People of OyaGen

   Michael Malim 

Michael Malim is Professor and Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Guy’s, King’s & St Thomas’ School of Medicine, King’s College London. His laboratory utilizes cultured cell and biochemical methods to study the biological principles that underpin HIV replication. Current areas of focus include host-virus interactions and natural mechanisms of anti-viral resistance.

Dr Malim received his DPhil from Oxford University in 1987, and was then a post-doctoral fellow at Duke University before joining the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. After nine years in Philadelphia, Dr Malim returned to his native U.K. to assume his current positions.

Dr Malim’s research has spanned multiple facets of the HIV replication cycle, including viral RNA processing and nuclear export, virus particle assembly, infection of non-proliferating cells and the role(s) played by the regulatory/accessory proteins of HIV. In recent years, much of his group’s work has been devoted to the viral protein Vif; and it was through these efforts that the human anti-HIV gene APOBEC3G was identified. This protein exhibits a novel and potent mode of action in that it can destructively mutate HIV DNA by a process called cytidine deamination. Though Vif is an effective antagonist of APOBEC3G function, it is hoped that perturbation of this regulatory interface can be exploited for the development of future anti-HIV/AIDS therapeutics.

Dr Malim received an Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation Scientist Award in 2001 and was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2003.