2020 research activities
Overview
The Department of Biological Regulation is comprised of approximately 170 people organized in 13 research groups. We are located in the Candiotty and Britannia buildings, which are equipped with all the cutting-edge facilities required for running excellent research endeavors. Our research is concentrated on the regulation of processes responsible for the concerted action of cells, tissues, and organs. A diversity of methodologies and experimental approaches are being used in order to tackle these pivotal issues in biology. These include biochemical, molecular and physiological methods, organ and tissue cultures, and whole animal studies utilizing mice and fish. In addition, some researchers of the Department are using methodologies and concepts of systems biology, host-pathogen interactions and a variety of imaging methods, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Since de-regulation of biological control circuits often underlays human diseases (e.g., malignant transformation, stroke, infertility, and defective tissue regeneration after injury), we make many efforts to implement the results of our studies in research projects leading to the development of new tools for early diagnosis, along with novel compounds suitable for pharmacological interventions.
The main projects that are currently performed in the department are:
Host-pathogen interactions - Dr. Roi Avraham
Cell metabolism in health and disease - Dr. Ayelet Erez
Cell death and metabolism - Prof. Atan Gross
Protein degradation by the ubiquitin/proteasome system - Prof. Ami Navon
Vascularization during pregnancy and cancer development - Prof. Michal Neeman
ECM remodeling: from biophysical principles to drug design - Prof. Irit Sagi
Intracellular signaling cascades in health and disease - Prof. Rony Seger
Epigenetics in stem cells and cancer: developing and applying single-molecule imaging technologies to study the epigenetic code - Dr. Efrat Shema
Genome and epigenome regulation - Prof. Amos Tanay
Cellular functions of long noncoding RNAs - Dr. Igor Ulitsky
The development of the vascular system - Dr. Karina Yaniv
Growth factors and their receptors in cancer - Prof. Yossi Yarden
Investigating functional, metabolic and architectural features of normal and malignant tissues with magnetic resonance techniques - Prof. Hadassa Degani
The control of reproduction - Prof. Nava Dekel
Investigating ovarian follicle physiology, regulation and demise in mammals with emphasis on the ovulatory response, including the control of oocyte maturation, transformation of the follicle into corpus luteum and culminating with the release of the fertilizable ovum - Prof. Alex Tsafriri
In December 2018, we expect tthat Prof. Philipp Selenko and his team will complete their relocation to Rehovot – Dr. Selenko is interested in cellular structural biology of human amyloid proteins.