Rotem Sorek
Education
2002-2006 Ph.D., Human Genetics, awarded with distinction, Tel Aviv University Thesis title: “Birth of new exons in the human genome”.
2000-2002 M.Sc. summa cum laude in Molecular Evolution, Tel Aviv University Thesis title: “Evolution and regulation of human alternative splicing”.
1998 - 2000 B.Sc. summa cum laude in Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University.
Employment Positions
2018-present Full Professor, Department of Molecular Genetics
Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
2014- 2018 Associate Professor, Department of Molecular Genetics
Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
2008- 2014 Senior Scientist, Department of Molecular Genetics
Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
2006- 2008 Post Doctoral Fellow, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, USA
2000- 2005 Compugen Ltd. Group Leader, Genomic Basic Research. Tel Aviv, Israel
Honors
2023 | Max Planck-Humboldt Research Award |
2023 | HFSP Nakasone Award |
2022 | Elected to the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina |
2022 | Landau Prize for Excellence in Science |
2022 | Michael Bruno Memorial Award |
2021 | Rappaport Prize for Excellence in Biomedical Research |
2021 | The Andre Deloro Prize for Scientific Research |
2019 | Beutler Research Program Award for Excellence in Genomic Medicine |
2018 | Elected as an EMBO member |
2018 | Elected to the American Academy of Microbiology |
2016 | Scientific Council Prize in Life Sciences |
2016 | ERC-CoG Award recipient |
2015 | Elected for the European Academy of Microbiology |
2014 | FEBS Anniversary Prize |
2013 | Teva Founders Award for outstanding young scientists in Life Sciences |
2012 | Appointed as a member of the Israel Young Academy of Sciences |
2012 | The ISM Rubinowitz-Grossman Prize for outstanding young scientists in Microbiology |
2011 | ERC-StG Award recipient |
2010 | EMBO Young Investigator |
2009 | The Alon Fellowship for outstanding starting investigators |
2008 | Clore Senior Scientists prize |
2006 | The RNA Society/Scaringe Young Scientist Award |
2004 | Clore Foundation Doctoral Prize |
2001 | National excellence award, Israeli House of Representatives |
2001 | The Rector’s list for outstanding students, Tel Aviv University |
2001 | Dean scholarship for MSc studies, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University |
1999 | Roll of Distinction of the Dean of the Department of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University |
1999 | De-Shalit foundation award, Weizmann Institute of Science |
Memberships in Editorial Boards
2020 – present Member of the Editorial Board of Cell
2009 – 2018 Member of the Editorial Board of BioEssays 2014 – 2017 Associate Editor, Genome Biology and Evolution 2011 Guest Editor, Current Opinion in Microbiology
Patents
Inventor and co-inventor on granted U.S. patents #7368548 (2008), #7528243 (2009), #7553948
(2009), #7569662 (2009), #7667001 (2010), #7842459 (2010), #7906635 (2011), #8513489
(2013) and #9353369 (2016). Inventor and co-inventor on 35 additional international and US patent applications (patent pending).
Review boards and services
- Reviewer for scientific journals including Science, Nature, Cell, Nature Biotech, PNAS, and more.
- Reviewer for funding agencies including EMBO Fellowships, European Science Foundation (ESF), DFG, NWO, ISF and more.
Conference Organization
2023 | Organizer, the 2023 symposium on the immune system of bacteria, Weizmann |
| Institute, Israel |
2022 | Organizer, the Banbury meeting Programmed Cell Death in Microorganisms, |
| CSHL, NY, USA |
2016 | Organizer of the Annual International CRISPR meeting, CRISPR2016, |
| Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel |
2014 | Organizer, RNA-editing Workshop, Ein-Gedi, Israel |
2014 | Organizer, Pasteur-Weizmann workshop on microbial non-coding RNAs, Pasteur |
| Institute, Paris, France. |
Contribution to the Biotech industry
2015 – present Scientific founder and advisor of BiomX Ltd.
Candidate drugs are currently in phases I and II clinical trials.
2019 – present Scientific founder and advisor of Ecophage Ltd.
Teaching
2009 - present Lecturer at the "RNA world" course, Weizmann Institute of Science
2014 - present Lecturer at the "Systems Biology 101" course, Weizmann Institute of Science
Other activities
2009 – 2017 Mentor for gifted high school students, as part of the Israeli Ministry of Education Mentor-Peer Program