Dr. Linoy Golani-Zaidie is a post-doctoral researcher and lab manager at the Optical Imaging and Biosensing Laboratory in the Faculty of Engineering at Bar-Ilan University, working under the supervision of Prof. Amos Danielli. She earned her B.Sc. (2016) and M.Sc. (2017) degrees in Biotechnology, both cum laude, from Bar-Ilan University. In 2022, she completed her Ph.D. in Virology and Neuroscience at Bar-Ilan University under the supervision of Prof. Ron Goldstein. Currently, Dr. Golani-Zaidie focuses her research on developing quantitative assays for the rapid detection of proteins, antibodies, and specific nucleic acid sequences.
Shmuel Burg received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Physics from Bar-Ilan University in 2004 and 2012, respectively. From 2004 to 2010, he served as an academic officer in the Israeli Navy, specializing in underwater acoustics. Since 2016, he has been pursuing a Ph.D. in the Optical Imaging and Biosensing Laboratory at the Faculty of Engineering and the Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, under the supervision of Prof. Amos Danielli. His research focuses on developing a compact, cost-effective OMB-based microfluidic system for point-of-care applications, with the goal of integrating disposable cartridges in non-laboratory settings, such as clinics.
Efi Makdasi is a research scientist in the National Biological Laboratory and the head of the Antibody Engineering and Development Laboratory at the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR). He received his Ph.D. (2010) in immunology from the Hebrew University. Efi is responsible for developing and executing research programs involving the generation, isolation, characterization, and engineering of antibodies for specific applications in therapeutics and diagnostics.
Ron Alcalay is a research associate in the Antibody Engineering and Development group at the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR). After receiving his B.Sc. degree from Tel-Aviv University in 2003, Ron has specialized in the biochemistry of proteins, protein–protein interaction characterization, the development of tools for protein detection, and functional binding assays.
Reut Falach is currently the Director of the Toxins Research Group in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, Israel Institute for Biological Research. Dr. Falach received her DVM in 2003 from the Koret School of Veterinary Medicine of the Hebrew University, and her Ph.D. in Biology in 2010 from the Life Sciences Faculty of Bar-Ilan University. Dr. Falach’s research focuses on the discovery and development of countermeasures for ricin and abrin plant toxins and botulinum neurotoxins. She specializes in clinical pathophysiology research and animal models.
Dr. Ofir Schuster is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR), where he serves as the head of the National Biological Laboratory. He received his B.Sc. (2003), M.Sc. (2005), and Ph.D. (2010) in Biology from Bar-Ilan University. His main research focus is the detection and identification of biothreat agents, including bacteria, viruses, and toxins. His studies concentrate on developing rapid, specific, and sensitive methods for the reliable identification of biothreat agents from complex matrices such as clinical, environmental, and food samples.
Prof. Amos Danielli is an Associate Professor, Head of the Optical Imaging and Biosensing Lab, and Head of the Bioengineering Track at the Faculty of Engineering, Bar-Ilan University. He received his B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Tel Aviv University, magna cum laude, in 1997, 2002, and 2010, respectively. With a multidisciplinary background in optics, electrical engineering, and biosensing, Amos has focused his research on the development of technologies for in vitro diagnostics (IVD), particularly in resource-limited settings. His work addresses a key challenge in detecting low concentrations of fluorescently labeled biomarkers. His lab has pioneered several technologies, including Magnetic Modulation Biosensing (MMB), Optical Modulation Biosensing (OMB), high-throughput OMB (ht-OMB), and photobleaching, to improve the sensitivity of fluorescence-based immunoassays.
