Two scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science are among a list of 40 world-leading young scientists chosen by the journal Cell

English
Two young scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Drs. Maya Schuldiner and Jacob Hanna, are among 40 world-leading scientists in their field that have been selected by the prestigious journal Cell for their “40 under 40” list, in celebration of Cell’s 40th anniversary.
 
In an interview, the 40 young scientists spoke of their research, their personal philosophies, the joys and challenges of research, and their lives away from the bench.

Dr. Maya Schuldiner, born in 1975, joined the Weizmann Institute’s Molecular Genetics Department in 2008. She is married to Dr. Oren Schuldiner, also a scientist at the Weizmann Institute, and they have three children. Schuldiner’s laboratory uses advanced automation techniques in order to map the role of proteins and thoroughly understand the workings of cell organelles.

Schuldiner works eagerly in promoting both women in science as well as young scientists, and has established a course for students at the Institute, which provides training in both personal and managerial skills required to establish an independent laboratory.

Schuldiner states in her interview: “My personal philosophy is that my lab members are like my family. I spend as much time in the lab as I do at home, and I want to be happy when I am there. This philosophy guides many of the decisions that I make, for example, in choosing students to join my lab.”

Dr. Jacob Hanna was born and grew up in the Arab town Rameh to a family of doctors, and completed a joint physician/scientist program (MD/PhD). In 2011, Hanna joined the Weizmann Institute’s Molecular Genetics Department. His lab studies the changes that take place in the embryo at its earliest stage, which is responsible for turning the cluster of cells into all the different types of cells that make up the adult body. In addition, he explores in depth induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells – mature body cells that undergo “reprogramming,” which gives them stem cell-like properties.

In recent years, his laboratory has been making a number of breakthroughs in this field, which will advance the possibility of future medical use of these cells as “spare parts” for damaged cells and tissues.

When asked during the interview about which scientists he admires: “I greatly admire my uncle, Dr. Nabil Hanna, an immunologist by training and the former chief scientific officer of Idec Pharmaceuticals (now Biogen-Idec, Inc.). He was behind the invention and development of Rituxan, the first monoclonal antibody approved for therapy in humans. As an eager student and a loving nephew, I was fortunate to be exposed to his adventure.”
 
  (l-r) Drs. Maya Schuldiner and Jacob Hanna
 

Dr. Jacob Hanna's research is supported by Pascal and Ilana Mantoux, France/Israel; the Benoziyo Endowment Fund for the Advancement of Science; the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust; the Sir Charles Clore Research Prize; Erica A. Drake and Robert Drake; the European Research Council; and the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung.

 
Dr. Maya Schuldiner's research is supported by the Georges Lustgarten Cancer Research Fund; the Dora Yoachimowicz Endowed Fund for Research; the Berlin Family Foundation; Roberto and Renata Ruhman, Brazil; the European Research Council; and Karen Siem, UK.



 
(l-r) Drs. Maya Schuldiner and Jacob Hanna
Life Sciences
English
  • Jacob Hanna
  • Maya Schuldiner
  • Molecular Genetics

The Fingerprint of a Diamond

English
 
 
William Levine (center), a prominent American diamond merchant, inspecting gemprints during his visit to the Weizmann Institute in 1974, with Prof. Shmuel Shtrikman (left) and Dr. Charles Bar-Isaac (right)
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Dr. Charles Bar-Isaac was in love when he traveled from Israel to Iran in the early 1970s: His goal was to meet the family of his future wife, Lillian. But in Teheran, Bar-Isaac, then a student at the Weizmann Institute of Science, encountered his second love. When visiting the exhibition of Iran’s crown jewels in the national bank, he was dazzled by the display of spectacular diamonds, among them the more than 3,000 diamonds studding the Pahlavi Crown and the world’s largest uncut diamond called The Sea of Light. Upon returning to Rehovot, he decided to focus his doctoral research on diamonds.
 
