Tal Korem
About
Tal Korem works at the intersection of computational biology and medicine to develop microbiome-based therapeutics and diagnostics.
By using analytical approaches and tools like machine learning, network inference and metabolic modeling, he aims to understand microbial growth, activity, and metabolic production in humans.
Core to Korem’s research is understanding the mechanisms of host-microbiome interactions. However, these mechanisms typically involve more than a single microbial component. They are ecosystem-level phenomena, the result of numerous interactions between trillions of microbes in the ecosystem, and between them, the host, and its environment. A system with so many delicate moving parts will behave differently when put in an animal model or a test tube and perturbations can produce unintended and unexpected effects. Korem’s group takes a different approach to host-microbiome interactions: instead studying the components, they model the system as a whole, using data from real patients.
Awards
- John F. Kennedy Prize for Outstanding Students, Weizmann Institute of Science, 2018.
- Lee A. Segel Memorial Prize in Theoretical Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, 2016.
- The Foulkes Foundation Fellowship for MD/PhD Students, 2015
- Levi Eshkol Scholarship for Personalized Medicine, Israeli Ministry of Science, 2014
- Adi Latuman Unidisciplinary Scholarship for Outstanding Students, Tel Aviv University, 2009
Relevant Publications
Zeevi D.*, Korem T.*, Godneva A., Bar N., Kurilshikov A., Lotan-Pompan M., Weinberger A., Fu J., Wijmenga C., Zherankova A., Segal E. Structural variation in the gut microbiome associates with host health. Nature 568, 43-48 (2019).
Korem T.*, Zeevi D.*, Zmora N., Weissbrod O., Bar N., Lotan-Pompan M., Avnit-Sagi T., Kosower N., Malka G., Rein M., Suez J., Goldberg B.Z., Weinberger A., Levy A.A., Elinav E., Segal E. Bread affects clinical parameters and induces gut microbiome-associated personal glycemic responses. Cell Metabolism 25 (6), 1243-1253 (2017).
Thaiss C.A.*, Levy M.*, Korem T.*, Dohnalová L., Shapiro H., Jaitin D.A., David E., Winter D.R., Gury-BenAri M., Tatirovsky E., Tuganbaev T., Federici S., Zmora N., Zeevi D., Dori-Bachash M., Pevsner-Fischer M., Kartvelishvily E., Brandis A., Harmelin A., Shibolet O., Halpern Z., Honda K., Amit I., Segal E., Elinav E. Microbiota diurnal rhythmicity programs host transcriptome oscillations. Cell 167 (6), 1495-1510 (2016).
Korem T.*, Zeevi D.*, Suez J.*, Weinberger A.*, Avnit-Sagi T., Lotan-Pompan M., Matot E., Jona G., Harmelin A., Cohen N., Sirota-Madi A., Thaiss C.A., Pevsner-Fischer M., Sorek R., Xavier R.J., Elinav E., Segal E. Growth dynamics of gut microbiota in health and disease inferred from single metagenomic samples. Science 349 (6252), 1101-1106 (2015).
Zeevi D.*, Korem T.*, Zmora N.*, Israeli D.*, Rothschild D., Weinberger A., Ben-Yacov O., Lador D., Avnit-Sagi T., Lotan-Pompan M., Suez J., Ali Mahdi J., Matot E., Malka G., Kosower N., Rein M., Zilberman-Schapira G., Dohnalová L., Pevsner-Fischer M., Bikovsky R., Halpern Z., Elinav E., Segal E. Personalized nutrition by prediction of glycemic responses. Cell 163 (5), 1079-1094 (2015).