Houra Merrikh

Houra Merrikh is an Iranian-American microbiologist.[1][2] She is a full professor at Vanderbilt University in the Department of Biochemistry. Her field of work is antibiotic resistance and bacterial evolvability.[2][3][4]

Early life and education

Merrikh was born in Iran and fled the country during the Iran-Iraq War, she was raised in Turkey.[2] At age 16, she was sent to Texas to continue her education.[2] She naturalized as a citizen of the United States in 2003.[5] After attending community college in Texas, she enrolled at the University of Houston and later Boston University.[6]

She obtained a M.S. degree in 2006 and a Ph.D. in 2009 from Brandeis University, and worked with biologist Susan Lovett.[1][6][7] She was a National Institutes of Health (NIH) postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 2009 until 2011.[1]

Career

In 2009, she was appointed Assistant Professor of Microbiology in the Department of Health and Sciences at the University of Washington.[8] In 2015, she discovered a bacterial protein called Mutation Frequency Decline (Mfd) quickens the bacterial mutation process.[9] In January 2019, she was appointed full Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at Vanderbilt University.

Her work researches ways to slow the rate of bacterial mutations and to block their evolution.[10][11] In 2017, she led the research group to help bacteria survive hostile environments and resist antibiotics, done through disrupting DNA replication in order to boost the rate of gene mutations.[12]

Honors and awards

Merrikh is one of the recipients of the 2013 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s New Innovator Awards,[13] for investigating the impact of replication-transcription conflicts on bacterial evolution. She received the Vilcek Foundation, 2016 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science,[6][14] and the University of Washington Innovation Award in 2015[15] for her research on the impact of replication-transcription conflicts on antibiotic resistance development.

Publications

Her most cited publications after the award of her doctorate are, according to Google Scholar:[16]

References
  1. Memarian, Jahandad (June 26, 2016). "Houra Merrikh on Overcoming Adversity and Becoming a Leading Scientist". Huffington Post. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
  2. Yong, Ed (November 15, 2018). "A Bold New Strategy for Stopping the Rise of Superbugs". The Atlantic. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  3. "How head-on collisions of DNA protein machines stop replication: The collisions promote mutations that may help bacteria adapt to stress". ScienceDaily. August 15, 2017. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  4. "It's In the Genes w/ Houra Merrikh". Everything You Know Is Wrong. Archived from the original on October 22, 2019. Retrieved October 22, 2019. Her research into the mutagenic nature of co-directional gene collisions were revolutionary in the field and won her the 2016 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science.
  5. Yong, Ed (January 29, 2017). "Trump's Immigration Ban Is Already Harming American Science". The Atlantic. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  6. "GSA member Houra Merrikh honored with Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise". Genes to Genomes. March 3, 2016. Retrieved October 22, 2019. Working with former GSA Board member Susan Lovett
  7. "Graduate Students: 2000s". Brandeis Magazine. Brandeis University. Winter 2016. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  8. Cepelewicz, Jordana. "Bacteria Sacrifice DNA Repair for Better RNA". Quanta Magazine. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  9. Palisoc, Mhean (January 3, 2019). "Merrikh Lab Working to Defeat Drug-Resistant Superbugs". Science and Technology Research News. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  10. "Il y a peut-être une solution pour stopper la résistance aux antibiotiques". Slate.fr (in French). December 31, 2018. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  11. ""Anti-Evolution Drugs" Could Offer New Strategy against Antimicrobial Resistance Crisis". GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News. November 19, 2018. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  12. Rasmussen, Ray (August 15, 2017). "How DNA Protein Machines Collide Head on and Stop Replication". Science and Technology Research News. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
  13. "Project Information - NIH RePORTER - NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures and Results". projectreporter.nih.gov. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
  14. "The Vilcek Foundation - The Vilcek Foundation - 2016 Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science and Theatre". www.vilcek.org. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
  15. "14 UW researchers win 2015 Innovation Awards". UW News. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
  16. "User profiles for Houra Merrikh". Google Scholar. Retrieved December 21, 2019.
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