Lillian’s pendant. A turquoise inset is surrounded by 20 small diamonds
 
The Iraqi-born Bar-Isaac, who had immigrated to Israel with his parents at age six in 1950, earned a master’s degree in physics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem before embarking on Ph.D. studies in what was then the Weizmann Institute’s Electronics Department, under the supervision of Profs. Shmuel Shtrikman and David Treves. In his doctoral thesis, he applied laser technologies and the principles of the area of physics known as Fourier optics to the study of diamonds. What attracted him to these gems was not just their beauty; he was fascinated by the physics of the aesthetic experience: How beauty is revealed by the light interacting with the precious stone.
 
It is the light reflected, refracted, dispersed and absorbed by a stone that determines such crucial properties as the gem’s brilliance and color. Diamonds stand out in their brilliance among all other gems because when exposed to light, they sparkle from virtually every angle. Throughout history, diamond cutters and jewelers sought out, by trial and error, the best ways to cut and polish the stones, until in 1919 in London, a young mathematician and physicist, Marcel Tolkowsky, developed a mathematical formula for cutting diamonds in an optimal manner. The process, which calls for cutting 58 facets on a diamond to provide maximum reflected light and brilliance, came to be known as the “ideal cut.” Today, most diamonds in the world are cut according to this principle. When Bar-Isaac started looking into the science behind the “ideal cut,” he was amazed to discover that even though the diamond industry had existed since biblical times – in the Book of Exodus, Moses is instructed to make a breastplate set with diamonds among other gems – several of its central issues had remained unresolved. One major issue, for instance, was how to definitively establish the identity of a particular diamond – a task that becomes especially crucial in police work when stolen diamonds are recovered, or in the frequent disputes between jewelers and customers who claim the stone returned after setting and cleaning is not the same one they left.  
 
Using as a model the exquisite diamond-framed pendant that Lillian had received from her mother, Bar-Isaac realized that the light scattered by each diamond carries a deal of information about the stone. That was how he came up with the idea for Gemprint: an optical system for “fingerprinting” diamonds by recording the angles and intensities of the reflected light rays, which form distinctive patterns. Since no two stones – no matter how similar they may look – create the same pattern, a comparison of their “fingerprints” can serve for positive identification.
Calculated gemprints, created by computerized ray tracing, reveal the difference between different cuts
 

 

In the system, a low-density laser beam shines upon a gem; its reflection pattern is then digitized and stored. Apart from positive identification, the method provides a means of quantifying beauty: It assigns measurable values to a diamond’s brilliance and can therefore be used in its grading – that is, establishing its quality. It can also help determine whether the diamond had been produced according to the ideal cut.
 

After registering a patent for Gemprint in the mid-1970s, Yeda Research and Development Co. Ltd., the Weizmann Institute’s technology transfer arm, licensed the system for commercial manufacture in Israel and elsewhere. Within a few years, Gemprint came into wide use in the diamond industry.

Two gemprints of the same stone, taken at different times, reveal themselves as identical when they are superimposed
 
Bar-Isaac decided not to continue scientific research after completing his doctorate in 1975, opting instead for a career in photography. He then left Israel, ultimately settling in London with Lillian and their three children.
 
As for Gemprint, the Weizmann Institute patent has in the meantime expired, but the system continues to be used around the world by diamond dealers, jewelers, insurers and professional appraisal services. Accepted as evidence of a gem’s identity in courts of law, it has helped to obtain convictions and return numerous lost or stolen diamonds to their rightful owners. International databases that hold the information about hundreds of thousands of diamonds are continuously being expanded with the gemprints of new precious stones.   
 

