The Crown Human Genome Center supplies experimental and computational genetic information knowledge to the academic, medical, and biotechnology communities in diagnostics, agriculture, genetic diseases, drug development, and gene therapy.

It is a vital part of the strategic infrastructure that has increased Israel’s capacity to use the vast information resulting from the worldwide Human Genome Project. With its many collaborators, the center also has been a major partner in conducting groundbreaking research to investigate the human genome.

Director

Prof. Eli Arama heads a research laboratory in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the Weizmann Institute of Science. His research focuses on mechanisms of cellular destruction, cell death and survival during development. He pioneered the field of casase-dependent nonlethal cellular processes (CDPs), which now includes dozens of CDPs studied in a variaty of cell types and organisms. Among others, these functions facilitate cell survival, proliferation, differentiation, and migration, as well as intracellular signaling and the release of signaling molecules, and if deregulated, they can instigate many important human diseases. The approach of the Arama group combines genetics, cell and molecular biology, and different omics techniques, using different Drosophila tissues and developmental stages. Prof. Arama also collaborates with human geneticists and clinicians in order to uncover genes and mechanisms related to human male fertility.

Prof. Arama received several awards and honors for his work, he is the incumbent of The Harry Kay Professional Chair of Cancer Research, a co-chairperson of the Israel Cell Death Society (IsCDS), and a member of the Board of Directors of the International Cell Death Society (ICDS).