Dr. Yifat Merbl

Department of Immunology Weizmann Institute of Science

Dr. Merbl earned her BSc in computational biology, summa cum laude, in 2003 from Bar-Ilan University. In 2005, she earned her MSc at the Weizmann Institute of Science, where she studied immunology in the laboratory of Prof. Irun Cohen. For her doctoral studies, Dr. Merbl attended Harvard Medical School, where she earned her PhD in systems biology in 2010 under the guidance of Prof. Marc Kirschner. She conducted her postdoctoral studies at the Harvard Medical School as well, further refining her methods for studying post-translational modification of proteins. She joined the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2014.

Dr. Merbl studies autoimmune disorders, which are most likely caused by a complex combination of genetic and environmental factors. For example, autoimmunity can arise as a result of errors in cellular protein levels, due to alterations in post-translational modifications (PTMs). Dr. Merbl uses PTM profiling—a system she first established during her postdoctoral studies and refined at Weizmann—to uncover PTM signatures and targets of relevance to malignant tumors and Alzheimer’s disease. She has also developed a method called mass spectrometry analysis of proteolytic peptides (MAPP) for generating patient-specific signatures of protein breakdown in cells and tissues. By identifying peptides as they are generated by the proteasome, MAPP is poised to reveal new insights into autoimmune diseases, which are governed by inflammation and cell death.

Dr. Merbl is the recipient of numerous awards for her scholastic and academic excellence, including an ERC Starting Grant (2015), the Alon Scholarship (2015), the Gruber Foundation Young Scientist Award (2015), and the Israeli Centers of Excellence Young Investigator Award (2014). She is also listed as a co-inventor on several pending patent applications for her proteomics techniques.