Shai received a HFSP Research Grant Award 2022

HFSP supports cutting-edge, risky projects and it is the only program that enables true global collaboration among international teams of scientists with laboratories in different countries. 

Shai received the grant together with Dr. Manlio De Domenico, University of Padua, Italy and Dr. James Hall, University of Liverpool, UK. We have open positions for this project!

The project deals with a fundamental challenge in biology, relevant to a world fraught with human impact: Can we predict the response of organisms to environmental changes? Animals, plants, bacteria, and other organisms can cope with environmental changes – such as those resulting from climate change – by slightly adjusting their traits. For example, some animals can change their diets or move to areas where environmental conditions are adequate. However, organisms do not live in isolation but in diverse communities where they form complex networks of interactions. So how do organisms cope with environmental changes when embedded within their communities? They will investigate this question by integrating theory and experiments using bacteria as a model organism. Bacteria are a dominant life form, colonizing almost every environment. In addition, bacteria interact in many ways. For example, they compete for resources or produce metabolites that other bacteria can use. Therefore, they are highly dependent on community interactions. While targeted at bacteria, insights from this work will have broad implications for other organisms. This work is only achievable through a unique international collaboration that bridges ecology and evolution, microbiology, and statistical physics.