Malik Peiris

Professor Joseph Sriyal Malik Peiris FRS, d'Honneur, was born on 10 November 1949 in Sri Lanka. He is long based in Hong Kong SAR, China, after having previously trained and worked in Sri Lanka and the UK. He is a renowned pathologist and virologist. Prof. Malik Peiris is most notable for being the first person to isolate SARS virus.[1]

Prof.

Malik Peiris
Born
Joseph Sriyal Malik Peiris

(1949-11-10) 10 November 1949
Kandy, Sri Lanka
NationalityBritish; Sri Lankan (dual national); Permanent resident of Hong Kong, China.
Other namesJSM Peiris, Joseph Peiris
EducationSt. Anthony's College, Kandy
Alma materUniversity of Ceylon (MBBS)
University of Oxford (Doctor of Philosophy DPhil)
OccupationPathologist
Spouse(s)Sharmini Arsecularatne
ChildrenShalini(d); Shehan(s).
AwardsLégion d'Honneur
Silver Bauhinia Star
Fellow of the Royal Society

Professor Peiris has authored over 320 research publications. His recent research interests include ecology, evolution, pathogenesis and the epidemiology of animal and human influenza and other human respiratory viral infections.[2] He and his co-workers have published more than 600 scientific papers in a research career spanning more than 35 years[3] and are credited with 32 scientific patents relating to diagnosis of viral infections.[4]

He currently holds the Tam Wah-Ching Professorship, Division of Public Health Laboratory Sciences, University of Hong Kong, where he continues to lead ground breaking research with a particular interest in newly emerging viruses such as coronaviruses at the animal-human interface.[5]

He serves currently as a member on the Advisory panel on Emerging Infectious Diseases, Health Protection Agency of Hong Kong, was on the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong and was previously a member of the World Health Organisation's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE).[6]

Family background

Peiris was born on 10 November 1949 in Kandy. He completed education from St. Anthony's College, Kandy. After passing GCE A/L from biology stream, he attended to the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya to study medicine in October 1967. He graduated with MBBS honours in September 1972. This was followed by post graduate study at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford, UK, leading to the award of the D.Phil.

After further work in the UK and Sri Lanka, he founded the clinical diagnostic and public health virology laboratory at Queen Mary Hospital, which is part of the University of Hong Kong, in 1995. Peiris and his team of scientists and doctors were strategically placed to face the challenges of the Avian influenza virus outbreak, the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus outbreak, and the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus outbreak.

Original research carried out by the Hong Kong laboratories have made major contributions to the knowledge of the causative viruses of these diseases, and the understanding, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of the diseases that these viruses cause. During the years 2003–2004, Malik Peiris was credited with authoring the highest number of high impact publications in the scientific world.[7]

Malik is married to Sharmini Arsecularatne and they have a daughter Shalini and a son Shehan.

Academic and Clinical Training

After completing the clinical internships, he joined the department of bacteriology in the medical school as a junior lecturer and was awarded a Commonwealth scholarship in 1977 for post graduate research training at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology in Oxford, with Dr. J.S. Porterfield as his research adviser and mentor. He was awarded the D.Phil degree in 1981. A major aspect of his D.Phil dissertation was the paradoxical role that antibodies may play in facilitating rather than blocking the entry of viruses such as the West Nile virus and the dengue virus into macrophages, the first line defense cells of the body.[8]

Research training in Oxford was followed by two years of training in clinical pathology as a Registrar in Virology with Professor Richard Madeley at the department of Clinical Virology, Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle upon Tyne, culminating in the award of the Membership of the Royal College of Pathologists. Professor Malik Peiris then served as the scientific director of the HKU-Pasteur Research Centre at the University of Hong Kong.[9]

Notable findings

Avian Influenza

After the first outbreak of avian influenza virus H5N1 in humans in Hong Kong in 1997, Professor Peiris's attention was turned to the virus, which claimed the lives of one third of its victims. Research in his laboratory showed that the virus induces high levels of chemicals called cytokines when it infects a type of white blood cell. This was later shown to correlate with high levels of cytokines in infected humans.[10] This so-called "cytokine storm" is now recognized as a major mechanism of avian influenza virus pathogenesis.[11]

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)

In 2003, Hong Kong suffered another virus outbreak, this time from an unknown respiratory disease, termed SARS.[12] Peiris became known worldwide when his laboratory was the first to isolate the virus,[13] a Novel coronavirus (CoV), now known as SARS-CoV.[14] Peiris led the team which isolated the causal agent for the respiratory infection SARS in early 2003.[15][16] By June 2003, the Peiris laboratory and their collaborators had developed a rapid diagnostic test for SARS-CoV using Real-time polymerase chain reaction.[17] The team has published the standard laboratory manual book on the SARS coronavirus.[18]

COVID-19

In February 2020, Malik and his colleague published a definitive article in the Journal Nature Medicine presaging the pandemic of a new coronavirus.[19]

In 2020, Peiris claimed that a Pomeranian dog was infected with COVID-19. At first, these findings were dismissed as highly unlikely, as the blood tests of the dog turned out to be negative.[20] However, other COVID-19 animal infections across the world, vindicated Peiris's initial claim that animals could be infected by the virus such as the case of a tiger in Bronx Zoo[21] and a pug dog in North Carolina[22] both testing positive.

Honours

Malik continues to work at the University of Hong Kong and was appointed scientific director of the Hong Kong University-Pasteur Institute.[23] He holds several academic positions by being the Chair Professor of Microbiology and Tam Wah-ching Professor of Medical Sciences at The University of Hong Kong, Honorary Consultant Microbiologist at Queen Mary Hospital and the Scientific Director of the HKU-Pasteur Research Centre at Hong Kong.

