biology

Harmit Malik

Harmit Malik is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Harmit Malik rather than just read about it. In short: 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.

Key takeaways

Harmit Malik belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Harmit Malik to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Harmit Malik from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

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. 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. In 1999, he moved to Seattle to join the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, where he worked under the supervision of Steven Henikoff.

Research and career Malik is interested in genetic conflict, the competition between genes and proteins with opposing function. This conflict drives evolutionary change. He is also interested in the evolutionary processes that determine how human bodies interact with viruses. For example, together with Lisa Kursel, Malik identified genes at the centre of conflict between cell types in Drosophila virilis. 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, developing the capabilities to describe the functional outcomes of molecular arms races. 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. As associate director at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Malik has worked on various initiatives to improve diversity, equity and inclusion. He was awarded the 2022 Genetics Society of America Edward Novitski Prize for his work on evolution and chromosome biology.

Awards and honors 2008 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers 2009 Early Career Scientist of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute 2010 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science 2011 Great Immigrants Recipient 2013 Full Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute 2017 Eli Lilly Prize in Microbiology 2019 Elected member of the National Academy of Sciences 2022 Genetics Society of America Edward Novitski Prize

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

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Harmit Malik

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Harmit Malik claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Harmit Malik before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Harmit Malik ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Harmit Malik

In research: Harmit Malik appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Harmit Malik in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Harmit Malik is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1973 births, Evolutionary biologists, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center people, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Harmit Malik outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Harmit Malik in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Harmit Malik means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Harmit Malik out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Harmit Malik in simple terms?

Why does Harmit Malik matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Harmit Malik?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Harmit Malik.