 
 
 
 
William Levine (center), a prominent American diamond merchant, inspecting gemprints during his visit to the Weizmann Institute in 1974, with Prof. Shmuel Shtrikman (left) and Dr. Charles Bar-Isaac (right)
Space & Physics
English
  • Laser
  • Made at the Institute

Cooperating for a Clean Future

English
Profs. Sabrina Sartori and Reshef Tenne
 

 

 

“Imagine filling up your tank with metal powders and hydrogen. Or maybe lighting your house with batteries that were charged earlier in the day by wind and solar power. I believe this is the future of energy storage.” says Sabrina Sartori, a visiting professor who is working with Prof. Reshef Tenne in the Materials and Interfaces Department of the Weizmann Institute. Their collaboration was made possible by a Feinberg Foundation visiting faculty program fellowship.
 
Among other things, Sartori, who is based in Norway, investigates materials that can be used for batteries that will be able to efficiently store energy produced during the daytime in solar cells. When she was considering the possibility of working with an Institute scientist through the visiting faculty program fellowship, the work of Tenne and his group caught her attention. Sartori was particularly interested in new methods he was developing for producing inorganic nanotubes, while Tenne saw that the collaboration could take the work of his group in new and fruitful directions.  
 
Profs.
 
“The concept is to develop a stationary storage method to facilitate the integration of intermittent wind and solar power sources into the grid,” says Sartori. “For this application, lithium-ion batteries are not considered to be the best option, due to high costs and a shortage of lithium. Sodium, unlike lithium, is relatively cheap and readily available worldwide.” There is, however, a drawback: Existing sodium-based batteries operate at high temperatures (250°C and higher) and require sophisticated engineering that drives up costs considerably. Thus there is a huge incentive to develop new types of sodium-based batteries. One of the major scientific challenges in this area is the synthesis of high performance electrodes.
 
The negative electrode material currently utilized in these batteries is graphite, but researchers are searching for replacement materials that might improve performance. “With the help of Prof. Tenne and his PhD student Gal Radovsky, we are trying to synthesize a new family of inorganic nanotubes as innovative anodes,” explains Sartori. Tenne and his group are pioneers in the field of inorganic compounds that form fullerene-like nanostructures or nanotubes. One way they have been creating these inorganic nanostructures is via so-called “misfit layered” compounds. These consist of stacks of layers alternated with different chemical compositions and structures. Because the interactions between the layers are weak, sodium can be introduced between the layers, creating a sort of shuttle for transferring electricity.
 
Prof. Sabrina Sartori
 

The goal, says Sartori, is to create a nano-composite with extraordinarily high capacity and reasonably good charge-discharge cycles. “The synthesis is challenging, but we believe such inorganic nanostructures could offer many applications, particularly in the field of energy and electronics. This work could open a new field of research and strengthen the collaboration between Israel and Norway in the years to come, joining forces for a clean energy future,” she says.

 

Energy to Spare
 

In another research track, Sartori investigates nanoscale and porous materials that could be used to store hydrogen in future hydrogen-fueled vehicles or batteries. She moved from her native Italy to Norway in 2006, where she was recently appointed associate professor at the University of Oslo and University Graduate Center UNIK. There, she is taking part in an international effort to engineer special crystalline powders that are able to store hydrogen at greater densities than the ones obtained with current methods of compressed or liquid hydrogen storage. The goal, she says, is smaller fuel tanks, lower pressures and improved safety. Working on solid state hydrogen materials called hydrides, she is attempting to understand their structure, in particular the exact positions of the hydrogen atoms on the molecule – a challenge, as hydrogen is the lightest of the atoms. Sartori has a joint researcher position in the JEEP II nuclear reactor at the Norwegian Institute for Energy Technology, where she uses neutrons for her scattering experiments.
 
Sartori’s absorption into the Weizmann Institute has been a notable success. In addition to her work with Tenne’s group, she has mentored the postdoctoral women’s forum on the Weizmann campus – a biweekly group – giving a workshop on advancing one’s career and helping guide discussions on various topics. She received a prize given by the Energy & Environmental Science Journal during the annual conference of the Israel Chemical Society. In her spare time, she has been writing a chapter for an upcoming book on nuclear characterization techniques for the investigation of hydrogen in materials.
 
