Roop Mallik is an Indian

biophysicist Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study Biology, biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from Molecule, molecular to organismic ...

who works on

nanoscale The nanoscopic scale (or nanoscale) usually refers to structures with a length scale applicable to nanotechnology, usually cited as 1–100 nanometers (nm). A nanometer is a billionth of a meter. The nanoscopic scale is (roughly speaking) a lo ...

molecular

motor proteins Motor proteins are a class of molecular motors that can move along the cytoplasm of cells. They convert chemical energy into mechanical work by the hydrolysis of ATP. Flagellar rotation, however, is powered by a proton pump. Cellular functions ...

that transport material such as

viruses A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's 1 ...

mitochondria A mitochondrion (; ) is an organelle found in the Cell (biology), cells of most Eukaryotes, such as animals, plants and Fungus, fungi. Mitochondria have a double lipid bilayer, membrane structure and use aerobic respiration to generate adenosi ...

endosomes Endosomes are a collection of intracellular sorting organelles in eukaryotic cells. They are parts of endocytic membrane transport pathway originating from the trans Golgi network. Molecules or ligands internalized from the plasma membrane can ...

etc. inside living cells. The motors, such as

kinesin A kinesin is a protein belonging to a class of motor proteins found in eukaryotic cells. Kinesins move along microtubule (MT) filaments and are powered by the hydrolysis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) (thus kinesins are ATPases, a type of enzy ...

and

dynein Dyneins are a family of cytoskeletal motor proteins that move along microtubules in cells. They convert the chemical energy stored in ATP to mechanical work. Dynein transports various cellular cargos, provides forces and displacements importa ...

generate forces of pico-newton order to carry our various cellular processes namely cell division, vesicular transport, endocytosis, molecular tethering etc. His lab is working to understand how motor proteins help in degradation and clearance of pathogens, and also how these motors work inside the liver to maintain systemic lipid homeostasis in the animal. Mallik is currently a professor at th
Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
IIT Bombay
.

Early life

Mallik was born in 1970 in Allahabad, situated in the Northern India state of Uttar Pradesh. His father is a machine design engineer and mother was a senior teacher.

Career

Mallik completed his post graduation in Physics in 1993 from Allahabad University. On the advice of his uncle, in 1994, he joined E. V. Sampathkumaran’s lab in Department of Condensed Matter Physics at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai for doctoral research . After the completion of his PhD with over 20 international articles, Mallik joined G. Krishnamoorthy (TIFR) and Jayant Udgaonkar's labs (NCBS) for short stint as post doctoral fellow. This small tenure introduced him to the world of biology. In 2002, he joined the lab of Steven Gross at Department of Developmental and Cell Biology, University of California, Irvine. In 2006 Mallik joined TIFR as assistant professor and became full professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. He moved from TIFR to the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in 2020.

Personal life

Mallik is married to Dr. Sreelaja Nair, also a colleague at BSBE, IIT Mumbai. He is an avid outdoor enthusiast. He maintains a website of his travels and hikes.

Honors and awards

* Fellowship of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) Delhi
Associate Membership of EMBO
(European Molecular Biology Organization) * DBT – Wellcome Trust India Allianc
Senior Research Fellowship
(January 2021 onwards) * The G.D. Birla Award for Scientific Research, 2019
Infosys Prize in Life Sciences 2018
* Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, 2014 * Fellowship of the Indian Academy of Sciences (IAS) Bengaluru * Wellcome Trust – DBT India alliance Senior Research Fellowship (2013–2018) * Wellcome Trust (UK) International Senior Research Fellowship (2006–2012) * Human Frontier Sciences Program HFSP Long-term Postdoctoral Fellowship

References

External links

Roop Malik's Home page
1970 births Living people Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Biological Science {{biologist-stub