Dr. Burstein is a faculty member in The Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research in the Life Science Faculty at Tel Aviv University. His research focuses on CRISPR-Cas systems, secretion systems of pathogens, and the discovery of novel antibiotic resistance genes to better understand fundamental interaction mechanisms within microbial communities and to promote their application in biotechnology and medicine. In his research, Dr. Burstein combines cutting-edge metagenomic techniques to study microorganisms in their natural environments, along with tailored machine-learning and molecular biology methods to predict and experimentally examine the studied systems’ functions.

Dr. Burstein graduated his B.Sc. and M.Sc. studies in the bioinformatics track (double major in Biology and Computer Science) at Tel Aviv University summa cum laude. He did his Ph.D. at Tel Aviv University as well, under the supervision of Prof. Tal Pupko, and continued to postdoctoral studies at UC Berkeley in the labs of Prof. Jill Banfield and Nobel laureate Prof. Jennifer Doudna.

Dr. Burstein received numerous honors and awards, including the Wolf Foundation award for excellent M.Sc. students, Prof. Willy Hirsch Prize for original research work conducted in the field of microbiology, the Rothschild and EMBO Long-Term postdoctoral fellowships, and the Alon fellowship for outstanding young faculty.