Dr. Yaniv Ziv

Department of Neurobiology|Weizmann Institute of Science

Dr. Yaniv Ziv earned a BSc in biology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2001. He completed a direct PhD program in neurobiology at the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2007. Dr. Ziv was a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Biology at Stanford University starting in 2008. He joined the Department of Neurobiology at the Weizmann Institute in 2013.
Dr. Ziv developed a new experimental method to observe thousands of neurons in the brains of live mice to address fundamental questions about the brain that have so far been beyond scientists’ reach. His experimental approach combines optical imaging with a number of recent technical advances: A miniaturized fluorescence microscope that researchers can mount on the head of a freely-moving mouse like a helmet; ultra-thin, rod-shaped implantable lenses, which serve as micro-endoscopes; and genetically engineered “optogenetic” indicators of neuronal activity that “light up” when the neuron is fired. The system produces high-resolution imaging of cells deep within a living brain, with the ability to embed these systems for months. He plans to use it to explore the neural dynamics underlying long-term memory and other functions in both the healthy and diseased brain.
Dr. Ziv’s academic and professional honors include a number of student travel awards from 2004 through 2006, including the Katzir-Katchalsky Student Travel Fellowship. He won the 2007 Otto Schwartz Foundation award for excellence in studies and research, and the Weizmann Institute of Science Award for an outstanding PhD thesis in 2007. Dr. Ziv was awarded a Rothschild Foundation postdoctoral fellowship and a Machiah Foundation postdoctoral fellowship. Since 2012, he has been a scientific advisor for Inscopix in Palo Alto, California, a biotech startup company based on an innovative neural imaging technology. He won the Sieratzki Family Prize for Advances in Neuroscience in 2014.

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