Prof. Zvia Agur – President
Professor Zvia Agur is an internationally known biomathematician, who has made major contributions to the theory of disease dynamics, chemotherapy and vaccination policies optimization. Prof. Agur is founder of the Institute for Medical BioMathematics (IMBM), has been the president of the Israeli Society of Theoretical and Mathematical Biology, a founding member of the Board of Directors of the European Society of Mathematical and Theoretical Biology, and an editor of several professional publications. Her innovative research work has won national awards, has been published in a long line of leading scientific journals and is recognized by the academic community worldwide. In 2016 Prof. Agur was a finalist for the EU Prize for Women Innovators, by the European Commission program Horizon2020. She holds a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Université Libre in Brussels.
Dr. Ari Robinson
Ari holds a Ph. D degree in Neurobiology from the Tel-Aviv university. His Ph. D thesis was in the field of cellular biology and focused on mitochondrial regulation by the Alzheimer’s disease associated protein Presenilin 1 (PS1). Before Ari joined IMBM, he was working for biotechnology start-up company (Delphar biopharma) in the fields of drug discovery and as a researcher at the Joseph Sagol Neuroscience Center (JSNC) at Sheba hospital. Ari joined IMBM in 2020 and he manages the three projects that IMBM is currently working on, in the field of Prostate cancer, Melanoma and Covid-19
Dr. Anat Ben Yaacov
Dr. Anat Ben-Yaacov holds a Ph.D degree in Biology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her PhD thesis, under the supervision of Prof. Yael Stern-Bach, focuses on glutamate receptors, the most abundant receptors in the brain- particularly these of theAMPA type- and their regulation by auxiliary proteins. This was achieved through the identification of the regulatory domains and protein-protein interfaces, employing methods of electrophysiology, biochemistry, and microscopy. Anat has also completed her post-doctoral research in the Cancer Research Center in Sheba Hospital and Tel-Aviv University. Her research topic dealt primarily with RNA modifications and regulation of gene expression. Anat joined IMBM in August 2019. At IMBM she provides biological input to various research projects.She has been mainly involved in the study of bacterial sepsis and, at present, of viral sepsis and prostate cancer.
Yuri Kogan
Yuri Kogan holds a BA degree in Theoretical Mathematics from Tel-Aviv University (TAU). Over many years of scientific research at IMBM, he has been involved in biomathematical modeling of several cancer indications, including Prostate cancer, lung cancer, melanoma, as well as in the research of cancer stem cells, intracellular signal transduction, immune system functioning, and clinical immunotherapy, drug treatment optimization and others.
Diane Sakarovitch
Diane Sakarovitch holds an M.Sc. degree in Medical Engineering from the KTH Royal Institute in Stockholm (Sweden), as well as a master’s. degree in General Engineering from Ecole Centrale Lyon (France). Her master thesis project, under the supervision of Jeffrey Omens at UCSD (California, USA), focused on the electrical activation of the ventricle heart cells (more specifically the Purkinje system). Before joining IMBM in May 2023, Diane worked as a Biomedical Engineer for a biotechnology start-up company (Elfi-Tech) in the field of medical device development. At present, she is involved in the melanoma project, where she validates and improves the melanoma immunotherapy algorithm, using patient data from IMBM’s collaboration with the Victorian Melanoma Service in Victoria (Australia). Following the completion of this project, Diane is scheduled to lead the development of the COVID-19 disease progression model.
Dorit Dror
Dorit is the Administrative Manager of IMBM. She holds a B.A. degree in English Literature and Information Science from Bar-Ilan University. Her primary responsibility in IMBM is providing quality services to ensure successful finance and personnel management of IMBM’s scientific and administrative members and visitors the latter include Israeli and foreign scientists and students, engineering trainees, as well as post-doctorate students at IMBM. In her work she also maintains IMBM’s information center, builds data retrieval applications and is in charge of the institute’ Internet site.
As the administrator of IMBM, a non-profit organization, Dorit is also in charge of IMBM’s “Amutah”, organizing board meetings, preparing board minutes, and presenting budget and annual reports to the organization’s lawyers and accountants. She organizes and oversees the logistical activities in the office, procurement activities and staff workload oversight.
