Oded Beja Explained

Oded Béjà
Birth Date:	29 January 1964
Fields:	Metagenomics, Microbiology
Alma Mater:	Hebrew University, Weizmann Institute of Science
Doctoral Advisor:	Prof. Eitan Bibi
Known For:	Bacterial Rhodopsin discovery, Viral Photosynthesis
Awards:	American Society for Photobiology 2002 Faculty Member of the Year 2012 Faculty of 1000 Advanced ERC grant awardee 2012
Website:	https://beja.net.technion.ac.il/
Children:	3

Oded Béjà is a professor in the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, in the field of marine microbiology and metagenomics.^[1]

Academic work

Oded Béjà is best known for discovering the first bacterial rhodopsin^[2] naming it proteorhodopsin,^[3] during his postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Edward DeLong. Oded Béjà's laboratory focuses currently on the role and diversity of photosynthetic viruses infecting cyanobacteria in the oceans,^[4] and the use of functional metagenomics for the discovery of new light sensing proteins.

In 2018, the team of Oded Beja discovered a new family of rhodopsins with an inverted membrane topology, which can be found in bacteria, algae, algal viruses and archaea.^[5] Members of the new family were named heliorhodopsins.

Early life and education

Oded Béjà graduated with a B.Sc. degree from the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment - Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He earned his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1998.https://lib-phds1.weizmann.ac.il/Dissertations/Beja_Oded_58670126.pdf

Recognition

• Editorial board of the International Society for Microbial Ecology^[6]
• Faculty Member of the Year 2012 by Faculty of 1000.^[7]
• EMBO Young Investigator 2002-2004^[8]
• American Society for Photobiology 2002 http://photobiology.org/pdf/newsletter/asp_nl79.pdf New Investigator Award.
• Ranked 443 in the Ranking of scientists in Israel Institutions according to their Google Scholar Citations public profiles^[9]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Technion - Department of Biology. biology.technion.ac.il. 2017-01-25.
2. Béjà. Oded. Aravind. L.. Koonin. Eugene V.. Suzuki. Marcelino T.. Hadd. Andrew. Nguyen. Linh P.. Jovanovich. Stevan B.. Gates. Christian M.. Feldman. Robert A.. 2000-09-15. Bacterial Rhodopsin: Evidence for a New Type of Phototrophy in the Sea. Science. en. 289. 5486. 1902–1906. 10.1126/science.289.5486.1902. 0036-8075. 10988064. 2000Sci...289.1902B.
3. Grote. Mathias. O'Malley. Maureen A.. 2011-11-01. Enlightening the life sciences: the history of halobacterial and microbial rhodopsin research. FEMS Microbiology Reviews. 35. 6. 1082–1099. 10.1111/j.1574-6976.2011.00281.x. 1574-6976. 21623844. free.
4. Sharon. Itai. Alperovitch. Ariella. Rohwer. Forest. Haynes. Matthew. Glaser. Fabian. Atamna-Ismaeel. Nof. Pinter. Ron Y.. Partensky. Frédéric. Koonin. Eugene V.. 2009. Photosystem I gene cassettes are present in marine virus genomes. Nature. 461. 7261. 258–262. 10.1038/nature08284. 19710652. 4605144. 2009Natur.461..258S.
5. Pushkarev. Alina. Inoue. Keiichi. Larom. Shirley. Flores-Uribe. José. Singh. Manish. Konno. Masae. Tomida. Sahoko. Ito. Shota. Nakamura. Ryoko. June 2018. A distinct abundant group of microbial rhodopsins discovered using functional metagenomics. Nature. En. 558. 7711. 595–599. 10.1038/s41586-018-0225-9. 29925949. 2018Natur.558..595P. 49330919. 0028-0836. 11128463.
6. Web site: Editors List ISME-International Society for Microbial Ecology. www.isme-microbes.org. en. 2017-01-26.
7. Web site: Oded Beja | Faculty Member | Faculty Opinions.
8. Web site: Browse Form. 194.94.44.233. 2017-01-26.
9. Web site: Ranking of scientists in Israel Institutions according to their Google Scholar Citations public profiles Ranking Web of Universities. www.webometrics.info. 2017-01-26.