Girish Ram Mali

Biography

Dr. Girish Mali heads a research group based in the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology. His lab investigates the assembly mechanisms of nanoscopic motor proteins that are vital to human health. Dynein’s power the essential beating motion of hairlike cellular projections called cilia such as those found on lung cells or the one’s that make sperm cells swim. Incorrect assembly of ciliary dynein’s underlies human infertility and a severe lung disease called Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia (PCD).

Girish has had a very long-standing interest in ciliary dynein assembly. He obtained his PhD in 2015 from the MRC Human Genetics Unit in Edinburgh, studying disease models where ciliary dynein assembly was defective. This was followed by a postdoc in the structural studies division at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. Here he obtained the first structure of a ciliary dynein motor and discovered a new protein linked to dyneins which he named Shulin. For his postdoc work, Girish was awarded the LMB Brenner Postdoc Prize in late 2021. In 2022, Girish started his independent research lab supported by a Springboard Award (Academy of Medical Sciences and Wellcome Trust) and his lab’s research is currently supported by an MRC Career Development Award Fellowship. Outside of his lab-life, Girish enjoys creative fiction writing especially short stories, art and painting and he has also dabbled in amateur rowing.

Research Interests
Cell biology, biochemistry, structural biology.