Faculty Support: Michael J. Butts

The goals of the Sabeti lab are to study the effect of natural selection on the human genome and the genomes of other organisms and uncover the traits that have emerged to shape these species, and to understand mechanisms of evolutionary adaptation in humans and pathogens. We are pursuing these goals through 3 research foci: (1) developing analytical methods to detect and investigate natural selection in the genome of humans and other species, (2) pursuing signals of natural selection in humans to identify their underlying functional trait and the mechanism of evolution (e.g resistance to Lassa fever virus, and hair, sweat, and teeth development), and (3) examining signals of natural selection in pathogens to understand how they rapidly evolve to remain agents of human morbidity and mortality.

Recent Publications

Kamberov YG, S Wang, J Tan, P Gerbault, A Wark, L Tan, Y Yang, S Li, K Tang, H Chen, A Powell, Y Itan, D Fuller, J Lohmueller, J Mao, A Schachar, M Paymer, E Hostetter, E Byrne, M Burnett, AP McMahonb, MG Thomas, DE Lieberman, L Jin, CJ Tabin, BA Morgan, PC Sabeti. Modeling human evolution in mice: An adaptive variant of EDAR drives pleiotropic changes in mice and humans. Cell 2013 Feb 14;152(4):691-702. PubMed PMID: 23415220.

SR Grossman, KG Andersen, I Shlyakhter, S Tabrizi, S Winnicki, A Yen, DJ Park, D Griesemer, EK Karlsson, SH Wong, M Cabili, RA Adegbola, RNK Bamezai, AVS. Hill, FO Vannberg, JL Rinn, 1000 Genomes Project, ES Lander, SF Schaffner, PC Sabeti. Identifying Recent Adaptations in Large-scale Genomic Data. Cell 2013 Feb 14;152(4):703-13. PubMed PMID: 23415221

Gire SK, Stremlau M, Andersen KG, Schaffner SF, Bjornson Z, Rubins K, McCormick J, Lander ES, Garry RF, Happi C, Sabeti PC. Emerging Disease or Emerging Diagnosis? Science 338 (6108): 750-52.

Reshef DN, Reshef YA, Finucane HK, Grossman SR, McVean G, Turnbaugh PJ, Lander ES, Mitzenmacher M, Sabeti PC. (2011) Detecting Novel Associations in Large Datasets. Science 334(6062):1518-24. PubMed PMID: 22174245; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3325791
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Grossman SR, Shylakhter I, Karlsson EK, Byrne EH, Morales S, Frieden G, Hostetter E, Angelino E, Garber M, Zuk O, Lander ES, Schaffner SF, Sabeti PC. (2010) A composite of multiple signals distinguishes causal variants in regions of positive selection. Science 327(5967):883-6. PubMed PMID: 20056855.

Van Tyne D, Park DJ, Schaffner SF, Neafsey DE, Angelino E, Cortese JF, Barnes KG, Rosen DM, Lukens AK, Daniels RF, Milner DA Jr., Johns CA, Shlyakhter I, Grossman SR, Becker JS, Yamins D, Karlsson EK, Ndiaye D, Sarr O, Mboup S, Happi C, Furlotte NA, Eskin E, Kang HM, Hartl DL, Birren BW, Wiegand RC, Lander ES, Wirth DF, Volkman SK, Sabeti PC. (2011) Identification and functional validation of the novel antimalarial resistance locus PF10_0355 in Plasmodium falciparum. PLoS Genetics2011, in press.

Grossman SR, Shylakhter I, Karlsson EK, Byrne EH, Morales S, Frieden G, Hostetter E, Angelino E, Garber M, Zuk O, Lander ES, Schaffner SF, Sabeti PC. (2010) A composite of multiple signals distinguishes causal variants in regions of positive selection. Science 2010, 327:883-6.

Sabeti PC, Varilly P, Fry B, Lohmueller J, Hostetter E, Cotsapas C, et al. Genome-wide detection and characterization of positive selection in human populations.Nature 2007,449:913-918.

Sabeti PC, Schaffner SF, Fry B, Lohmueller J, Varilly P, Shamovsky O, et al. Positive natural selection in the human lineage. Science 2006,312:1614-1620.

Sabeti PC, Reich DE, Higgins JM, Levine HZ, Richter DJ, Schaffner SF, et al. Detecting recent positive selection in the human genome from haplotype structure.Nature 2002,419:832-837.