Recipients 2002
Future Time Dimension - Life Sciences
Ashery Uri
Personal Details:Dept. for Neurobiology, Life Sciences Faculty, Tel Aviv University
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Title of Research:
"The molecular mechanisms of synaptic function under normal and pathological conditions"
December 2007
The human brain is composed of more than a trillion (1012) nerve cells whose signal-carrying protrusions are interconnected at special points of contact called synapses. Neurotransmitter release at the synapse is a multi-step process that is coordinated by a large number of synaptic proteins and depends on proper protein-protein interactions. Modulation of these processes is believed to underlie the processes of learning and memory. Our main interest is to study the molecular mechanisms of these processes under normal conditions and during neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington and Alzheimer diseases. In the last years we have been investigating the function of key synaptic proteins in this process using molecular biology, electrophysiology, biochemistry, imaging and computer simulation techniques. To that aim we took advantage of a unique experimental approach that allows efficient manipulations of the level and composition of specific proteins in define neurons, using transgenic mice model and overexpression systems. The approach allows studying structure-function relationships of synaptic proteins and their role in normal and pathological conditions. We perform detail electrophysiological and fluorescent measurements from specific neurons from specific area of the mouse brain and compare the phenotype to neurons expressing the different mutated proteins. Currently, we investigate the function of Munc13, Munc18, tomosyn, PLD and DOC2 in exocytosis.
In addition we have developed a novel simulation program that describes the process of exocytosis as dynamic interactions between synaptic proteins. This study provides an excellent platform to predict and quantify the effects of protein manipulations on exocytosis. We have started to expend this approach and our long-term goal is to develop a general methodology that will allow modeling the dynamics of complex interactions of hundreds of proteins in processes like signal transduction or neuronal communication. This will provide researchers from the biomedical field with a tool to understand how large sets of proteins assemble together to execute cellular processes. These models once available, can be used to test possible strategies for altering or bypassing specific steps in these processes during pathological conditions, thus allowing efficient curing and recovery of diseases.
ASHERY-PADAN Ruth, Ph.D.
Dept. of Human Genetics & Molecular Medicine - TAU.Investigating the Molecular basis of Visual system development and the causes of Ocular diseases.
Eliaz Noam
Personal Details:Dept. of Solid Mechanics, Materials and Systems - TAU
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Title of Research:
"The Design and Characterization of New Functionally Graded Hydroxyapatite Coatings for Implants"
A short summary of achievements, March 2006
Gazit Ehud
Personal Details:Dept. of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology - TAU.
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Title of Research:
"The Physiological Significance of protein unfolding and misfolding"
I had received the 2002 Dan David Scholarship in Biological Sciences. At this stage, I was a young faculty member about a year and a half after I had established my own laboratory. Three and a half years later, I am currently a tenured associate professor with a large laboratory of about 15 members including M.Sc. students, Ph.D. student, postdoctoral associates, and technicians. The major research interests of my laboratory are concerned with various aspects of protein unfolding, misfolding, and self-assembly.
We utilize a variety of biochemical and biophysical methodologies as well as bioinformatics and molecular biology, to study the mechanism of formation and physiological significance of non-native protein structures. The experimental systems used are diverse and the partial list includes various amyloidogenic polypeptides, tumor suppressor proteins, and bacterial toxin-antidote systems. Since the establishment of the lab, our research already provided many new insights into the process of protein unfolding and misfolding. One of our main findings is the apparent role of aromatic stacking interactions in the molecular recognition and self-assembly processes that lead to amyloid fibrils formation. That led us to novel mechanistic insights on the process of amyloid formation, identification of novel short amyloidogenic motifs (as short as pentapeptides), and development of novel methods to inhibit their formation. As amyloid formation is associated with about twenty major human disease such as Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, Prion Diseases (such as BSE - the "mad-cow" disease), and Type II diabetes, these results have a very significant medical importance.
The work on minimal elements had to the identification of self-assembled tubular and spherical structures in the nano-scale. We had demonstrated that aromatic entities, as simple as dipeptides, could form either nanotubes or nanospheres. We had also suggested a chemical framework for the design of new peptide derivatives that form various structures at the nano-scale. We had proven the unique chemical and physical properties of these peptide nanostructures and their usefulness in electrochemical sensors. This transformed us from Biology into Material Science studies. Indeed my Ph.D. student, Meital Reches, was awarded with the 2005 Dan David Scholarship Award in Materials Science.
The future directions in my laboratory include the development of new therapeutic agents to treat amyloid-associted diseases such as Alzheimer 's disease and Type II diabetes. We are also exploring the potential use of the nano-assemblies for their use as novel composite "Smart Materials", as vehicles for drug delivery, and as agents for novel imaging techniques.
