Noam Stern-Ginossar is an immunologist and molecular geneticist at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Her research focuses on profiling viral infections, and she is the Principle Investigator in a lab within the Department of Molecular Genetics, which aims to elucidate the complex cellular changes that occur during encounters between viruses and human cells.

Her lab employs a deep-sequencing technique termed ribosome profiling that allows a comprehensive view of translation events. The robustness, scale, and accuracy of this method dramatically increase the ability to monitor the synthesis of new proteins and provide a unique opportunity to follow the molecular events underlying infection with unprecedented depth. The lab aims to use this novel resolution to unfold the processes that occur during viral infection and to reveal fundamental cellular principles.

Noam received her PhD in 2009 for her thesis, “Natural Killer (NK) Cells”, in which she researched the mechanisms controlling the killing of tumors and virus-infected cells by NK cells as well as the mechanisms used by tumors and viruses to evade being killed by NK cells. She discovered a way in which NK cells are inhibited as well as demonstrating that tumor cells expressing the Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA) are protected from being killed by NK cells.

Noam received her BSc from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and continued her studies as an MSc student in Prof. Mendelboim’s lab. In her first year of MSc studies, she discovered a new mechanism used by tumor cells to evade NK cell attacks. These findings were published in the Journal of Immunology, and she received the Wold Award in recognition of her outstanding achievement. As a direct result, she was moved to the direct PhD program.

Noam did her postdoctoral research in the University of California, San Francisco, hosted by Prof. Jonathan Weissman.