Meital Reches

Meital Reches is a PhD student in the research group of Dr. Ehud Gazit, at the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, Tel-Aviv University. This year she was awarded with the Dan David Scholarship Award for outstanding doctoral students and the Clore Foundation Program Doctoral Scholarship. Her research focuses on the molecular self-assembly mechanism of amyloid fibrils which are associated with a large number of diseases of unrelated origin such as Alzheimer's disease, Type II diabetes and prion diseases. This work led to the study of the self-association of aromatic dipeptides. It was discovered that the diphenylalanine core recognition motif of the beta-amyloid polypeptide, which is involved in Alzheimer's disease, can self-assemble into a novel class of well-ordered peptide nanotubes. These novel peptide nanotubes were shown to serve as a casting mold for metal nanowires. It was further shown that other aromatic dipeptides can self-assemble into a variety of nanostructures. These nano-assemblies are currently being studied for their use in various applications.