Dr. Neta Regev-Rudzki, born in Jerusalem in 1972, earned her BSc in chemistry (1998), and MSc in biochemistry and genetics (2002) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She went on to complete her PhD in 2009 at the Hadassah Medical School. In 2011, Dr. Regev-Rudzki began her postdoctoral training at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) in Melbourne, Australia. She joined the Weizmann Institute of Science in August 2014, and is the incumbent of the Enid Barden and Aaron J. Jade President's Development Chair for New Scientists in Memory of Cantor John Y. Jade.
Dr. Regev-Rudzki studies the complex interactions between microscopic organisms. During her postdoctoral training at WEHI, she discovered that malaria parasites, which live inside human red blood cells, communicate with each other 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, in the form of 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. In March 2015, she launched the first malaria research laboratory at the Weizmann Institute of Science geared toward studying different aspects of malaria and parasite cellular biology.
Dr. Regev-Rudzki’s awards include the Rothschild Postdoctoral Fellowship; the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Postdoctoral Fellowship for Outstanding Students; the Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship; the Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship; the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Early Career Post Doctorate Fellowship; participation in the 57th annual Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting; a prize from the Israeli Society for Microbiology for an outstanding PhD thesis; the Israel Knesset Prize for outstanding BSc students; and the Rector Prize for BSc students at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Dr. Regev-Rudzki has three children, Taliyah, Eden and Noam.