Prof. Ronen Zaidel-Bar

Professor, Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences

Vice Dean for Innovation, Pre-clinical Research and Development

Head, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology

Education

2006 – 2010       Department of Zoology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

Postdoctoral fellow

Topic: Regulation of cell-cell adhesion and the actin cytoskeleton during C. elegans embryonic epidermal morphogenesis. Advisor: Prof. Jeff Hardin.

2000 – 2006       Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

Combined MSc/PhD program

Thesis title: “Development of cell-matrix adhesions and their regulation by mechanical force and tyrosine phosphorylation”
Advisor: Prof. Benjamin Geiger, Department of Molecular Cell Biology.

1994 – 2000       Open University of Israel, Ra’anana, Israel

BSc degree with high honors in Life Sciences

Employment

2023-present Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Israel

Full Professor

2017 - 2023 Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel

Associate Professor

2010 – 2017    Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Principal Investigator

2010 – 2017   Department of Biomedical Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Assistant Professor

Cellular Mechanics and Tissue Morphogenesis

Our main interest is in understanding how mechanical forces are generated by cells and how cells use these forces to change shape and move, as happens during cell division, cell migration and tissue morphogenesis. We focus on distinct cellular structures that mediate cell adhesion and contractility: cell-matrix and cell-cell junctions and the actomyosin cytoskeleton.

Together, these structures are responsible for the dynamic control of cell and tissue shape during development and homeostasis and their misregulation is associated with various diseases. We take a multi-scale approach in our investigations, from single proteins to an entire organism, and employ a variety of tools, including genetic engineering, proteomics, biochemistry and bioinformatics, but primarily relying on live imaging with fluorescence microscopy.

Our findings, both in mammalian cells and in the nematode C. elegans, are defining the protein network regulating cell adhesion and contractility in vivo and elucidating molecular mechanisms of mechanosensing and mechanotransduction.

Active nuclear positioning and actomyosin contractility maintain leader cell integrity during gonadogenesis.

Agarwal P, Berger S, Shemesh T, Zaidel-Bar R.Curr Biol. 2024 Jun 3;34(11):2373-2386.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.03.049. Epub 2024 May 21.

Chloride intracellular channel (CLIC) proteins function as fusogens.

Manori B, Vaknin A, Vaňková P, Nitzan A, Zaidel-Bar R, Man P, Giladi M, Haitin Y.Nat Commun. 2024 Mar 7;15(1):2085. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-46301-z.

Actin-capping protein regulates actomyosin contractility to maintain germline architecture in C. elegans.

Ray S, Agarwal P, Nitzan A, Nédélec F, Zaidel-Bar R.Development. 2023 Mar 15;150(6):dev201099. doi: 10.1242/dev.201099. Epub 2023 Mar 23.

Tension-dependent RHGF-1 recruitment to stress fibers drives robust spermathecal tissue contraction.

Avivi Kela S, Sethi K, Tan PY, Suresh D, Ong HT, Castaneda PG, Amin MR, Laviv T, Cram EJ, Faix J, Zaidel-Bar R.J Cell Biol. 2023 Feb 6;222(2):e202203105. doi: 10.1083/jcb.202203105. Epub 2022 Dec 27.

Directed cell invasion and asymmetric adhesion drive tissue elongation and turning in C. elegans gonad morphogenesis.

Agarwal P, Shemesh T, Zaidel-Bar R.Dev Cell. 2022 Sep 12;57(17):2111-2126.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2022.08.003. Epub 2022 Aug 31.

Visualizing and quantifying molecular and cellular processes in Caenorhabditis elegans using light microscopy.

Shah P, Bao Z, Zaidel-Bar R.Genetics. 2022 Jul 30;221(4):iyac068. doi: 10.1093/genetics/iyac068.

Pyk2 regulates cell-edge protrusion dynamics by interacting with Crk.

Lukic N, Lapetina S, Grobe H, Srikanth KD, Twafra S, Solomon J, Sneh T, Gendler M, Zaidel-Bar R, Gil-Henn H.Mol Biol Cell. 2021 Nov 1;32(21):ar17. doi: 10.1091/mbc.E20-10-0640. Epub 2021 Aug 25.

Levodopa-responsive dystonia caused by biallelic PRKN exon inversion invisible to exome sequencing.

Mor-Shaked H, Paz-Ebstein E, Basal A, Ben-Haim S, Grobe H, Heymann S, Israel Z, Namnah M, Nitzan A, Rosenbluh C, Saada A, Tzur T, Yanovsky-Dagan S, Zaidel-Bar R, Harel T, Arkadir D.Brain Commun. 2021 Sep 6;3(3):fcab197. doi: 10.1093/braincomms/fcab197. eCollection 2021.

Probing the effect of clustering on EphA2 receptor signaling efficiency by subcellular control of ligand-receptor mobility.

Chen Z, Oh D, Biswas KH, Zaidel-Bar R, Groves JT.Elife. 2021 Aug 20;10:e67379. doi: 10.7554/eLife.67379.

Mechanosensing in embryogenesis.

Agarwal P, Zaidel-Bar R.Curr Opin Cell Biol. 2021 Feb;68:1-9. doi: 10.1016/j.ceb.2020.08.007. Epub 2020 Sep 6.

Thymosin β4 is essential for adherens junction stability and epidermal planar cell polarity.

Padmanabhan K, Grobe H, Cohen J, Soffer A, Mahly A, Adir O, Zaidel-Bar R, Luxenburg C.Development. 2020 Dec 11;147(23):dev193425. doi: 10.1242/dev.193425.

Diverse roles of non-muscle myosin II contractility in 3D cell migration.

Agarwal P, Zaidel-Bar R.Essays Biochem. 2019 Oct 31;63(5):497-508. doi: 10.1042/EBC20190026.

Reciprocal regulation of actomyosin organization and contractility in nonmuscle cells by tropomyosins and alpha-actinins.

Hu S, Grobe H, Guo Z, Wang YH, Doss BL, Pan M, Ladoux B, Bershadsky AD, Zaidel-Bar R.Mol Biol Cell. 2019 Jul 22;30(16):2025-2036. doi: 10.1091/mbc.E19-02-0082. Epub 2019 Jun 19.

From cell shape to cell fate via the cytoskeleton - Insights from the epidermis.

Luxenburg C, Zaidel-Bar R.Exp Cell Res. 2019 May 15;378(2):232-237. doi: 10.1016/j.yexcr.2019.03.016. Epub 2019 Mar 12.

The RhoGAP SPV-1 regulates calcium signaling to control the contractility of the Caenorhabditis elegans spermatheca during embryo transits.

Bouffard J, Cecchetelli AD, Clifford C, Sethi K, Zaidel-Bar R, Cram EJ.Mol Biol Cell. 2019 Mar 21;30(7):907-922. doi: 10.1091/mbc.E18-10-0633. Epub 2019 Feb 6.

Principles of Actomyosin Regulation In Vivo.

Agarwal P, Zaidel-Bar R.Trends Cell Biol. 2019 Feb;29(2):150-163. doi: 10.1016/j.tcb.2018.09.006. Epub 2018 Oct 29.