BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY | THE WAY FORWARD

Biomedical/Omics Infrastructure Development BGU has made major strategic investments in its omics infrastructure, building an integrated ecosystem spanning bio-imaging, metabolomics, genomics, and bioinformatics. A new state-of-the-art bio-imaging platform (see more on this in the illustrative example below) prompted the construction of a dedicated purpose-built bio-imaging laboratory, centralizing BGU’s bio-imaging systems under one roof. In metabolomics, a new system significantly expanded the University’s capacity for volatile and semi-volatile metabolite profiling across biological and environmental samples. In genomics, a state-of-the-art robotics platform enables precise and automated liquid handling for next-generation sequencing library preparation. Leveraging these acquisitions, BGU is currently applying for funding from Israel’s Council for Higher Education to support the purchase of two next-generation sequencing platforms covering both short-read and long read sequencing, which will further expand these capabilities. Building on these internal advancements, BGU and the Technion jointly won a national multi-omics grant to establish a shared multi-omics facility providing end-to-end research support, from study design and sample

Rakita’s recruitment to the Department of Materials Engineering; this marks his return to BGU where he was an undergraduate after performing postdoctoral research at Columbia University and the Weizmann Institute of Science. The new equipment was also a major factor in the recruitment of Dr. Amnon Rothman to the same department. He returned to BGU where he earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees after obtaining his Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute and performing postdoctoral research at Stanford University. Dr. Rothman was awarded a prestigious grant from the Israel Science Foundation’s Beresheet Program, which supports scholars returning or immigrating to Israel following advanced training abroad, facilitating their integration into Israeli academia and encouraging their return to Israel; he was one of two new BGU faculty members awarded Beresheet grants in the program’s first year. Thus, in addition to strengthening materials science research, the new equipment is combating the brain drain and bringing Israeli researchers home where they can contribute to both BGU and Israel’s advancement.

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