Editors-in-Chief
Michael Malim
Biography
Michael Malim received his DPhil in Biochemistry from Oxford University in 1987, and then moved to Duke University to train as a virologist, where he worked on HIV-1. He joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania in 1992, and returned to his native UK in 2001 to establish the Department of Infectious Diseases at King's College London. He is currently Professor of Infectious Diseases and Senior Vice Dean for Academic Strategy & Partnerships in the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine at King’s.
His laboratory studies the processes, factors and mechanisms that regulate the replication of pandemic human viruses, including HIV-1, influenza A virus and SARS-CoV-2. In recent years, his group has focused on innate and intrinsic immunity, and were the first to describe the anti-viral properties of APOBEC3 proteins, MX2 and NCOA7. Broader objectives of his work include highlighting potential strategies for viral control or eradication, as well as understanding the fundamental principles of animal and cell biology.
He has served on numerous advisory boards and grant & fellowship review panels in the US and Europe, and was recently Vice President (non-clinical) of the Academy of Medical Sciences. In 2021, he was awarded Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes académiques (République Française).
Sumita Bhaduri-McIntosh
Biography
Sumita Bhaduri-McIntosh is a physician-scientist, Professor of Pediatrics, and former Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Florida. Dr. Bhaduri-McIntosh is also the Director of Pediatric Infectious Disease Research and a graduate faculty member in the Department of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology and the Department of Physics. She completed her medical training at B.J. Medical College in Pune, India, and earned a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from Hahnemann University (now Drexel University), where she studied mitochondrial function in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. After completing a pediatric residency, Dr. Bhaduri-McIntosh undertook a clinical fellowship in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Yale University, where she also trained as a virologist and human immunologist under the mentorship of Professor I. George Miller.
She began her independent research program as an Assistant Professor at Yale and later became a tenured Associate Professor at Stony Brook University in New York. Currently, she is a tenured Professor and Children’s Miracle Network Scholar in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Florida.
Dr. Bhaduri-McIntosh’s research bridges virology, oncology, immunology, and infectious diseases, focusing on the interactions between the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and its host, the B cell. Her laboratory investigates three main areas: 1) mechanisms that regulate EBV susceptibility to lytic activation, which is important for viral persistence and oncolytic therapy development, 2) factors controlling the transition from viral gene transcription to replication in the lytic phase, and 3) how EBV evades anti-pathogen and anti-cancer defenses to promote B cell proliferation and transformation. Her research aims to develop targeted therapeutic approaches that exploit the complex interplay between viral reactivation, immune evasion, and B cell transformation in EBV-driven cancers.