November 2021: The 16th Edmond J. Safra retreat

The 16th Edmond J. Safra Bioinformatics retreat took place on 24 – 25 November 2021 in Maagan, Sea of Galilee.

The bioinformatics community at TAU got together for two days of scientific and social activities. The program included short scientific talks, one-minute poster highlights, two poster sessions, mixer in small groups, escape rooms activity, games, and prizes.

The 135 participants included faculty members, post-graduate and graduate students and  3rd year undergraduate students of the bioinformatics program. The scientific program of the retreat included two keynote talks by Dr. Yael Steuerman, former Edmond J. Safra PhD fellow (Gat-Viks lab, LS), Data Science Team Lead at K Health, and by Prof. Amos Tanay of the Weizmann Institute of Science.  Three short talks were given by Edmond J. Safra PIs: Prof. Adi Stern, Dr. Yoav Ram and Dr. Omri Wurtzel, all from the LS faculty.

In addition, four bioinformatics graduate students gave short talks about their research. Yadid Algavi (Borenstein lab, CS) and Edmond J. Safra PhD fellows Sheri Harari (Stern lab, LS), Artium Danilevsky (Shomron lab, Medicine), and Naama Wagner (Pupko lab, LS).

The program included two poster sessions presenting 53 posters. Each session was preceded by a highlight plenum session, where each poster presenter had one minute to introduce it, using one slide. The presentations were highly creative and original.

For the full poster list click here. The retreat's participants, PIs and students, were invited to vote for the best posters. For the poster prize winners click here.

In mixer session, PIs and students split randomly into small groups, gathered on the lawn, and discussed various meta-scientific topics. This session provided an opportunity for students from all degrees to meet each other and the PI in an informal manner and to discuss subjects of common interest.

The main extra-curricular activity was an “escape room” game, where participants, divided into small groups, solved puzzles and riddles, opened locks and had lots of fun. 

The organizing committee consisted of Prof. Elhanan Borenstein (Chair), Drs. Uri Ben-David, Dudu Burstein and Omri Wurtzel, graduate students Yoni Berg, Tamar Frankovitz, Guy Shur and Yarden Yesharim, and undergraduate students Nir Feldman and Yael Zamir.

We got excellent responses from the participants. We are very proud of our community and students!

For pictures click here.