Prof. Yoav Henis - Chairman
Prof. Yoav Henis is TAU Vice President for Research and Development. In 1974 received his B.Sc. Cum Laude in Chemistry and Biochemistry at Hebrew University. In 1978 he completed his doctoral thesis at Hebrew University, under the guidance of Prof. Alexander Levitzki. This thesis won the Hebrew University Kennedy-Lee prize for best thesis of the year. Between 1978 and 1981 he was a post-doctoral fellow under the guidance of Prof. Elliot Elson, first at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) and then at Washington University School of Medicine (St. Louis, MO). Upon his return to Israel in 1981 he became a Faculty member at the Department of Biochemistry, and then the Department of Neurobiology at Tel Aviv University. Prof. Henis has served as the head of the Committee for acceptance of undergraduate students to the Faculty of Life Sciences (1985-7), the secretary of the Israel Society for Cell Biology (1991-5), the head of the Department of Neurobiochemistry (today named Neurobiology) (1995-8), and was a member in many University and National Committees
Prof. Esty Shohami
Prof. Shohami’s research focuses on traumatic brain injury (TBI) and addresses the pathophisiology of TBI. She studies the mechanisms of injury (e.g. inflammation, oxidative stress, the glutamate NMDA receptors) as well as endogenous injury-induced neuroprotective brain mechanisms (e.g. erythropoietin, endocannabinoids, and heat-acclimation-induced preconditioning). She has published more than 220 articles, reviews and book chapters, and is a collaboraor at several patents. At her University Prof. Shohami teaches neuropharmacology to medical and pharmacy students and has supervised over 40 students for MSc, MD and PhD. She holds several duties at the administrative levels of the University, and also at National science committees.
Prof. Moussa Youdim
Prof. Moussa Youdim was chairman of Pharmacology from its inception in 1977 to 1994. He is now the Finkelstein Professor of Life Sciences and Professor of Pharmacology at the Technion- Rappaport Family Faculty of Medicine and the Director of the Eve Topf and National Parkinson Foundation (USA) Cneters of Excellence for Neurodegenerative Diseases Research and Teaching at Technion.
Dana Bar-On
Head of Academic Affairs and Networks at Teva Pharmaceuticals
Ms. Stephanie Bova
Stephanie Bova’s career has been driven by two words, “what if”. Inspired by the vast possibilities of technology, Stephanie has dedicated her career to revolutionary advancements in pharmaceuticals.
With more than two decades of experience with a focus in marketing strategy and operations for healthcare, Stephanie is currently the Head of Europe and Canada for Takeda’s Digital Accelerator in Switzerland and also serves as the Head of Global Operations for the group.
HEAD OF THE PROGRAM - DR. MICHAL SHEVACH
Dr. Shevach is the head of entrepreneurship and industry-academia relations at the Sagol School of Neuroscience in Tel Aviv University.
Mr. Yossi Gross
Yossi is a world renowned entrepreneur with a long-term successful track record of creating and managing innovative med-tech companies. Yossi's companies have engaged in a wide variety of advanced technologies and have signed significant strategic agreements with multinational corporations. Yossi has filed over 500 U.S. patents and is highly respected among leading U.S. and Israeli corporations and venture capitalists
Mr. Efi Cohen-Arazi
Mr. Cohen-Arazi has over 20 years of experience in the medical and biotech industries involving executive management responsibility for both development and business. Prior to establishing Rainbow Medical, Mr. Cohen-Arazi served as CEO of IntecPharma, Israel, a company specializing in drug development and delivery. Previously, Mr. Cohen-Arazi was V.P. Corporate Manufacturing, Head of Contract Manufacturing and Site Head at U.S.-based Amgen Corporation, where he established and led several global strategic partnerships to develop and manufacture small molecules and biopharmaceuticals. Mr. Cohen-Arazi held senior positions at Immunex in the U.S. and at the Merck-Serono Group in Switzerland. Mr. Cohen-Arazi holds advanced degrees in Agriculture and Microbiology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Prof. Ehud Gazith
Ehud Gazit is an Israeli biochemist, biophysicist and nanotechnologist. He is Professor and the incumbent of the Chair for Nano-Biology at Tel Aviv University. From 2012-2014 he also served as the Chief Scientist of the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST). From 2008-2012 Gazit served as Tel Aviv University Vice President for Research and Development, and the Chairman of the board of directors of Ramot Ltd, the technology transfer company of Tel Aviv University. Prior to his appointment as Vice President, Gazit served in different academic and administrative positions at Tel Aviv University, including the Head of The Chemistry-Biology double major track, a member of the University Committee for Appointments and Promotions, the Head of the Academic Committee of the Ilona Rich Institute for Nano-Biology and Nano-Biotechnology, and a member of the managing board of the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology.
Ms. Anat Naschitz
Anat Naschitz is a Managing Director at OrbiMed. OrbiMed is the world’s largest healthcare investment firm with over $15 billion under management across public and private asset classes. The firm covers the entire healthcare spectrum, investing in biopharmaceuticals, medical devices and digital health. Anat has 20 years of healthcare experience, and has a particular interest in digital health. She currently serves on the boards of digital health, biotech and medical device companies.
