- Professor, Tel Aviv University
Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research
Dr. Uri Gophna is a Full Professor in the Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research at the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University. He earned his BSc in Biotechnology and Food Engineering magna cum laude from the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology, and his MSc in Biotechnology magna cum laude and PhD in Microbiology with distinction from Tel Aviv University. He completed postdoctoral training at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, supported by the Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Dr. Gophna’s research focuses on two interconnected areas: the role of horizontal gene transfer in microbial evolution, and host-microbe interactions with a particular emphasis on the human gut microbiome in health and disease. His laboratory investigates CRISPR-Cas systems as barriers to gene transfer, archaeal biology, and the microbial communities associated with inflammatory bowel diseases and colorectal cancer.
Dr. Gophna is an elected member of EMBO, the American Academy of Microbiology, and the European Academy of Microbiology. His honors include the Sarov Prize for Basic Research and the Kavli Fellowship from the US National Academy of Sciences.