Aviv Regev (born July 11, 1971) is a

computational biologist Computational biology refers to the use of data analysis, mathematical modeling and computational simulations to understand biological systems and relationships. An intersection of computer science, biology, and big data, the field also has fo ...

and systems biologist and Executive Vice President and Head of

Genentech Genentech, Inc., is an American biotechnology corporation headquartered in South San Francisco, California. It became an independent subsidiary of Roche in 2009. Genentech Research and Early Development operates as an independent center within R ...

Research and Early Development in Genentech/Roche. She is a core member (on leave) at the

Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Broad(s) or The Broad(s) may refer to: People * A slang term for a woman. * Broad (surname), a surname Places * Broad Peak, on the border between Pakistan and China, the 12th highest mountain on Earth * The Broads, a network of mostly navi ...

and

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

(on leave) at the Department of Biology of the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

. Regev is a pioneer of single cell genomics and of computational and systems biology of gene regulatory circuits. She founded and leads the

Human Cell Atlas The Human Cell Atlas is a project to describe all cell types in the human body. The initiative was announced by a consortium after its inaugural meeting in London in October 2016, which established the first phase of the project. Aviv Regev an ...

project, together with

Sarah Teichmann Sarah Amalia Teichmann (born 1975) is a German scientist who is head of cellular genetics at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and a visiting research group leader at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI). She serves as director of rese ...

Education

Regev studied at the

Adi Lautman Interdisciplinary Program for Outstanding Students The Adi Lautman Interdisciplinary Program for Outstanding Students is a Tel Aviv University program for fostering excellence, leading to a Master's degree. Only 15 students are admitted to the program every year. "The highly competitive selection is ...

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...

, where she completed her

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

under the supervision of

Eva Jablonka Eva Jablonka ( he, חווה יבלונקה) (born 1952) is an Israeli evolutionary theorist and geneticist, known especially for her interest in epigenetic inheritance. Born in 1952 in Poland, she emigrated to Israel in 1957. She is a professor a ...

and

Ehud Shapiro Ehud Shapiro ( he, אהוד שפירא; born 1955) is a multi-disciplinary scientist, artist, entrepreneur and Professor of Computer Science and Biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science. With international reputation, he made fundamental cont ...

Career and research

In 2020, Regev became the Head and Executive Vice President of

Research and Early Development, based in South San Francisco, and a member of the extended Corporate Executive Committee of Roche. Previously, she was a Core Institute Member (now on leave), Chair of the Faculty, Founding Director of the Klarman Cell Observatory and co-Director Cell Circuits Program at the

Broad Institute The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (IPA: , pronunciation respelling: ), often referred to as the Broad Institute, is a biomedical and genomic research center located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U ...

of MIT and Harvard. She was also a professor in the Department of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (now on leave), as well as an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Regev's research includes work on

gene expression Gene expression is the process by which information from a gene is used in the synthesis of a functional gene product that enables it to produce end products, protein or non-coding RNA, and ultimately affect a phenotype, as the final effect. The ...

(with

Eran Segal Eran Segal ( he, ערן סגל; born 15 November 1973) is a computational biologist professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science. He works on developing quantitative models for all levels of gene regulation, including transcription, chromatin, a ...

and

David Botstein David Botstein (born September 8, 1942) is an American biologist serving as the chief scientific officer of Calico. He served as the director of the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University from 2003 to 2013, where ...

), and the use of

π-calculus In theoretical computer science, the -calculus (or pi-calculus) is a process calculus. The -calculus allows channel names to be communicated along the channels themselves, and in this way it is able to describe concurrent computations whose networ ...

to represent biochemical processes. Regev's team has been a leading pioneer of single-cell genomics experimental and computational methods. In 2014, she pitched the idea of the creation of Human Cell Atlas, a project to describe all

cell Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life Cell may also refer to: Locations * Monastic cell, a small room, hut, or cave in which a religious recluse lives, alternatively the small precursor of a monastery ...

types in the

human body The human body is the structure of a Human, human being. It is composed of many different types of Cell (biology), cells that together create Tissue (biology), tissues and subsequently organ systems. They ensure homeostasis and the life, viabi ...

