Dr. Dana Laor Bar- Yosef is a molecular biologist and the head of the in vivo metabolic research group at Prof. Ehud Gazit’s lab. Following her undergraduate studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Dr. Laor Bar- Yosef continued to perform her PhD training at Tel Aviv University in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, under the supervision of Prof. Martin Kupiec from Tel Aviv University and the co-supervision of Prof. Ronit Weisman from the Open University of Israel. During her Ph.D. studies, Dr. Laor Bar- Yosef’s research focused on the roles of the TOR (Target Of Rapamycin) protein kinase. Dr. Laor Bar- Yosef used yeast models to address fundamental questions concerning the TOR-dependent signaling pathway under normal conditions and under environmental stress. She examined the inhibitory effect of the rapamycin drug and found a new gene that takes part in the rapamycin response.
In 2015, Dr. Laor Bar- Yosef joined Prof. Gazit’s lab for post-doctoral research and utilized her extensive experience in yeast analysis to successfully establish the first in vivo model for the study of inborn error of metabolism disorders. The Gazit group has previously shown these disorders to be associated with the formation of metabolite amyloid-like structures which are related to their pathology.
Dr. Laor Bar- Yosef brings over 15 years of research experience, particularly in molecular biology and genetics, and is now leading the in vivo metabolic research group at Prof. Gazit’s lab. Last year Dr. Laor Bar- Yosef initiated a fruitful collaboration with the BLAVATNIK CENTER for Drug Discovery at Tel Aviv University to establish an integrated drug discovery platform for metabolic disorders and has a patent pending for this invention. Also, Dr. Laor Bar-Yosef has recently won the 2020 Ziegler Award for her work in the field of metabolic disorders, a prize dedicated to young scientists with exceptional contribution to research with medical application.
The models established by Dr. Laor Bar- Yosef and her team provide a novel approach for comprehensive in vivo characterization of inborn error of metabolism disorders and also allow to gain insights relating to the intracellular molecular mechanisms that maintain metabolites in a soluble unaggregated state. Based on these models, potential therapeutic compounds are currently studied in the lab.