Harmit S. Malik
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
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Primary Section: 26, Genetics Secondary Section: 27, Evolutionary Biology Membership Type:
Member
(elected 2019)
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Biosketch
Harmit Malik got his Bachelors in Technology in Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India. There, he became interested in molecular biology due to Prof. K. K. Rao and in evolution by reading Richard Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene." He then moved to the US to get his Ph.D. in Biology, at the University of Rochester, NY, under the mentorship of Prof. Thomas Eickbush, to work on the evolution of retrotransposable elements. In 1999, he moved to Seattle to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (the "Hutch"), to do his postdoc with Dr. Steve Henikoff on the evolution of centromeres and centromeric proteins. In 2003, he started his own lab at the Hutch, where he has been ever since. Together with his colleague Michael Emerman, Malik and his trainees have used an evolutionary lens to dissect and discover both primate antiviral as well as viral adaptation strategies. By taking advantage of viral "fossils" in animal genomes and intense episodes of ancient host gene adaptation, his work has helped found the field of Paleovirology. In 2009, he was awarded an Early Career Scientist of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a Full Investigator in 2013. Most recently, he was awarded the 2017 Eli Lilly Prize in Microbiology, the most prestigious prize awarded by the American Society of Microbiology.
Research Interests
Harmit Malik studies the causes and consequences of genetic conflicts that take place between different genomes (e.g., host-virus interactions, mitochondrial conflicts with nuclear genomes) or between components of the same genome (e.g., chromosomal competition at centromeric regions). He is interested in understanding these "molecular arms races" and how they drive recurrent genetic innovation, from the perspective of both evolutionary biology and human disease. Malik and his colleagues have used an evolutionary lens to dissect and discover both primate antiviral as well as viral adaptation strategies. By taking advantage of viral 'fossil' in animal genomes and intense episodes of ancient host gene adaptation, his work has helped found the field of Paleovirology. His lab has been able to describe functional outcomes of ancient host-virus arms races by resurrecting both host and viral proteins from the evolutionary record. A significant area of research in the Malik lab is the study of rapid evolution in genes involved in essential cellular processes such as chromosome segregation and mitochondrial biology. Together with Steven Henikoff, he proposed the 'centromere-drive' model, which posits that unusual genetic conflicts during meiosis drive the unexpectedly rapid evolution of centromeric DNA and proteins, which in turn may provide a basis of postzygotic reproductive isolation between recently diverged species. His work has received significant accolades for him and his lab members, many of whom run thriving independent research labs focused on the study of genetic conflicts.
