Dr. Uri Weissbein

Dr. Uri Weissbein earned his PhD in Genetics at the Azrieli Center for Stem Cells and Genetic Research, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He will be doing his postdoctoral work at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School.

In his PhD, Dr. Weissbein focused on identifying and examining the effects of genetic and epigenetic aberrations of human pluripotent stem cells. His research in this field has been published and has implications for stem cells and developmental research, as well as for regenerative medicine.

In his postdoc, Dr. Weissbein will be a Research Fellow both at Massachusetts General Hospital and at Harvard Medical School, in the department of molecular biology. He will work on the non-coding section of the mammalian genome, half of which is consist from repetitive elements, which can be transcribed into RNA. Although these transcripts have been called “junk” RNA, some of them are participating in key physiological responses. Dr. Weissbein’s research aims to advance our understanding of repeat elements derived RNA in different biological processes.

Dr. Weissbein is known as an excellent teacher, and was in charge of tutorials for first-year genetics and for the more advanced “Human Genetics” course. For his remarkable scientific achievements, as well as his teaching efforts, he received the prestigious 3-year Clore Fellowship, awarded to ten outstanding young Israeli scientists each year.