Prof. Joel Stavans

Microbes in nature, from soil and ocean to host-associated microbiomes, are typically found in complex communities that may consist of myriads of different, interacting species. My group is establishing a new line of experiments and modelling of bacterial communities of ancient origin (about 700 million years ago), their ecology and different lifestyles. This opens a window on early life on Earth that may inform about life in other planets (Astrobiology). 

Additional current projects in the lab include circadian clocks and developmental pattern formation in multicellular cyanobacteria at a single-cell level, target location during horizontal gene transfer processes in vivo at the level of individual molecules (https://www.weizmann.ac.il/complex/stavans/home)