Prof. Reshef Tenne's research is supported by the Helen and Martin Kimmel Center for Nanoscale Science, which he heads; the Irving and Azelle Waltcher Endowed Research Fund in honor of Prof. Moshe Levy; and the European Research Council. Prof. Tenne is the incumbent of the Drake Family Professorial Chair in Nanotechnology.


 
 
Profs. Sabrina Sartori and Reshef Tenne
Chemistry
English
  • Fullerene
  • Materials and Interfaces
  • Nanotube
  • Reshef Tenne
  • Solar Energy

Interview: Sivan Refaely-Abramson – Mother, Major, Materials Science Student

English
 
PhD student Sivan Rafaeli-Abramson
 
Sivan Refaely-Abramson is a PhD student in the lab of Prof. Leeor Kronik, Head of the Materials and Interfaces Department. She is 32 years old, married and mother of two. Refaely-Abramson is also a major in an army reserve operations unit.


Q: What does your research entail?

A: The field of our group’s research is the quantum calculation of chemical systems. More specifically, I deal with developing and applying efficient methods of calculating the electronic structure of organic materials, with an emphasis on materials that are used to make organic solar cells. Solar cells based on organic materials are expected to be inexpensive, easy to manufacture and flexible, allowing for a potentially large assortment of applications. Our calculations aid, for example, in predicting which organic materials will be better suited to particular solar devices and which will be less appropriate.

Q: How did you decide to become a scientist?

A: For as long as I can remember, the exact sciences were what interested me. A visit to the Weizmann Institute during high school led me to the book Conceptual Physics for Everyone by Paul G. Hewitt, and from there to an interest in quantum mechanics. This, in turn, led me to study for a BSc at the Hebrew University, with a double major in chemistry and physics. Then, as now, I was interested in the intersection between the theoretical understanding of particles in quantum mechanics and the ability to apply this understanding in the real world. That is how I got to Prof. Kronik’s lab, where the theory that comes from the world of physics and the fascinating applications in the world of chemistry are beautifully intertwined.   

Q: Who is your role model?

A: My father, who in his profession as a farmer used his great skills as an inventor and his passion for science. And he enjoyed every minute of it. From him, I learned that when choosing a profession, you have to follow your heart. Everything else will sort itself out.

Q: How do you cope as a woman and a mother in the academic world?

A: At this stage, I can only tell you about being a mother and working on my doctorate. It is an interesting mix of two very different worlds; each, alone, demands my full attention. This mix is a balancing act that requires precise time management; and it demands a lot of support, both at home and from my adviser. Fortunately, I am blessed with that support on both sides: My husband is a full partner in running the house and the family, alongside his own full-time career; my doctoral adviser views me as a senior researcher and has faith in my dedication to the research, so he completely lets me manage my own time. The flexibility he gives me means I don’t have to compromise – either on the research or on motherhood.

Q: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

A: I would like to continue the life of a researcher, and to be a part of the Israeli, scientific and academic world, but that is in the future. In the meantime, there are many fields of research I would like to learn more about.

Prof.  Leeor Kronik's research is supported by the Carolito Stiftung; the European Research Council; the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust; the Philip M. Klutznick Fund for Research; and Antonio and Noga Villalon, Winnetka, IL.
 
PhD student Sivan Rafaeli-Abramson
Chemistry
English
  • Leeor Kronik
  • Materials and Interfaces
  • Solar Energy
  • Women in science

So Shall You Reap

English
 
green gift
 
Sanford Colb began studying physics before switching to law. Today he has a successful patent law firm – one of the leading ones in the country – based in Rehovot not far from the Weizmann Institute. But Colb has another love – one that began in childhood – growing vegetables. Even when he was pursuing his graduate studies at Harvard University, he always made sure to have a small green garden to work.

