be simi- lar; Note:10 weeks will be required) Harvard University Computational Biology, Genetics Characterization of Host RNA Editing Enzymes Acting on Ebola Virus RNA Several hundreds of Ebola virus (EBOV) genomes were sequenced from human clinical samples during the West Afri- can epidemic. A fraction of these genomes exhibit a striking pattern of A>G / T>C hypermutation, a signature of cellular adenosine deaminases acting on double-stranded RNA (ADARs). This pattern has even been observed in non-human primates treated with antibody cocktails, suggesting that host RNA editing may constitute one route of Ebola virus es- cape from selective pressure. While the interferon-inducible ADAR1 has been repeatedly implicated, no molecular work has definitely identified the specific enzyme responsible for this hypermutation; moreover, it remains unclear whether this factor is pro- or anti-viral (or both!). Our aim is to determine whether ADAR1 is the key enzyme responsible for A>G / T>C hypermutation, to identify potential hypermutation hotspots on the viral genome, and to further show that hypermutation can provide virus with increased mutation rate and therefore faster evolution. Validation of functional CTCF deletions from large scale non-coding CRISPR screen We have been developing the first genome-wide, non-coding CRISPR screens. Projects like ENCODE have created cell-type specific maps of millions of regulatory elements identified by their associations with bio- chemicals marks and proteins that are associated with function. While these elements are associated with marks of regulatory activity, very few of these million sites have been characterized for function. We’re in- terested in understanding how non-coding variation plays a role is disease and evolution, but that requires understanding the function of these elements. We’re endeavouring to build these types of new tools to char- acterize regulatory functions, in a high throughput manner, genome wide..

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Inside the Ebola Wars the New Yorker
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NEWSFOCUS PROFILE: PARDIS SABETI Florida, with a large extended family. She traces her academic success to her Picking Up Evolution’s Beat on April 24, 2008 early life in this close-knit clan. “My mother Pardis Sabeti mixes geek cool with hot science as she studies how human created a summer camp in our house, where populations have evolved to resist malaria and Lassa fever she would teach the children and make us do book reports. And my sister, who is 2 years CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS—Over the Stevie Wonder, and Meryl Streep), and CNN older than me, would teach me and my past 72 hours, Pardis Sabeti has managed named her one of eight “geniuses who will cousin what she had learned in school.” only 2 hours of sleep each night, most of change your life.” Sabeti says mathematics was her first love. them inside a crumpled blue sleeping bag Sabeti also seems to have a genius for Her high-energy personality, she adds, she keeps under a desk at the Broad Institute raising money. While still a postdoc, her appeared in those early years. “I’m a hyper www.sciencemag.org Center for Genome Research in Cambridge, own grants totaled more than $600,000, and person,” she says. “My parents always told Massachusetts. Sabeti, who burst on the sci- she is currently a co-investigator on a me to relax.” entific scene in 2002 with a novel test for $2 million Bill and Melinda Gates Founda- Reich, who met Sabeti when they were natural selection in the human genome, has tion grant.
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