Idan Efroni

Idan Efroni is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics, The Hebrew University, Israel. Coming to biology from the High-tech industry, Idan did his Ph.D. with Prof. Yuval Eshed at the Weizmann Institute working on factors regulating leaf growth. He joined the lab of Prof. Kenneth Birnbaum at New York University for postdoctoral studies, where they pioneered the use of single-cell technologies in plants. In 2016, he moved to the Hebrew University to start his lab and in 2017, he was recognized as an International Research Scholar of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Idan’s research focuses on how plants form new organs and repair damaged ones, and how these traits are modified in evolution. Utilizing genetics and analysis of large genomic databases, the lab uncovers the mechanisms that underlie plants’ developmental plasticity in multiple plant species of the Solanaceae and Brassicaceae families. The lab is also interested in mapping the ancient cis-regulatory code that underlies these traits and studying its evolutionary dynamics.