Affiliated TAU Researchers

 

Prof. Guido Sessa

Full Professor, Head of the School and Director of the Manna Center for Plant Biosciences

Website: https://sessalab.wixsite.com/site

 

 

 

 

Sessa investigates molecular mechanisms that govern plant immunity and susceptibility to bacterial diseases. His investigation has a direct impact on agriculture by providing targets and biotechnological strategies for the development of disease control strategies against economically important diseases and for the enhancement of crop productivity. 

 

 

 

Prof. Dror Avisar

Associate Professor, Department of Geophysics,  School of Environment and Earth Sciences Tel-Aviv University

Website: https://english.tau.ac.il/profile/droravi

 

 

Avisar's research focuses on developing sustainable solutions for current challenges in water supply for drinking and irrigation technologies, His group is active in technology developments for producing high quality effluent for safer agricultural irrigation are involved in studies to develop success models of  drinking water implementation and operation strategies, and their impact on food safety and security in developing countries (Africa).

 

 

 

 

Prof. Adi Avni

Full Professor, The School of Plant Sciences and Food Security

Website: https://adiavni.weebly.com/

 

 

 

 

Avni focuses his research on understanding how plants recognize conserved pattern of potential pathogens to activate their immune response. He uses biochemical and genetic approaches, including genome editing, to isolate proteins that are involved in the activation of the plant immune system. In addition, in collaboration with scientists of the School of Electrical Engineering, he is developing plant biosensors to detect biotic and abiotic stress in cultured fields. 

 

 

Prof.​ Alexander Golberg

Associate Professor · Porter School of Environmental Sciences, Head-Environmental Bioengineering Laboratory , TAU  

Website: https://www.tau.ac.il/~agolberg/

 

Golberg researches the area of Food security that  deals with offshore seaweed cultivation for use as a source for food ingredients such as protein, starch and fiber. In addition, his lab works on emerging technologies (devices and processes) such as a non-thermal pulsed electric field for food disinfection and non-thermal extraction. 

 

 

Dr. Michal Gruntman

Senior Lecturer, School of Plant Sciences and Food Security and  Porter School of Environmental Studies  TAU

Website: https://michalgruntman.wixsite.com/plantecol

 

 

Gruntman investigates how plants “make decisions” and evolve in response to changing environmental conditions, such as competition for light or soil resources. In addition, she devises new approaches of phytoremediation, which is a low-cost and environmentally sustainable technique that utilizes plants to extract trace metals from contaminated soils. 

 

 

Prof. Lilach Hadani

Full Professor, The School of Plant Sciences and Food Security

Website: https://www.hadanylab.com/

 

 

Hadani’s research interest is variation in nature, and in particular the evolution of the mechanisms that generate variation. Using analytical models, computer simulations, and experiments she investigates the forces driving variation, the patterns of variation expected in natural populations, and the evolutionary consequences of these patterns.

 

 

Prof. Itay Mayrose

Full Professor, The School of Plant Sciences and Food Security

Website: http://www.tau.ac.il/~itaymay/

 

 

 

 

Mayrose investigates the broad field of plant evolution and phylogenetics. He uses comparative bioinformatics approaches to gain insights into the fascinating evolutionary dynamics of plant genomes. He also develops computational tools that can be used to gain novel biological insights from various kinds of data and to reveal common genomics characteristics of plant crops that are important for human consumption.

 

 

Dr. Yasmine Meroz

Senior Lecturer, The School of Plant Sciences and Food Security

Website: https://www.merozlab.com/

 

 

 

Meroz studies fundamental plant behavioral processes, such as decision-making, collective behavior, entrainment, adaptation etc, using plant tropisms as a model system. She combines theory and experiment, adopting approaches from statistical physics and applied mathematics

 

 

Prof. Nir Ohad

Associate Professor, The School of Plant Sciences and Food Security, Director of the Manna Center Program for Food Safety and Security

Website: https://en-lifesci.tau.ac.il/profile/niro

 

 

 

 

Ohad is studying the role of modifications in the plant genome and its interacting proteins that influence plant reproduction and development. He is also the Director of the Manna Center Program for Food Safety and Security that employs research, education and outreach programs to prepare the next generation of scientists and policymakers to guide global food security issues in the years to come. 