. Regev founded the

together with

along with collaborators all over the world.

Single Cell Genomics

Regev's lab pioneered the development and application of many of the key experimental and computational advances for single cell and spatial genomics, especially single cell

RNA-Seq RNA-Seq (named as an abbreviation of RNA sequencing) is a sequencing technique which uses next-generation sequencing (NGS) to reveal the presence and quantity of RNA in a biological sample at a given moment, analyzing the continuously changing c ...

(scRNA-seq).

Awards and honors

Regev is a fellow of the International Society of Computational Biology (ISCB) (2017), a Helmholtz Fellow (2020), and a fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (2021). She is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS, elected 2019) and of the US National Academy of Medicine (NAM, elected 2020). * Regev was awarded the

Overton Prize The ISCB Overton Prize is a computational biology prize awarded annually for outstanding accomplishment by a scientist in the early to mid stage of his or her career. Laureates have made significant contribution to the field of computational biolo ...

in 2008 for "outstanding accomplishment to a scientist in the early to mid stage of his or her career". * In 2008, she was also awarded the

NIH Director's Pioneer Award National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award is a research initiative first announced in 2004 designed to support individual scientists' biomedical research. The focus is specifically on "pioneering" research that is highly innovative ...

. * She has also been awarded the

Burroughs Wellcome Fund The Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF) is an American non-profit medical research organization that provides funding for biomedical research, STEM education, and areas of career development for scientists. Since 1970, it has been headquartered in Nor ...

Career Award. * Earl and Thressa Stadtman Scholar Award from the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) (2014) * She was awarded the

ISCB Innovator Award The ISCB Innovator Award is a computational biology prize awarded annually to leading scientists who are within two decades post-degree, who consistently make outstanding contributions to the field, and who continue to forge new directions. The pr ...

in 2017. * In 2017, she was awarded a

Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research The Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research is awarded by the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to recognize cancer researchers who are making significant contributions to the understanding of cancer or are improving the treatment of the disease t ...

. * McCormick Lecture, Stanford University (2018) * Harvey Lecture, Harvey Society, New York (2018) * Weatherall Lecture, University Oxford, UK (2018) * She also served on the Life Sciences jury for the

Infosys Prize The Infosys Prize is an annual award given to scientists, researchers, engineers and social scientists of Indian origin (not necessarily born in India) by the Infosys Science Foundation and ranks among the highest monetary awards in India to re ...

in 2018. * She was elected a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

(NAS) in 2019. * FASEB Excellence in Science Mid-Career Investigator Award (2019) * She was awarded the 25th

Keio Medical Science Prize The Keio Medical Science Prize ( Japanese: 慶應医学賞) is a Japanese prize in medical sciences. Introduction The prize is awarded to scientists who made significant contributions to the field of medical sciences or life sciences. And these co ...

in 2020. * Jonathan Kraft Prize from Massachusetts General Hospital (2020) * Mendel Lecture, European Society of Human Genetics (2020) * Lurie Prize from the Foundation for the NIH (FNIH) (2020) * AACR-Irving Weinstein Foundation Distinguished Lecture (2021) * 25th Keio Medical Science Prize (2020) * Vanderbilt Prize (2021) * James Prize in Science and Technology Integration, National Academy of Sciences (2021) *

Ernst Schering Prize The Ernst Schering Prize is awarded annually by the Ernst Schering Foundation for especially outstanding basic research in the fields of medicine, biology or chemistry anywhere in the world. Established in 1991 by the Ernst Schering Research Found ...

(2021) * Honorary doctorate, ETH Zurich (2021) * Nakasone Award from the Human Frontiers Science Program (2022) * Anderson Lecture, University of Virginia, 2022 * Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2022

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Regev, Aviv Living people Computational biologists Systems biologists Israeli bioinformaticians Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science faculty Overton Prize winners Howard Hughes Medical Investigators Tel Aviv University alumni Fellows of the International Society for Computational Biology Adi Lautman Interdisciplinary Program for Outstanding Students alumni Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Genentech people Women computational biologists 1970 births