BIO-HYBRID COMPLEX SYSTEMS

Prof. Willner Itamar
Director of the Center
The Institute of Chemistry,
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Prof. Willner is a Member of The Israel Academy of Sciences (since 2002); Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (since 2004); Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), UK (since 2009) and member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (since 2009). Prof. Willner was awarded numerous awards and honors, including The Israel Chemical Society Award – 2001, The Israel Prize in Chemistry – 2002; The Klachky Family Prize for the Advancement of the Frontiers of Science – 2003; Honorary Guest Professorship, Tsinghua Univesity, Beijing, China – 2005; Honorary Professor, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China – 2007; Rothschild Prize in Chemistry – 2008; EMET Prize in Chemistry (under the auspices of the Prime Minister of Israel) – 2008, and the ACS Nano Lectureship Award – 2013.

Our laboratory research focuses on two major directions:
i. Characterization of light energy harvesting and electron transfer proteins: The cell biology approach of this research focuses on identifying and characterizing regulatory mechanisms and steps in the biogenesis, assembly and organization of electron transfer and photosynthetic proteins (mainly photosystem I/II [PSI/II] and Ferredoxin [Fd]), within the chloroplast and within the thylakoid membranes.
ii. Structure-function relationships of chloroplast and mitochondrial 2Fe-2S proteins:

Prof. Oded Shoseyov
The Robert H. Smith Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics in Agriculture
The Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The laboratory expertise is protein engineering and nano-biotechnology. Oded Shoseyov’s research focuses on enzymes and proteins that modify and bind to polysaccharides, plant biotechnology, nano-biotechnology and composite materials. Previous relevant experience is mainly molecular biology for engineering, cloning, expression and purification of novel proteins in

Prof. Assaf Friedler
Institute of Chemistry
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Our group is interested in using peptides for the quantitative biophysical and structural analysis of protein-protein interactions in health and disease. Based on this, we are using peptides to modulate protein-protein interactions for therapeutic purposes, for example:
1. Using peptides to modulate the oligomeric state of proteins

Prof. Shimshon Belkin
Institute of Life Sciences
Director, Inter-faculty Biotechnology Program
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Professor Belkin’s research activities focus on:
1. Molecular engineering of bacterial-based whole-cell biosensors
a. RNA-zyme based sensors
b. Flow-through biochips for online water toxicity monitoring
c. Microbial sensor panels for the detection of trace pharmaceuticals
d. Genome-wide bacterial sensor arrays
e. Remote detection of buried landmines

Prof. Oded Livnah
Deptartment of Biological Chemistry
The Silberman Institute of Life Sciences
The Wolfson Centre for Applied Structural Biology
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem 

Structural determination of biologically related macromolecules via X-ray crystallographic techniques. Ligand recognition, initial signaling events, and the role of dimer/oligomer orientation in cytokine receptor systems.

Dr. Ady Vaknin
Racah Institute of Physics
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

By using various fluorescence microscopy techniques, including FRET and fluorescence polarization measurements of live bacterial cells, we study different aspects of sensory signaling in bacteria.
Topics that are currently studied in the lab are:
i. The function and dynamics of the bacterial chemosensory clusters, which are large molecular arrays containing thousands of reception proteins

Prof. Danny Porath
Institute of Chemistry
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Our research is bi-directional: First, we use
bio-templated systems to form conducting nanowires and nanodevices and investigate electrical charge transport in these systems for nanoelectronics and nanotechnology applications. We already measured charge transport in dsDNA and G4-DNA and revealed the energy level spectrum of dsDNA. We study hybrids of ring shaped SP1 protein from aspen tree with various nanoparticles to form memory units, logic machines, large memory arrays and protein-particles conducting chains. The other research

Prof. Gadi Schuster
Technion Israel Institute of Technology

Prof. Yosi Shacham
Tel-Aviv University

Prof. Ashraf Brik
Ben Gurion University