July 2018: New Edmond J. Safra member, Dr. David (Dudu) Burstein

Dr. David (Dudu) Burstein has joined the School of Molecular Cell Biology & Biotechnology at the Life Sciences Faculty in July 2018.

Dr. Burstein completed BSc and MSc in Bioinformatics and a PhD in Life Sciences, all from TAU. Since 2013 he held a postdoctoral position at the University of California, Berkeley. In his research at Berkeley, Dr. Burstein used a computational and experimental approach for prediction and validation of protein function, building upon the genomic and community context provided by metagenomics. His research focused on discovery and investigation of novel families of CRISPR-Cas systems. 

Dr. Burstein is an alumnus of the Edmond J. Safra Center: He was an Edmond J. Safra MSc and PhD fellow during his studies at TAU, under the supervision of Prof. Tal Pupko, Edmond J. Safra member (Life Sciences).

Dr. Burstein is the sixteenth Edmond J. Safra student fellow who receives tenure track position in the academia. 

In his lab at TAU, Dr. Burstein investigates key interaction mechanisms within microbial communities including novel CRISPR-Cas systems, antibiotic resistance genes, and bacterial secretion systems. He 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 functions of the studied systems. His goal is to improve the understanding of mechanisms shaping the microbial world and to promote their application in biotechnology and medicine.

Dr. Burstein won the prestigious Alon Fallowship in a national competition for young faculty members.