BAR-ILAN INSTITUTE OF NANOTECHNOLOGY & ADVANCED MATERIALS | 2019 ANNUAL REPORT

Dr. Nitzan Gonen The Mina & Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences Member of BINA , Nano Medicine Center Research Areas Sex Determination • 3D Genome organisation • CRISPR genome editing • Stem Cell Biology • Developing in vitro systems to model the gonads 66 and their implication for RNA and protein interactions”, Nucleic acids research 47 (14), 2019 . • S Naiman, FK Huynh, R Gil, Y Glick, Y Shahar, N Touitou, L Nahum, M Y Avivi, A Roichman, Y Kanfi, A A Gertler, T Doniger, O R Ilkayeva, I Abramovich, O Yaron, B Lerrer, E Gottlieb, R A Harris, D Gerber, M D Hirschey, H Y Cohen, “SIRT6 Promotes Hepatic Beta-Oxidation via Activation of PPAR Ѓ ”, Cell Reports 29 (12), 4127-4143. e8, 2019 . • M. Ronen, B. S. Kalanoor, Z. Oren, I. Ron, Y. R. Tischler, and D. Gerber, “Characterization of peptides self-assembly by low frequency Raman spectroscopy,” RSC Adv., vol. 8, no. 29, pp. 16161–16170, 2018 . • N. Schwartz et al., “Neuregulin 1 discovered as a cleavage target for the HCV NS3/4A protease by a microfluidic membrane protein array,” New Biotechnology, 2018 . Dr. Olga Girshevitz Head of Surface Analysis Facility Member of BINA staff Publications 2018 and 2019 • Netanel Shpigel, Sergey Sigalov, Fyodor Malchik, Mikhael D. Levi, Olga Girshevitz, Rafail L. Khalfin & Doron Aurbach, “Quantification of porosity in extensively nanoporous thin films in contact with gases and liquids”, Nature Communications volume (10), 4394 2019 . • Annete Setzer, Pablo D. Esquinazi, Lukas Botch, Oliver Baehre, Eti Teblum, Anat Itzhak, Olga Girshevitz and Gilbert Daniel Nessim, “Magnetic phase transitions around room temperature in Cu 9 S 5 ”, Phase Transitions, 2019 . • Shawat Avraham, A. Westover, O. Girshevitz, C. L. Pint and G. D. Nessim, “Modulating the height of carbon nanotube forests by controlling the molybdenum thin film reservoir thickness”, Nanoscale 2019 . • Anat Itzhak, Eti Teblum, Olga Girshevitz, Sivan Okashy, Yury Turkulets, Luba Burlaka, Gili Cohen-Taguri, Efrat Shawat Avraham, Malachi Noked, Ilan Shalish, and Gilbert Daniel Nessim, “Digenite (Cu9S5): Layered p Type Semiconductor Grown by Reactive Annealing of Copper”, Chem. Mater., 30, 2379−2388, 2018 . • Efrat Roth, Alex Glick Azaria, Olga Girshevitz, Arkady Bitler, and Yuval Garini, “Measuring the Conformation and Persistence Length of SingleStranded DNA Using a DNA Origami Structure”, Nano Lett., 18, 6703-6709 2018 . • Hadar Zafri, Jonathan Azougi, Olga Girshevitz, Zeev Zalevsky, David Zitoun, “Electron beam patterning for the writing of positively charged gold colloidal nanoparticles”, J. Nanoparticle Research 2018 . • Efrat Shawat Avraham, Andrew S. Westover, Anat Itzhak, Lior Shani, Vladislav Mor, Olga Girshevitz, Cary L. Pint, Gilbert Daniel Nessim, “Patterned growth of carbon nanotube forests using Cu and Cu/Ag thin film reservoirs as growth inhibitors”, Carbon, 130, 273-280 2018 . • Subodh Kumar, Tarik Aziz, Olga Girshevitz, and Gilbert Daniel Nessim, “One-Step Synthesis of N-Doped Graphene Quantum Dots from Chitosan as a Sole Precursor Using Chemical Vapor Deposition”, J. Phys. Chem. C, 2018 . Abstract topic 1 A main research interest of our lab is to understand, at the molecular level, how sex is determined during embryonic development, i.e., how does an embryo develop into either male or female. In mammals, sex determination is genetically driven with XY individuals developing as males and XX individuals developing as females. However, if the process of sex determination is impaired, patients appear as XY females or XX males (sex reverse). These are all classified as patients with Disorders of Sex Development (DSD), with a prevalence of 1: 2500-4000 newborns. During embryonic development, the gonads initially develop as a bipotential organ and it is the activity of several key transcription factors that directs them to develop into either testes or ovaries. In the lab, we use the mouse as a model system and are interested at understanding the regulation of these key transcription factors and how these interact with each other. We also study the role of the non-coding genome in mediating the process of sex determination and DSD pathologies. We employ cutting-edge techniques to address these questions including CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing, transgenic mice production, advanced sequencing techniques as well as microscopy and molecular biology. Abstract topic 2 In an attempt to develop an in vitro system that allows to model the mammalian gonads we use mouse Embryonic Stem Cells (ESC) and develop differentiation protocols towards gonadal cell type of the gonads. In addition, we use similar protocols with Human ESC and induced Pluripotent Stem Cells to model DSD patients in vitro. Furthermore, we perform tissue engineering to model the testis and the spermatogenesis process using these stem cell-derived somatic cells along with germ cells in a 3D culture system.