Affiliation: Hebrew University, Department of Medical Neurobiology

Dr. Ben Katz received his B.Sc. in Mathematics and Philosophy from the Hebrew University in 2003. He earned his PhD (summa cum laude) from the Hebrew University in 2012 under the supervision of Dr. Baruch Minke. During his PhD, he studied the molecular determinants affecting translocation and assembly of the light activated TRP and TRPL channels and the mechanisms underlying low background dark noise in Drosophila Melanogaster. As a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Alexander Binshtok, he studied a human carrying a novel loss-of-function mutation in the gene encoding for the heat activated TRPV1 channel, which is associated with nociception and pain. He is currently the head of educational laboratories in physiology and a research associate at the Department of Medical Neurobiology at the Hebrew University. He is currently investigating a structural domain of the TRPV1 channel called Ankyrin repeat and its effect on channel activation as well as phototransduction in Drosophila.