Edward A. Bayer

Curriculum Vitae

Personal Details
Place of Birth: Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A.
Date of Birth: January 4, 1947
Immigration Date: June 15, 1971
Military Service: 1977-1993
Citizenship: Israeli and USA
Marital Status: Married, five children
Permanent Work Address: Department of Biological Chemistry
The Weizmann Institute of Science
Rehovot 76100 Israel
Tel: +972-8-934-2373
Fax: +972-8-946-8256
Email: ed.bayer@weizmann.ac.il
 
Education
1965-1969 Bachelor's Degree: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Major: Zoology; Received: June, 1969
1969-1971 Master's Degree: Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan; Major: Biology; Received: May, 1971
1971-1977 Ph.D. Degree: Department of Biophysics, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel; Supervisor: Meir Wilchek; Received: January, 1977
 
Professional Experience
1977-1978 Postdoctoral training: Department of Biophysics, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
1978-1982 Postdoctoral training: Department of Microbiology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv Israel
1982-2001 Department of Biological Chemistry, formerly Department of Membrane Research and Biophysics (1991-1997), formerly Department of Biophysics (prior to 1991)
2001-2009 Associate Professor, Department of Biological Chemistry, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
2009-present Professor, Department of Biological Chemistry, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
 
Appointments
•    Scientific Advisory Board, US-Department of Energy BioEnergy Science Center (BESC) (2008-present)
•    Chair, Scientific Advisory Board, Designer Energy, Rehovot, Israel (2008-present)
•    Consultant, Zephyr Proteomics, Kiryat Shmone, Israel (2005-2008)
•    Consultant, Belovo S.C., Bastogne, Belgium (1990-2005)
•    Consultant, Convatec, Princeton NJ (1994-1996)
•    Scientific Cooperation, Biopract GmbH, Berlin, Germany (1999-2000)
•    Editor of Review Journal:  Biotechnology Advances (Elsevier) (From 1999 – present).
•    Associate Editor: Biotechnology for Biofuels (From 2007 – present).
•    Advisory Board: Turkish Journal of Biology (From 2007 – present).
•    Co-editor (invited): Current Opinion in Biotechnology Environmental Biotechnology section (Vol. 20, issue 3, 2009) Section on Lignocellulose.
•    Editor (invited): The life and lifework of Mary Mandels — First Lady of Cellulase Research. Thematic Series for Biotechnology for Biofuels (2009).
•    Editorial Board: Industrial Biotechnology: The Journal of Biobased Industries     (From 2009 – present).
•    Editorial Board: Current Opinion in Biotechnology (From 2010 – present).
•    Editorial Board: Frontiers in Evolutionary and Genomic Microbiology (From 2011 – present).
Short Description of Major Scientific Contributions
Development of avidin-biotin technology (together with Meir Wilchek)
Co-discoverer of the cellulosome concept (together with Raphael Lamed)
Originator of designer celluosome initiative
 
Major Research Interests
General: Protein engineering, structural and functional consequences of protein-protein and protein-ligand interactions, nanobiotechnology, biomass degradation and biomass-to-biofuels processing
Specifically: Cellulosome structure and function; avidin-biotiin system; development of designer cellulosome systems as a model for improved degradation of cellulose to serve as an alternative energy source to help displace our growing dependence on fossil fuels
 
Collaborative Research (past and present)
Interdepartmental: with groups in the Department of Structural Biology, Materials Science and the Department of Biological Regulation, at The Weizmann Institute
National: with groups at Tel Aviv University; Technion—IIT (Haifa); The Hebrew Unversity of Jerusalem; Faculty of Agriculture, HUJI (Rehovot); The Volcani Center (Bet Dagan)
International: with groups in the United States, Canada, Guatemala, Holland, Belgium, Germany, France, Spain, Great Britain, Finland, Portugal, Denmark, the Republic of Georgia, Australia
 
Awards, Honors, etc.
1974-1975 EMBO Short term fellowship - Visit to Department of Chemistry, The University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
1978-1979 Recipient of Katzir Fellowship
1972-1982 Recipient of NIH National Research Service Award
1990 Recipient of The Sarstedt Research Award (together with Meir Wilchek) for "development of biotin-avidin systems for biomedical analysis." Presented by the German Association for Clinical Chemistry (Nümbrecht, Germany)
1993-1999 Peer-elected to General Council of the International Society for Molecular Recognition
2002 Elected to Fellowship by the American Academy of Microbiology
2005-present Peer-elected to National Council of the Israeli Society of Microbiology
2006 Recipient of The Ulitzky Prize, The Israel Society for Microbiology
2007-present Peer-elected to General Council of the International Society for Molecular Recognition
 
