Harmit Singh Malik
Malik at the 2011 American Society for Microbiology General Meeting in New Orleans
Born1973 (age 50–51)
Alma materUniversity of Rochester
Indian Institutes of Technology
Scientific career
InstitutionsFred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
ThesisEvolutionary strategies of retrotransposable elements (1999)
WebsiteMalik Lab

Harmit Singh Malik (born 1973) is an Indian American evolutionary biologist who is a professor and associate director at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He was awarded the 2022 Genetics Society of America Edward Novitski Prize.

Early life and education

Malik earned his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering at the Indian Institutes of Technology.[1] He became interested in molecular biology after being taught by K. K. Rao and reading Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene. He moved to the University of Rochester for graduate studies, where he worked toward a doctorate in biology. His PhD research considered the evolutionary strategies of retrotransposable elements.[2] In 1999, he moved to Seattle to join the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, where he worked under the supervision of Steven Henikoff.[3]

Research and career

Malik is interested in genetic conflict, the competition between genes and proteins with opposing function.[4][5] This conflict drives evolutionary change.[4] He is also interested in the evolutionary processes that determine how human bodies interact with viruses.[4] For example, together with Lisa Kursel, Malik identified genes at the centre of conflict between cell types in Drosophila virilis.[6] As these processes typically take place over very slow timescales, they are complicated and challenging to unravel. To understand the genetic conflicts that occur between different genomes – and different components of the same genomes – Malik turns to fossils. Viral fossils in animal genomes can be used to monitor intense episodes of gene adaption. Malik has expanded this research field, so-called paleovirology,[7] developing the capabilities to describe the functional outcomes of molecular arms races.[8]

Working with Steven Henikoff, Malik developed the concept of centromere-drive, a mechanism that explains the unusual genetic conflicts that arise during meiosis. Centromere-drive describes an evolutionary process in which centromeric repeats expand, which results in the recruitment of kinetochore proteins and segregation of the expanded centromere to the egg during female asymmetric meiosis.[9][10]

As associate director at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Malik has worked on various initiatives to improve diversity, equity and inclusion.[11] He was awarded the 2022 Genetics Society of America Edward Novitski Prize for his work on evolution and chromosome biology.[1]

Awards and honors

Selected publications

  • David E Gordon; Gwendolyn M Jang; Mehdi Bouhaddou; et al. (30 April 2020). "A SARS-CoV-2 protein interaction map reveals targets for drug repurposing". Nature. 583 (7816): 459–468. doi:10.1038/S41586-020-2286-9. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 7431030. PMID 32353859. Wikidata Q94470555.
  • Henikoff S; Ahmad K; Harmit Singh Malik (1 August 2001). "The centromere paradox: stable inheritance with rapidly evolving DNA". Science. 293 (5532): 1098–1102. doi:10.1126/SCIENCE.1062939. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 11498581. Wikidata Q34332859.
  • Harmit Singh Malik; Steven Henikoff (1 November 2003). "Phylogenomics of the nucleosome". Nature structural biology. 10 (11): 882–891. doi:10.1038/NSB996. ISSN 1072-8368. PMID 14583738. Wikidata Q35570334.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Outstanding geneticists recognized by 2022 Genetics Society of America Awards". Genes to Genomes. 2022-01-24. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  2. ↑ Malik, Harmit S (1999). Evolutionary strategies of retrotransposable elements (Thesis). OCLC 44713798.
  3. 1 2 "Harmit S. Malik". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  4. 1 2 3 "Harmit Malik, Ph.D." Fred Hutch. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  5. ↑ "UW Genome Sciences: Harmit Malik". www.gs.washington.edu. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  6. ↑ "Genetic multitasking and the resolution of cellular conflict". Fred Hutch. 2021-06-21. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  7. ↑ "Paleovirology: Ghosts and Gifts of Ancient Viruses". hmnh.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  8. ↑ "Paleovirology: Ghosts and Gifts of Ancient Viruses". hmnh.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  9. ↑ Malik, Harmit S. (2009). "The Centromere-Drive Hypothesis: A Simple Basis for Centromere Complexity". Centromere. Progress in Molecular and Subcellular Biology. Vol. 48. pp. 33–52. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-00182-6_2. ISBN 978-3-642-00181-9. ISSN 0079-6484. PMID 19521811.
  10. ↑ Chang, Ching-Ho; Malik, Harmit S. (2021-04-22). "Putting the brakes on centromere drive in Mimulus". PLOS Genetics. 17 (4): e1009494. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1009494. ISSN 1553-7404. PMC 8061830. PMID 33886542.
  11. ↑ "Hopes and predictions for 2022". Fred Hutch. 2021-12-21. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  12. ↑ "The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers: Recipient Search Results | NSF - National Science Foundation". www.nsf.gov. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  13. 1 2 "Harmit Malik, Ph.D." ASM.org. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  14. ↑ "Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise". Vilcek Foundation. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  15. ↑ "Harmit Malik". Vilcek Foundation. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  16. ↑ York, Carnegie Corporation of New. "Harmit Singh Malik". Carnegie Corporation of New York. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  17. ↑ "Harmit S. Malik". HHMI. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  18. ↑ "Good News: Malik and Bloom win ASM awards; pilot project funded by Bezos family aims to create personalized anticancer vaccines". Fred Hutch. 2016-11-14. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
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