 

 

Dr. Nir Sade 

Senior Lecturer, The School of Plant Sciences and Food Security

Website: https://nirsade1978.wixsite.com/nirsadelab

 

 

 

Sade’s investigations aim to identify traits for breeding perennial grain crops able to growth under stress conditions. He and his research group integrate a broad range of cutting-edge molecular tools working with cereal crops, using forward and reverse genetics, to both discover the genes that regulate those traits as well as to generate crops with better tolerance to those conditions. The outcome of the research will greatly contribute to the identification of key traits associated with sustainable plant growth and enhanced yield. 

 

 

Dr. Yuval Sapir

Senior Lecturer, The School of Plant Sciences and Food Security, Director of the Yehuda Naftali Botanic Garden

Website: https://labsapir.wixsite.com/labsapir/people

 

 

 

Sapir studies evolutionary ecology of plants and the interface of genetics and ecology. He investigates the evolution of flowers and how interactions with pollinators are shaping floral traits, as well as the genetic basis that underlie this process. He uses irises as a model system to study the effect of ecological and genetic divergence on creation of new species. He also assesses evolution of plants in the face of rapid climate changes and desertification. 

 

 

Prof. Yossi Shacham

Full Professor, The Bernard L. Schwartz Chair for Information Nano Technologies & Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering Tel Aviv University, Endowed Chair Professor at the Thapar Institute for Engineering and Technology, Patiala, India, and the Director of the TAU/TIET Food Security Center of Excellence

Website: https://english.tau.ac.il/profile/yosish

 

Shacham's research focuses on micro and nano electronics science and technology, and electrochemical bio sensors with food, medical and agri-applications. In collaboration with |Prof. Adi Avni and others they are developing functional biological sentinel sensors for early detection of drought in tomato, for rapid detection of fungal pathogens in vines and tomatoes.

 

 

 

Prof. Eilon Shani

Associate Professor, The School of Plant Sciences and Food Security

Website: https://www.shanilab.sites.tau.ac.il/

 

 

Shani investigates the molecular mechanisms regulating plant hormones transport mechanisms. He studies the first events of cellular signaling, all the way to patterning of the whole plant, primarily focusing on the plant hormones auxin and gibberellin. To facilitate this, he combines state-of-the-art genetics, molecular biology, chemistry and imaging approaches

 

 

 

Prof. Amir Sharon

Full Professor, The School of Plant Sciences and Food Security, Director of the Institute for Cereal Crops Improvement (ICCI)

Website: https://en-lifesci.tau.ac.il/icci

 

 

 

Sharon"s group is studying virulence mechanisms of plant pathogenic fungi, in particular of the grey mold fungus Botrytis cinerea. Another research direction is identification of disease resistance genes from wheat wild relatives and transfer them into elite wheat cultivars

 

 

 

Prof. Marcelo Sternberg

Full Professor, School of Plant Sciences and Food Security, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University

Website: https://en-lifesci.tau.ac.il/profile/marcelos

 

 

Sternberg’s ecological investigation aims at studying the effects of climate change on ecosystem structure and function in conditions of extreme drought and changes in rainfall patterns. He is also introducing remote sensing applications in agriculture and studying the employment of the VENµS satellite as a tool for quantifying the effects of climate change on forage quantity and quality in Israeli rangelands. One area of special interest regards the potential use of the wild lupins in Israel as novel crop. He is studying the ecology and agro-nutritional potential of local lupines as a novel resource for the plant-based protein industry and its potential use as a cover crop.   Diversifying plant-based protein production will foster sustainable agro-ecosystems, increase the options of meat substitutes and will lead to support the global food security in a more sustainable manner.

 

 

 

Dr. Haim Treves

Senior Lecturer, School of Plant Sciences and Food Security, Faculty of Life Sciences

Website: https://en-lifesci.tau.ac.il/profile/htreves_92

 

 

 

 

Trevese's research focuses on obtaining a deep systems-level understanding of photosynthetic metabolism in algae, and the role it plays in determining photosynthesis efficiency and growth, as a tool to improve future crops. To address these goals, Haim's lab is applying a set of tools, including state-of-the-art flux-metabolomics, modeling, molecular biology, and physiology. 

