Curriculum Vitae: Ran Kafri

 

 

Current Position:

 

Lecturer / Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School hosted jointly by the laboratories of Marc W. Kirschner and Galit Lahav

 

 

Education and Training:

 

 

2010 – present 

Lecturer - Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, under the supervision of Marc W. Kirschner and Galit Lahav.

 

2006– 2010

Postdoctoral Research Fellow – Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, under the supervision of Marc W. Kirschner and Galit Lahav.

 

2002 – 2006    

Ph.D.  - Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science. Topic: Evolution and regulation of Genetic Redundancy, under the supervision of  Doron Lancet and Yitzhak Pilpel.

 

2000 – 2002     

M.Sc. – Department of Chemistry, Weizmann Institute of Science. Topic: Computational studies of self assembly and non-equilibrium quasi-steady state dynamics under the supervision of  Doron Lancet.

 

1996 – 1999     

B.Sc. in Chemistry and Biophysics, Ben-Gurion University.

 

 

 

Academic and Professional Honors:

 

Human Frontiers Science Program Long-Term Fellowship (2006 - 2009)

 

Charles A. King Trust Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (2010 - 2011)

 

Human Frontiers Science Program Award (2007)

 

Dean’s Honor Award (2006)

 

Dean’s Honor Award (2005)

 

 

Research:

 

Cell growth and proliferation of animal cells.

 

Development of ergodic rate analysis (ERA).

 

Dynamics of DNA double strand break repair.

 

Evolution and utilization of genetic redundancy by cellular systems.

 

Statistical models for molecular recognition, under the supervision of  Doron Lancet.

 

The effects of Macromolecular crowding on biochemical kinetics and protein folding, under the supervision of Amnon Horovitz.

 

Crystallographic studies of ribosomal structure, under the supervision of Ada Yonath.

 

The derivation of a novel type of biosensors based on color sensitive, artificial membranes, in the laboratory of Raz Jelineck.

 

 

Teaching positions:

 

Teaching assistant graduate course in receptors and recognition.

 

Teaching assistant for undergraduate course in analytical chemistry.

 

Teaching high school students at the youth center at the Weizmann Institute of Science.

 

 

Collaborations:

 

-          A collaboration with Novartis  –  Development of an high throughput assay for temporal signaling from measurements on fixed cells.

-          A collaboration with Novartis – screening compounds with known mechanism of action for their joint effects on the coordination of cell growth and cell division.

-          A collaboration with Cytoo – development of an experimental platform to accurately measure intracellular spatio-temporal diffusion dynamics.

 

Selected Peer-Reviewed Publications:

1.      Kafri R, Levy J, Ginzberg M, Oh S, Lahav G, Kirschner MW. Cellular dynamics extracted from large populations of fixed cells: evidence for feedback between growth and proliferation. (accepted to Nature)

  1. Karanam K, Kafri R (equal contribution with K.K.), Löwer A, Lahav G. Quantitative live cell imaging reveals a gradual shift between DNA repair mechanisms and a maximal use of HR in mid S phase. (Molecular Cell. 2012 Jul 27;47(2):320-9.)
  2. Jain M, Nilsson R, Sharma S, Madhusudhan N, Kitami T, Souza AL, Kafri R, Kirschner MW, Clish CB, Mootha VK. Metabolite profiling identifies a key role for glycine in rapid cancer cell proliferation. (Science. 2012 May 25;336(6084):1040-4).

4.      Juang YT, Peoples C, Kafri R, Kyttaris VC, Sunahori K, Kis-Toth K, Fitzgerald L, Ergin S, Finnell M, Tsokos GC. A systemic lupus erythematosus gene expression array in disease diagnosis and classification: a preliminary report. (2011) Lupus 20(3):243-9

  1. Tzur A, Kafri R (equal contribution with A.T.), LeBleu VS, Lahav G, Kirschner MW. Cell growth and size homeostasis in proliferating animal cells. (2009) Science 325(5937):167-71
  2. Kafri R, Springer M, Pilpel Y. Genetic redundancy: new tricks for old genes. (2009) Cell 136(3):389-92
  3. Kafri R, Dahan O, Levy J, Pilpel Y. Preferential protection of protein interaction network hubs in yeast: evolved functionality of genetic redundancy. (2008) Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 105(4):1243-8
  4. Kafri R, Levy M, Pilpel Y. The regulatory utilization of genetic redundancy through responsive backup circuits. (2006) Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 103(31):11653-8
  5. Kafri R, Bar-Even A, Pilpel Y. Transcription control reprogramming in genetic backup circuits. (2005)  Nature Genetics 37(3):295-9
  6. Kafri R, Lancet D. Probability rule for chiral recognition. (2004) Chirality 16:369-378
  7. Rosenwald S, Kafri R, Lancet D. Test of a statistical model for molecular recognition in biological repertoires. (2002) Journal of Theoretical Biology 216(3):327-336.
  8. Segre D, Shenhav B, Kafri R, Lancet D. The molecular roots of compositional inheritance. (2001) Journal of Theoretical Biology 213(3):481-491
  9. Kolusheva S, Kafri R, Katz M, Jelinek R. Rapid colorimetric detection of antibody-epitope recognition at a biomimetic membrane interface. (2001) Journal of the American Chemical Society 123(3):417-22

Book Chapter:

  1. Kafri R, Pilpel Y. Evolutionary and cunctional aspects of genetic redundancy. (2010)  in Evolution After Gene Duplication, ed. Dittmar K, Liberles D.  (Wiley & Sons)