Dr. Neta Regev-Rudzki

Dr. Neta Regev-Rudzki, born in Jerusalem in 1972, completed her BSc in Chemistry (1998) and an MSc in biochemistry and genetics (2002) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She went on to complete her PhD in 2009 on Mitochondria in yeast model in the laboratory of Prof. Ophry Pines, Hadassah Medical School. From 2011 Dr. Regev-Rudzki has been conducting her postdoctoral training in Parasitology, Malaria, at Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) in Melbourne, Australia. She joins the Weizmann Institute of Science in August 2014.
Dr. Regev-Rudzki studies the complex interactions between microscopic organisms. During her postdoctoral training at WEHI, Dr. Regev-Rudzki discovered that malaria parasites, which live inside the red blood cells, communicate with each other in the human host body to coordinate their differentiation into sexual forms. The parasite must develop a sexual form in the human host in order to be transmitted back to the infecting mosquito. Dr. Regev-Rudzki demonstrated that individual parasites located within separate red blood cells are able to send communications, tiny packages of DNA, to one another via the blood system itself. This study, conducted in collaboration with the University of Melbourne, could provide a foundation for future treatment which will block the parasite’s transmission.
Dr. Regev-Rudzki’s prizes include the Rector Prize for BSc students at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; the Israel Knesset Prize for outstanding BSc students; a prize from the Israeli Society for Microbiology for an outstanding PhD thesis; participation in the 57th annual Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting; the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Early Career Post Doctorate Fellowship; the Australian Research Council Postdoctorate Fellowship; the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Postdoctorate fellowship for outstanding students; and the Rothschild Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Dr. Regev-Rudzki is married and has three children.