Around 20 years ago, he decided he wanted to combine his love of gardening with his desire to help those in need. He began growing vegetables on a plot of land he owns in Rehovot and donating them. In conjunction with the organization “Leket” – a national food bank – the idea grew into a nationwide project in which volunteers grow and pick vegetables on dedicated plots around the country for distribution to the needy. Today, the foundation that Colb established, Hatov Vehameitav (the good and the best), grows 40 different crops, averaging 60 tons of fresh produce a week. Some 25,000 volunteers, organized through Leket, go out to plant and reap. The idea is not just to provide food for the hungry, but to directly involve land use and the work of volunteers in feeding people.

The Weizmann connection took place through Mul Nof Ltd. (the holding company for Weizmann Institute assets). The Institute agreed to lease two plots of land that it owns near the Institute perimeter, at no cost, to Colb’s organization. Recently, the first seeds were planted in the plots: beet seeds. To mark the occasion, a sowing ceremony was held, attended by members of the organization as well as Ahmed Nadji, the owner of a packing plant next to the grounds and his cousin, the former Minister of the Interior of Jordan. Yet another plot of land was donated to the project by the Rehovot municipality, including the installation of a special irrigation pipe. Thus the Weizmann Institute has not only entered the seasonal cycle of planting, growing and reaping, but the cycle of giving back to the community that supports and nourishes its roots.

Sanford Colb was there, as well. “I work 18 hours a day,” he says. “Two of those I spend on the organization. I go out to the field; I plant and pick vegetables with my own hands.”
 
 
At the planting ceremony. Sanford Colb, second from right, is standing next to Mul Nof director Dr. Isaac Shariv, right
 
 

 

 
 
green gift
English
  • Isaac Shariv

We Learned How to Learn

English

“The time I spent at the Institute was the best period of my life,” says Dr. Danny Kandel, Senior Director of Advanced Development for KLA-Tencor, Israel. The Israeli branch of this international corporation, based in Silicon Valley, produces accurate metrology systems for quality control in the silicon chip industry.  Around 500 engineers and professionals work for the company in Israel, in two different locations.

Dr. Danny Kandel
Kandel was born in Kiryat Ono, near Tel Aviv. His parents had declined to enroll him in the activities for science-oriented children at the Weizmann Institute but, he says, that changed when he got a bit older and more “in control of my own fate.” In high school, he took programming courses offered by Tel Aviv University.  His army service, in a Nahal unit, included founding a new kibbutz in the Negev. Afterward, Kandel completed a B.Sc. in physics and mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem before coming to the Weizmann Institute.

His M.Sc. research, conducted in the group of Prof. Michael Kirson of the Particle Physics Department (today the Particle Physics and Astrophysics Department), focused on theoretical nuclear physics. Kandel remembers that period as intense but rewarding: “We worked very hard; the courses were especially demanding. But after all the hard work, we felt that we had actually succeeded in understanding things. There is no greater pleasure than understanding something really new about the world. All the effort, the long nights, the stress – these all vanished when we were washed by the waves of satisfaction that come with new comprehension.”

His doctorate (in statistical physics) was completed under the guidance of Prof. Eytan Domany of the Physics of Complex Systems Department. Kandel met and married Ditza Auerbach, then a doctoral student in the research group of Prof. Itamar Procaccia at the Institute. The couple had three children together while Kandel completed postdoctoral research at the University of Maryland and Harvard University, and then returned to the Institute as a senior scientist in the Physics of Complex Systems Department.

But Kandel was lured by the possibility of conducting research with more practical, industry-oriented applications, and he joined the research and development team at KLA-Tencor’s facility in Migdal Ha’emek. “They tell us that the ongoing shrinkage of electronic components will slow down, or maybe even stop,” he says, “but in the meantime, the components being produced industrially get smaller and denser every year. That presents a serious challenge for quality controllers, who must currently achieve a level of precision down to less than a single nanometer.”

Despite his duties as director of Advanced Development for the company’s Israeli branch, Kandel still keeps up his ties with Institute scientists, as well as with his former fellow students. “My studies at the Institute were an enlightening experience for me and my friends,” he says. “We learned how to learn. How to conduct research. How to ask questions; how to try to answer them. If you can do this, the sky is the limit. If you can do it correctly, you can do anything, invent anything.”  
 
