About Us
Microbial Communication, Enzyme Evolution, and Engineering lab at the Department of Oral Biology, The Goldschleger School of Dental Medicine, Gray Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences, Tel Aviv University, is dedicated to advancing the understanding of microbial communication and developing enzyme-based solutions for various applications in oral health and beyond.
Dr. Livnat Afriat-Jurnou
Principal Invastigator
Dr. Livnat Afriat-Jurnou holds a B.Sc. in Chemistry and Biology from Tel Aviv University and earned her M.Sc. and Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular evolution under Prof. Tawfik at the Weizmann Institute of Science. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Prof. Colin Jackson's lab at The Australian National University before leading research group at Migal Research Institute and serving as a Senior Lecturer at Tel Hai College. In October 2024, she joined the Department of Oral Biology at The Goldschleger School of Dental Medicine, Gray Faculty of Medical Health Sciences, as a Senior Lecturer and is part of the new Environmental School and Nano Center at TAU, and serves as an elected board member of The Israel Society for Microbiology.
Dr. Eve Kozari-PostDoc
Eve holds a PhD from BGU in chemistry and joined the lab a fter a post-doc at the Weizmann institute. Eve contributes to the lab's efforts towards the understanding of the degradation products of xenabiotics and plastic polymers.
Dor Ben Tovim-PhD student
Dor Graduated with his BSc and MSc in Biochemistry from Tel Hai College. Dor's PhD studies involve investigating novel strategies for disrupting harmful microbial communication and exploring fungal enzyme role in secondary metabolites transformation.
Avital Ester Varshavsky
Olena holds an MSc from the Gray's Faculty of Gray Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences.
Eve
Eve completed her dual Bachelor’s degrees in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering through an excellence program, specializing in Nanotechnology. She then pursued a direct-track PhD in Physical Chemistry, followed by a three-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Her research focused on electrocatalysis, specifically mimicking enzyme catalytic active sites within Keplerate POMs. Building on this expertise, she is now pivoting toward enzyme engineering and directed evolution to advance novel catalytic applications.
Aviel Arzi
MSC Student
Aviel in interested in identifying bacteria and enzymes capable of plastic degradation, from different environmental origins.
Yiftach Dar, DMD
MSc student
Yiftach Dar holds a DMD (Doctor of Dental Medicine) degree from Tel Aviv University. Yiftach's MSc studies involve investigating and examining the effect of quorum-sensing–disrupting lactonases on microbial communities originating from peri-implant inflammation sites.
yiftachdar@mail.tau.ac.il
Dana Wash, DMD
MSc student.
Graduated from Lithuanian University of Health Sciences in 2021.
Dana is interested in elucidating inter-kingdom communication between oral-origin bacterial and fungal.
Former lab members:
Shaked Y
Dr. Korina Goldin Azulay
Dr. Anumeha Saha
Dr. Ofir Gershoni
Dr. Rupak Kumar
Shlomit Dor
Ariel Tenenboim
Bar Mahaler (In collaboration with Dr. Mery Dafny Yelin)
Rami Harmati
Sapir Yaar-bar
Keren Nudel
David Gurevich
Guy Or
Yoav Niv
Shira Lendman
Kseniya Semenov
Mayan Erov
Maria Vetcos
Olena Trofimyuk