• Full Professor and PI (2008-present): Department of Evolutionary and Environmental Biology, University of Haifa 

• The head of the Laboratory of Plant Genomics and Immunity: Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa

• Visiting Professor (2019-2020): Department of Plant Pathology, University of California-Davis Campus, USA.

• Director (2013-2019): Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa.

E-mail: tfahima@evo.haifa.ac.il tfahima@univ.haifa.ac.il 

Phone: +972-48240784

ORCID:  https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5555-0040

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Ac81XrsAAAAJ&hl=en

Olga has graduated with her M.Sc. in Embryology at Moscow State University, Russian Federation. During her Master’s, she worked on constitutional chromosome abnormalities of males with disturbed spermatogenesis. After graduation, she started to work as a research scientist in laboratory of genetics of reproduction disorders, and later in laboratory of prenatal diagnosis and cytogenetics, Research Centre for Medical Genetics, Moscow. Olga is experienced in Molecular and Cell biology technical skills; she also has a background of working in clinical laboratory. At present, Olga is finishing her PhD degree on condition-dependent recombination in Drosophila at Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa, Israel.

Scientific interests: Evolution of recombination, Genetic mapping, Drosophila genetics

Liubov Govta has graduated with her M.Sc. in Biophysics at Donetsk National University, Ukraine. During her Master’s,  she worked on the investigation of the reaction of cells and organs of animals on vibration. After graduation, she continued her investigation of animal physiology at Donetsk National Medical University as a Ph.D. student. At the same time, she started her career as a lecturer for international medical students. Liubov has experience as a leading chemical engineer in the biotechnological and pharmaceutical industries. She has transferable skills in biotechnological research, especially in Plant Pathology, Bioinformatics, Genetics, Microbiology, Molecular biology, and various analytical methods. At the moment, Liubov has been working on investigating the role of WTK1 in the immune signaling network that activates the resistance mechanism conferred by WTK1.

Scientific interests: Plant genetics, Plant disease resistance, Genetic mapping, Gene cloning, Genetic evolution and Genomics

Elizaveta earned both her BSc and MSc degrees from Saint Petersburg State University. Her undergraduate and graduate theses focused on studying the lateral root development of cucumber. Throughout her bachelor’s and master’s programs, she conducted research at the Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Plant Development at the Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Elizaveta has accumulated extensive experience in molecular biology, showcasing proficiency in fundamental techniques like PCR and the transformation of Escherichia coli and Agrobacterium rhizogenes. Her expertise extends to more advanced techniques, including agrobacterial transformation of seedlings. She is well-versed in microscopy, particularly in working with fluorescent markers. Currently pursuing her Ph.D., Elizaveta is delving into cereal genomics. Her research focuses on identifying novel effectors of stripe rust, which play a crucial role in influencing resistant kinases in cereals 

Scientific interests: Plant pathology, Plant resistance genes, Protoplast transformation, Whole pathogen genome sequencing

Tamara has procured her education at the Presidential Physics and Mathematics Lyceum. Her undergraduate thesis was related to studying the biological activity of human saliva peptides. 

Having finished her bachelor’s graduation project and gained practical lab skills, she was working in the biotechnology department of VIR – the most significant gene bank and one of the most known agrobiological research centers in Russia. Tamara has immense experience in developing generations of hybrids of cultivated potatoes and their wild Mexican counterparts. The latter serves as an invaluable genetic source of resistance to various pathogens, and incorporating them into cultivated species’ genomes is an essential and engaging task.

Scientific interests: Plant pathology, Plant resistance genes, Protoplast transformation, Whole pathogen genome sequencing

Irina graduated with an MSc in Biology, summa cum laude, from Kazan Federal University. Her undergraduate thesis, conducted in the Department of Genetics, focused on human genetic disorders and was awarded the highest distinction. After graduation, she worked as a research scientist and pursued her doctoral studies at the Kazan Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where her research centered on developing new cultivars of winter rye (Secale cereale) and triticale (×Triticosecale), with a particular focus on the biochemical properties of plant cryoprotectants.

Irina also collaborated with German researchers at KWS Saat on a breeding program to develop high-yielding, winter-hardy rye varieties. Through this work, she has gained extensive expertise in plant hybridization, conducting large-scale laboratory and field experiments with various species.

Currently, Irina's research focuses on identifying and characterizing novel genes responsible for powdery mildew resistance in wheat (Triticum aestivum). Her work contributes to a broader effort to enhance disease resistance in cereal crops through advanced genetic breeding techniques, supporting the development of resilient, high-yield cultivars.

Scientific interests: plant genetics, plant disease resistance, genetic mapping, gene cloning, genetic evolution, and genomics

Hanchao Wang has graduated from Hunan Agricultural university at Tea Science. During his M.D, he worked on wild germplasm analysis of Rucheng Tea. Hanchao has skills in agriculture and biotechnology. He is interest in molecular biology, wheat genetics, statistic analysis through SPSS and R, and bio-informatics analysis through python and linux. 

Scientific interests: Wheat Genetics, Plant Genomics, Disease Resistance Bio-informatics, Molecular biology

Mayss received her Bachelor in science (B.Sc.) degree  in Medical Sciences and Biology from Haifa University.

While in last year of her B.Sc., she worked for one year at Prof. Fahmia's lab on the Wheat Genomic project, with the PmG3M gene which is a Powdery Mildew resistant gene.

After she submitted her B.Sc. project, she started a Master degree at Prof. Fahmia's lab in Evolutionary and Environmental Biology . In her Master’s, she will be working on cereal genomics. Her project is defined to search new genes that are resistant to cereal diseases including Powdery mildew and Yellow rust.

Scientific interests: Gene mapping, Plant disease resistance and Cereal genomics

Angelika Gurianov has graduated with her BSc in Medicinal Chemistry from Ariel University. After completing her bachelor's graduation project, which focused on synthesizing Nitroxides, she secured a position at Omega Ltd, a molecular biology lab. During her time at Omega Ltd, Angelika gained experience in Covid detection and sequencing. Currently, Angelika is a Master of Science (MSc) student in Professor Fahima's lab. Her research involves identifying new genes that are resistant to yellow rust in Einkorn wheat and transferring candidate genes into bread wheat.

Scientific interests: Gene mapping, Plant disease resistance bioinformatics, Molecular biology, and Wheat transformation