Wafa Malik

Program: Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Lab: Aaron Hata

Wafa is a graduate student in the Hata lab within the Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS) program at Harvard Medical School. For her undergraduate studies, she attended Mount Holyoke College ’19, where she majored in Biochemistry. During this time, she worked in the lab of Craig Woodard and studied the regulatory pathways involved in the developmental processes in Drosophila melanogaster. After college, Wafa joined the Hata lab as a research technician, where she studied the mechanisms of acquired resistance to Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (ALK) driven Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC).

As a Ph.D. student, Wafa aims to combine her diverse research backgrounds to explore the mechanisms of tumorigenesis, cancer metastasis, and acquired resistance, leveraging this knowledge towards the development of targeted therapies. Outside of science, Wafa is an avid cricket fan, and in her free time, she enjoys playing tennis, going out with friends to explore the Boston area, and spending time in nature.

In addition to serving as a Landry Steering Committee Member, Wafa also serves as a BBS Peer Mentor and Admissions Ambassador.

If you weren’t a scientist, what would you be? I would definitely be a chef! I love cooking and find it so relaxing and soothing that sometimes, when science stresses me out, you will find me in the kitchen calming my nerves.

If you were a piece of lab equipment, which would you be? The -80 cause I also break down and scream at the most minor inconveniences.

What is the best advice you have ever received? “Comparison is the thief of joy”. I still fail to implement it some days, but I have learnt that no two people are the same or have the same journeys in life. I have to continually remind myself to remember that someone’s success is not automatically my failure, and I can clap for others while waiting for my turn.

Of what accomplishment are you most proud? I moved to the U.S. as a minor with only 2 suitcases and a dream. I am proud of the life I have built for myself without any family in this country and how far I have come. Younger me would be so proud!

What is something that you collect? Photographs. Lots and lots of photographs. Having been away from home for almost 10 years now, all I have of my family are the memories captured in photographs; it is my way of keeping them close.