SONALI MALI

PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 2025

I completed my PhD in neuroscience at UC Berkeley, where I trained as a sensory neurobiologist studying how sensory neurons, called nociceptors, detect harmful stimuli such as mechanical forces, noxious temperatures, chemical irritants, and biological threats like pathogens and inflammatory mediators. My work uncovered a novel mechanism by which SARS-CoV-2 activates airway-innervating sensory neurons via its viral protease PLpro to trigger sneeze, cough, and pain in mice. Sneezing and coughing help clear the airways but also facilitate the spread of respiratory diseases such as COVID-19; these findings raise the question of whether pathogens like coronaviruses may co-opt sensory neurons to promote their own transmission.

While some microbes like SARS-CoV-2 drive disease, many others, known as commensals, have co-evolved to benefit the host. As a postdoctoral fellow in the Littman lab, I am investigating how commensal microbes interact with immune cells and neurons to promote physiological homeostasis in the gut and vaginal mucosa in the face of dynamic environmental and developmental changes.

Outside of the lab, I enjoy hiking, cycling, and eating vegan ice cream.

Selected publications:

Mali, S.S., Silva, R., Gong, Z., Cronce, M., Vo, U., Vuong, C., Moayedi, Y., Cox, J.S. & Bautista, D.M. (2024). SARS-CoV-2 papain-like protease activates nociceptors to drive sneeze and pain. bioRxiv.

Preprint highlighted by Science, Vol 383, Issue 6681 (2024). Why does COVID-19 make you sneeze?

Yoshino, J.*, Mali, S.S.*, Williams, C.R.*, Morita, T., Emerson, C.E., Arp, C.J., Miller, S.E., Yin, C., Thé, L., Hemmi, C., Motoyoshi, M., Ishii K., Emoto, K., Bautista, D.M. & Parrish, J.Z. (2025). Drosophila epidermal cells are intrinsically mechanosensitive and modulate nociceptive behavioral outputs. Elife.

*Equal contributions

Kern, D.M., Sorum, B.*, Mali, S.S.*, Hoel, C.M.*, Sridharan, S., Remis, J.P., Toso, D.B., Kotecha, A., Bautista, D.M. & Brohawn, S.G. (2021). Cryo-EM structure of SARS-CoV-2 ORF3a in lipid nanodiscs. Nature structural & molecular biology. 28(7), 573–582.

*Equal contributions

Mali, S.S. & Bautista, D.M. (2021). Basophils add fuel to the flame of eczema itch. Cell, 184 (2), 294- 296. (Preview)

Slivicki, R.A., Mali, S.S., Hohmann, A.G., (2019). Voluntary exercise reduces both chemotherapy- induced neuropathic nociception and deficits in hippocampal cellular proliferation in a mouse model of paclitaxel-induced peripheral neuropathy. Neurobiology of Pain 6, 100035.