Supervision of Students
Student Degree Thesis (comments) Dates
Hadar Gilary M.Sc. Adaptor scaffoldins - A model for examining natural enzyme synergy in cellulosomes 2006-2007
Thesis exam March 2007
Alon Karpol Ph.D. Structural and functional elements of the dockerin domain and their contributions to cellulosome architecture 2002-present
Thesis exam January 2008
Jonathan Caspi Ph.D. The effect of designer cellulosomes on the synergistic cellulose-degrading activity of Thermobifida fusca cellulases 2003-present
Thesis exam February 2008
Ilit Noach Ph.D. Structural characterization of cellulosome modular components 2003-2008
Thesis exam August 2008
Orly Salama-Alber Ph.D. Biochemical and Structural studies of Inter-modular Interactions in the Ruminococcus flavefaciens Cellulosome 2006-present
M.Sc. thesis exam Mar.2008
Michal Slutzki Ph.D. Rational manipulation of cellulosomes: Integration of computational and experimental approaches

2006-2012 Thesis exam May 2012

Sarah Ouanounou Moraïs Ph.D. Xylanases as Designer Cellulosome Components (Joint supervision with Yitzhak Hadar, Faculty of Agriculture, Hebrew University of Jerusalem) 2007-present
Yael Barkan M.Sc. Cellulosomal / Non-cellulosomal interplay of Clostridium thermocellum family-48 and family-9 cellulases 2007-present
M.Sc. thesis exam May  2008
Johanna Stern Ph.D. Contribution of modular architectural configuration and enzyme composition on designer cellulosome action 2011-Present
Olga Zhivin Ph.D.   2012-Present
Alik Demishtein M.Sc. Characterization of a new affinity tag: Application for purification of a broad variety of target proteins 2007-2009
M.Sc. thesis exam Feb. 2009
Gilad Gefen M.Sc.
Inhibition effect of cellobiose on components of the Clostridium thermocellum cellulosome and its mitigation by a chimeric dockerin-fused b-glucosidase
2009-present
M.Sc. thesis exam Nov. 2010
Vered Ruimy M.Sc. Organization of the Ruminococcus flavefaciens FD-1 cellulosome and features dictating recognition of its cohesin-dockerin interaction 2011-Present
Yuval Hamberg M.Sc. Novel cellulosome architecture in Acetivibrio cellulolyticus by studying interactions among scaffoldins 2011-Present
Sofia Gersner M.Sc.   2012-Present
Yonit Buium M.Sc.   2012-Present
Lior Shafirstein M.Sc.   2012-Present
 
Postdoctoral Researchers, Lab Personnel and Visiting Students, Visiting Scientists
Dr. Shi-You Ding (1998-2001, postdoc)
Dr. Adva Mechaly (1998-2001, postdoc)
Dr. Qi Xu (2001-2004, postdoc)
Dr. Yoav Barak (2002-2004, postdoc; 2004-present, staff scientist)
Dr. David Nakar (2003-2005, postdoc)
Prof. David Wilson, Cornell University, Ithaca New York (November 2004, visiting scientist, January 2011, visiting scientist)
Ms. Rachel Haimovitz (2005-present, laboratory technician)
Dr. Ely Morag (2002-2004, visiting scientist; 2005-present, consultant)
Dr. Marco Rincon, Rowett Institute, Aberdeen, Scotland (March 2006, visiting scientist)
Jarrett Adams, Queen’s University, Kingston Canada (October 2006, visiting student)
Shahar Yoav (2005-2006, visiting student; 2009-present, scientist )
Sarah Ouanounou (2006-2007, visiting student)
Prof. Steven Smith, Queen’s University, Kingston Ontario, Canada (January 2008, visiting scientist; February 2011, visiting scientist)
Prof. Bernard R. Glick, University of Waterloo, Ontario Canada (February-March 2008, visiting scientist)
Prof. Bryan White , University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (February-March 2008, visiting scientist)
Prof. Harry Flint, University of Aberdeen, Rowett Institute, Scotland, United Kingdom (March 2011, visiting scientist)
Dr. Martin Keller, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, USA (April 2011, visiting scientist)
Dr. Alon Karpol (2008, postdoc; 2009-present, consultant)
Dr. Michael Anbar (postdoctoral tenure, from May, 2008)
Dr. Ilit Noach (postdoctoral tenure, 2008-2009)
Dr. Liat Bahari (postdoctoral tenure, from January, 2009)
Dr. Bareket Dassa (postdoctoral tenure, from June, 2009)
Dr. Daniel Fried (postdoctoral tenure, from June, 2011)
Dr. Ozgur Gul (postdoctoral tenure, from November, 2011)
Dr. Sarah Moraïs (postdoctoral tenure, from April, 2011)
Dr. Michal Slutzki (postdoctoral tenure, from June, 2011)
 
