Itai Yanai, PhD
Itai Yanai, PhD, whose in-depth study of how embryos develop has led to breakthroughs in the analysis of gene composition and expression, has been named the inaugural Director of the newly created Institute for Computational Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center. He officially takes his new position on May 1, 2016.
The Institute for Computational Medicine will act as the hub for multidisciplinary efforts to reveal patterns in medical data that empower disease diagnosis and the design of new treatments.
Dr. Yanai, who also will hold the academic title of Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at NYU School of Medicine, comes from the faculty of biology at the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology. There, he served since 2008 as a research leader in the study of gene regulation through the lens of evolution and development. Combining experimental approaches in embryology, molecular biology, and computational biology, he has explored the principles by which developmental pathways evolve.
Dr. Yanai’s laboratory has pioneered a powerful method for single-cell gene expression analysis that he will use to explore the progression of cancer and the process of infection. ■
