Welcome Rawan!
11.08.2025
Welcome Rawan!
Rawan Alatawna did her PhD in Dr. Ramon Birnbaum's lab at Ben Gurion University on transcription factors and gene regulation.
she joins our lab as a postdoc and will work on the mRNA transfer project.
News and upcoming events
Jeff's book is out!
12.05.2025
Jeff's book is out!
The book is titled:
Bioengineering Enlightenment: The Revolutionary Science Behind Sustainable Psychedelic Medicine
How genetic engineering can power the psychedelic renaissance and change our minds – and our world – one molecule at a time.
The psychedelic renaissance has gained momentum in recent years, given its demonstrated value in the treatment of major global mental health issues, like PTSD and depression, as well as its well-documented use in the search for spiritual enlightenment. But the question of how psychedelics are sourced, i.e., where they come from, remains largely unknown to most users, both professional and recreational. Previous works have shown that, yes, psychedelic drugs can change our worldview. But can this unexplored avenue into human consciousness change not only our perception—but the actual world we live in?
Written for both the layman and the scientifically inclined, the book examines the historical context for the use of psychedelics, their means of sourcing, whether by chemical synthesis or natural extraction, and their often hidden ecological, environmental, and ethical consequences. Gerst delves into the individual biosynthetic pathways that lead to psychedelic synthesis in a comprehensive, scientific manner to shed light on how these materials are derived—and how we can now harness genetic engineering to further the psychedelic renaissance.
The book is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F6QMRXW8
EASI-ORC is published
19.02.2025
EASI-ORC is published
Congratulations Shahar and Liav!
"EASI-ORC: A pipeline for the efficient analysis and segmentation of smFISH images for organelle-RNA colocalization measurements in yeast" is an image analysis method developed by Shahar with Liav's help. It is now published in Communications Biology journal.
Our newest mRNA transfer work is on-line
07.11.2024
Our newest mRNA transfer work is on-line
The paper posted to bioRxiv by Sandi, Anand and Gal shows the first proof that transferred mRNAs are being translated and can change the physiology of acceptor cells.
Complementation of a human disease phenotype in vitro by intercellular mRNA transfer
Emese's paper in on bioRxiv
05.10.2024
Emese's paper in on bioRxiv
Congrtulations to Emese for posting her paper on bioRxiv
Conservation of mRNA operon formation in the control of the heat shock response in mammalian cells
Her work shows that mRNAs encoding heat-shock proteins assemble into transperons in yeast and in mammals. This is the first work showing mammalian transperons.
EASI-ORC is online!
04.10.2024
EASI-ORC is online!
Congratulations to Shahar for posting his paper on bioRxiv:
This paper describes an algorithm that Shahar developed, together with Liav, to analyze co-localization information of mRNA (by FISH) and any organelle in a yeast cell.
Anand passed his MSc exam
15.05.2024
Anand passed his MSc exam
Congratulations to Anand for passing his MSc exam. Anand did excelent work in developing an in vitro and in vivo model that will allow us to further study mRNA transfer between cells, and utilize it for therapeutics.
Good luck, Anand, in your future research.
Raman's paper on ribosome heterogeneity is up
18.03.2024
Raman's paper on ribosome heterogeneity is up.
Raman analyzed yeast strain lacking ribosomal protein paralogs and found paralog specificity under various conditions. Paralog usage by the yeast cells is likely determined by the 3'UTR of the paralog's mRNA/
The paper is now up in bioRxiv
Sandi's "Transferome" paper is published!
30.05.2023
Sandi's "Transferome" paper is published!
Congratulations to Sandi , Daniella, Gal and everyone invloved in the "transferome" paper that was published at eLife
"Global analysis of contact-dependent human-to-mouse intercellular mRNA and lncRNA transfer in cell culture" eLife 12:e83584.
Congratulations to Raman for getting his PhD
16.01.2023
Congratulations to Raman for getting his PhD.
This morning, Raman defended his thesis, which was approved.
You may now call him Dr. Raman Singh.
Goodbye Alisa!
15.12.2022
Goodbye Alisa!
Alisa Kinzel joined our lab as a M.Sc. student over a year ago and worked on mRNA multiplexing. Now that her thesis is submitted, its time to say goodbye, and good luck with your future research!
Welcome Dheerendra
12.09.2022
Welcome Dheerendra!
