Malak Abed Althagafi is a professor of pathology and molecular genetics, consultant physician-scientist, RDI leader, and entrepreneur.
Althagafi is a senior researcher in the Saudi Human Genome Program. She helped establish the project’s laboratory in King Fahad Medical City, and now holds a number of key positions, including director of the satellite administration research center, chair of the genomics research department at Saudi Human Genome Program lab, consultant subspecialty molecular genetics/neuropathology, and director of national RDI coordination at King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology.
Althagafi has held a number of different roles at the latter in the past, including assistant research professor, deputy director of general directorate for research and innovation, and associate research professor. From 2018 to 2019, she was the medical director of the Saudi Diagnostic Lab at King Faisal Specialist Hospital International Holding Co.
Althagafi received her bachelor’s degree in medicine from King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, in 2005. She specialized in clinical and anatomical pathology, neuropathology, and molecular genetics, and received four American board certifications in those specialties.
She has studied and worked in universities including Georgetown, the University of California San Francisco, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, and Harvard.
She has published more than 120 papers in prestigious peer-reviewed journals and conferences, and has contributed to a number of books on the subjects of pathology and oncology, including the World Health Organization’s Tumors Classification “blue book” on CNS and pediatric tumors.
In 2019, she was awarded the KACST Distinguished Scientist award by the National Genomics Center.
