The Department of Molecular and Computational Biosciences and Biotechnology

Mission

To seek and apply new knowledge to cope with fundamental global challenges in food and energy security, human health, and environmental safety

Global challenges such as cancer therapy, bioinspired solar energy conversion, and plastic waste degradation, are essential focal points for the department. They are also of particular interest to the local community in the Galilee as it emerges as a hub for food and agriculture technology research and development. 

We are focused on activities such as the development of vaccines for poultry and other livestock; the development of new methodologies and substances for controlling and preventing plant diseases; the design of novel functional food ingredients; and the improvement of production methods for these and other food compounds.

The Cutting Edge of Molecular and Computational Biosciences and Biotechnology
Head of The Department of Molecular and Computational Biosciences and Biotechnology

Professor Dror Noy

Bioenergy and Protein Design
972-4-7700508
drorn@migal.org.il

Securing environmentally friendly sustainable energy sources to meet the demands of a growing world population is one of the most important challenges for science in the 21st century. Our lab is looking for ideas and inspiration for addressing this difficult challenge in biological energy conversion processes, particularly, photosynthesis - the primary provider of energy for life on earth that has been converting solar energy to biomass and fuels for over two billion years. Our goal is to design and construct semi-artificial solar energy conversion systems that comprise molecular components from the photosynthetic apparatus taken out of their natural membrane context into aqueous solutions, and coupled with other water-soluble biocatalysts for the production of potential alternative fuel molecules such as hydrogen or ammonia. The photosynthetic components may range from isolated natural photosynthetic enzymes to de-novo designed protein-cofactor complexes that serve as their minimal water-soluble analogues. To this end, we implement state-of-the-art computational and empirical tools of protein design, recombinant protein production and purification techniques, microfluidics technologies, and a wide range of spectroscopic and analytical methods for characterizing the structure and function of the new complexes.As we make progress toward novel solar energy conversion systems, we are also gaining important insight into the fundamental processes involved in natural photosynthesis. These can be used for making photosynthetic organisms more efficient and thereby increasing agricultural productivity.

Our researchers come from the fields of biological, chemical, and computational sciences and apply an interdisciplinary approach to addressing these fundamental challenges. They do so with diverse methodologies and analytical techniques such as directed enzyme evolution; computational design of proteins and biomolecules; machine-learning algorithms for search and optimization; optical spectroscopy; and bioinformatics.

Our researchers come from the fields of biological, chemical, and computational sciences and apply an interdisciplinary approach to addressing these fundamental challenges. They do so with diverse methodologies and analytical techniques such as directed enzyme evolution; computational design of proteins and biomolecules; machine-learning algorithms for search and optimization; optical spectroscopy; and bioinformatics.

Department Research Groups