International Course Instruction
January 1977 Invited instructor: Course on "Affinity cytochemistry", The University of Uppsala, Sweden
August 1996 Invited instructor: "The Avidin-Biotin System"; "The Cellulosome"; "Post-translational modifications of proteins"; "Some Problems and Surprises in Isolating Proteins"; The 6th International Summer School, BIO1 "Protein purification and characterization", August 5-16, 1996, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
March 2007 Invited graduate class lecture: "Cellulosomes: Discovery, diversiyof components, and emerging genomics"; University of Tennessee-Oak Ridge National Laboratories Joint Institute for Biological Sciences; Center for Environmental Biotechnology
June 2008 Invited lecturer, Summer School on Protein Biotechnology (June 4-7, Heraklion, Crete)
 
International Theses Examinations
1991 External examiner and Guest of honor: Ph.D. defense of Dr. G. Gerwig, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
1998 Rapporteur: Ph.D. defense of Dr. S. Pagès, Université de Provence, Aix-Marseille, France
2002 Rapporteur: Ph.D. defense of Dr. Fabrice Sabathe, Laboratoire de Biotechnologie-Bioprocédés, CNRS, Toulouse, and Université de Provence, Aix-Marseille, France
2006 Opponent: Ph.D. defense of Dr. Åsa Kallas, Department of Biotechnology, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
2007 External Examiner: Ph.D. defense of Dr. Jarrett Adams, Queens University, Kingston Ontario, Canada
June 2008 Invited lecturer, Summer School on Protein Biotechnology (June 4-7, Heraklion, Crete)
2010 External Examiner — Ph.D. defense of Dr. Niel van Wyk, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
2011 External Examiner — Ph.D. defense of Dan Groban Olson, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire
 