KLA-Tencor logo
 
 
Quality control for silicon chips is a complex challenge: Measurement systems based on optics are limited to the length of a wave of visible light, around 400 nanometers. This is a crude tool for today’s electronics – the thickness of a line on a modern silicon chip is around 20 nm. That is akin to an elephant trying to feel a single grain of sand under its foot.  To get around this obstacle, the KLA-Tencor system makes direct and indirect use of a number of advanced optical and imaging techniques, including those based on light scattering from the object measured. The methods for processing these measurements to produce results were also developed by the company.
 


 

 
Dr. Danny Kandel
Space & Physics
English
  • Computer Science and Applied Mathematics›Computer Science and Applied Mathematics
  • Eytan Domany
  • Made at the Institute
  • Particle Physics and Astrophysics
  • Physics of Complex Systems

Prof. Israel Dostrovsky, 1918-2010

English

Rehovot, Israel, Sept. 28, 2010

 

Prof. Israel Dostrovsky

Prof. Israel Dostrovsky was born in Odessa, the former USSR, in 1918 and arrived in Eretz-Israel in 1919. After attending primary and secondary school in Jerusalem, he went to study in England and received a B.Sc. in chemistry in 1940 and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1943, both from University College, London. After working as a lecturer in chemistry at University College, he joined the Weizmann Institute in 1948, shortly before the Institute’s dedication. Immediately upon joining the staff of Weizmann, he was appointed Head of the Isotope Research Department, a position he held for 17 years. Between 1971 and 1975 he served as the Institute’s Vice President and President, and in 1975 he was named Institute Professor, a prestigious title awarded by Weizmann faculty and administration to outstanding scientists who made significant and meaningful contributions to science or to the State of Israel. Between 1980 and 1990, he served as Director of the Center for Energy Research at the Institute. When he turned 80, the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities held a special scientific conference in Jerusalem and at Weizmann to honor the occasion.

Prof. Dostrovsky’s government appointments included Director of Research at the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, 1953-1957; Chairman of the National Council for Research and Development, 1959-1961; Director-General of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, 1965-1971; and Chairman of Israel’s Desalination Committee, 1966-1981. Between 1973 and 1981 he served as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, and between 1991 and 1993 he was a member of the Executive Committee of the International Energy Agency’s SolarPACES project.

Prof. Dostrovsky belonged to several professional societies: Israel Chemical Society, Israel Physical Society, American Chemical Society, American Physical Society and Royal Chemical Society of Great Britain. He was a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and an honorary life member of the New York Academy of Science. He received the Ramsey Medal and Prize, 1943; Tel Aviv’s Weizmann Prize, 1952; honorary doctorates from Tel Aviv University, 1973, and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, 1994; and the Israel Prize, 1995.

 

 

The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, is one of the world's top-ranking multidisciplinary research institutions. Noted for its wide-ranging exploration of the natural and exact sciences, the Institute is home to 2,600 scientists, students, technicians and supporting staff. Institute research efforts include the search for new ways of fighting disease and hunger, examining leading questions in mathematics and computer science, probing the physics of matter and the universe, creating novel materials and developing new strategies for protecting the environment.

Weizmann Institute news releases are posted on the World Wide Web at http://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il, and are also available at http://www.eurekalert.org

Prof. Israel Dostrovsky
English
  • Institute President
  • Israel Dostrovsky

Prof. Ada Yonath has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

English

 

The Weizmann Institute of Science congratulates Prof. Ada Yonath on receiving the 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry and is proud of her scientific achievements. We are delighted that the Nobel Prize committee has recognized the significance of Prof. Ada Yonath’s scientific research and awarded her this important prize.

Prof. Yonath’s research is driven by curiosity and ambition to better understand the world and our place within it. This research aims high: to understand one of the most complicated ‘machines’ of the biological system.
 
