Dr. Malika Boudries

Malika Boudries, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Principal Investigator of the Bioinformatics and Computational Genomics and Epigenetics (BCGE) Laboratory at the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research (CVVR).

Originally trained as a computer science engineer she later transitioned to computational biology and bioinformatics. She earned her PhD in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics from the University of Montreal. She subsequently completed postdoctoral training in systems and computational biology at VGTI Florida, Case Western Reserve University, and Harvard Medical School, working with Profs. Rafick-Pierre Sékaly and Dan H. Barouch.

Her research lies at the intersection of computational biology, bioinformatics, genomics, epigenetics, machine learning, and infectious disease. Her laboratory develops computational methods for integrating multi-omics and high-throughput biological datasets to investigate host–virus interactions, identify molecular correlates of vaccine-induced protection, and uncover mechanisms underlying disease pathogenesis.

A major focus of her work is understanding the epigenetic mechanisms that regulate HIV integration, latency, and persistence. Her research also seeks to identify biomarkers and molecular signatures that explain disease progression and predict immune responses to vaccination. In addition, her laboratory applies machine learning and artificial intelligence to complex biological datasets, with the goal of generating mechanistic hypotheses and translating computational discoveries into biomedical applications.

Beyond her research, Dr. Boudries is actively involved in research training, mentorship, and scientific career development, including initiatives designed to strengthen pathways into research for early-career scientists. She also serves as co-director of the Harvard Center for AIDS Artificial Intelligence Steering Committee.