Invited Lectures at Scientific Meetings (since 1986)
July 1986 Invited speaker: "The use of biotinylated lectins and avidin conjugates for identification of glycoconjugates" Franco-Israel Colloquium on Lectins (Seillac, France)
July 1987 Invited speaker: "Cell adhesion and cellulose degradation by the cellulosome of Clostridium thermocellum"; Gordon Conference on Pathogenic Adherence (Newport, R.I., U.S.A.)
April 1990 Invited visit and lecturer: "The cellulosome concept"; Central American Research Institute for Industry (ICAITI) Guatemala City, Guatemala
May 1990 Session chairman and invited speaker: "Avidin columns in affinity chromatography" Biochromatography and Molecular Affinity (Dijon, France)
September 1990 Invited speaker: "Avidin-biotin technology in the probing of hormone action" 15th Conference of the European Society for Comparative Endocrinology (Leuven, Belgium)
October 1990 Invited speaker: "Avidin-biotin technology"; 8th International Symposium on Affinity Chromatography and Biological Recognition (Jerusalem, Israel)
June 1991 Guest lecturer: Carbohydrate Network for Graduate Students, The Netherlands Three consecutive lectures at the Free University of Amsterdam, The University of Leiden, and Utrecht University
April 1992 Invited speaker: "Modified avidins for application in avidin-biotin technology: an improvement on nature"; International Symposium on Non-conventional Egg Uses and Newly Emerging Processing Technologies (Banff, Alberta, Canada)
May 1992 Invited speaker: "The cellulose paradox: pollutant par excellence and/or a reclaimable natural resource?"; Use of Natural and Genetically Engineered Microorganisms to Combat Pollution (Kiryat Anavim, Israel)
June 1992 Invited speaker: "The avidin-biotin system" 2nd Russian-Israeli Symposium on Proteins and Peptides (Moscow, Russia)
June 1993 Invited speaker: "Cellulose and cellulosomes", Fourth Gordon Conference on Molecular Mechanisms of Microbial Adhesion (Newport, R.I., U.S.A.)
September 1993 Invited speaker: "The cellulosome: a multipcompnent, cellulose-degrading enzyme complex", 1st Polish-Israeli Symposium on the Chemistry and Biology of Peptides (Gdansk, Poland)
June 1994 Invited participant: "Cellulosome nomenclature"; Workshop on nomenclature of cellulases and other related enzymes (Stanford University Sierra Camp, Lake Tahoe Basin, California)
November 1994 Invited lecture tour: "Avidin-biotin technology"; "The cellulosome"; University of Jyväskylä, University of Tampere, and VTT Biotechnology and Food Research (Espoo) Finland
April 1995 Invited speaker: "Cellulosome domains for novel biotechnological applications"; Carbohydrate Bioengineering Meeting (Elsinore, Denmark)
July 1995 Invited speaker: "Designer cellulosomes, an example of novel biotechnological applications"; 9th meeting on Environmental Sciences, Land and Water; German Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development (Leipzig, Germany)
August 1996 Invited instructor: "The Avidin-Biotin System"; "The Cellulosome"; "Post-translational modifications of proteins"; "Some Problems and Surprises in Isolating Proteins"; The 6th International Summer School, BIO1 "Protein purification and characterization", August 5-16, 1996, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
August 1996 Session chairman and invited speaker: "The cellulosome concept — a paradigm for bacterial degradation of cellulose"; 8th International Congress of Bacteriology and Applied Microbiology Division (International Union of Microbiological Societies IUMS Congresses (Jerusalem, Israel)
November 1996 Invited short lecture: "Dialog between sequence homology and 3d crystal structure defines interaction of functional domains in a multi-enzyme complex"; International Symposium on Bioinformatics-Structure (The 24th Aharon Katzir-Katchalsky Conference, Jerusalem, Israel)
January 1997 Invited speaker, Annual Meeting: "The cellulosome concept — a model for efficient microbial degradation of cellulsose"; Israel Society of Microbiology (Bar Ilan University, Israel)
February 1997 Invited speaker: "Biotechnological applications of the cellulosome and its components "; Symposium on "Advances in Biotechnology — Israel 1997 (February 27, 1997; Technion; Haifa, Israel)
May 1997 Invited plenary lecturer: "Avidin-biotin - past, present, future"; The 16th Annual Meeting of the Israeli Society for Histochemistry and Cytochemistry (May 22, 1997; Soroka Medical Center: Beersheba, Israel)
August 1997 Session co-chairman and invited speaker: "A four-pronged attack on cellulosome structure using biochemistry, molecular biology, crystallography and bioinformatics"; Tricell 97 - International Meeting on Carbohydrases from Trichoderma reesei and other Microorganisms (Ghent, Belgium)
May 1998 Invited foreign speaker: "Three-Dimensional Structure of Cellulosomal Functional Domains"; Symposium on "The Cellulosome, General Meeting of the American Society of Microbiology, '98 (May 17-21, 1998; Atlanta, Georgia, USA)
June 1998 Invited speaker: "Genetic engineering of the cellulosome"; The 8th International Symposium on the Genetics of Industrial Microorganisms (June 28- July 3, 1998; Jerusalem, Israel)
September 1998 Invited speaker: "New perspectives in the structure of cellulosome-related domains from different species"; Mie Bioforum 98 on Genetics, Biochemistry and Ecology of Biomass Degradation (September 7-11, 1998; Suzuka City, Japan)
March 1999 Invited speaker: "Designer cellulosomes for exploitation and management of cellulosics"; American Chemical Society Meeting, (Anaheim, California, March 21-25, 1999)
April 1999 Invited speaker: "Multidisciplinary attack on cellulosome structure"; 3rd Carbohydrate Bioengineering Meeting (Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
July 1999 Conference co-chairman and organizer: 1st Gordon Research Conference on "Cellulases and Cellulosomes" (Proctor Academy, New Hampshire, July 25-30, 1999)
February 2000 Invited speaker: UK-Israeli Binational Symposium on Biotransformations and Biosynthesis (February 14-15 2000, Tel Aviv)
April 2000 Invited speaker: "How microbes deal with the complexities of plant cell wall polysaccharides", Royal Society of Chemistry, "Molecular aspects of polysaccharide behaviour" (Norwich, UK. 3 - 6 April 2000)
May 2000 Invited speaker: "Ultrastructural analysis of the cellulosome-cellulose interaction", Israel Society for Microscopy (May 18, 2000, Beer-Sheva)
June 2000 Session chairman and invited speaker: "Chemical, enzymatic and mutagenetic modifications of avidin and streptavidin", First International Conference on (Strept)avidin-biotin technologies (18-21 June 2000, Banff, Alberta Canada)
October 2000 Speaker: “Bonding with avidin and biotin”, Biorecognition and Affinity, International Symposium in Tribute to Meir Wilchek on his 65th Birthday; (Rehovot, Israel, October 22-25, 2000)