In the late 1970s, Prof. Yonath decided, when she was a young student at the Weizmann Institute, to take on the challenge of answering one of the key questions concerning the activities of live cells: to decipher the structure and mechanism of action of ribosomes – the cell’s protein factories. This was the beginning of a long scientific journey that has lasted decades, and which required courage and devotion from the start. The journey began in a modest laboratory with a modest budget, and with the years, increased to tens of researchers under the guidance of Prof. Yonath.
 
This basic research, which began in the attempt to understand one of the principles of nature, eventually led to the understanding of how a number of antibiotics function, something that is likely to aid in the development of more advanced and effective antibiotics. This discovery will hopefully also help in the struggle against antibiotic-resistant bacteria, a problem recognized as one of the most central medical challenges of the 21st century.
 
Prof. Yonath can be considered a model of scientific vision, courage in choosing a significant scientific question, and devotion in realizing the goal to its end – which will hopefully broaden knowledge for the benefit of humanity.
 
 
 

Beyond the Basics

 
‘People called me a dreamer,’ says Prof. Ada Yonath of the Structural Biology Department, recalling her decision to undertake research on ribosomes – the cell's protein factories. Solving the ribosome's structure would give scientists unprecedented insight into how the genetic code is translated into proteins; by the late 1970s, however, top scientific teams around the world had already tried and failed to get these complex structures of protein and RNA to take on a crystalline form that could be studied. Dreamer or not, it was hard work that brought results: Yonath and colleagues made a staggering 25,000 attempts before they succeeded in creating the first ribosome crystals, in 1980.

And their work was just beginning. Over the next 20 years, Yonath and her colleagues would continue to improve their technique. In 2000, teams at Weizmann and the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg, Germany – both headed by Yonath – solved, for the first time, the complete spatial structure of both subunits of a bacterial ribosome. Science magazine counted this achievement among the ten most important scientific developments of that year. The next year, Yonath's teams revealed exactly how certain antibiotics are able to eliminate pathogenic bacteria by binding to their ribosomes, preventing them from producing crucial proteins.
 
Yonath's studies, which have stimulated intensive research worldwide, have now gone beyond the basic structure. She has revealed in detail how the genetic information is decoded, how the ribosome's inherent flexibility contributes to antibiotic selectivity and the secrets of cross-resistance to various antibiotic families. Her findings are crucial for developing advanced antibiotics.
 
Prof. Ada Yonath's research is supported by the Helen and Milton A. Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular Structure and Assembly. Prof. Yonath is the Martin S. and Helen Kimmel Professor of Structural Biology.
 
 
 
 
The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, is one of the world's top-ranking multidisciplinary research institutions. Noted for its wide-ranging exploration of the natural and exact sciences, the Institute is home to 2,600 scientists, students, technicians and supporting staff. Institute research efforts include the search for new ways of fighting disease and hunger, examining leading questions in mathematics and computer science, probing the physics of matter and the universe, creating novel materials and developing new strategies for protecting the environment.
 
Weizmann Institute news releases are posted on the World Wide Web at http://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il, and are also available at http://www.eurekalert.org/.
Prof. Ada Yonath
English
  • Ada Yonath
  • Antibiotics
  • Antibiotics›Antibiotic resistance
  • Chemistry
  • Nobel Prize
  • Ribosome
  • X-ray crystallography

Appointment at Yeda

English

Dr. Ruth Ben-Yakar has been appointed Chief Business Officer of Yeda Research and Development Co. Ltd., which promotes the industrial application of inventions made by Weizmann Institute scientists. Dr. Ben-Yakar replaces Dr. Einat Zisman, who served in this post for eight years and will soon become President and CEO of Hadasit, the technology transfer company of Hadassah Medical Organization.


Dr. Ben-Yakar (Maya) earned a Ph.D. with honors from the Weizmann Institute in 2001. Her doctoral research, under the guidance of Prof. Moshe Oren of the Institute’s Molecular Cell Biology Department, focused on the growth of cancer cells and won her prestigious scholarships from a number of institutions, including the Wolf Foundation.
 
