Michal Rivlin is a Senior Scientist and Sara Lee Schupf Family Chair in Neurobiology at the Weizmann Institute of Science. She was awarded the 2019 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists for her research on the neuronal circuitry of the

retina The retina (from la, rete "net") is the innermost, light-sensitive layer of tissue of the eye of most vertebrates and some molluscs. The optics of the eye create a focused two-dimensional image of the visual world on the retina, which then ...

Early life and education

Rivlin was born in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

. She served in the

Sar-El Sar-El ( he, שר-אל; lit. ''The National Project for Volunteers for Israel'' or ''Service for Israel''), is a non-profit service organization, subordinate and under the direction of the Israeli Logistics Corps, for Israeli citizens living abro ...

program before studying mathematics and computer science at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

. She graduated in 2001 and moved to the Interdisciplinary Center for Neural Computation for her postgraduate research, where she was supported by a scholarship for excellence. Rivlin completed her doctoral degree in 2009. She moved to the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

for her postdoctoral research, where she worked alongside

Marla Feller Marla Beth Feller is the Paul Licht Distinguished Professor in Biological Sciences and Member of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. She studies the mechanisms that underpin the assembly of neural ci ...

as a Human Frontier Science Program Fellow. During her postdoctoral research she demonstrated that the modality encoded into

retinal ganglion cells A retinal ganglion cell (RGC) is a type of neuron located near the inner surface (the ganglion cell layer) of the retina of the eye. It receives visual information from photoreceptors via two intermediate neuron types: bipolar cells and retina ...

(RCGs) can be altered by certain stimuli. This can include directional sensitive RCGs, which reorient themselves after a short stimulation, and light sensitive RCGs which change their preferred polarity when light intensity changes.

Research and career

In 2013 Rivlin joined the faculty of the Weizmann Institute of Science. At the Weizmann Institute of Science Rivlin lead a laboratory studying Dynamic Computations in the Retina. She studies how the neurons interpret the dynamic signals sent by the retina, and how they make use of changing information to build a coherent visual image. She makes use of two-photon excitation microscopy,

electrophysiology Electrophysiology (from Greek , ''ēlektron'', "amber" etymology of "electron"">Electron#Etymology">etymology of "electron" , ''physis'', "nature, origin"; and , '' -logia'') is the branch of physiology that studies the electrical properties of b ...

and pharmacogenomics to understand the mechanisms involved in communication from the retina. Rivlin believes that the retina can be used in the early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases such as

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

. There is evidence that people with

have decreased retinal dopamine levels. In an effort to use this as a characterisation tool, Rivlin studies the responses of the retina to different levels of dopamine. It is believed that the reduction of

acetylcholine Acetylcholine (ACh) is an organic chemical that functions in the brain and body of many types of animals (including humans) as a neurotransmitter. Its name is derived from its chemical structure: it is an ester of acetic acid and choline. Part ...

which occurs during

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

may also present in the

. People who suffer from

experience a loss of retinal neurons. Rivlin believes that through measurements of the retinal neurons, in particular the starburst amacrine cells, it will be possible to determine the cholinergic levels, with which it will be possible to diagnose

early. In 2019 Rivlin was awarded the Israel Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in Life Sciences.

Selected publications

Her publications include: * * *

Personal life

Rivlin is married to Yedidya Etzion, Head of Keshet High School, with whom she has four children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rivlin, Michal Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Israeli neuroscientists Israeli women neuroscientists Scientists from Jerusalem Academic staff of Weizmann Institute of Science 21st-century Israeli scientists 21st-century Israeli women scientists