Prof. Avraham Levy earned his PhD in plant genetics from the Weizmann Institute of Science. He conducted postdoctoral research at Stanford University and at INRA Versailles, then he  joined the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.  He is a member of the Plant and Environmental Sciences department, served until Nov 2022 as Dean of the Faculty of Biochemistry.

His research probes the structure and evolution of the plant genome, in particular the genetic mechanisms responsible for biodiversity in the plant kingdom, including DNA repair and recombination.  He develops advanced genetic manipulation techniques to engineer plants in a precise manner. He served on the scientific board of Agro-biotech companies, on the Plant Cell editorial board and is an associate member to the French Academy of Agriculture.

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Head of the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at the Weizmann Institute of Science

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Sarel Fleishman is an Associate Professor at the Department of Biomolecular Sciences of the Weizmann Institute and Director of the Dr. Barry Sherman Institute for Medicinal Chemistry.

The Fleishman lab develops cutting-edge computational methods that enable one-shot design of challenging enzymes and binding proteins for basic and applied research. Methods developed by the lab, such as PROSS and FuncLib, have been used by thousands of scientists worldwide to improve industrial and therapeutic enzymes, antibodies, and vaccine immunogens. Sarel is especially interested in developing methods that can be universally applied to provide biocatalytic solutions in sustainability and energy research.

Professor Dan Tawfik, a world leader in understanding protein and enzyme evolution, was one of the founding scientists of Plantae Bioscience.

His scientific approach is interdisciplinary, combining bioinformatics and molecular evolution, molecular and structural biology, biochemistry and organic chemistry. In 2020, he was awarded the prestigious EMET Prize for Art, Science and Culture by the Israeli government, informally dubbed “Israel’s Nobel Prize”.

While he was killed in a tragic mountain climbing accident in May 2021, his contributions, scientific insights and collaborative spirit are still with us.