Alumni Gazette

Two of Rochester’s newest members of the National Academy of Sciences are Paul Turner ’88, the Elihu Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University, and Harmit Malik ’99 (PhD), an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. They were inducted this year in recognition of their separate work to understand the complex biology of bacteria, viruses, and the genetic arms race within organisms and between organisms and pathogens.

What are you currently working on?

Turner: My group’s current research broadly concerns the evolutionary biology of microbes, especially bacteriophages—viruses that kill bacteria—and mosquito-borne viruses that can infect humans.

I am fascinated by the potential of viruses to overcome environmental challenges, including their ability to “emerge” by adaptively shifting from their original host species onto a novel host, such as humans. It remains challenging to accurately predict when and where virus emergence will occur next, and a main goal of our work is to refine the predictive power of evolutionary biology.

Malik: I study conflicts that occur in our genomes as different genetic entities try to maximize their evolutionary success. My team and I use Drosophila (fruit flies) as a model organism to study centromeres, which are crucial for chromosomal stability during cell division; mobile genetic elements, a type of selfish genetic elements (see story on page 21), which can impact host fitness and genome organization; and proteins that evolve rapidly due to their involvement in host-parasite interactions.

What interested you in this career path?

Turner: I greatly benefited from Rochester’s requirement that undergrad majors in biology should meet regularly with faculty in the discipline. I was able to express my interest and enthusiasm for the subjects of ecology and evolutionary biology, in discussions with my mentors Andrew Dobson and John Jaenike.

Malik: I first became interested in this concept by reading Richard Dawkins’s book The Selfish Gene. Having the benefit of complete ignorance in biology, I decided that this concept was worthy of a lifetime of study.

What did you study at Rochester?

Turner: I entered the University in 1984 with the expectation of obtaining a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering. However, I took courses in other disciplines, and by the time I entered my junior year I became convinced I should focus my studies on biology, which was my favorite subject since childhood. In particular, I was intrigued by courses in biodiversity, ecology, and evolutionary biology offered by the terrifically inspiring professors in the biological sciences.

Malik: I trained previously as a chemical engineer but became interested in selfish DNA. During my PhD studies in Tom Eickbush’s lab, I studied both the molecular biology and evolution of retrotransposons (“jumping genes”). One of the best things about doing PhD studies in a relatively small department was the very close relationships formed with many professors.

What are some future directions for your work?

Turner: My research increasingly focuses on the rise of antibiotic resistance, where it is evident that these drugs are often no longer capable of usefully controlling bacterial diseases. One possibility is to turn our attention to an old idea called “phage therapy,” where bacteriophages are utilized alone or in combination with chemical antibiotics to target and kill bacteria.

Malik: I am fascinated by how pervasive genetic conflicts are and how they have shaped and continue to shape fundamental aspects of our biology. My lab is currently captivated by the (still unproven) concept that we can use past history of adaptation to design novel genes that might give us a leg up over our most insidious pathogens.