February 2001 Invited speaker: "Designer nanosomes: Chimaeric cellulosome constructs for enhanced solubilization of biomass", Seminar on Microbial Conversion of Biomass to Valuable Compounds
  • Feb. 1-4, 2001, National Food Research Institute, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
  • Feb. 5-9, 2001, Mie University, Tsu, Japan
June 2001 Invited speaker, "Designer nanosomes: Selective engineering of dockerin-containing enzymes into chimaeric scaffoldins to form defined nanoreactors". 4th Carbohydrate Bioengineering Meeting (10-13 June 2001, Stockholm, Sweden)
July 2001 Conference chairman: 2nd Gordon Research Conference on "Cellulases and cellulosomes" (Proctor Academy, New Hampshire, July 29-August 3, 2001)
October 2001 Invited speaker: “How microbes deal with the complexities of plant cell wall polysaccharides: Lessons for biotechnology”. Binational Symposium on Glycobiology (Beer-Sheva, Israel, October 15, 2001)
June 2002 Invited speaker: "Emerging cellulase and cellulosome systems in Ruminococcus". Beyond antimicrobials - the future of gut microbiology, Aberdeen, UK, 12 -15 June 2002
March 2003 Invited speaker: "Chimeric cellulosomes as a basis for efficient degradation of biomass", 225th American Chemical Society Meeting (New Orleans, Louisiana, March 23-27, 2003)
July 2003 Invited speaker: "Structure and assembly of bacterial cellulosomes from different species", The 12th EuroCarbohydrate Symposium (Grenoble, France, 6-11 July 2003)
July 2003 Discussion leader: 3rd Gordon Research Conference on Cellulases and Cellulosomes (Proctor Academy, New Hampshire, July 27-August 1, 2003)
November 2003 Session chairman and invited speaker: "New scaffodins, cohesins and dockerins: What do they tell us about cellulosome structure and architecture", MIE BIOFORUM: Biochemistry, Biotechnology and Ecology of Lignocellulose Degradation (Nemu no Sato, Ise-Shima, Japan, November 10-14, 2003)
February 2004 Invited speaker: "Diversity in cellulosome architecture", 2004 Annual Meeting of the Israel Society of Microbiology, Haifa, February 21-22, 2006
October 2004 Invited speaker: "Designer cellulosomes as emerging tools for enzymatic cracking of biomass", European Biotechnology Symposium (October 26-29, 2004, Marseilles, France)
April 2005 Invited speaker: "Engineering and assembly of designer cellulosomes", 6th Carbohydrate Bioengineering Meeting (Barcelona, Spain, April 3-7, 2005)
June 2005 Invited speaker: "Emerging biotechnological applications of cellulosomes and their functional modules"; Fifth International Symposium on Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology (Shanghai, China, June 27-29, 2005)
August 2005 Discussion leader: 4th Gordon Research Conference on Cellulases and Cellulosomes (Proctor Academy, New Hampshire, August 7-12, 2005)
November 2005 Invited speaker: "From Emulsan to Cellulosomes", Workshop on “Microbial Interactions” (November 10-16, 2005, Tel Aviv)
November 2005 Conference co-chairman: "Half a Century at the Carbohydrate-Protein Interface", Symposium in honor of Nathan Sharon’s 80th birthday (Rehovot, November 23-24, 2005)
December 2005 Invited participant: US Department of Energy Biomass to Biofuels Workshop, shaping the future R&D direction for DOE core programs in the biomass arena. December 7-8, 2005, Washington DC
February 2006 Ulitzky Prize Lecture: "Cellulosomes: Past, Present and Future", 2006 Annual Meeting of the Israel Society of Microbiology (Beer Sheva, February 21-22, 2006)
September 2006 Invited plenary lecturer: :Potential of Designer Cellulosomes for Biomass Conversion—Outside the Box!: Conference on Biomass to Chemicals and Fuels: Science, Technology and Public Policy, James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Rice University, Houston, Texas (September 25-26, 2006)
February 2007 Conference chair: 2007 Annual Meeting of the Israel Society of Microbiology, (Ramat Gan, February 19-20, 2007)
March 2007 Invited speaker: "Cellulosome: Yesterday, today and tomorrow" State-of-the-art symposium on “Incredible Anaerobes: From Physiology to Genomics to Fuel”. (University of Georgia, Athens, March 2nd and 3rd, 2007)
May 2007 Invited speaker: "Ligno-cellulose: Engineering microbes and their enzymes for biofuel production", Inauguration of the Manna Center for Plant Biosciences: Minisymposium, “Bio-fuels: Scientific, Ethical, and Economic Challenges” (Tel Aviv, May 15, 2007)
May 2007 Invited speaker: "The Ins and Outs of Designer Cellulosomes", 107th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology (Toronto, Canada, May 20-24, 2007)
June 2007 Invited speaker: "Development of the avidin-biotin system: Early history", Israel Society for Histochemistry and Cytochemistry, (Haifa, June 5, 2007)
August 2007 Invited speaker: "Cellulosome and Cellulosomics: Where do we draw the lines?" 5th Gordon Research Conference on Cellulases and Cellulosomes (Proctor Academy, New Hampshire, July 29-August 3, 2007)
October 2007 Invited speaker: "Bioengineering of cellulosomes", J. Craig Venter Institute Genomes, Medicine and the Environment Conference (Paradise Point Resort & Spa, San Diego, California, October 8 - 10, 2007)
www.jcvi.org/meetings/gme/2007/progSpeakers.php
November 2007 Invited Featured Speaker: "Bioengineering of cellulosomes: Prospects for conversion of biomass to bioenergy", Biobased Industry Outlook Conference (Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa; November 5 and 6, 2007)
February 2008 Invited speaker: "Cellulosomes of the Clostridia and Related Bacteria", The Marie Curie Conference on the Physiology and Genetics of Non-pathogenic Clostridia, Institut National des Sciences Appliquées of Toulouse (INSA), (Toulouse, France, February 25-28, 2008)
March 2008 Invited speaker, Madrid Seminars:
"Bioengineering of cellulosomes: Future conversion of biomass to bioenergy", Centro de Investigaciones Biologicas (CIB)
"The intricacies of cellulosomes in the bacterial world", Centro Nacional de Biotecnología, (CNB) (Madrid Spain, March 25-26, 2008)
April 2008 Invited speaker: "Free versus Cellulosomal Enzymes as Designer Cellulosome Components", The American Chemical Society (New Orleans, LA April 1-6, 2008)
May 2008 Invited speaker: Novozymes Science Infusion Seminar. "Bioengineering of cellulosomes: Prospects for the biomass-to-biofuels initiative" (May 15-16, 2008, Copenhagen, Denmark)
June 2008 Invited speaker: Summer School on Protein Biotechnology (June 4-7, Heraklion, Crete)
July 2008 Invited speaker: "Toying with cellulosome machinery: Setting the stage for understanding its functionality", 22nd Annual Symposium of the Protein Society, July 19-23, 2008, San Diego, CA