 

 

 

Prof. Iftach Yacoby

Associate Professor, Faculty of Life Sciences, School of Plant Sciences and Food Security

Website: https://www.energylabtau.com/

 

 

 

 

Yakoby is seeking alternative energy sources by genetically engineering algae to stably and efficiently produce hydrogen, which is a promising candidate for replacing carbon-based fuels. To this aim, he is developing strategies to engineering high efficient enzymes that participate in photosynthetic reactions and play a pivotal role in hydrogen production

 

 

 

Prof. Shaul Yalovsky

Full Professor, Faculty of Life Sciences,  Molecular Biology & Ecology of Plants

Website: https://shaulyalovsky.wixsite.com/yalovsky-lab

 

 

 

 

Yalovsky investigates how growth and shape of plant cells and organs is regulated and how these developmental mechanisms affect plant growth in a changing environment. He aims to identify key genes and elucidate how their protein products interact and function to support growth and how they are affected by environmental cues 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Roy Weinstain

Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Life Sciences,  Molecular Biology & Ecology of Plants

Website: http://weinstainlab.com/

 

 

 

Weinstain leads an interdisciplinary lab including biologists, chemists and imaging experts. His investigation aims to develop molecular tools for studying plant development and adaptive growth. In particular, he develops and deploy novel molecular tools to map the dynamics of plant hormones and unveil the molecular mechanisms that mediate their functions

 

 

Dr. Amit Gefen

PI Biomedical Engineering

Website: https://www.eng.tau.ac.il/~gefen/

 

 

 

Works with experimental and computational analysis of the mechanical behavior of hard and soft biological tissues, role of the mechanical stress distribution within tissues in development of diseases, analysis of the kinematic and dynamic behavior of musculoskeletal structures and development of methodologies for computer planning, simulation and enhancement of medical treatments and surgical procedures.

 

 

Dr. Hadas Mamane

PI Environmental Engineering

Website: http://www.hadasmamane.tau.ac.il/

 

 

 

One of the major challenges faced by the world today is the availability of safe drinking water. Our group focuses on developing water-treatment processes and technologies by introducing natural and induced photons, radicals, reactive species and nano-particles into the water.

 

 

Prof. Doron Shabat

PI / Lab Head Chemistry

Website: https://www.shabatlab.sites.tau.ac.il/

 

 

 

Organic Synthesis, Catalytic Antibodies, agrochemical activation, Self-Immolative Dendritic and polymeric systems

 

 

Prof. Eytan Ruppin

PI / Lab Head, Computer Sciences

Website: https://ccr.cancer.gov/staff-directory/eytan-ruppin

 

 

 

Metabolic modeling

 

 

Dr. Dafna Langgut

PI / Lab Head, Archaeology

Website: https://en-humanities.tau.ac.il/Archaeology-institute

 

 

 

Botanical archaeology, reconstruction of ancient environments.

 

 

Dr. Orit Rozin

PI / Lab Head, History

Website: http://www.oritrozin.com/​

 

 

 

My research focuses on the cultural, social and legal aspects of Israel's Austerity regime in the 1950s. I am looking at how women's roles were molded by shortages; I am interested in the role children played in shaping public discourse about shortages, and how law breaking was justified.  Human nutrition is not only constructed by physiological needs but also by cultural  needs. I therefore study the social capital attached to the most desired item of food at that time - meat. Since in the 1950s,  one was thought to be what one ate (or could not afford to eat), I also study the impact of shortages on national identity.

 

 

Prof. Galia Sabar

PI / Lab Head, African Studies

Website: http://humanities.tau.ac.il/segel/gsafrica/​

 

 

 

 

My research focuses on African labor migrants and asylum seekers in Israel. Lately the research has been expanded to include return migration. Questions of sustainability, changing gender role and social capital amongst migrants are at the focus of my research

 

 

Prof. Amy Singer

PI / Lab Head, Middle Eastern & African History

Website: http://www.tau.ac.il/~mideast/faculty/amy_eng.htm

 

 

 

Historical research into institutions that distribute free meals and the socio-cultural logic inspires these institutions. Ottoman (1300-1923) public kitchens (imaret). My current project includes a study of the kitchens of Edirne/Adrianople to understand how multiple kitchens, and other institutions distributing free meals, operated in a major Ottoman city

 

 

Prof. Aeyal Gross

PI / Lab Head, Law

Website: www.aeyalgross.com

 

 

 

Research on Social Economic Rights. Conducting research on the right to food and food security, looking at the role of human rights in this field. My first forthcoming article looks at food security in the context of the Gaza closure, and further research will consider other issues of food security and other ways in which law influences "what's on the plate"