Pardis Sabeti facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Pardis Sabeti
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Sabeti in 2011
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Pardis Christine Sabeti
25 December 1975 Tehran, Iran
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| Education | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BS) New College, Oxford (MSc, DPhil) Harvard University (MD) |
| Awards | TIME 100 National Academy of Medicine |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Evolutionary genetics Genetic epidemiology Computational biology |
| Institutions | Harvard University Broad Institute Howard Hughes Medical Institute |
| Thesis | The Effects of Natural Selection and Recombination on Genetic Diversity in Humans: An Investigation of Plasmodium Falciparum Malaria in African Populations (2002) |
| Doctoral advisor | Ryk Ward Anthony Boyce |
Pardis Christine Sabeti, born on December 25, 1975, is a brilliant Iranian-American scientist. She is an expert in computational biology, medical genetics, and evolutionary genetics. Dr. Sabeti teaches at Harvard University and works at the Broad Institute. She is also a researcher for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Dr. Sabeti and her team have developed amazing tools to find and fight dangerous germs. These include viruses like Ebola, Zika, Lassa, and the one that causes COVID-19. They also created powerful computer programs and lab tools. These tools help them understand human DNA and deliver new medicines to specific parts of the body.
Time Magazine named Dr. Sabeti one of their "Persons of the Year" in 2014. This was for her work with "Ebola Fighters." In 2015, she was listed among the 100 most influential people. Her ongoing efforts, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, earned her a Time 100 Impact Award. She was also welcomed into the National Academy of Medicine. Dr. Sabeti hosts the educational series Against All Odds: Inside Statistics. She also hosts a Crash Course on Outbreak Science. She is also the lead singer and a songwriter for the rock band Thousand Days.
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Early Life and Education
Pardis Sabeti was born in 1975 in Tehran, Iran. Her family moved from Iran in October 1978. They found a safe home in Florida when Pardis was two years old. As a child, Pardis dreamed of being a flower-shop owner, a writer, or a doctor. But she loved math the most.
Pardis had an older sister, Parisa. Parisa would teach Pardis what she learned in school the year before. This helped Pardis be almost two years ahead of her classmates. Pardis also played many sports, including competitive tennis.
She attended Trinity Preparatory School in Florida. In high school, she was a top student and class president. She was also on the Varsity tennis team. The 1995 movie Outbreak helped inspire her interest in infectious diseases.
Sabeti went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She played on the varsity tennis team and was class president. She graduated in 1997 with a degree in biology. She started her research at MIT and helped create a leadership program for new students.
She earned a scholarship to New College, Oxford. There, she studied human biology and evolutionary genetics. She received her master's and doctorate degrees in 2002. Later, she earned her medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 2006. She was one of the very few women to receive this high honor. Even though she planned to be a doctor, she found she loved research more.
Career and Research
Understanding Human Genetics
As a student at Oxford and later at the Broad Institute, Dr. Sabeti developed special tests. These tests help scientists find parts of human DNA that have changed quickly over time. This happens when a change is helpful for survival. Her tests, like EHH and LRH, help detect these helpful changes. They show how human populations have adapted over the last 10,000 years. At Harvard, her team created another test called CMS to find these signals even better.
Fighting Infectious Diseases
For ten years, Dr. Sabeti worked in West Africa on diseases like Lassa fever. In 2014, she and Christian Happi, a geneticist from Africa, started a center. It is called the African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Disease (ACEGID). This center helps track diseases and train scientists in Africa.
Their work was very important during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. They helped find the first cases in Sierra Leone and Nigeria. They also used advanced genomic sequencing to trace the virus. They found that the virus first jumped from an animal to a human. Then, it spread only from person to person. They also discovered that the virus was changing to infect human cells more easily.
Dr. Sabeti's team continued to help with outbreaks. They developed tools to understand how viruses start, change, and spread. During the Zika outbreak in 2016, her team studied the virus more than anyone else. They showed it had been spreading for many months without being noticed. In the 2018 Lassa fever outbreak in Nigeria, her team quickly sequenced the virus. This gave real-time information to Nigeria's health officials. During the COVID-19 pandemic, her team studied how the virus spread. They identified early "superspreader" events and new variants. In 2019, Dr. Sabeti and Dr. Happi received funding to build "Sentinel." This system aims to prevent and respond to future pandemics.
Other Contributions and Outreach
Her lab also created a set of statistical tests called MINE. These tests help find connections in different types of data. Dr. Sabeti also worked with Elon Musk and SpaceX employees. They studied how a certain level of COVID-19 antibodies might protect against the virus.
Dr. Sabeti loves to share her knowledge. In May 2015, she gave a TED Talk called "How we'll fight the next deadly virus." In September 2021, she joined the Crash Course YouTube channel. She hosts their series on Outbreak Science. She also hosts the Against All Odds video series. This series helps high school and college students understand statistics. She often gives talks at the Research Science Institute at MIT for high school students.
Awards and Honors
Dr. Sabeti has received many awards for her important work. In 2012, Smithsonian magazine gave her the American Ingenuity Award. She received the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science in 2014. She is also a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. The National Geographic named her an Emerging Explorer.
As mentioned, Time Magazine recognized her as a "Person of the Year" in 2014. She was also on Time Magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in 2015. In 2022, she received the Time 100 Impact Award. The BBC also included her in their 100 Women list in 2020.
In 2015, Dr. Sabeti became an Investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. This is a very respected award. She has also received awards from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the Packard Foundation, and the NIH Director's New Innovator Award. She also earned a L'Oréal for Women in Science Fellowship.
In 2020, Dr. Sabeti was welcomed into the National Academy of Medicine.
Personal Life
Pardis Sabeti is the lead singer and songwriter for the rock band Thousand Days. In her free time, she enjoys playing volleyball. She plays in Harvard's summer volleyball league.
In July 2015, Dr. Sabeti had a serious accident. She was in an ATV that went off a cliff. She was badly injured but worked hard to recover. She returned to teaching after her rehabilitation. She later shared that our bodies are very important. They are like the engine that makes everything else work.
Filmography
- Against All Odds ... Host (32 episodes)
- Crash Course - Outbreak Science Host (15 episodes)
Images for kids
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Sabeti in 2011
See also
In Spanish: Pardis Sabeti para niños