September 2008 Invited speaker: "Can we mimic cellulosme efficiency?" Basic studies towards future construction of functional designer celulosomes”, 4th International Workshop: "MIE BIOFORUM 2008 – Biotechnology of Lignocellulose Degradation, Biomass Utilization, and Biorefinery", Sept. 1-5, 2008; Shima City, Mie Prefecture
October 2008 Invited speaker: 13th International Biotechnology Symposium (IBS-2008) October 12 to 17 in Dalian, China
November 2008 Invited speaker, “Cellulose-degrading bacteria”, ISM Workshop on Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology (November 13-15, 2008, Kibbutz HaGoshrim)
December 2008 Invited speaker, University of Wisconsin Department of Biochemistry Fall 2008 Colloquium Series on Biofuels
February, 2009 Invited speaker,  “Cellulases, cellulosomes and bioenergy” International Symposium "Bioenergy: Harnessing Plant Metabolism" (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Quality Sciences, Rehovot, Israel; February 23-26,2009)
March-April, 2009 Invited speaker and Session Chair,  “Bioengineering of designer cellulosomes: Future conversion of cellulosic biomass to biofuels”,  European Conference on Synthetic Biology, European Science Foundation, Hotel Eden Roc, Sant Feliu de Guixols, Spain (March 29-April 3, 2009)
June, 2009 Invited speaker, “Cellulosomes of Clostridia: key multienzyme complexes for lignocellulose bioconversion processes”. Congress of the Italian Society for Microbial Biotechnology; Spoleto, Italy (June 11-13, 2009)
June, 2009 Invited speaker, “Cellulases, Cellulosomes and BioEnergy". Samuel Neaman Institute and BioNorth Initiative (Technion — Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa)
July, 2009 Invited speaker, "Cellulases, Cellulosomes and Biofuels". “Light Energy for a Brighter Future. Two-day Symposium of the Royal Geographic Society. (Imperial College London, July 6-7, 2009)
July, 2009 Discussion Leader, 6th Gordon Research Conference on “Cellulosomes, Cellulases and & Other Carbohydrate Modifying Enzymes (Proctor Academy, New Hampshire, July 29-August 3, 2009)
August, 2009 Invited speaker, "Cellulases, Cellulosomes and BioEnergy". American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science for its Science at Sea (August 21-29, 2009)
September, 2009 Invited speaker, “Designer Cellulosomes for Biomass Conversion” Petrobras Pertoleo Brasiliero, Rio De Janeiro Brazil (September 8, 2009)
December, 2009 Invited speaker, “Functional and Structural Studies on Cellulosomes: Multi-enzyme “machines” for degradation of cellulosic biomass”, Tel Aviv University (December 12, 2009)
December, 2009 Invited speaker, “Cellulose, Designer Cellulosomes, and BioEnergy”, Technion’s Excellence Program, Haifa (December 29, 2009)
April, 2010 Session Chair, “Biomass Enzymes Characterization and Catalysis”, Invited speaker, “Structural and Functional Divergence of the Family 3 CBMs”, 32nd Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals (Clearwater, FL, April 19-22, 2010)
June, 2010 Invited speaker, “Designer cellulosomes: Synthetic multi-enzyme macromolecular complexes”. 35th FEBS Congress, Gothenburg, Sweden (June 26-July 1, 2010)
August-September, 2010 Invited speaker, “From natural to synthetic cellulosomes: Synergistic biocatalysis of plant cell walls”. 5th International Congress on Biocatalysis (Hamburg University of Technology, Germany, August 29-September 2, 2010)
September, 2010 Invited speaker, “Designer cellulosomes as a viable macromolecular platform for the nanosciences”, Workshop on “Nanosciences – Merging Disciplines” (Venice International University, Italy, September 20-24, 2010)
October, 2010 Invited speaker, “Cellulose, cellulosomes and the promise for production of biofuels” 12th International Symposium on Biopolymers, ISBP2010, Oct. 3-7, 2010, Stuttgart, Germany
November, 2010 Invited speaker, “Novel enzyme paradigms for biomass conversion to biofuels” First French-Israeli Conference on Renewable Energy (Dan Panorama Hotel, Tel Aviv November 10-11, 2010)
November-December, 2010 Invited speaker, “Cellulases, cellulosomes and biomass conversion to biofuels” Korean Institute of Technology-Weizmann Symposium on Alternative energy (Rehovot, Nov. 28-Dec. 1)
December, 2010 Invited speaker, “Do biofuels have a place in a hungry world?“, International Conference on ‘China and the Renewable Energy Sector’ 14-16th December at the Hebrew University, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem.
February, 2011 Session Chair, Biofuels and Alternative Energy, 6th ILANIT Congress (Eilat, February 7-10, 2011)
May, 2011 Invited speaker, “Designer cellulosomes: A molecular platform for the nanosciences”, Forces in Biomolecular Systems, Collaborative Research Centers, Sonderforschungsbereiche (SFB), Ludwig Maximilians Universität (LMU), Munich May 13, 2011
May, 2011 Keynote speaker, “OK, so we’ve sequenced the genome! Now what do I do?” Session on High-throughput analysis: gene cloning and enzyme screening in the genomic era, 9th Carbohydrate Bioengineering Meeting (CBM9) Hotel Tivoli Marina, Vilamoura (Algarve), Portugal, May 15-18, 2011
May, 2011 Invited speaker, “Designer cellulosomes as a molecular platform for the nanosciences”, Center for Nanoscience (CeNS), Ludwig Maximilians Universität (LMU), Munich May 20, 2011
May-June, 2011 Keynote speaker, session on  “Metabolic Engineering for the Environment” BAGECO 11, Symposium on “Microbial Biotechnology in service of a new Global Economy”, Corfu, Greece, May 29-June 2, 2011
November, 2011 Invited speaker, “Cellulosomes: History, Mystery and the China Connection”, Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS-QIBEBT), November 4, 2011
December, 2011 Invited speaker, “Cellulases, cellulosomes and conversion of cellulosic biomass to biofuels”, BREW Biofuels Renewable Energy Workshop, Golan Heights December 6-9, 2011
December, 2011 Session chair, Israel Society for Biotechnology Engineering (ISBE)-Biotechnology Engineering Conference
March, 2012 Invited speaker, “Structural studies on cellulosomes”, Symposium on Structural Biology of Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes, Division of Cellulose and Renewable Materials, 243rd ACS National Meeting, San Diego, CA
March, 2012 Invited speaker, “Cellulosome-inspired systems for improved conversion of cellulosic biomass “ Session on Advances in Biofuels Production: Protein Engineering, Division of Biochemical Technology 243rd ACS National Meeting, March 25 - March 29, 2012, San Diego, California
June, 2012 Invited speaker, third party specialist, "The makings of designer cellulosomes" China-Germany Bilateral Symposium on Metabolic Engineering & Advanced Biofuels, June 10-17, 2012, Qingdao (Tsingtao), China
July, 2012 Invited speaker and session chair, “Bacterial cellulosomes for efficient degradation of lignocellulose”, International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS) 31st General Assembly, 5-9 July 2012 in Suzhou, China.
 
