Asaph Aharoni

Principal Investigator

Asaph Aharoni earned his MSc at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and received his PhD degree from Wageningen University, The Netherlands. He performed his postdoctoral studies at the Plant Research International institute in Wageningen. He was from the first to apply DNA microarrays for large-scale gene expression analysis as well as pioneering the field of Metabolomics for comprehensive profiling and non-targeted metabolite analysis. His research interests’ center on uncovering the molecular mechanisms underlying the production of plant specialized/secondary metabolites and the role of these molecules in plant interactions with other organisms. His lab combines cutting-edge metabolomics with molecular genetics, biochemistry and computational biology to study specialized metabolism in plant development and stress. Moreover, the Aharoni team engages routinely with complex metabolic engineering projects and generating innovative, applications uses of plant natural products. Asaph is an EMBO member and has been the recipient of a number of awards, among them, the European Research Council (ERC) grant for both ‘starting’ (2007) and ‘advanced’ (2019) independent investigators, the ASPB Enid MacRobbie Corresponding Membership award and the Andre Deloro prize for a scientist doing particularly exceptional work in his or her field awarded by the Weizmann institute. Seven start-up companies providing a myriad of solutions for the ag- and food industries emerged from his lab work in the past several years.