Prestigious Five-Year Grant Awarded to Dr. Yuval Dorfan

As part of a collaboration with Dr. Ilana Kolodkin-Gal from Reichman University, Dr. Yuval Dorfan, head of the Bio convergence specialization track in the Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at HIT - Holon Institute of Technology and a member of the Green Campus Committee, has been awarded an ISF grant of approximately 1.4 million NIS for a five-year research project in the field of synthetic biology of beneficial bacteria.

Dr. Dorfan, who specializes in synthetic biology and integrates classical engineering with microbiology, recently published a paper on using the aforementioned bacteria for interior wall paint.

The Israel Science Foundation grant is a testament to the interdisciplinary nature of the research. It combines synthetic biology, microbiology, and advanced computational biology, including artificial intelligence. Over the course of five years, the researchers will delve into the study titled "Deciphering calcium and carbonate homeostasis mechanisms in soil bacterial communities of the Bacillus genus." This complex and innovative approach promises to yield significant insights and applications.

In recent years, researchers worldwide have discovered that this bacterium has probiotic properties, enabling the development of engineering solutions in various fields such as food, corrosion, and more. Bio-corrosion is a hot topic that emerged following two interesting discoveries. The first showed that corrosion is not just a chemical process but is also influenced by various microorganisms, some of which accelerate and others slow down the corrosion rate of different metals. The second discovery, to which Dr. Dorfan's research group contributed, points to the potential of solving corrosion problems using synthetic biology and various bio-convergence approaches.

With this new funding, the researchers plan to gain a deep understanding of various basic mechanisms in Bacillus bacteria to expand scientific knowledge and enable new applications, some of which are directly related to carbon sequestration and sustainability.