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Dr. Michael Worobey, Associate Professor

Positions and Education
Associate Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, 2009-present.
Assistant Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, 2003-2009.
Postdoctoral researcher, Department of Zoology/St. John’s College, University of Oxford. 2001-2003.
D. Phil., Department of Zoology, University of Oxford. 2001.
B. Sc. (Hons), Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University.

Honors and Awards

2010: 19th Canadian Association of HIV Researchers Conference, Distinguished Speaker
2009: Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy
2009: Distinguished Alumnus, Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University
2009: 16th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, Distinguished Speaker
2008: National Academy of Science, US Frontiers of Science Kavli Fellow
2006-2011: David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Packard Fellowship
2001: Junior Research Fellowship, St. John’s College, University of Oxford
1999: NSERC postgraduate Scholarship
1997: Rhodes Scholarship


Research Interests
Michael Worobey uses an evolutionary approach to understand the origins, emergence and control of pathogens, in particular RNA viruses and retroviruses such as HIV and influenza virus. He integrates fieldwork; theory and methodology; molecular biology; and (especially) molecular evolutionary analysis of gene sequences in a phylogenetic framework.

Questions under investigation include: (1) When, where, and how have AIDS viruses crossed into humans? (2) How does recombination shape viral genetic diversity? (3) What can viral sequences sampled from different time-points reveal about the tempo and mode of evolution? (4) Could ancestral viral sequences be useful for developing vaccines against HIV or hepatitis C virus? (5) Can a computational forward-simulation approach be used to accurately forecast future viral evolution and genetic diversity in a probabilistic framework?

Current wet-lab projects in his Biosafety Level 3 facility involve recovery of damaged and/or ancient DNA from a variety of sources including paraffin-embedded human tissue specimens, blood smears, and museum specimens. The two main efforts are (1) reconstructing the emergence of HIV-1 group M in central Africa and North America using “fossil” HIV-1 sequences, and (2) investigating the evolution of AIDS-related viruses in wild-living African primates using non-invasively-collected samples.

Read a profile of Michael Worobey in the Fall 2003 (Winter 2004) issue of Desert News & Views

PubMed list of publications for Mike Worobey
Selected Publications

  1. *Smith GJD, *Vijaykrishna D, *Bahl J, *Lycett SJ, *Worobey M, *Pybus OG, Ma SK, Cheung CL, Raghwani J, Bhatt S, Peiris JSM, Guan Y & Rambaut A. Origins and evolutionary dynamics of the 2009 swine-origin H1N1 influenza A epidemic. 2009. Nature 459, 1122-1125.
    *These authors contributed equally to this work.

  2. Wertheim JO, Worobey M. Dating the age of the SIV lineages that gave rise to HIV-1 and HIV-2. 2009. PLoS Computational Biology. (in press).

  3. Wertheim JO, Sanderson MJ, Worobey M, Bjork A. Relaxed Molecular Clocks, the Bias-Variance Trade-off, and the Quality of Phylogenetic Inference. 2009. Systematic Biology. (in press).

  4. Worobey M, Gemmel L, Teuwen D, Haselkorn T, Kunstman K, Bunce M, Kabongo J-M, Kalengayi R, Muyembe JJ, Van Marck E, Gilbert MTP, Wolinsky SM. 2008. Direct evidence of extensive HIV-1 diversity in Kinshasa by 1960. Nature 455, 661-664. (see also News and Views article by Sharp and Hahn).

  5. Liu W, Worobey M, Li Y, Keele BF, Bibollet-Ruche F, et al. 2008 Molecular Ecology and Natural History of Simian Foamy Virus Infection in Wild-Living Chimpanzees. PLoS Pathogens 4: e1000097.

  6. Worobey M. 2008. Phylogenetic evidence against evolutionary stasis and natural abiotic reservoirs for influenza A virus. Journal of Virology 82: 3769-3774.

  7. Worobey M, Pitchenik A, Wlasiuk G, Gilbert MTP, Rambaut R. 2008. The phylogeography of HIV-1 group M subtype B (Reply to Pape et al.) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105: e16.