Her most recent appointment was Vice President for Project Management at Gamida Cell. Among other duties, she managed the StemEx project, part of a joint development by Gamida and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. In addition, she was involved in the company’s business development.
 
Prior to that, Dr. Ben-Yakar served as Vice President for Development and Applications at Procognia. She coordinated wide-ranging R&D activities, was responsible for managing the company’s collaborative projects and took part in various business ventures as well as in leading the company to its initial public offering at the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange.
 
Earlier in her career in the biotech industry, she served as a senior project manager at QBI, conducting R&D in the area of cancer therapy.
 
Dr. Ben-Yakar is a mother of two and lives in Shoham.
 
 
The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, is one of the world's top-ranking multidisciplinary research institutions. Noted for its wide-ranging exploration of the natural and exact sciences, the Institute is home to 2,600 scientists, students, technicians and supporting staff. Institute research efforts include the search for new ways of fighting disease and hunger, examining leading questions in mathematics and computer science, probing the physics of matter and the universe, creating novel materials and developing new strategies for protecting the environment.
 
Weizmann Institute news releases are posted on the World Wide Web at
http://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il, and are also available at http://www.eurekalert.org/.
 
Yeda Research and Development Co. Ltd.
English
  • Industrial application
  • Yeda

Baroness de Rothschild Visits the Weizmann Institute of Science

English
Baroness de Rothschild visited the Institute, where she met with science teachers participating in a unique science education program
 

Baroness Ariane de Rothschild was at the Weizmann Institute, yesterday, to get a first-hand report on a one-of-a-kind program for promoting excellence in science and math education, which is supported by the Rothschild-Caesarea Foundation. She first met with Institute President Prof. Daniel Zajfman, who filled her in on the history of the Weizmann Institute and the vision of its founder, Dr. Chaim Weizmann, the first President of the State of Israel and of the Weizmann Institute, as well as on the Israel’s present-day place on the forefront of global science. Vice President for Resource Development and Dean for Educational Activities Prof. Israel Bar-Joseph then spoke to her on the Rothschild-Weizmann Program for Excellence in Science Teaching and its goal of creating an elite corps of science teachers to lead the way in transforming the field. The Baroness de Rothschild expressed particular interest in the criteria for acceptance to the program and the quality of the teachers participating, pointing out that the educational ills the program was designed to address are worldwide problems. She then met with the scientific directors of the program, Head of the Weizmann Institute’s Science Teaching Department Prof. Bat-Sheva Eylon and Prof. Shimon Levit, as well as five of the program’s participants.

 

Born in San Salvador and raised in Latin America and Africa, Baroness Ariane de Rothschild, a French and German citizen, has over twenty years of finance and banking experience. She now holds various board positions in Geneva and in Paris with the LCF Rothschild Group, as well as serving as chairwoman of BeCitizen, an advisory company in structured finance and fund management for the environment sector. In addition, she devotes much of her time to the Edmond and Benjamin de Rothschild Foundations, in which her personal interests mesh with the family’s commitment to education and philanthropic innovation in the arts and culture, medical research, environment, women’s empowerment, intercultural dialogue and social entrepreneurship.

 

The Rothschild-Weizmann Program for Excellence in Science Teaching, which began operating at the Weizmann Institute last year, grants master’s degrees to outstanding science and math teachers in middle and high schools. For those who already have advanced science degrees, the program also offers a track in developing educational initiatives, which combines practical experience with scientific research. The prestigious Rothschild-Weizmann Program deepens and broadens the teachers’ scientific knowledge, familiarizes them with the newest approaches to science education, introduces them to research in the field of science teaching and provides them with experience in leading original educational initiatives. Participants in the program receive study grants and an exemption from tuition, and they continue to teach in parallel to their studies. The first 50 teachers to join the program are now finishing their first year of studies.

English
  • Daniel Zajfman
  • Rothschild-Weizmann Program
  • Science Teaching
Yes

Pages