Two Women Doctoral Students Win Prestigious Scholarships

Bar Edri, a doctoral student in the Department of Life Sciences, has won an ISEF Foundation scholarship for the 2023-2024 academic year.

Bar grew up in a boarding school run by her parents in Kiryat Bialik with thirteen at-risk children who helped her develop empathy for those who didn't have the same opportunities she had. Early on, she considered education and was interested in learning, especially science. In the IDF, Bar served as a logistics officer, to help soldiers succeed in their mission and in life after the army. Bar is currently drafted into reserve duty in the "Iron Swords" war.

After serving in the IDF, Bar enrolled in life sciences at BGU. Bar excelled in her studies and took part in the Dekelim and Ashalim programs that enabled her to begin researching in preparation for her master's studies during her undergraduate degree. Bar completed her bachelor's degree with honors and was accepted to a direct doctoral track in the Department of Life Sciences, under the supervision of Profs. Anat Ben Zvi and Barak Rotblat in the field of Molecular Biology of Cancer.

The ISEF Foundation – The ISEF Doctoral Fellows Program works to support doctoral students in Israel and abroad in all sciences. Throughout its years of activity, the program has supported the academic and professional careers of hundreds of doctoral and postdoctoral students from the periphery who have taken on key research, business, and public positions in academia and beyond.

PhD student Doron Yesodi, from the Nanoscale Systems Research Laboratory of Prof. Yossi Weizmann in the Department of Chemistry, has won the Ze'ev Jabotinsky Ministry of Science Fellowship. This scholarship is awarded to outstanding doctoral students, whose research aligns with national priorities outlined by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Doron's research focuses on developing new methods for studying a family of enzymes called topoisomerases, using synthetic nucleic acid nanostructures. These topological nano-DNA probes are designed and engineered to precisely fit the enzyme being studied.

These enzymes are critical for bacterial survival, so the development of innovative sensing methods will enable future antibiotic drug development. The global antibiotic crisis resulting from antibiotic resistance necessitates the urgent discovery of new antibiotics.

The study integrates various approaches from diverse fields, including nucleic acid amplification techniques and DNA nanotechnology. This integration aims to pave the way for developing a precise, environmentally friendly, rapid, and straightforward system to investigate topoisomerases and enzymes involved in DNA processes.