  8. Gilbert MTP, Rambaut R, Spira T, Wlasiuk G, Pitchenik A, Worobey M. 2007. The emergence of HIV/AIDS in the Americas and beyond. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104: 18566-18570. (see also Commentary article by Holmes)

  9. Taylor T, Ceruti MC, Chavez JA, Reinhard J, Grimes V, Meier-Augustein W, Cartmell L, Stern B, Richards M, Worobey M, Barnes I, Gilbert MTP, Wilson A. 2007. Stable isotope and DNA evidence for ritual sequences in Inca child sacrifice. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104: 16456-16461.

  10. Cooper MA, Adam RD, Worobey M, Sterling CR. 2007. Population Genetic Evidence for Recombination in Giardia. Current Biology 17: 1984-1988.

  11. Worobey M, Bjork, A, Wertheim JO. 2007. Point, counterpoint: the evolution of pathogenic viruses and their human hosts. Annual Review of Ecology Evolution and Systematics 38: 515-540.

  12. Gilbert MTP, Haselkorn T, Bunce M, Sanchez JJ, Lucas S, Jewell LD, van Marck E, and Worobey M.  2007. The isolation of nucleic acids from fixed paraffin embedded tissues - which methods are useful when?  PLoS ONE 2: e537.

  13. Wertheim JO and Worobey M. 2007. A challenge to the ancient origin of SIVagm based on African Green Monkey mitochondrial genomes.  PLoS Pathogens 3: e95.

  14. Gilbert MTP, Sanchez JJ, Haselkorn T, Jewell LD, Lucas SB, Van Marck E, Morling N, and Worobey M. 2007. Multiplex PCR with minisequencing as an effective higher-throughput SNP typing method for formalin-fixed tissue. Electrophoresis 28: 2361-2367.

  15. Gilbert MTP, Moore M, Melchior L, and Worobey M. 2007. DNA extraction from dry museum beetles without conferring external morphological damage. PLoS ONE 2: e272.

  16. Worobey, M, Santiago, ML, Keele, BF, Ndjango, N, Joy, JB, Labama, L Dhed'a, D, Rambaut, A, Sharp, PM, Shaw, GM and Hahn, BH 2004.  Origin of AIDS: contaminated polio vaccine theory refuted. Nature. 428: 820.

  17. Lemey, P, Pybus, OG, Rambaut, A, Drummond, AJ, Robertson, DL, Roques, P, Worobey, M, Vandamme, A-M 2004. The Molecular Population Genetics of HIV-1 Group O. Genetics. 167: 1059-1068.

  18. Damond, F, Worobey, M, Campa, P, Farfara, I, Colin, G, Robertson, D, Brun-Vézinet, F, Simon, F 2004.  Identification of a Highly Divergent HIV-2 and Proposal for a Change in HIV-2 Classification. AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses 20: 666-672.

  19. Walker, PR, Worobey, M, Rambaut, A, Holmes, EC, Pybus, OG. 2003. Sexual transmission of HIV in Africa: other routes of infection are not the dominant contributor to the African epidemic.  Nature 422: 679.

  20. Worobey, M, Rambaut, A, Pybus, OG, Robertson, D L 2002. Questioning the evidence for genetic recombination in the 1918 "Spanish flu" virus.  Science 296: 211.

  21. Worobey, M 2001. A novel approach to detecting and measuring recombination: new insights into evolution in viruses, bacteria, and mitochondria.  Mol Biol Evol 18: 1425-1434.

  22. Jenkins, GM, Worobey, M, Woelk, CH, Holmes, EC 2001.  Evidence for the non-quasispecies evolution of RNA viruses. Mol Biol Evol 18: 987-994.

  23. Worobey, M, Holmes, EC 2001.  Homologous recombination in GB virus C/hepatitis G virus. Mol Biol Evol 18: 254-261.

  24. Worobey, M  2000.  Extensive homologous recombination among widely divergent TT viruses. Journal of Virology 74: 7666-7670.

  25. Worobey, M and Holmes, E C 1999.  Evolutionary aspects of recombination in RNA viruses. Journal of General Virology 80: 2535-2543.

  26. Worobey, M, Rambaut, A and Holmes, E C 1999.  Widespread intra-serotype recombination in natural populations of dengue virus. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 96: 7352-7357.

  27. Holmes, E C, Worobey, M and Rambaut, A 1999.  Phylogenetic evidence for recombination in dengue virus. Mol Biol Evol 16: 405-409


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