Organization of Scientific Conferences
  1. Scientific Secretary: 8th International Symposium on Affinity Chromatography and Biological Recognition, Jerusalem, Israel, October 29-November 3, 1989
  2. Organizer and Vice Chair: First Gordon Research Conference on "Cellulases and Cellulosomes" (New conference, Proctor Academy, New Hampshire, July 25-30, 1999)
  3. Organizing committee: Biorecognition and Affinity, a Tribute to Meir Wilchek on his 65th birthday (Rehovot, Israel, October 22-25, 2000)
  4. Chairman: Gordon Research Conference on "Cellulases and Cellulosomes" (Proctor Academy, New Hampshire, July 29-August 2, 2001)
  5. Co-chairman: "Half a Century at the Carbohydrate-Protein Interface", Symposium in honor of Nathan Sharon’s 80th birthday (Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, November 23-24, 2005)
  6. Conference chair, Annual Meeting of the Israel Society of Microbiology (Wohl Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel, February 19-20, 2007)
 
Scientific Editing
Edited book: "Avidin-biotin technology." Methods in Enzymology, Volume 184. Academic Press, 1990.
Co-editor (invited): Current Opinion in Biotechnology 2009 Environmental Biotechnology section (Vol. 20, issue 3)
Editor of Review Journal: Biotechnology Advances (Elsevier) (From 1999-present)
Associate Editor: Biotechnology for Biofuels (From 2007-present)
Advisory Board: Turkish Journal of Biology (From 2007-present)

