The Clore Center for Biological Physics

Benjamin Geiger, Director
The Erwin Neter Professor of Cell and Tumor Biology  

The Clore Center was founded to promote and enhance interdisciplinary research in the emerging field of biological physics. Its income is based on a major donation by the Clore Foundation and additional generous gifts by other donors. In 2002 the Clore Center supported 4 research projects, carried out jointly by research groups with complementary background and expertise. The supported projects included the following topics: (i) cooperative division in amoebae; (ii) threading macromolecules in nanoporous membranes; (iii) a novel, capacitor-based detector for single molecule studies and (iv) single molecule studies of protein folding. In addition, the Center, together with the Curie Institute in Paris, initiated and supported an international symposium on selected topics in biological physics.

The steering committee of the Center has defined the following activities as high priority for funding during 2003:

1. One research project, conducted jointly by two research groups with different disciplinary background. The study should be a new and genuine collaborations (rather than a continuation of an existing project). Support will be at a level of up to $80.000 (for the two groups together) for one year.

2. Seed support for novel projects at early stages. The supported projects should be in the general field of biological physics and the support will be modest, ranging form a few thousands and up to $20.000.

3. Organization of workshops in the field of biological physics to enhance research cooperation between investigators at the Weizmann Institute and other universities in Israel. The Clore Center will support local workshops on specific selected topics.

4. Organization of international symposia - the Center plans to support one international meeting to be held in Israel.