Welcome!

 Ilana Dubovi, PhD, is a new faculty member at the Department of Nursing, Stanley Steyer School of Health Professions at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine. Dr. Dubovi completed her PhD in Education at the Department of Learning, Instruction and Teacher Education, University of Haifa. She then completed two postdoctoral positions, first at the Department of Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences at Utah State University and second was at the Faculty of Education at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. Her research encompasses a synergy of learning sciences theories, medical sciences and educational digital technology. Her prime interests are grounded in science-related healthcare topics and issues to examine how complex-systems approach can restructure development of mechanistic schemes among patients, students and health-care practitioners to improve both, health outcomes and patient-safety.  

​ Dr. Ben-David is a new faculty member in the Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, and is an affiliated member of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Bioinformatics. Dr. Ben-David completed his PhD studies at the Hebrew University, where he studied stem cell biology under the supervision of Prof. Nissim Benvenisty. He then became a postdoctoral fellow at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, where he studied cancer genetics with Prof. Todd Golub. Dr. Ben-David’s laboratory will focus on a fundamental, understudied trait of cancer, called aneuploidy – a change in the number of chromosomes in cancer cells. Dr. Ben-David’s lab will apply a variety of experimental and computational approaches to study the processes that lead to aneuploidy in cancer, the contribution of aneuploidy to tumor formation and progression, and the cellular vulnerabilities of aneuploid cells. By uncovering the basic biology underlying this unique trait of cancer, Dr. Ben-David hopes to expand the understanding of the genetic basis of cancer, and to open new avenues for personalized cancer treatments.

​ Dr. Yael Lahav is a new faculty member in the Department of Occupational Therapy at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine. Dr. Lahav is a licensed clinical psychologist. She completed her PhD studies at the Tel Aviv University, where she studied the longitudinal associations between attachment and perceived health among former-prisoners-of-war of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, under the supervision of Prof. Zahava Solomon. Since she received her PhD, she has completed two post-doctoral periods. The first at the University of Southern Denmark, where she studied the linkage between attachment and dissociation during treatment among childhood sexual abuse survivors with Prof. Ask Elklit. The second at Stanford University, as a Fulbright grantee, where she studied posttraumatic growth as well as the phenomenon of identification with the aggressor among childhood sexual abuse survivors with Prof. David Spiegel. Dr. Lahav’s lab will apply self-report questionnaires alongside biophysiologic measures and laboratory cognitive methods, to study the role of psychological and interpersonal variables in shaping somatic and functional outcomes among trauma survivors. By uncovering the mechanisms underlying somatic and functional difficulties, Dr. Lahav hopes to further the development of interventions that would not only enhance trauma survivors’ psychological well-being but also promote their functioning and participation in meaningful activities.

​ Dr. Uri Obolski completed his academic studies at Tel Aviv University, graduating from the Adi Lautman Interdisciplinary Program For Outstanding Students. He earned a BSc in Mathematics, and an MSc and PhD in computational biology under the supervision of Prof. Lilach Hadany. Dr. Oboski's postdoctoral research was conducted at the University of Oxford, funded by an EMBO Fellowship. Currently, he is a Senior Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in a joint position at the School of Public Health of the Faculty of Medicine and the Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at the Faculty of Exact Sciences. Dr. Obolski's research aims to tackle major topics in infectious diseases and how they are affected by environmental factors, using mathematical models and statistical methods. In particular, he is interested in changes in antibiotic resistance frequencies and in mosquito-borne virus dynamics.

 Dr. Maayan Gal is a new faculty member in the Department of Oral Biology, School of Dental Medicine at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine. Dr. Maayan Gal completed his PhD studies at the Department of Chemical Physics at the Weizmann Institute under the supervision of Prof. Lucio Frydman. His PhD focused on the development of new magnetic resonance methods for monitoring bimolecular events. He then continued as an HFSP postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Medical School, working with Prof. Gerhard Wagner on protein interactions, aiming to decipher the structure-function relation of T-cell activation switch proteins, NFAT and calcineurin. He then joined as a lead researcher at the Migal-Galilee Research Institute, where he developed small molecule inhibitors for therapeutic and agricultural uses. Dr. Maayan Gal’s lab focuses on the challenging biological space of protein-protein interactions (PPIs). Through the integration of protein engineering, biophysical and computational tools, he aims to decipher the structure-function relation of PPIs, focusing on immune-related protein complexes and to develop new protein modulators as the basis for promising therapeutics.