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Zoom Link: https://weizmann.zoom.us/j/97777492731?pwd=YXZDR0lqYUtMbHVidUlIWkl2TGxjdz09

Protein-metal interactions play an important regulatory role in the modulation of protein folding and in enabling the “correct” biological function. In material science, protein self-assembly and metal-protein interaction have been utilized for the generation of multifunctional supramolecular structures beneficial for bio-oriented applications, including biosensing, drug delivery, antibacterial activity, and many more. Even though, the nature and the mechanisms of metal-protein interaction have been extensively studied and utilized for the functionalization of protein-based materials, mainly with metal-based nanoparticles, our understanding of how metals shape protein folds, the inter-and intramolecular interactions, the associative behavior, and evolve material characteristics of protein constructs, is limited. To address these highly challenging scientific questions, I have explored the self-assembling behavior of silk fibroin protein and its’ interaction with metal nanoparticles for the formation of multifunctional composites. The central goal of my research was to explore the full potential of metal nanoparticles (NP), in particular, copper oxide (CuO) to modify the self-assembly pathway of fiber-forming protein- silk fibroin. CuO NP has been chosen as a candidate for this study, due to its versatile properties and bio-relevant functionalities applicable for sensing, antibacterial function, and capability to regulate cellular activity. Thus, to address this challenge I first focused on the understanding of metal NP-induced structural transformations in natively folded protein and on probing whether these structural changes can be artificially imposed on the assembled, β-sheet rich protein complexes. My experimental results showed that CuO NPs are indeed capable of template the assembly of natively folded silk fibroin, on the one hand, and on the other hand, exhibited variations in NPs-silk fiber interaction when added at the post-synthetic stage.
Yet, the fundamental questions of how RSF-CuO NPs self-assembly occurs remain to be addressed. The exploration of biomaterial applications for silks is only a relatively recent advance; therefore, the future for this family of structural proteins appears promising.

We are studying the mechanistic basis of epigenetic regulation in the Polycomb system, a vital epigenetic silencing pathway that is widely conserved from flies to plants to humans. We use the process of vernalization in plants in our experiments, which involves memory of winter cold to permit flowering only when winter has passed via quantitative epigenetic silencing of the floral repressor FLC. Utilising this system has numerous advantages, including slow dynamics and the ability to read out mitotic heritability of expression states through clonal cell files in the roots. Using mathematical modelling and experiments (including ChIP and fluorescent reporter imaging), we have shown that FLC cold-induced silencing is essentially an all-or-nothing (bistable) digital process. The quantitative nature of vernalization is generated by digital chromatin-mediated FLC silencing in a subpopulation of cells whose number increases with the duration of cold. We have further shown that Polycomb-based epigenetic memory is indeed stored locally in the chromatin (in cis) via a dual fluorescent labelling approach. I will also discuss how further predictions from the modelling, including opposing chromatin modification states and extra protein memory storage elements, are being investigated. I will also discuss the mechanisms by which long term fluctuating temperature signals are sensed before being converted into digital chromatin states for long term memory storage.

In this talk I will review the basic methods and the current state-of-the-art in trapped ion quantum computing and compare the advantages and disadvantages of this to other QC technologies. I will further describe the progress towards building the WeizQC - a trapped ion quantum computer at the Weizmann Institute of Science. In the second part of the talk I will describe one unique feature of trapped-ion qubits: their all-to-all connectivity. I will describe methods that use this connectivity to engineer multi-qubit gates and operations. Multi-qubit gates have many advantages, both for near term noisy quantum computers, as well as for achieving fault-tolerance. As an example I will show that using multi-qubit gates, the threshold for fault-tolerant quantum computing can be enlarged and the ratio of logical to physical qubit error reduced.

Chemical reactions serve as central units for cellular information processing and control. However, reaction chemistry inside cells is “noisy”, leading to significant variability in the molecular constitution of living systems. How cells control and mitigate noise when precision is important is still poorly understood. In this talk, I will show that compartmentalization of protein via phase separation provides a potential cellular mechanism to protect biochemical pathways against noise. Using a simple theoretical model that links protein concentration fluctuations to the physics of phase separation I will show that noise can be significantly attenuated in the presence of phase separated compartments. I will then present experimental single-cell data in engineered and endogenous condensates, which support this prediction. I will conclude my talk by discussing potential implications and future challenges.

The dual coupling between intrinsic magnetism and electronic properties garners enormous attention nowadays, due to their influence on quantum technologies. The talk will elaborate on the mentioned topic in van der Waals transition metal tri-chalcogenides and two-dimensional (2D) perovskites, possessing one or more of the following magnetic properties: A long-range magnetic order (ferromagnetism, anti-ferromagnetism), an interfacial/structure driven Rashba spin-orbit, Overhauser magnetic polaron effects.
The lamellar metal phosphor tri-chalcogenides (MPX3; M=metal, X=chalcogenide) possess a honeycomb arrangement of metal ions within a single layer, producing a ferromagnetic or anti-ferromagnetic arrangement, with a consequence influence on magneto-optical properties. The talk will display magneto-optical measurements, exposing routes for the long-range magnetism and the existence of valley degree of freedom in a few MPX3 (M= Mn, Fe). The results suggest that magnetism protects the spin helicity of each valley however, the coupling to anti-ferromagnetism lifts the valleys' energy degeneracy.
2D perovskite structures (e.g., (PEA)2PbI4) are composed of alternating organic-inorganic constituents. The talk will describe the most recent work, exposing the co-existence of a Rashba and the Overhauser effects, in a structure with an inversion of symmetry. The unexpected effect is explained theoretically by the breakage of symmetry through the exchange between structural configurations.