Dheerendra Pratap Mall did his PhD at the lab of Dr. Debabrata Biswas at CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology and Jadavpur University, West Bengal, India. He studied transcription regulation in mammalian cells.
Dheerendra is joining our lab as a postdoc.
Good luck!
Transperon review is published
04.08.2022
Congratulations to Rohini and Emese for the publication of the review paper on Transperons in Trends in Genetics!
"Transperons: RNA operons as effectors of coordinated gene expression in eukaryotes"
Good luck to Rohini and her new lab!
15.05.2022
Good luck to Rohini and her new lab!
Ex-postdoc Rohini Nair left the lab today, to open her own lab at Gujarat Biotechnology University in Gandhinagar, India.
Best of luck with your future research!
Congratulations to Rohini for been awarded a Ramanujan Fellowship!
31.03.2022
Congratulations to Rohini for been awarded a Ramanujan Fellowship!
Ramanujan Fellowship is meant for brilliant Indian scientists and engineers from outside India to take up scientific research positions in India, those Indian scientists/engineers who want to return to India from abroad. The fellowship is scientist -specific and very selective.
RaPID protocol is published at Bio-Protocol
06.01.2022
An updated RaPID protocol is published at Bio-Protocol.
"An Aptamer-based mRNA Affinity Purification Procedure (RaPID) for the Identification of Associated RNAs (RaPID-seq) and Proteins (RaPID-MS) in Yeast" Bio-protocol 12(1): e4274
Congratulations to Rohini for this publication.
Global analysis of mRNA transfer on bioRxiv
08.12.2021
Global analysis of mRNA transfer on bioRxiv
Sandipan's paper of a transcriptome-wide analysis on mRNA transfer is now uploaded to bioRxiv.
Congrats Sandi & Daniella
Welcome Shahar
01.11.2021
Welcome Shahar!
Shahar Garin did his M.Sc at the Technion at the lab of Yoav Arava, and is now joining our lab as a Ph.D. student.
Good luck!
Goodbye Daniella & Welcome Alisa
18.08.2021
Goodbye Daniella & Welcome Alisa
After a frutiful M.Sc. on a difficult project (mRNA transfer), Daniella is leaving the lab. Thank you Daniella for all the hard work and good luck in your future work.
Alisa Kinzel is joining our lab as a new M.Sc. student. She will work with Emese on mRNA multiplexing. Welcome and good luck!
Rohini & Dima's paper published in eLife
04.05.2021
Rohini & Dima's paper published in eLife.
Congratulations!
The research on mRNA multiplexing in yeast was initiated by Dima and continued and finished by Rohini.
It is now published in eLife:
Emese continues to study this process, this time in mammalian cells.
Welcome Liav and congratulation to Daniella
22.04.2021
Welcome Liav and congratulation to Daniella upon approving her M.Sc. thesis!
Liav joins our lab as a new Ph.D. student to work on mRNA localization and mRNP assembly in yeast.
Daniella's thesis on analysis of the mechanism of mRNA transfer through nanotubes was approved.
Camila left the lab
25.03.2021
Camila left the lab
Sadly, Camila decided to leave Israel and return to Brazil, her home country.
Camila contributed a lot to the study of SECReTE RNA cis-elements in yeast, and began to expand to human and coronavirus.
Camila - we already miss you!
We wish you success in your future research.
New review paper on RNA transfer through tunneling nanotubes.
27.12.2020
New review paper on RNA transfer through tunneling nanotubes.
In the paper, written by Gal & Sandi, we provide current knowledge on mRNA, miRNA & viral RNA transfer through TNTs between cells. we compare to plant plasmodesmata and discuss technical challenges.
"RNA transfer through tunneling nanotubes". Biochem Soc Trans BST20200113.
New lab paper posted on bioRxiv
15.12.2020
New lab paper posted on bioRxiv
New paper from the lab titled "Translational control as a novel regulator of gradient sensing and chemotropism in yeast" was posted on bioRxiv server.
This project was headed by former senior intern Rita Gelin-Licht, together with Rohini and Raman, and in collaboration with Maya Schuldiner's lab and Andre Levchenko's lab.
Weolcome, Emese!
25.10.2020
Welcome, Emese!
Emese Pataki is joining our lab as a postdoctoral researcher.
