Arren Bar-Even is a biochemist and postdoctoral fellow at the Weizmann Institute of Science. He is primarily interested in design principles of metabolic pathways, a systems approach to cellular metabolism, bioenergetics and thermodynamics of biochemical reactions, one-carbon assimilation pathways, electrosynthesis and electricity-dependent microbial cultivation, and metabolic engineering.

Arren will be opening a new research group in the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology at the beginning of 2015. His group will study the biochemical logic and design principles of metabolic pathways and their applications to the metabolic engineering of microbes. It will focus on engineering synthetic alternatives to central metabolic pathways, aiming to uncover optimality in metabolic designs and to offer novel solutions for humanity’s needs in chemical and energy production.

Arren received his Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2013. His dissertation, “Design Principles of Cellular Metabolism,” was written under the supervision of Prof. Ron Milo.

Arren’s research focus is on the design principle of metabolic pathways and how to implement them for devising new metabolic routes for biotechnological purposes. He invested much effort in establishing novel methodologies to address various aspects of metabolism, including thermodynamic feasibility, chemical motive force, enzyme and pathway kinetics and properties of metabolic intermediates. Addressing all of these aspects is essential for gaining a deep understanding of metabolism. His work involves the combination of experimental and theoretical methods to tackle specific metabolic questions. Of special importance is the integration of these separate analyses into a coherent framework by which natural pathways can be analyzed and novel pathways can be designed.

Arren’s work has been published in a variety of journals, including Current Opinion in Biotechnology, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta and Biochemistry. in which his paper was one of the journal’s ten most-read articles in its publication quarter.