New Talents, New Faces, New Fields

New Scientists: Drs. Doron Ginsberg (left) and Ari Elson;

Interface introduces it readers to some of the newest additions to the Institute staff.

Dr. Ari Elson
Molecular Genetics Department
Major Research Area: The role of a class of enzymes known as tyrosine phosphatases in transforming benign cells into cancerous ones.
A graduate of the Institute's Feinberg Graduate School, Elson did his postdoctoral training at Harvard University before returning to the Weizmann Institute.

Dr. Doron Ginsberg
Molecular Cell Biology Department
Major Research Area: The role of a gene-decoding protein, which he discovered, in regulating gene expression, cell cycle progression and cancer development.
Following studies at the Institute's Feinberg Graduate School, Ginsberg did research at the Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

Prof. Alexander Girshovich
Biochemistry Department
Major Research Area: Molecular "chaperones," a special group of proteins that help other proteins fold up into forms that are biologically active.
A graduate of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in Moscow, Girshovich worked at the Academy's Institute of Protein Research for 20 years ? including an 11-year stint as Professor and Laboratory Head ? until his appointment to a professorship at the Weizmann Institute.

Dr. Gideon Grafi
Plant Genetics Department
Major Research Area: Molecular mechanisms that regulate the life cycle of plant cells, and molecular similarities between plant diseases and human diseases.
Grafi completed his doctoral studies in the Agriculture Faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He went on to do postdoctoral work at the Weizmann Institute and the University of Arizona before joining the Weizmann Institute.

Dr. Avi Karni
Neurobiology Department
Major Research Area: Changes that occur in the brains of adults during processes underlying learning and memory.
Karni received an M.D. from Tel Aviv University and was trained in neurology at the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv before setting out on a career in neurobiological research. He did his doctoral work at the Weizmann Institute, and his postdoctoral research at the National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland.

Dr. Jan M.L. (Gershom) Martin
Organic Chemistry Department
Major Research Area: Computational chemistry: prediction of chemical properties of molecules by computer simulation, with applications to industrial organic chemistry.

Born and raised in Belgium, Martin did his graduate studies at the University of Antwerp. He was a postdoctoral fellow and then a senior research associate at the National Science Foundation of Belgium before taking up his Weizmann Institute position.

Dr. Irit Sagi
Structural Biology Department
Major Research Area: Dynamic structural changes in proteins and the interaction of proteins with the genetic material of cells ? studies performed by means of X-ray spectroscopy.

Born in Israel, Sagi acquired her academic education in the United States, receiving her graduate degrees from Georgetown University. Her return to Israel as a postdoctoral fellow at the Weizmann Institute was followed by a stint at the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg, after which she joined the Weizmann staff.