Breadcrumb
- Home
- The Labs
The Labs
-
Prof. Asaph Aharoni
|The Plant Metabolome in Action-
Plant-environment interactions
-
Plant-microbe interactions
-
Synthetic biology
-
Systems biology
-
Plant genetics
-
Stress physiology & biochemistry
-
- We study how the enormous structural diversity of plant metabolites is generated and regulated in time and space.
- The lab combines diverse expertise and infrastructure from molecular genetics to analytical chemistry, computational and microbial biology.
- Metabolic engineering, genome editing and a combination of ‘OMICS’ tools are developed and employed for gene and pathway discovery to establish the role of plant secondary / specialized metabolites in plants.
- We investigate the plant ‘chemical language’ mediated by specialized metabolites and its role in plant interaction with other organisms below and above ground (i.e. bacteria, fungi and insects).
- We follow the ‘nature will tell us’ approach in which edited plants are grown and phenotyped outdoors in either natural or agricultural settings.
- A significant portion of our discoveries are translated to commercial applications in industry and agriculture.
-
-
-
Dr. Sachin Ashruba Gharat
Postdoctoral fellow
Dr. Daniel Dar
|Phenotypic Plasticity and Gene Regulation in Microbial Collectives-
Microbial ecology
-
Sustainability
-
- Spatiotemporal gene regulation: our lab uses multiplexed imaging to study the intracellular architecture of bacterial transcriptomes and the activation of microscale genetic programs within developing multicellular biofilms.
- Local interactions in the plant microbiome: we are charting the biogeography of plant-associated communities to extract new insights about community organization and function.
- Environmental microbiology: our group is interested in understanding the dynamics of natural crop and soil-associated communities in the field.
-
-
Prof. Yuval Eshed
|Growth Regulation of Plant Organs-
Evolution & development
-
- Plant meristems maintain a wide range of developmental potentials
- We use the vegetative-to-floral transition of apical tomato meristems to understand how meristem cells sustain their state or rapidly change
- To that end, expression dynamics and in planta gene functions are used to generate testable hypotheses
-
-
-
-
Prof. Robert Fluhr
-
Plant-environment interactions
-
Stress physiology & biochemistry
-
Sustainability
-
-
-
Prof. Assaf Gal
|Algal Biomineraliztion-
Materials science
-
Structural biology
-
We are studying morphogenesis of biological materials. Our models systems are unicellular algae that produce nanostructured cell walls made of inorganic materials.
Our research is directed into these themes:- in situ structural and chemical observations using advanced electron microscopy.
- Using genetic, environmental, and chemical perturbations to gain mechanistic understanding.
- Creating bio-inspired in vitro systems that control mineral formation.
-
-
-
-
Prof. Jonathan Gressel, Emeritus
Prof. Tamir Klein
|Tree Eco-physiology in motion-
Plant-environment interactions
-
Plant genetics
-
Stress physiology & biochemistry
-
Sustainability
-
- Tree eco-physiology: How Trees adapt with rapid changes in the environment. We focus on photosynthetic adaptation, tree species distributions, and forest regeneration.
- Tree roots of multiple species interact with microbial partners, such as mycorrhizal fungi and soil bacteria. We study these symbiotic interactions, and their influence on tree and forest health.
- Tree water transport is a major component in drought resistance, but it is also sensitive to drought. We focus on the dynamics of xylem embolism, a key process in tree hydraulics under drought.
- Carbon storage enables trees to survive at times when photosynthesis is limited. We decipher the metabolism of starch in wood and the ways it is being regulated at the molecular level.
-
-
Uri Benjamin Moran
Bio Numbers Project Content Administrant
Prof. Avraham Levy
|The Dynamic Plant Genome-
Evolution & development
-
Plant genetics
-
Sustainability
-
- Genome evolution - We study the mechanisms that affect genome evolution and shape biodiversity in plants. These include DNA mutagenesis and repair, DNA recombination, transposons, hybridization, and polyploidy.
- Biodiversity - characterization and conservation for food security - Wheat, a staple food of humanity, is native of the fertile crescent. We carried a long term study of a wild wheat population to assess the impact of climate change on biodiversity.
- Form DNA repair to precise Genome engineering - We are harnessing DNA double stranded break repair pathways to achieve precise engineering of plant genomes, developing methods for targeted gene knockout, targeted recombination and gene targeting.
-
-
-
-
-
-
Prof. Ron Milo
|Optimality in Carbon Metabolism-
Evolution & development
-
Synthetic biology
-
Systems biology
-
Sustainability
-
- Enhancing carbon fixation. Combining synthetic biology with metabolic modeling we design and implement novel carbon fixation pathways in E. coli, that can convert atmospheric CO2 into food, fuels and fine chemicals.
- Quantifying the nthropocene. We perform a global census of the biosphere biomass with a focus on wild-mammals, arthropods and plants, enabling us to portray the effects of humanity.
- Environmental potential of dietary choices. We compute the environmental burdens associated with animal- and plant-based items, giving a rigorous approach to minimizing the ecological footprint associated with our food.
- Cell biology & Sustainability by numbers. We are open for challenges
-
-
Prof. Avigdor Scherz, Emeritus
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Dr. Einat Segev
|A Bio and Geo Journey Through Microbial Interactions-
Biogeochemistry
-
Marine microbiology
-
Microbial ecology
-
Sustainability
-
Microorganisms never live alone. Throughout the history of our planet, microorganisms had to interact; cooperate and compete. The Segev group is passionate about microbial interactions- why did they evolve? What ‘language’ is used for interacting? And how did such interactions influence the environment in the past, at present, and under future scenarios of climate change.
We develop simplified laboratory systems to study microbial interactions at various levels of ecological complexity. By implementing knowledge and approaches both from Microbiology and the Earth Sciences, we uncover mechanisms underlying microbial interactions, and understand the roles that they play in global biogeochemical cycles. -
-
Prof. Assaf Vardi
|Cell Signaling and Microbial Interactions in the Marine Environment-
Marine microbiology
-
Microbial ecology
-
Microbial-community assembly
-
Plant-microbe interactions
-
Stress physiology & biochemistry
-
- Understanding the cellular mechanisms that govern host-pathogen interactions at sea
- Elucidating the cell signaling pathways that regulate cell fate decisions
- Uncover the chemical signals (infochemicals) involved in the complex microbial interactions in the oceans
-
-
-
Dr. Lars-Erik Petersen
Postdoctoral fellow
Dr. Daniella Schatz
Senior Staff Scientist
Dr. David Zeevi
|Adaptation and resilience of environmental microbes to human intervention-
Marine microbiology
-
Microbial ecology
-
Microbial-community assembly
-
Systems biology
-
Sustainability
-
- The Zeevi Lab studies how microbial ecosystems are affected by human-made artifacts. The insights learned from these microbes are used to find new ways to protect the environment, with two complementary approaches:
- The lab uses metagenomic and metabolomic assays, combined with AI, to find new genes that microbes use to metabolize pollutants. Validation of the findings is done using high-throughput screening and automation.
- The lab studies the stability of microbial ecosystems and how it is affected by human-made perturbations, in order to predict and prevent ecosystem collapses. This is achieved using simple experiments, sampling of natural microbial populations, and machine learning models.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