 

 
Reviewer of manuscripts submitted to the following Journals
Acta Cryst. D, F Anal. Biochem. Anal. Chem.
Anal. Chim. Acta Appl. Biochem. Biotechnol. Appl. Environ. Microbiol
Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek Arch. Microbiol.
Biochem. J. Biochemistry Biochim. Biophys. Acta
Bioconj. Chem. Biophys. J. Biotechnol. Bioeng.
Biotechnol. J. Biotechnol. Progress Can. J. Microbiol.
Carbohydrate Res. Cell. Molec. Life Sci. Clin. Chem.
Curr. Genetics EMBO Reports  
Enz. Microb. Technol. Eur. J. Biochem.  
Extremophiles FEBS Lett. FEMS Microbiol. Lett.
Gene J. Bacteriol. J. Biol. Chem.
J. Chromatogr. J. Mol. Biol. J. Proteome Res.
Langmuir Microbial Ecology Microbiology
Molecular Microbiology Nature Biotechnol. Natrue Rev. Microbiol.
Nature Struct. Biol. Plant Science Process Biochem.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA Protein Expr. Purif. Protein Sci.
Proteomics Rev. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Science
Structure Talanta  
Trends Biotechnol. (TIBTECH) Turk. J. Biol.  
 
Patents
o    Modified Avidin and Streptavidin Molecules and Use Thereof (5,973,124 USA, 122,444 Israel)
o    Patent: “Azobenzene Derivatives and Intermediates Thereof (HABA)” (6,602,987 USA, 143,018 Israel)
o    Patent:  “Avidin Derivatives and Uses Thereof” (6,632,929 USA)
o    Patent: “Single and Multilayer Protein System and Methods for Assembling Them” (7,217,575, USA)
o    U.S. Patent application: “Protein Affinity Purification by Cohesin-Dockerin Interaction” (WO/2010/016067).
o    U.S. provisional patent application: “Thermostability enhancement of Clostridium thermocellum cellulosomal endoglucanase Cel8A by a single glycine substitution”
o    U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/304,500: “Combined cellulases and xylanases in designer cellulosome format for efficient hydrolysis of recalcitrant cellulosic biomass”
 
Publications: ~300 full publications (Primary publications in journals, Invited reviews, Chapters in books)