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THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE No. 4 FALL 2013 OF SCIENCE & PEOPLE Turing Award to Prof. Shafi Goldwasser Cover Story PAGE 8 Solving the Sign Problem Mandy Moross: PAGE 26 A Steward Immune System Science Over Time PAGE 32 PAGE 4 Cover Story Mandy Moross: A Steward Over Time PAGE 4 The Weizmann International Magazine of Science & People No. 4, Fall 2013 Editor • Yivsam Azgad Editorial board • Kelly Avidan, Yivsam Azgad, Prof. Israel Bar-Joseph, Judy Halper and Tamar Morad Assistant editor • Judy Halper Copy editor • Evelyn Katrak Writers • Staff writers of the Publications SAVE THE DATE! and Media Relations, and Resource Development Departments Reunion of the alumni of the Faculty of Chemistry Graphic design • Irit Sher 7 pm, October 3, 2013 Photo research • Naama Pesso and Heidi Shulman Graduates of all years invited Data research • Irit Oz Photography • Yael Ilan, Roya Mey-Dan, Matthew Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot Septimus, Kibbutz Gat Archives, Ohad Herches For more information: [email protected] and Itai Belson of the Weizmann Institute Photo Department, Weizmann Institute Archives Images • Thinkstock Print • A.B. Offset Ltd., Israel FALL 2013 From the President keep moving. In fact, for a scientific gardeners to scientists, from technicians institution, not moving is even more to accountants, from students to board treacherous: Not only will it fall, it can members − we have, for the last 64 be much more difficult to get itself years, succeeded in keeping our balance back up on the wheels. This is because, and never losing our way. Every day, unlike the bicycle, which only needs a each and every one of us gets out of bed strong rider to keep moving, an institute in order to push the limits of scientific like Weizmann requires a good number knowledge, to keep discovering what of highly qualified people to keep the world is made of and to renew propelling it forward. our attempt to understand what life To stretch the metaphor, the Institute is all about. In this magazine, you will is like a bicycle with a lot of riders: One find that we are moving into ever new of the major difficulties inherent in this territory. That is natural: While riding our is that they all need to be riding in step, “bicycle,” we encounter a continuously so that not only does the thing move, it changing landscape. New discoveries are also travels in a well-defined direction. always made when fresh landscapes are Otherwise, we might be keeping our visited. balance, but we will be going in circles. I wish all of you a happy new year, And going in circles, for a scientific “Shana Tova.” Keep pedaling, and don’t Albert Einstein once said: “Life is like institution, is simply “reinventing the forget that there are many gears − on riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, wheel.” a bike as well as in life. To paraphrase you must keep moving.” Every time I One of the most outstanding features a famous poem: We use the gears less hear this quote, I feel it perfectly fits of the Weizmann Institute is that even pedaled/ And that has made all the the spirit of the Weizmann Institute: If though our many “riders” have very difference. we want to keep our balance, we must different skills and backgrounds -- from Daniel Zajfman CONTENTS SCIENCE BRIEFS NEW CAREER DEVELOPMENT CHAIR THE HUMAN BODY 2 A Mouse in the House 14 Establishment of the Leah Omenn 32 Immune System Science “Cell on a Chip” Produces Proteins Career Development Chair 3 Limits to Growth EDUCATION Expanded GeneCards Database AROUND THE WORLD 38 At Home with Science and Math Finds a New Framework 16 Mission to Weizman Institute 40 Spotlight on ISEF Students in May 41 New Prize Established by UK Donors COVER STORY 18 The Brazilian Connection 4 Mandy Moross: 21 Q&A with Larry Blumberg ON CAMPUS A Steward Over Time 42 Sculpture: Dani Karavan NEW SCIENTISTS MATHEMATICS 24 Beating Biofilms ALUMNI 8 Turing Award to Prof. 26 Solving the Sign Problem 44 Building Israel’s Biotech Industry Shafi Goldwasser WOMEN IN SCIENCE 46 THANK YOU EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING 28 Newly Hired Scientists 10 Focus on INCPM 29 Capmany Award to 49 10 THINGS WE DIDN’T KNOW the Weizmann Institute About Albert Sabin PLANETARY SCIENCE 12 News of the Solar System AWARDS 30 Gruber Award to Prof. Yardena Samuels P 1 FALL 2013 SCIENCE BRIEFS strain of the mice. in previous experiments, Bar-Ziv and his One of the study’s more interesting team attached strands of DNA to one part Limits to Growth findings emerged from experiments with of the chip. To another part, they affixed mice that had been bred to exhibit signs antibodies for trapping proteins − the What makes a lettuce leaf grow to the of autism − little social engagement and products of the DNA expression. Because size of