Prof. Benny Motro

Telephone
Email
motro@biu.ac.il
Office
The Suissa Life Sciences Building (212), 3rd floor, Room 301
    CV

    Education

     

    1977-1980, BSc, with honors, in Agriculture

    Dept. of Microbiology, Faculty of Agriculture

    Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot

     

    1981-1982, MSc, with honors

    Dept. of Microbiology, Faculty of Agriculture

    Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot

     

    1985-1989, PhD

    Dept. of Virology, Faculty of Medicine

    Hebrew University, Jerusalem

     

    1990-1993, POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOW

    Molecular and Developmental Biology

    Dr. Alan Bernstein's laboratory, Mount Sinai Hospital Research Institute

    Toronto, Canada

     

    1991-1993, FELLOW

    Leukemia Research Fund, Canada

     

    1993-1996, FELLOW

    Yigal Alon Fellowship

     

     

    Positions

     

    2002-present, SENIOR LECTURER

    Cellular and Developmental Biology

    The Mina & Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences

    Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel

     

    Oct 2001-Feb 2002, SABBATICAL, Developmental Biology

    Dr. Alan Bernstein’s laboratory, Mount Sinai Hospital Research Institute

    Toronto, Canada

     

    1993-2002, LECTURER

    Cellular and Developmental Biology

    Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University

    Ramat-Gan, Israel

     

    1983-1984, RESEARCH ASSOCIATE

    Composting of organic wastes for CO2 production

    Migal Laboratories, Kiryat Shmona

     

     

    Organization of conference

     

    1997, Gene Targeting in vivo – the Impact of Gene Targeting

    Ayelet Hashachar, Israel

     

     

    Participation in Meetings of the EU consortium on

    “Development of an Implanted Biosensor for Continuous

    Care and Monitoring System of Diabetic Patients”:

    Kick-off Meeting, Munich, Germany, Sept 12-13 2006

    Six Months Meeting, Tel-Aviv, Feb 27-28, 2007

    1st Year Review Meeting, Como, Italy,  July 16-18, 2007

    Executive Board Meeting, Munich, Germany, Dec 13-14, 2007

    18 Months Meeting, Prague, Feb 27 – March 1, 2008

    Research

    1. The cellular and developmental roles of the mammalian Nek kinases:

    Protein phosphorylation by protein kinases plays a critical role in orchestrating mammalian embryonic development and in cell cycle control. The NIMA-related kinases (NRKs) family of protein kinase is recently emerging as evolutionarily conserved, cell cycle regulatory proteins. Mammalian genomes harbor 11 members of this family (designated Nek), several of which were first cloned and characterized in our laboratory. However, their functions are still mainly enigmatic. Using overexpression and down-regulation approaches, we demonstrated that Nek7 is localized to the centrosome and is critical for the correct chromosomal segregation. Interestingly, our recent work revealed involvement of Nek1 in primary cilium formation. The primary cilium serves as an antenna sensing the physical and biochemical environment of the cell, and its disruption has been shown to be involved in multiple disorders and diseases including polycystic kidney diseases (PKD). Nek1 mutant mice indeed suffer from PKD, and we are currently exploring the ciliary - PKD phenotypes.

    The ultimate approach to decipher the spectrum of functions of a specific gene is its inactivation by gene targeting. We recently applied this complicated technique to create mice deficient of several of the murine Nek kinases. The developmental and cellular consequences of Nek kinase loss is currently being investigated with the emphasis on possible chromosomal mis-segregations and ciliopathies.

    2. Development of implantable glucose sensor:

    Diabetes is one of the most common and devastating chronic diseases in humans. To stabilize blood glucose levels (BGL) daily and to allow normal life, diabetic patients must constantly monitor their BGL. A project (designated P. Cezanne) funded under the Sixth Framework Programme of the European Community is aimed at developing an implantable sensor for continuous monitoring of BGL. The consortium is multinational and multidisciplinary, and our group (in collaboration with Prof. Shulamit Michaeli's group) is responsible for the development of cells harboring a biological sensor sensitive to glucose levels. This task is highly challenging as the cells should survive in quite a harsh environment for at least half a year while stably expressing the sensor.

    Last Updated Date : 03/11/2024