Dr. Athar Malik

Biography

Athar N. Malik, M.D., Ph.D., is a neurosurgeon-neuroscientist at Brown University, holding the position of Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery and Clinical Neuroscience. He is also the Director of the Brain Injury Restorative Neurosurgery and the Restorative Neuroscience Laboratory, known as Malik Lab. His research focuses on the neural circuit mechanisms underlying disorders of consciousness, including coma, and the restoration of consciousness after injury and disease. The lab employs an interdisciplinary approach using advanced tools from molecular, cellular, and systems neuroscience to interrogate mouse models, perform neurophysiology, and utilize functional neuroimaging and computational modeling, gaining insights relevant to human patients. Dr. Malik's clinical practice encompasses stereotactic functional neurosurgery, epilepsy surgery, brain tumor surgery, and brain mapping. He completed his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University before participating in the Medical Scientist Training Program at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Malik obtained his Ph.D. in Neurobiology from Harvard University and his M.D. from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology (HST). Further, he completed his residency in neurosurgery at Massachusetts General Hospital and underwent sub-specialty training in functional neurosurgery, followed by a postdoctoral research fellowship at Harvard University.

Research Interests