معرفی
Sarah Budischak is an Associate Professor of Biology in the Keck Science Department at Claremont Colleges, serving Pitzer and Scripps Colleges. Her research spans multiple biological scales from physiology to community ecology to understand how environmental context affects host responses to parasitic infection.
Dr. Budischak's research interests include:
- Disease ecology
- Host-parasite interactions (particularly co-infection dynamics)
- Eco-immunology
- Migration and disease relationships
- Interactions among diet, condition, immunity and infection
Her lab investigates how organisms balance immunological defenses against multiple parasites while optimizing resource allocation for growth and reproduction. The research examines how environmental quality affects key transmission components in epidemiological models, with implications for human, animal, and ecological health.
Dr. Budischak teaches BIOL 44 (Introductory Biology), BIOL 63L (Biology of Infectious Diseases), BIOL 120 (Research Tools in Organismal Biology), and BIOL 184L (Disease Ecology and Evolution).
Her research has received significant recognition including being featured as an NSF top news story. The Budischak lab conducts field research in locations such as Finland where she studies voles to investigate diet and coinfection effects on zoonotic viruses.
Students interested in gaining research experience during the academic year or summer are encouraged to contact Dr. Budischak directly through her website or email.