a salad plate, or a clover leaf to the compulsive behavior patterns. When the the DNA encoded a green fluorescent size of a fingernail? Prof. Yuval Eshed, the house residents consisted solely of male marker, when the experiment succeeded Jacques Mimran Professor, and his group “autistic” mice, leaders either did not and proteins were produced, they investigated this question with the help arise or were quickly overthrown. showed up as a green glow on the of the standard lab plant Arabidopsis These findings suggest that observing antibody side of the chip. thaliana, a type of mustard cress that the social structures of mice can reveal Further experiments in Bar-Ziv’s lab normally has relatively tiny leaves. much that is common to all types of elaborated on the idea. In one version, They began with proteins they had social animals, including humans. Such the researchers used a viral gene that discovered in previous research into the Mice in a Big Brother setup research may be especially useful for encodes proteins which roll up into very first steps of leaf growth, when the develop social structures investigating the societal aspects of tubes. Sure enough, when they observed cells of the nascent leaf differentiate into disorders that affect the group order, the chips under an electron microscope, top and bottom. When the plants were A Mouse in including autism and schizophrenia. they saw a forest of minuscule tubes genetically engineered to produce only populating the antibody section. In top or bottom cells, the leaves did not the House another, they added a gene encoding grow, and a number of proteins normally a red fluorescent protein on top of the produced in healthy leaves were not Here is a version of Big Brother that “Cell on a Chip” ones for green fluorescent proteins. generated in the miniature ones. Plant on the left is normal, center and right are missing factors that limit growth won’t be coming to your TV screen They found that the colored proteins Assuming that these proteins were anytime soon: Dr. Tali Kimchi, Produces Proteins competed for the antibodies, with the involved in leaf growth, the researchers and disease. To create the additional incumbent of the Jenna and Julia green ones ending up closer to their created new plants, each overproducing Expanded sections, Belinky and the team integrated Birnbach Family Career Development Can we build an artificial cell − one that genes and the red ones trapped farther one of these proteins. To their surprise, and unified information from 15 different Chair, places groups of mice together in will carry out such functions of natural away. about half of the proteins appeared to GeneCards ncRNA databases. a large “house” in her lab and films their living cells as gene expression, protein These chips, says Bar-Ziv, demonstrated have no effect on leaf size, while the GeneCards and its sister database, every action day and night. Together production and molecular interactions? a system for observing protein other half reduced it. Database Finds a MalaCards, which offers a similar web- with Dr. Ofer Feinerman, incumbent of Prof. Roy Bar-Ziv and his research team production and activities in real time. The next step was to create plants that card format for information on diseases, the Shlomo and Michla Tomarin Career created a simplified, two-dimensional, But he envisions future applications, in did not produce various members of the New Framework are now included in the computerized Development Chair, she and her team cell-like system on a glass chip that which such miniature cell-like systems growth-suppressing protein family they diagnostic and genomic analysis toolkits developed a setting that was somewhat suggests this feat may be possible in the could provide the basis for techniques to had identified. Now the leaves of their GeneCards, the online, comprehensive offered by Appistry, Inc. Appistry natural but still enabled them to observe future. create complex, active protein structures Arabidopsis grew larger and larger, until database of human genes, nearly doubled recently entered into a partnership with and analyze in precise detail what each Using a technique they had developed on demand. they more resembled lettuce or kale in size following a recent study carried LifeMap Sciences, Inc., which is licensed mouse was doing at any given time. Over than cress. Further research revealed out in the laboratory of Prof. Doron by Yeda Research and Development, the periods of days to months, they watched the precise mechanism by which these Lancet, the Ralph D. and Lois R. Silver technology transfer arm of the Weizmann as individual and social behavior patterns proteins limit leaf growth. Professor of Human Genomics and Head Institute, to market GeneCards and led to the formation of a mouse social The findings, says Eshed, have of the Crown Human Genome Center.