Aflalo, Claude, (Retired), French Associates Institute for
Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands
✔Molecular biology, towards transformation and genetic
engineering of H. pluvialis, with emphasis on cloning and over-expression of
heterologous genes (e.g., chloroplast AcCoA synthetase)
✔Cells
fractionation and organelles (chloroplast and mitochondria) isolation, towards
algal cellular biochemistry;
✔Experimental
framework for the action and regulation of carotenoids biosynthetic pathway,
and its relation with lipid synthesis
Barak, Simon, French Associates
Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands
✔Isolation and characterization of genes regulating plant
responses to multiple environmental stresses
✔ Epigenetic regulation of plant stress responses
✔ Using extremophytes to understand the mechanisms
underlying wild-species adaptation to stress
Boussiba,
Sammy, (Emeritus), French Associates Institute for Agriculture and
Biotechnology of Drylands
✔Haematococcus pluvialis - A model organism to study biotechnological approaches
for the utilisation of high value products by microalgae
✔Microalgae to
address environmental problems and human welfare
✔Integrated aquaculture bio systems
Fait, Aaron, French Associates
Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands
✔Metabolic networks
✔Regulatory networks of seed
development and germination
✔Seed metabolism and
germination
✔Grapevine response to stress
Gelfand, Ilya, French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands
✔ Terrestrial
biogeochemistry
✔ Effect of management on
the environmental impact of agroecosystems
✔ Impacts of environmental
and land-use changes on linkages between C and N cycles
in terrestrial ecosystems
✔ Processes regulating
trace gases emissions from soils
Golan
(Goldhirsh), Avi, (Emeritus), French Associates
Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands
✔Reproductive development of plants under stress
✔Characterization
of a Pistacia germplasm collection
✔Biologically
active compounds from desert plants
✔Plant proteins
biotechnology
✔Phytoremediation
Grafi,
Gideon, French Associates Institute for Agriculture and
Biotechnology of Drylands
✔Epigenetic regulation of cellular dedifferentiation
✔Merging plant response to stress with dedifferentiation
✔The complexity and hazard of cellular dedifferentiation
✔How desert plants persist in unpredictable environments of the
Negev desert by epigenetic means: Zygophyllum dumosum Boiss as a model system
Guy, Micha, (retired),
French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands
✔Transport of solutes across plant membranes under normal and
stress conditions and the effect of aging on these processes
HaCohen,
Zvi, (Emeritus), French Associates Institute for
Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands
✔Microalgae as sources for chemicals: polyunsaturated fatty acids
and pigments
✔Effect of environmental conditions and nutritional factors on
the content of chemicals in algae
✔Selection of herbicide-resistant PUFA-overproducing algae
✔Development of extraction and separation methods
✔Plant lipid biochemistry
✔Biosynthesis of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs)
✔Enhancement of lipid production in algae and higher plants
✔Induced pigmentation in fish
✔Organic reactions in dry media
✔Design and synthesis of contrast agents for the detection of
small lesions in the liver via computed tomography scanning
✔Synthesis of radioactive cardioselective b-antagonists as
myocardial imaging agent
Kamennaya, Nina, French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands
✔Physiological response of cyanobacteria to excess CO2 availability
✔Carbohydrate metabolism of cyanobacteria
✔Cyanobacteria of the desert crusts
✔Cnteractions between cyanobacteria and their unicellular predator
Karnieli, Arnon, French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands
✔Remote sensing
✔Geographic information systems
✔Climate change, precision agriculture
Khozin-Goldberg,
Inna, French Associates Institute for Agriculture and
Biotechnology of Drylands
✔Elucidation of
biosynthesis and developing technology for production of LC-PUFA by microalgae
✔Genes encoding enzymes of
LC-PUFA and lipid biosynthesis in microalgae: isolation and functional
characterization.
✔Genetic transformation
and metabolic engineering of model and non-model microalgae for improvement of
biotechnology-relevant traits
✔ LC-PUFA and TAG
metabolism in microalgae
✔ Lipid droplet biogenesis
in microalgae
✔Dietary supplementation
of microalgae-derived LC-PUFA to modulate stress and disease-resistance
in fish
Rachmilevich,
Shimon, French Associates Institute for Agriculture and
Biotechnology of Drylands
✔Role of dew in desert plants
✔Role of root orders in the water and nutrient uptake.
✔Carbon and water relations associated with rain and temperature
gradients.
✔Ecophysiology of halophyte plants and their use in constructed
wetlands.
✔Re-introduction and physiology of historically and biblical
agro-beneficial plants
✔The role of pesticides as growth regulators
✔Multidisciplinary study on grapevines including plant
physiology, metabolic profiling, and spectroscopy
Sagi, Moshe, French
Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands
✔The role of molybdo-enzymes, purine catabolism and sulfur metabolism
in environmental stress-induced premature senescence in plants
✔Increasing agricultural income in arid zones by adding new crops
and developing new agro-techniques
✔Improving the salt resistance and fruit quality of tomatoes and
other vegetable crops while another focused on using highly saline water for
developing cash-crop halophytes for potential halophyte growers
Tel-Zur, Noemi, French Associates Institute for Agriculture and
Biotechnology of Drylands
✔ Breeding and
development of under-exploited, woody perennial, drought-tolerant species with the
ultimate goal of introducing them as new fruit crops
for dryland
agriculture
✔ Reproduction and mating systems of exotic perennial crops,
including vine-cacti (pitayas), jojoba and Ziziphus species, aiming at
combining basic and applied research
Tzin, Vered, French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of
Drylands
✔ Molecular mechanisms of plant-insect interactions
✔ Alteration of central metabolism toward
production of specialized metabolism
✔ Crop protection: improvement of plant defense mechanisms
in agriculture plants
✔ Chemical ecology: understanding the signals that
attracting pollinators to desert plants
Vonshak,
Avigad, (Emeritus), French Associates Institute for
Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands
✔The role of environmental factors, i.e., light, temperature, and
salinity on the photosynthetic and respiratory activity of algae in an attempt
to relate these parameters and their interactions to physiological phenomena in
mass cultivation of algae
✔Strain selection and improvement in Spirulina
✔The developmental and physiological changes in the course of
carotenogenesis induction in Haematococcus pluvialis as correlated with the modification
in the photosynthetic activity of the cells are investigated
Zilberg, Dina,
French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands
✔Study of infectious diseases of parasitic, bacterial and
viral origin and investigating different pathological manifestations of unknown
origins
✔Study efforts are aimed at understanding the cause of the
diseases and search for solutions
✔Development of natural, environmentally friendly
treatments and natural immunostimulants that can replace the traditionally used
antibiotics and chemicals
✔Consultancy to local aquaculture farms at the Negev and
Arava region. This is done through disease diagnosis and farm visits. Through
this activity we come across different manifestations, diseases and other
health-related problems of local importance, which are occasionally
investigated as part of our research activity
Kolton, Max, French Associates Institute for
Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands
✔Dryland microbial ecology
✔Plant-Microbial Interactions: Plant endophytes and seeds microbiome
✔Linking microbial communities to primary
productivity
✔Environmental Plasmids physiology and ecology
