Nataly Kravchenko-Balasha

The Institute of Biomedical and Oral Research, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

Nataly Kravchenko-Balasha is an Associate Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI). She is a systems and cancer biologist with experience in biophysical modeling of biological systems. She received her B.Sc. in Mathematics and Biology and PhD in Biochemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she characterized the reorganization of gene and protein networks in cancer progression, and the influence of that reorganization on cancer cell death, metabolism and drug treatments. During her postdoctoral training in biophysics and theoretical chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, Prof. Kravchenko-Balasha developed and implemented thermodynamic-based quantitative approaches in tumorigenesis, such as information-theoretic surprisal analysis, which beforehand was utilized only in chemistry, physics and engineering. The use of thermodynamic-based approaches in biology was inspired by the desire to develop a quantitative, compact, and predictive framework for understanding non-equilibrium biological processes, which are frequently regarded as 'complex' biological phenomena. Her current research interests include establishing quantitative ways to better understand the dynamics of changed protein signaling networks in healthy and diseased tissues, as well as advancing the rational design of patient-specific cancer therapeutics. Prof. Kravchenko-Balasha also conducts theoretical modeling and quantitative experiments to investigate the biophysics of cell-cell / cell-environment communication and cell migration.

Nataly Kravchenko-Balasha is a director of the Bio-Medicine Graduate Program, The Institute of Biomedical and Oral Research (IBOR), HUJI; a member of the research associates of the Info-Metrics Institute, American University, Washington D.C., United States; a member of the EMBO committee: the EMBO Short Term Fellowship Committee; an editorial board member of the npj Systems Biology and Applications and the lead scientist of MEDPNC (the company that commercialized the technology developed in her HUJI laboratory).
Nataly has received several honors, including the EMBO Long-term Fellowship; The Info-Metrics Prize for outstanding academic research in Memory of Halbert L. White (awarded by Info-Metrics Institute, American University, Washington D.C); Golda Meir Fellowship Lectureship Award; Spinoff Prize, Nature, 2020: MEDPNC was included in the list of 44 most exciting science-based university spinoffs in the past three years and HUJI Women in Science recognition: included in a list of noteworthy female researchers.