Prof. Zvi Livneh Department of Biological Chemistry
Incumbent of the Maxwell Ellis Professorial Chair in Biomedical Research
E-mail: zvi.livneh@weizmann.ac.il
Tel: +972-8-9343203 Fax: +972-8-8344169
Weizmann Institute of Science Rehovot, Israel 76100

Genomic DNA is constantly damaged by external agents such as sunlight, and by intracellular agents, such as reactive oxygen species. It was estimated that the DNA in each cell of our body is damaged at least 20,000 times every day.
In order to enable proper function of DNA replication and gene expression, all organisms utilize DNA repair mechanisms. Failure to repair DNA, or its error-prone repair, can cause severe biological consequences, including cancer, immunodeficiency, premature aging, and neurodegeneration.
Our laboratory is investigating molecular mechanisms of DNA repair and mutagenesis and their biological role, primarily in cancer.