Announcing APPD Scholarship Winners

 Noa is a Post doc. fellow in the Dept of Neurobiology, Faculty of life sciences at TAU, under Prof Uri Ashey’s supervision. During her PhD
at the Sackler School of Medicine, under the supervision.Prof Ilana Lotan, Noa studied the molecular mechanism of exocytosis in neuroendocrine cells. Noa is currently working on Developing a super-resolution microscopy platform for early detection of alpha synuclein aggregation in human peripheral tissue and bio-fluids. 

 Roy is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Human Molecular Genetics & Biochemistry at the Sackler School of Medicine at TAU, under Prof. Dani Offen’s supervision.  Roy received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from TAU (Faculty of Life Sciences).  During his master’s degree under the joint supervision of Prof. Dani Offen and Prof. Danny Michaelson, Roy studied and developed methods for allele-specific targeting of APOE4, the main genetic risk factor of Alzheimer’s disease, by CRISPR-Cas systems. Roy is currently studying the interplay between the immune system and the brain in LRRK2-mediated Parkinson’s disease and developing novel methods to improve CRISPR-Cas gene editing. 

 Jana is a Ph.D student, working under the supervision of Prof. Ronit Sagi-Eisenberg, in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel-Aviv university. 

Jana obtained her B.Sc. in Medical and Life Sciences at Tel-Aviv University and is pursuing her doctoral studies in the Direct Ph.D. track. Jana’s research focuses on the molecular mechanisms that underlie the functions of Rab12, a small GTPase protein that was recently identified as a physiological substrate of Leucine-Rich Repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2). The latter is an enzyme, whose hyperactivation is linked with both familial and sporadic Parkinson’s Disease (PD). Rab12 may therefore serve an attractive drug candidate for intervention with PD. Jana is also a teaching assistant in the Histology labs of the medical school students.

 Dorin is a Ph.D. student in the School of Molecular Cell Biology and Biotechnology at the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences at TAU, under Prof. Ehud Gazit’s supervision. Dorin received her M.Sc. in Biotechnology from TAU as well, during her studies she characterized cell-to-cell transmission of PD-related pathological proteins. In her Ph.D., Dorin is investigating the involvement of metabolite assemblies in the initiation of pathological processes in neurodegenerative diseases and will continue her research as a post-doc in the lab of Prof. Ehud Gazit.

 Luba is a post-doctorate fellow in the Physiology and Pharmacology department at the Sackler School of Medicine, under the supervision of Prof. Eran Perlson and Prof. Noam Shomron. Luba completed her undergraduate B.Sc. in life Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev with distinction, and joined Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel-Aviv University for her Master’s degree. After one year she transferred to the direct PhD program, and completed it in 2018. Later, she has started her post-doctorate fellowship, working on two main projects: “Global gene expression in Parkinson’s disease patients” and “Real-time microRNA targeting". Luba has eight publications on the effect of microRNA expression on the development of various diseases, such as AIDS, preeclampsia, depression, PTSD, and ANE syndrome. She has won an award for outstanding departmental research in 2016, and a teaching award in 2017. 

 Yifat is a MS.c. student in the Dept of Neurobiology at the school of Neurobiology, Biochemistry and Biophysics & Sagol School of Neuroscience at TAU, under the supervision of Prof. Uri Ashery. Yifat studied her B.Sc. in Biology and Psychology from Tel-Aviv University. During her undergraduate studies, she took part in multiple projects, such as in Prof. Dan Frenkel’s laboratory in identifying the role of neuroimmunomodulators in attenuating inflammatory peripheral immune response in multiple sclerosis mice model, and in Prof.mTalma Hendler's lab in the research of sleep disturbances in Fibromyalgia patients. In her MS.c., Yifat will be working on developing an in vitro platform for studying α-Synuclein aggregation in Parkinson disease. 

Ashim is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Carcer Research, in George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, in Prof. Daniel Segal group. Ashim received his PhD in Chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, India. During his PhD in Prof. Bhubaneswar Mandal group he worked on design and synthesis of peptide-based therapeutic molecules to target protein aggregation associated with Alzheimer’s and type-2 diabetes diseases. He is currently working on development of small molecules therapeutic towards protein and metabolite aggregation diseases, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Gaucher diseases

​Lior is an M.Sc student in the Dept of Neurobiology, Neurobiology,Biochemistry and Biophysics School at The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, under Prof Ronit Pinkas-Kramarski's supervision. Lior received her B.Sc. in Biology from Tel-Aviv University. During her undergraduate studies she took part in a project in Prof. Marcelo Erlich laboratory, examining stable expression and secretion of Alk6II, TGF-beta RII and Alk3’s chimeras by Hek 293 cells; and in Prof Shimon Efrat laboratory, examining vector specificity for marking beta-cells. Lior is currently working on the involvement of APOE4 (a risk factor for Alzheimer’s) in Parkinson’s disease.

​ Stav is a Ph.D student in the Dept of Cell and Development Biology at the Sackler School of Medicine under Dr. Avraham Ashkenazi's supervision. Stav received her B.Sc. in Biology and Life Science from Tel Aviv University. During her studies she participated in a study about the energy balance of astrocytes and neurons in Ataxia Telangiectasia (A-T) in Prof. Ari Barzilai's laboratory. In her MSc. She was a student in the honors program of Clinical Neuroscience at Sagol School and investigated the influence of mitochondrial activity on excitotoxicity in A-T under the supervision of Prof. Ari Barzilai. These days she is working on lipids composition in the cellular membrane as a key element to understand α-synuclein pathological mechanism.