Neuro-Chemistry Lab
Research Interest- Development of novel theranostic agents for early diagnosis and therapy of different amyloidogenic diseases including Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, and Parkinson’s disease.
The Team
We are the team of international researchers from the multidisciplinary background. We are always happy to grow our team and network. You are welcome to join the team.
Prof Shai Rahimipour
Principal Investigator
Prof. Shai Rahimipour obtained his Ph.D. from the Weizmann Inst. of Science, Israel in the field of Organic Chemistry and Neurobiology. He then spent three years at the Scripps Research Inst., La Jolla, CA working with Prof. Reza Ghadiri as a Human Frontier and Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow. In 2006 he joined the Dept. of Chemistry at the Bar-Ilan University, Israel, where he currently holds the position of an Associate Prof. of Chemistry. The major trust of Rahimipour’s team is to better understand and treat disorders that are linked to aberrant protein folding and assembly. The strategy employed by the team is interdisciplinary, aiming at utilizing self-assembly processes to design new modalities for targeting and arresting early oligomer and amyloid formation in different diseases, and diagnosing the related diseases in very early stage of their pathogenesis by detecting early oligomers
Dr Michal Richman
Lab Manager
Dr Richman is a lab manager at Rahimipour lab and a teaching faculty at the department of Chemistry, Bar Ilan University. Additionally, Dr Richman helps students in synthesizing and purification of proteins.
Dr Kuldeep Tripathi
Postdoc Scholar
Dr Tripathi is a neurobiologist, and involved in several projects related early diagnosis and therapy of neurodegenerative dieases, such as Alzheimer's and Huntington's. Cognitive learning and memory based behavior, in vivo imaging, immunohistochemistry, microscopy are the main componant of his research.
Roshan Roy
PhD Student
My project investigates the funadamental mechanisms connecting neurodegenerative diseases with the progresssion of cancer and to develop a therapuetic interventions using cyclic peptides.
Dr Anat Chesner
Research Assistant
In 2020 I joined Rahimipour lab as a research fellow to study the effect of anti-amyloidogenic peptides against amyloidosis. This rare disease occurs when a mis-folded protein called amyloid accumulates in an organ like the heart. By using ThT, and other in vitro methods I study the structural transition of protein to toxic amyloids, and C. elegans as in vivo model. I study the mode of action of uniquely designed peptides that inhibit the accumulation of the amyloid protein. This knowledge can be useful in developing new therapeutic agents for systemic amyloidosis and other neurodegenerative diseases involving amyloid accumulation, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Karen Zaika
Master Student
In my project I use Liposome Conjugated to Novel Oligomer Modulator called DPP (small molecule) for Disease Modifying Therapy of Protein Aggregation in Alzheimer’s Disease.
The goal of this research is to study the diagnostic and therapeutic properties of liposome- conjugated DPP against AD by using different in vitro and in vivo methods.
Design, synthesis and characterization of liposomes whose surface is conjugated to DPP, examine the anti-amyloidogenic activity of the obtained DPP-liposome conjugates using diverse in vitro methods, including ThT aggregation assay, and different immunochemical methods like Dot Blot and Western Blot.
And test the anti-amyloidogenic activity effect of the liposome-DPP conjugates in in-vivo, using transgenic C. elegans models and probe the mechanism of action of the liposomes.
Dvir Maymon-Alfasi
Master Student
In my project I use polydopamine nanoparticles and conjugate it with cyclic peptide to enhance its permeability to cross blood-brain barrier and help inhibiting amyloid beta aggregation and toxicity in cell culture, and in c elegance model of Alzheimer's disease.
Avraham Laik
Master Student
My research aim to modify cyclic peptides (CPs) with gold nanoparticles (GNPs) to help diagnosing the progression of the amylidogenic diseases in animal model. Since CPs has structural similarities to cross beta sheet, and gold nanoparticles can be easily traced by available CT scan, CPs-GNPs can be helpful in early diagnosis of amylidogenic diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's and Parkinson's disease.
YaÄŸmur Reysi Kerse
Master Student
The amyloid β peptide (Aβ) is a critical initiator that triggers the
progression of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) via accumulation and
aggregation. I synthesize gold nanoparticles with a novel protein that
stops the amyloid beta from aggregating and use the C.elegans model
system to study AD.
Khadeja Awad
Master Student
My research studies focus on a new theragnostic strategy for fluorescence imaging and targeted therapy of AD. It is based on the development of blood brain barrier (BBB) permeable gold nanoparticles (GNPs) that specifically target over expressed insulin receptors on BBB to cross the barrier, and an anle138b analog (DPP), as a novel oligomer modulator that selectively target early Ab oligomers and modulates its aggregation and toxicity. DPP-conjugated GNPs (DPP-GNPs) effectively inhibited the aggregation of Aβ to fibrils by binding early soluble Ab oligomers and inhibited the toxicity of Ab in an in vivo transgenic C. elegans model overexpressing human Ab42