I’m David, in my second year of postdoc in the lab, and my problem are plasmids. To tell you how I got there I need to explain a bit. I did my PhD in a molecular evolution Lab with Prof. Tal Dagan in Kiel university, Germany. Back then we were interested in the evolution of specific genes. What always became a topic was horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Microbes are able to transfer DNA from one cell to another and thereby exchange functional genes, one way to do that is via transfer of a … [Read more...]

Hi, I'm Goor, PhD candidate and a proud member of the Microbial Ecogenomics group at BGU, under the supervision of Professor Itzik Mizrahi. My research is focused on the rumen microbiome and its link to host traits and cow’s genetics. Why milking cows, why microbiome, why is it important? Milking cows are a universal food resource and milk and its products are being consumed over all five continents with average consumption ranging from 10g/day in the area of Maslya and Indonesya, … [Read more...]

This month I am celebrating three years as a postdoctoral fellow in the Microbial Ecogenomics Group (Mizrahi Lab)! I am a fish physiologist by training, but I was always curious to explore the interactions of fish with its microbes and their contribution to their functioning. And why fish microbiome? Besides being fan myself of the underwater world and its creatures, there are several reasons why one should be interested in their microbiomes. Microbes in the vertebrate gut play important … [Read more...]

Hi, I’m Stav Eyal, a Master student in the lab. I study microbial interactions within digestive tract microbiomes, with an emphasis on methanogenic-bacterial interactions in the rumen environment. The METHAGENE COST Action STSM was a means for me to acquire cultivation techniques used by Dr. Samantha Noel for the study of the rumen co-inhabitant methanogens and bacteria. This is my story about the three weeks’ STSM in Aarhus University, Foulum, Denmark,  ­­In my first week at Foulum, I … [Read more...]

Hi, we are the Mizrahi lab at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The usual questions from people outside the group – or even outside science, like many of our friends – are: What do you folks do the whole day? And why does it keep you busy for so long? Well, one could say, because we are a bunch of nerds that simply love to study microbial ecology. Fair point. One could say, we are crazy people that spend hours indulging in our research and science, most of the time getting lost somewhere on … [Read more...]