Prof. Hagit Eldar-Finkelman

Hagit Eldar-Finkelman is a Full Professor at Tel Aviv University, where she holds the Lady Davis Chair in Biochemistry and serves as Head of the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson School of Graduate Studies. She received her B.Sc. in Chemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute of Science, and pursued postdoctoral training at the University of Washington, followed by an appointment as Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. 

Her research is centered on elucidating the molecular mechanisms underlying the pathological activity of glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) in disease progression and on developing strategic platforms for drug discovery using computational and biological approaches. She pioneered the identification of GSK-3 as a key therapeutic target in diabetes and neurodegenerative disorders and led the development of unique substrate-competitive GSK-3 inhibitors. Current work focuses on cellular defense mechanisms against oxidative stress and strategies to reduce toxicity in Huntington’s disease. 

Hagit has authored over 84 publications and is the principal inventor on 10 patents, advancing the discovery of novel drug targets to combat human pathologies.