April 4, 2008

San Francisco — The Machiah Foundation, a supporting foundation of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund, announces the names of the nine recipients of the 2008 fellowship awards to support advanced life science research training for Israeli post-doctoral scientists to study at leading U.S. educational institutions. The Foundation initiated this program in response to the decreased training opportunities available to Israeli post-doctoral scientists at European institutions of higher learning in the last five years. Fellowship recipients, who are selected by a distinguished group of senior U.S. scientists, will each receive up to $110,000 of stipend support, awarded over a two-year period.

The recipients, research projects, and their host institutions in the U.S. are:

• Achia Urbach, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  Children's Hospital Boston/Harvard Stem Cell Institute - Modeling Human Epigenetic Diseases by Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
• Inbal Goshen, Hadassah Medical School, Hebrew University
  Stanford University - The Role of Astrocytes in Depression: An Optogenetic Study
• Ronen Eavri, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Determining the Role of CPG15 in Structural Remodeling of Cortical Neurons In-vivo
• Vicki Plaks, Weizmann Institute of Science
  University of California, San Francisco - Roles for the Novel SULF Proteins During Pregnancy: MRI-assisted Study
• Yuval Rinkevich, Technion Israel Institute of Technology
  Stanford University - Cellular and Molecular Basis of Digit Tip Regeneration in Adult Mice
• Yaniv Ziv, Weizmann Institute of Science
  Stanford University - The role of Adult Neurogenesis in Neural Network Dynamics
• Aviv Mezer, Tel Aviv University
  Stanford University - Advances of the Functional Brain Imaging Resolutions
• Tama Evron, Hebrew University
  Duke University — Deciphering the mechanisms of Smoothened signaling
• Ehud Ohana, Ben-Gurion University
  University of Texas — CFTR and SLC26 interaction: Functional analysis and modeling

All fellows are citizen residents of the state of Israel and have agreed to return to and reside in the state of Israel for no less than three years after the fellowship award period has concluded. Additionally, applicants must have not previously studied in the United States or Canada for a period of six or more months.

In June 2005, the Machiah Foundation board approved a grant to begin and sustain this fellowship program. Subsequently, additional donors have provided funds through the Jewish Community Endowment Fund to expand the number of fellowship awards. The 2008 cohort will receive research training funds from the Gerson and Barbara Bakar Philanthropic Fund, the Joe Durra Philanthropic Fund, and the Cohen Philanthropic Fund as well as the Bernard Osher Jewish Philanthropies Foundation, the Alexander M. and June L. Maisin Foundation,the Tauber Philanthropies, the Irving & Helen Betz Foundation, Stephen and Nancy Grand, the Kanbar Charitable Trust, the Koret Foundation and the Machiah Foundation.

Machiah Foundation board president Dr. Stanley N. Cohen, Professor of Genetics at Stanford University, indicated that, “the 2008 fellows were chosen from a group of 41 absolutely outstanding applicants.” He stated that he hopes that these fellowship awards will, “help to advance the progress of science not only in Israel, but also more broadly. The global scientific community and individual fields of study in the biological and medical sciences will benefit from increased interactions with excellent Israeli researchers, and the state of Israel’s scientific research will be strengthened as fellows return to live and work in Israel.”

For more information, please contact Laura Mason, Program Officer at 415.512.6273 or
lauram@sfjcf.org.