Born in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1951, Moti Liscovitch received a B.Sc. degree in the Life Sciences in 1976 from Tel Aviv University. He earned his M.Sc. in 1979 and a Ph.D. in 1984, both from the Weizmann Institute of Science. After spending two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he joined the Weizmann Institute faculty in 1986 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1994 and to Full Professor in 2001. He was a Visiting Professor at Harvard Medical School and MIT. Moti received numerous honors, including the H.R. Lindner Memorial Prize in Biochemical Endocrinology awarded by the Israel Endocrine Society, and the Jeanette and Samuel Lubell Prize of the Weizmann Institute’s Scientific Council. He was the incumbent of the Harold L. Korda Professorial Chair in Biology.

Prof. Mordechai (Moti) Liscovitch’s research interests concerned the molecular signals and mechanisms involved in the proliferation, survival and dispersal of cancer cells. One of the main avenues of research in his laboratory focused on a protein called caveolin-1, originally believed to act as a tumor suppressor. However, Liscovitch found that this protein is present in large amounts in multidrug-resistant cancer cells, and his team explored the hypothesis that in advanced, multidrug-resistant and metastatic cancer, caveolin-1 might promote the survival and dispersal of malignant cells. In another avenue of research, Liscovitch focused on phospholipase D, an enzyme that plays an important role in signal transduction and intracellular membrane traffic. His aim was to elucidate the enzyme’s regulation and mechanism of action. Liscovitch also developed an innovative approach for generating various protein forms designed to be susceptible to drugs. The approach, as well as other findings in the lab, may in the future help design innovative cancer therapies, particularly for the treatment of multidrug-resistant and metastatic cancer.

Moti passed away in 2008 leaving his wife, Bilha and two children, Noa and Dror. He was interested in nature conservation and enjoyed gardening.