Personnel | Zaidel-Bar Lab

Prof. Ronen Zaidel-Bar

Principal Investigator

Dr. Ronen Zaidel-Bar is a professor at the department of Cell, Developmental, and Regenerative Biology at the Gray School of Medical Sciences in Tel Aviv University. He completed a B.Sc. in Life Sciences from the Open University, a Ph.D. in Molecular Cell Biology at the Weizmann Institute, and post-doctoral training at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He started his own group at the Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore in 2010, where he was awarded the National Research Foundation Fellowship, and in 2017 he joined Tel Aviv University. Professor Zaidel-Bar is a world leader in the field of cell and tissue mechanobiology. His group is discovering molecular mechanisms of cytoskeletal control underlying embryonic development and healthy physiology. With cutting edge microscopy and genome editing tools his group is also using the nematode C. elegans as a model for human disease. He has over 70 publications in peer-reviewed international journals and has mentored 18 PhD students and postdocs.

Dr. Anat Nitzan

Lab Manager

Anat did her PhD in the field of ophthalmology under the supervision of prof. Arieh Solomon, from the faculty of medicine and Prof. Ari Barzilai, from the faculty of life sciences at Tel-Aviv University, Israel. Her research focused on the analysis of cellular and molecular events associated with optic nerve degeneration and regeneration in a rat model of optic nerve axotomy. After graduation she became prof. Solomon’s lab manager at the Goldcshleger Eye Research Institute, Sheba Medical Center, Israel. Ultimately, after seeking new challenges, she came back to Tel-Aviv University to join Dr. Zaidel-Bar’s lab. In addition to her lab manager duties, she is taking part in the “Modeling human genetic disease in C. elegans” project and enjoys CRISPRing worms for a living.

Dr. Meghna Suhag

Postdoctoral fellow

Meghna did her Master’s (M.Tech) in Biotechnology from MNNIT, Allahabad, India where she focused to analyze the methylation profiles of specific miRNAs in ovarian cancer. She joined Zaidel-Bar lab as a PhD student, investigated the molecular and cellular mechanisms governing C.elegans spermatheca-uterine valve morphogenesis. Building on this work, her postdoctoral research focuses on identifying the key cytoskeletal proteins involved in the formation and function of this contractile structure.

Anupreet Saini

PhD Student

Anu received her bachelors and masters degrees from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali, India. For her masters thesis, she worked on characterising DELLA-WUSCHEL protein-protein interactions in Arabidopsis thaliana. She then moved to Max Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology, Germany, where she was involved in an ERC funded project concerning mRNA mobility in Arabidopsis thaliana. In the Zaidel-Bar lab she is working on gastrulation in Caenorhabditis elegans and her PhD research focus is on molecular mechanisms underlying cell ingression in embryos.

Jerushah Emerald

PhD Student

Jerushah Emerald holds her master’s degree in Biomedical Genetics (VIT University - India) and Regenerative Biology and Medicine (TU Dresden - Germany). During her masters she explored topics such as Alzheimer’s disease, and the degenerative aspects of sleep loss in accelerating aging. At Prof. Zaidel Bar’s lab, she continues to pursue her interest in understanding the neurodegenerative processes using C.elegans models for various repeat-associated disorders. The changes occurring in the neuronal cytoskeletal elements leading to neuronal dysfunctions are her current focus.

Sona Jayakrishnan

PhD Student

Sona completed her bachelor's and master's degrees from Ashoka University in India. As part of her master’s degree, she focused on building a genetic toolkit to study calcium dynamics during gonad development and symmetry breaking in Caenorhabditis elegans. In Prof. Ronen Zaidel-Bar's lab, she is working on the excretory canal cell of C. elegans, looking into the mechanisms underlying the active and passive phases of cell elongation.