Sandi's methods paper is published
28.07.2020
Sandi's paper in Methods in Molecular Biology is now published.
The paper "A Protocol for Non-biased Identification of RNAs Transferred Between Heterologous Mammalian Cell Types Using RNA Tagging, Cell Sorting, and Sequencing" provides simple method for the unbiased and quantitative identification of the complete range of transferred mRNAs in a mammlian cell co-culture.
Rohini's & Dima's paper on mRNA multiplexing uploaded to bioRxiv
29.06.2020
Rohini's & Dima's paper on mRNA multiplexing uploaded to bioRxiv
In the paper, "Multiplexed mRNA assembly into ribonucleoprotein particles plays an operon-like role in the control of yeast cell physiology", they suggest a model of an eukaryotic functional alternative to bacterial operons: in bacteria a single gene encodes several proteins that function in the same complex/pathway. In eukaryotes, mRNAs from separate genes assemble in the nucleus, and co-transported to a sub-cellular destination.
A new bioRxiv paper from the lab on RNA elements in SARS-CoV-2
20.04.2020
A new bioRxiv paper from the lab on RNA elements in SARS-CoV-2
We analyzed cis-RNA elements called SECReTE in SARS-CoV-2 and other single-strand RNA viruses. This is a bioinformatics paper only, now posted on bioRxiv.
The title reads: “Identification and enrichment of SECReTE cis-acting RNA elements in the Coronaviridae and other (+) single-strand RNA viruses”.
The work was done by Gal & Camila from the lab, with help from Tsviya - our departmental bioinformatician.
The lab won 3rd place at Purim contest with "My RNA" dance
05.03.2020
The lab won 3rd place at Purim contest with "My RNA" dance
At the annual depratmental Purim costum contest, our lab won 3rd place with the song & dance "My RNA".
The Gerst lab will present at ILANIT (FISEB) 2020 meeting
11.02.2020
The Gerst lab will present at ILANIT (FISEB) 2020 meeting
At the FISEB meeting in Eilat, 17-20/2/2020, Jeff will give a talk on Raman's work on specialized ribosomes (19/2, 2nd session: RNA localization & translation; Royal beach Hadar hall).
Rohini, Camila & Gal will present E-posters. Come and say hello!
Gal is appointed as Assistant Staff Scientist
09.09.2019
Gal is appointed as Assistant Staff Scientist
The appointment will begin on October 1st, 2019.
Gal's book chapter in Methods in Molecular Biology is published!
14.08.2019
Gal's book chapter in Methods in Molecular Biology is published!
This chapter provides a protocol for detection of mRNA transfer between cells by single-molecule FISH. It also tells the story of our attempts to preserve tunneling nanotubes during the FISH protocol, and the surprising new knowldege we gained by failing to do so...
Gal wrote a "Behind the Paper" blog post at Springer, which you can read here.
Gal at ASCB-EMBO
21.07.2019
Gal is co-organizing a session at ASCB-EMBO2019
Gal is co-organizing a Special Interest Subgroup session on Tunneling Nanotubes at the upcoming ASCB-EMBO 2019 meeting, December, 2019, Washington D.C.
The session is co-organized with Dianne Cox (Albert Einstein College of Medicine); Karine Gousset (California State University Fresno); and Chiara Zurzolo (Pasteur Institute).
Rohini and Camila are going to EMBO workshop on RNP network dynamics
21.07.2019
Rohini and Camila will be at EMBO workshop on RNP network dynamics.
Rohini and Camila are going to present their work at the EMBO workshop on RNP network dynamics 29/9/2019, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Osnat and Camila's paper is published at PLOS Genetics
01.07.2019
Osnat and Camila's paper is published at PLOS Genetics
A secretion-enhancing cis regulatory targeting element (SECReTE) involved in mRNA localization and protein synthesis. It was conducted in collaboration with Pilpel lab and Tsviya Olender and describes a cis-regulatory element in mRNAs which targets the mRNA to the endoplasmic reticulum and enhances secretion of the protein product.
Recent Events
16.03.2016
Hannah finishes her M.Sc. thesis - congratulations!
Dima’s and Boris’ paper on the role of COPI in mRNA localization to mitochondria and in mitochondrial function was accepted to Cell Reports
Gal’s paper on the use of the MS2 system was published online in RNA