He is the first Sri Lankan to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of London (conferred in 2006)[24] . This is considered the highest scientific honour in the Commonwealth. He was decorated as Knight of the Légion d'Honneur of France on 15 October 2007 [25]

He was awarded the Silver Bauhinia Star (SBS) in 2008 from the government of Hong Kong SAR for "outstanding achievements in the field of virology and pathology, in particular his contribution to the prevention and control of infectious diseases."[26]

In May 2017, Malik was elected as a foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences [27]


References
  1. "The Academy of Sciences Malaysia has decided to award the Mahathir Science Award 2007 to Professor Joseph Sriyal Malik Peiris for his outstanding contribution to Tropical Medicine". 2010. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
  2. "WHO | Professor Malik Peiris".
  3. Researcc Gate- Joseph S Malik Peiris https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Joseph_S_Peiris. Retrieved 21 September 2015. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. "HKU Scholars Hub: Researcher Page". HKU Scholars Hub. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
  5. "Peiris, Joseph Sriyal Malik". sph.hku.hk.
  6. https://www.who.int/immunization/policy/sage/en/
  7. http://ip-science.thomsonreuters.com/m/pdfs/klnl/2006-01/hottest-research-2003_2004.pdf%5B%5D
  8. Peiris JS, Porterfield JS (1979). "Antibody-mediated enhancement of Flavivirus replication in macrophage-like cell lines". Nature. 282 (5738): 509–11. Bibcode:1979Natur.282..509P. doi:10.1038/282509a0. PMID 503230.
  9. "Visit of the Grand Chancellor of the Légion d'honneur", Consulate General of France in Hong Kong and Macau, 2007, webpage: FHK17: (states "Lap Chee Tsui and Pr Malik Peiris, scientific director of HKU-Pasteur Research Centre received the award of Knight").
  10. Cheung CY; Poon, LL; Lau, AS; Luk, W; Lau, YL; Shortridge, KF; Gordon, S; Guan, Y; Peiris, JS; et al. (2002). "Induction of proinflammatory cytokines in human macrophages by influenza A (H5N1) viruses: a mechanism for the unusual severity of human disease?". Lancet. 360 (9348): 1831–7. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(02)11772-7. PMID 12480361.
  11. Peiris; Yu, WC; Leung, CW; Cheung, CY; Ng, WF; Nicholls, JM; Ng, TK; Chan, KH; et al. (2004). "Re-emergence of fatal human influenza A subtype H5N1 disease". Lancet. 363 (9409): 617–9. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(04)15595-5. PMC 7112424. PMID 14987888.
  12. Sampathkumar P, Temesgen Z, Smith TF, Thompson RL (2003). "SARS: epidemiology, clinical presentation, management, and infection control measures". Mayo Clin. Proc. 78 (7): 882–90. doi:10.4065/78.7.882. PMC 7094524. PMID 12839084.
  13. Peiris JS, Lai ST, Poon LL, et al. (2003). "Coronavirus as a possible cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome". Lancet. 361 (9366): 1319–25. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(03)13077-2. PMC 7112372. PMID 12711465.
  14. Lau YL, Peiris JS (2005). "Pathogenesis of severe acute respiratory syndrome". Curr. Opin. Immunol. 17 (4): 404–10. doi:10.1016/j.coi.2005.05.009. PMC 7127490. PMID 15950449.
  15. Normile, Dennis (9 May 2003). "Up Close and Personal With SARS". Science. 300 (5621): 886–887. doi:10.1126/science.300.5621.886. PMID 12738826.
  16. "Features", Daily News (online), June 2006, webpage: DailyNews-fea01 Archived 4 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine: contains "Following the discovery of the cause of SARS, Professor Peiris was invited...".
  17. Poon, Leo L M; Wong, On Kei; Luk, Winsie; Yuen, Kwok Yung; Peiris, Joseph S M; Guan, Yi; Guan, Y (1 June 2003). "Rapid Diagnosis of a Coronavirus Associated with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)". Clinical Chemistry. 49 (6): 953–955. doi:10.1373/49.6.953. PMC 7108127. PMID 12765993.
  18. Peiris, J. S. Malik; Poon, Leo L. M. (2010). "Detection of SARS Coronavirus". Diagnostic Virology Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology. 665. pp. 369–382. doi:10.1007/978-1-60761-817-1_20. ISBN 978-1-60761-816-4. PMID 21116811.
  19. Poon, Leo L. M.; Peiris, Malik (March 2020). "Emergence of a novel human coronavirus threatening human health". Nature Medicine. 26 (3): 317–319. doi:10.1038/s41591-020-0796-5. PMC 7095779. PMID 32108160.
  20. "'Very unlikely' dog with positive test died from Covid-19, source says". South China Morning Post. 18 March 2020.
  21. Miller, Ryan W. "Coronavirus sickened a tiger at the Bronx Zoo. Does that mean cats are at risk?". USA TODAY.
  22. Hauser, Christine; Gross, Jenny (28 April 2020). "Pug in North Carolina Tests Positive for the Coronavirus, Researchers Say". The New York Times.
  23. HKU-Pasteur Staff page Archived 8 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  24. Peiris, Joseph (2006). "Fellowship of the Royal Society". Royal Society. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  25. https://hongkong.consulfrance.org/Professor-Malik-Peiris-receives-the-title-Officier-de-l-Ordre-national-de-la
  26. "2008 Honours List". www.info.gov.hk.
  27. "National Academy of Sciences, USA". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
  • "Features", Daily News (online), June 2006, webpage: DailyNews-fea01: contains "Following the discovery of the cause of SARS, Professor Peiris was invited...".
  • "HKU ResearcherPage: Peiris, JSM", The HKU Scholars Hub (online database), webpage:
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