Gefen Amit
Personal Details:Dept. of Biomedical Engineering - TAU.
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Title of Research:
"The Biological Adaptation of Bony Tissue to Mechanical Loading Stimuli"
Summary of Research & Future Plans, December 2005
Present Time Dimension - Technology, Information and Society
DVIR Taly, Ph.D.
Faculty of Management - TAU.Toward a profile of high-versus low tech firms: Leadership, fellowship, context and Performance
HARGITTAI Ezster, Ph.D., Candidate.
Dept. of Sociology - Princeton University.How Wide a Web? Inequalities in Access to Information in the Age of the Internet.
Kaplan Haim
Personal Details:Dept. of Computer Science - TAU
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Title of Research:
"Design & Analysis of data structure/Algorithmic issues (IP networks)/Algorithmic & Molecular biology"
January 2006
My research is in theoretical computer science. More specifically on algorithms and data structures. I have been working on algorithmic problems related to several application areas such as networking, string matching, and computational geometry. I have been supervised seven graduate students with whom I have published many papers.
With my student Nira Shafrir and colleges I have been working on string matching problem. We have been making considerable progress on the shortest superstring problem, and now we work on finding approximate tandem repeats which have applications in computational molecular biology.
Much of my recent research has been focused on algorithmic problems in computational geometry. Together with students and Prof. Micha Sharir we have developed several kinetic data structures to maintain configurations of moving objects.
Specifically we suggest algorithms to maintain the closest pair of a set of moving points, and the convex hull of a set of moving points. I also developed with Prof. Sharir online algorithms for conflict free coloring, and techniques for approximate range counting.
I have also made basic research on fundamental questions on data structures, such as the boolean union-find problem and the meldable heap data type.
I intend to continue this line of research on algorithms and data structures, in string matching geometry and other application areas. I intend to use the geometric intuitions that I have accumulated to attack several other open problems on geometric data structures and geometric sampling techniques. Among others we are currently working on generalized range searching problems where the objects are classified to different types. Other algorithmic application area that I an involved in is algorithmic game theory and analysis of the performance of equilibria.
KESSELMAN Alex, Ph.D., Candidate.
Dept. of Computer Science - TAU.Competitive QoS Algorithms for High-Speed Network.
KOCHIN Michael S., Ph.D.
Dept. of Political Science - TAU.The Social Technology of Knowledge.
Ta-Shma Amnon<
Personal Details:Dept. of Computer Science - TAU.
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Title of Research:
"Anonymous electronic Cash Systems"
Fields of Interest:
Computational complexity in general and derandomization in particular Average-case complexity Quantum computation and quantum cryptography
Solan Zach
Personal Details:School of Computer Science - TAU
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Title of Research:
"The Emergence of Syntactic Structures and Their Representation"
A short summary of achievements
Unsupervised Learning of Natural Languages
PNAS, August 16, 2005, vol. 102, no. 33, 11629-11634
Past Time Dimension - History
Avramov Vassilev Iordan
Personal Details:Center for Science Studies and History of Science - The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Title of Research:
"Early Modern Scientific Communication: The Correspondence of Henry Oldenburg (1641-1677)"
Dror Olga
Personal Details:Dept. of History - Cornell University
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Title of Research:
"The Popular Cult of the Princess Lieu Hanh in Vietnamese Religious, Social and Political History"
GOLDSCHMIDT Asaf, Ph.D.
Dept. of East Asian Studies - TAU.The Public Pharmacy in China: The Initial Stage.
IANCU Dorina, Ph.D., Candidate.
The School of Cultural Studies - TAU.Political Murder and Political Retrospect in Tudor and Stuart Drama.
MANELA Erez, Ph.D., Candidate.
Dept. of History - Yale University.The Wilsonian Moment and the Rise of Anticolonial Nationalism: A Comparative Examination.
Shefer Miri
Personal Details:Dept. of Middle Eastern & African History, Tel Aviv University
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Title of Research:
"Drugs, Imagination and Knives: Medical History of the Pre-Modern Middle East"
Dr Shefer is working in two academic fields: Middle Eastern Studies and History of Medicine. She has a variety of interests within the general theme of social history of Muslim medicine. Shefer has written thus far on topics ranging from madness in pre-modern Muslim contexts, to court culture, hospitals, professional medical ethics, military medicine, and hygiene and urbanization. Her forthcoming book on Ottoman medicine in the early modern era is being published by State University of New York Press. Her next project deals with the modernization westernization of Middle Eastern medicines in the long nineteenth century. The study is based on two premises: first, developments in medicine and public health were both a symptom of change in other aspects of human life (education, family values, religious and national identity, etc) and agents of change in themselves; second, Ottomans played an active role in the modernization process, for example, by selective borrowing from European medical systems.
