Research Groups

The Ben Shaanan Lab investigates how pain—a complex sensory and emotional experience—shapes the behavioral and physiological responses to injury. Driven by the universal reality that most organisms experience tissue damage, often accompanied by pain, we explore the mechanistic links between the underlying neuronal components of pain and tissue regeneration.

Chen lab studies the neurobiology of stress

• Gene & stress interaction: epigenetic mechanisms
• Stress linked psychopathologies
• Metabolism and eating disorders
• Complex behavior
• Early life stress
• Stress circuitry and regulation

Fainzilber lab focus is on size and length sensing and growth control in healthy and injured neurons.

• Retrograde injury signaling in lesioned nerve: how does the cell body receive information about an injury from the distant lesion site in the axon.
• Cell Length/Size Sensing: how cells sense or measure distances, or in other words the fundamental cell biological issue of cell size homeostasis

Hornstein lab studies mechanisms of neurodegeneration, focusing on ALS. From basic molecular mechanisms to translational / clinical studies, using human genomics, computation, stem cells and omics approaches.

• microRNA biology in ALS pathogenesis
• Neurogenetics and neuro-cell biology of RNA: mutations which drive ALS
• Cell-free RNA biomarkers for neurodegeneration

Our lab seeks to understand the mechanistic basis of how oligodendrocyte lineage cells age and functionally relate this to cognitive aging, loss of regenerative capacity and neurodegenerative diseases. We primarily use mouse models and employ molecular biology, dynamic metabolic labeling tools, RNA sequencing and behavioral tests.

Levkowitz lab studies the development and function of the zebrafish hypothalamus

• Morphogenesis and cell biology of the hypothalamo-neurohypophyseal system.
• Impact of early developmental processes on physiological functions of the mature hypothalamus, focusing on stress response and social behavior.

Oren lab investigates how sexually dimorphic patterns in the brain emerge, from synapse formation to animal behavior

• The synaptic basis for sexual dimorphism in the nervous system
• The molecular basis of sexually dimorphic neuronal circuits
• Experience-dependent plasticity
• Mechanism of sex-specific synapse elimination

Peles lab studies the development of myelinated nerves

• Identify the axonal signals that control myelination
• Understand how glial cells recognize and wrap axon with myelin
• Dissect the cytoskeletal machinery that drives myelination
• Reveal how myelinating glia shape the membrane of the axons they wrap

Reiner lab studies ortical Development in Health and Disease

• Understanding the molecular and cellular events that shape the developing human cortex
• Studying the functions of neurodevelopmental disease-causing genes
• Developing mouse models for human neurodevelopmental disorders
• Applying “Disease in a Dish” approach for studying human embryonic cells derived brain organoids

Reuveny Lab studies ion Channels - Neurophysiology and Biophysics.

• Study of ion channels - elementary excitable units integrated in the cell membranes.
• Intracellular and extracellular regulation of Calcium flux and signaling
• Methods development

Schuldiner lab studies mechanisms of neuronal remodeling

• Pruning and regrowth during neuronal remodeling in drosophila.
• Dissecting the mechanisms of neuronal remodeling in vivo.

Spiegel lab studies how experience regulates brain

• Experience-induced cell-type-specific secreted molecules
• Function and connectivity of dis-inhibitory neurons
• Cell-type-specific regulation of experience-induced gene expression n function

Ulitsky lab studies function long noncoding RNAs in mammalian cells during development and regeneration via experimental and computational tools

• Principles that dictate lncRNAs action,
• Consequences of lncRNAs disruption in human disease.

Yaron lab studies the regulation of neuronal wiring

• The mechanisms of axonal guidance and pruning.
• The interplay between genetics and experience.

Yizhar lab studies organization, function and plasticity of prefrontal circuits

• Prefrontal cortex in goal-directed behavior
• Organization of cortical synaptic connectivity
• Cortical modulation of social behavior