Our Team

Danielle Karo-Atar

Principal Investigator

Danielle is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Pharmacology at the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben-Gurion University. She is a Zuckerman Faculty Scholar and her research focuses on understanding mechanisms of intestinal resilience and immunity at the host-helminth interface.

Danielle pursued her PhD at Tel-Aviv University, under the supervision of Dr. Ariel Munitz, studying type-2 immune responses in the lung. Following an exciting experience in industry she realized that her passion lays with academic research. Therefore, she ventured far to the freezing and beautiful city of Montreal, Canada, where she trained at McGill University under the mentorship of Dr. Irah King in the field of immuno-parasitology. It was then she found great fascination with host-pathogen interactions.

Outside of the lab, she enjoys hiking, pilates, true crime anything and sleep, lots and lots of sleep.      

Tamar Eliahu

Master student

Tamar is a BGU ‘Medical Laboratory Sciences’ graduate. She is interested in understanding how helminths regulate the intestinal epithelial barrier.

Adi Asculai

Master student

Adi is a BGU ‘Life Sciences’ graduate. She aims to elucidate Paneth cell differentiation and function in the settings of helminth infection.

Outside the lab, it's basically: eat, sleep, Pilates, repeat.

Noa van Gelder

Master student

Noa is a BGU ‘Life Sciences’ graduate. She is investigating the role of STAT3 during helminth infection.

Hadar Eini Rider

Research associate

Hadar manages the day-to-day operation in the lab and supports all trainees in their work.

Master student

Ilil Rim-Bunchuk

Ilil is a BGU ‘Biotechnological Engineering’ graduate. She studies tight-junction regulation by helminths.

Outside the lab, she loves trying new restaurants. She has two cats, one dog, and a baby on the way. She spend her free time on interior design and collecting vintage Israeli ceramics.

Master student

Keren Monin

Keren is a BGU ‘Biotechnological Engineering’ graduate. She studies memory in intestinal stem cells.

Outside the lab she likes to travel the world, scuba dive and surf.

Master student

Romy Azmon

Romy is a BGU ‘Life Sciences’ graduate. She studies helminth-pathogenic bacteria relationships and is co-supervised by Prof. Neta Sal-Man.