Prof. Uri Ashery
Prof. Uri Ashery is the head of TAU’s Sagol School of Neuroscience and one of the chief initiators of the School. His current research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of neurotransmitter release under normal conditions and in the case of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. His lab combines multidisciplinary approaches such as electrophysiology, super resolution and TIRF microscopy, Molecular and cellular neurobiology and computer modeling to study synaptic plasticity and correlate between molecular changes and synaptic function and dysfunction.
Mr. Barak Ben Eliezer
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Winnovation, Barak has over two decades of experience with cutting edge innovative solutions. Throughout his career, Barak held key positions in a variety of organizations, all concerning the combination of strategy and technology. As a result, Barak was always interested in the next generation of technology.
Prof. Yosi Shaham-Diamond
Yosi Shacham-Diamand, PhD started his career at Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. From 1983 to 1986 he was Visiting Research Associate at the University of California - Berkeley, from 1989 to 1997 he was at Cornell University, New York, and since then he has been professor at the department of Physical Electronics and Director of the University Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the Tel Aviv University.
Dr. Christian Tidona
Christian Tidona is a biotech entrepreneur, business angel, and managing director at the BioMed X Innovation Center in Heidelberg, Germany. He studied molecular biology and received his doctoral degree from the University of Heidelberg. Throughout his entire professional life his focus has always been to foster innovation at the interface between academia and industry.
Dr. Michal Rozen Zvi
Dr. Rosen-Zvi is the Director for Healthcare Informatics at IBM Research. She is leading a worldwide team of researchers expert in healthcare data analytics and a local team of machine learning, medical imaging analysis and bioinformatics experts. Michal holds a PhD in physics and completed her postdoctoral studies at UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, and the Hebrew University in the area of Machine Learning.
Prof. Craig Garner
Prof. Garner is the Director and Founder of SPARK-Berlin, a educational and mentorship program that works with basic and clinical scientist to turn their ideas targeting unmet medical needs into innovative products that change clinical practice.
Dr. Rivka Riven Kreitman
Rivka Riven Kreitman, PhD is Senior Partner at KRDable Consulting
Rivka is a Global Pharmaceutical Executive, with over 35 years of broad academic and pharma experience. A valued team player and team builder with vast experience in drug development, business development and commercialization. Stellar track record in network building to identify and execute significant acquisitions and partnership deals to enrich the pipeline.
Rivka has been with Teva for 26 years during which she has held a number or roles ranging from BD (sourcing of new projects), running pharmacological studies assessing the mechanism of action of Copaxone (a drug for Multiple Sclerosis), Project leadership, managing the North America IR&D function and the Global Clinical Operation, heading the Global Innovative Research and Development (IR&D), focusing mainly on CNS, Autoimmune and Oncology and Heading Global Strategic Marketing, Biologics, Women’s health, Immunology and Cell therapy. She was also leading the search for new products and the scientific evaluation of all opportunities, as well as leading the global branded Regulatory Affairs department in Teva, assuring the smooth development and approval of all Teva’s new products, and maintaining the ones that reached the market in compliance with global health authorities regulations.
Rivka earned her PhD at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel (Biochemistry) and postdoctoral work at Princeton University, NJ, US (Molecular Biology). Prior to joining Teva, she worked at Tel-Aviv University, Israel (Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Sackler School of Medicine).
Rivka is serving in multiple advisory boards including Philadelphia-Israel chamber of commerce, its Science and Technology Committee, Sanara, and was a board member of TL Biopharmaceuticals.
Rivka is committed to making the biggest difference in forwarding and achieving organizational outcomes.
Prof. Nitzan Censor
Professor Illana Gozes
The Lily and Avraham Gildor Chair for the Investigation of Growth factors at Tel Aviv University. At the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Professor Gozes heads the Dr. Diana and Zelman Elton (Elbaum) Laboratory for Molecular Neuroendocrinology (including ~10 staff members), at the Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry also affiliated with Sagol School of Neuroscience and the Adams Super Center for Brain Studies.
Prof. Yehezkel (Hezy) Yeshurun
Full professor at the Blavatnik School of Computer Science of Tel Aviv University, research areas are Computer Vision and Computational Neuroscience.
Cofounder and Board member of several Hightech companies, among them Top Image Systems (Nasdaq TISA), Tapguard (Acquired by Elron), and ForeScout
Scientific consultant - Prof. Ed Boyden
Ed Boyden is a professor of Biological Engineering and Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the MIT Media Lab and the MIT McGovern Institute. He leads the Synthetic Neurobiology Group, which develops tools for analyzing and repairing complex biological systems such as the brain, and applies them systematically to reveal ground truth principles of biological function as well as to repair these systems. These technologies, created often in interdisciplinary collaborations, include expansion microscopy, which enables complex biological systems to be imaged with nanoscale precision, optogenetic tools, which enable the activation and silencing of neural activity with light, and optical, nanofabricated, and robotic interfaces that enable recording and control of neural dynamics. He has launched an award-winning series of classes at MIT that teach principles of neuroengineering, starting with basic principles of how to control and observe neural functions, and culminating with strategies for launching companies in the nascent neurotechnology space. He also co-directs the MIT Center for Neurobiological Engineering, which aims to develop new tools to accelerate neuroscience progress.
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