From missile damage to global recognition for Weizmann scientist

It has been a year of both devastation and distinction for Yifat Merbl, a professor in the Department of Systems Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot.

Merbl was recently named one of Nature magazine’s “Ten people who shaped science in 2025,” a prestigious honor recognizing her groundbreaking work on the human immune system.

“It’s an amazing recognition in what we do and provides an amazing boost, also to my incredible team, to keep pushing the boundaries of science,” Merbl told JNS in a recent phone interview.

The accolade came just six months after her laboratory in the Wolfson Building at the Weizmann Institute was largely destroyed by Iranian missile strikes. Her home on the institute’s campus also sustained major damage in the attack.

Merbl was in her campus apartment when the missiles hit on June 15. She ran to her lab to close freezer doors in an effort to salvage irreplaceable research samples.

“It was the hardest day of my life,” said Merbl, a mother of three. “Some very expensive equipment was gone as well as clinical samples from oncology, cerebral spinal fluid and brain tissue from all over the world.”

She praised the Weizmann Institute for its rapid response, noting that the university helped relocate some 50 damaged or destroyed laboratories so research could continue. Her team is now operating out of a nearby plant biology lab using salvaged and newly purchased equipment.

Merbl is acutely aware that her personal story is only one chapter in Israel’s broader ordeal. “How does the country do it?” she asked.

Still, she remains resolutely optimistic. “We have to go forward. We wake up each day, hope for better days, find other solutions and get creative. It could have been worse—our house could have been ruined. And our kids and students weren’t hurt.”

Merbl’s journey

Raised in Givat Shmuel, Merbl served as an officer in the Israeli Air Force before earning a bachelor’s degree in computational biology from Bar-Ilan University. She went on to complete a master’s degree in immunology at the Weizmann Institute under the guidance of Prof. (Emeritus) Irun Cohen.

In 2010, she earned her doctorate in systems biology under the guidance of Prof. Marc Kirschner at Harvard Medical School, where she also completed postdoctoral training. She then returned to Weizmann as a principal investigator to establish her own lab.

“One aspect of our lab focuses on trying to understand what happens when proteins are degraded,” Merbl explained.

Her research centers on proteasomes—the cellular “waste disposers” responsible for breaking down damaged or unneeded proteins. “It is like a home garbage can, where you throw out all you don’t need.”

Her work builds on the seminal discoveries of Israeli scientists Aaron Ciechanover and Avram Hershko, who shared the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Irwin Rose for uncovering the mechanism of protein degradation by the proteasome.

Merbl has earned the affectionate nickname “dumpster diver” for her deep exploration of this molecular machinery. Her lab developed novel technology allowing researchers to track proteasomes under different disease conditions, generating vast datasets of degraded protein fragments.

Her team suspected that these so-called “waste” products might serve an additional purpose.

“We took a broad look at all the data and asked ourselves: could the products of degradation play an additional role?”

The answer, it turned out, was yes. Merbl’s research revealed that proteasomes routinely produce small protein fragments, known as peptides, and that their production increases sharply during bacterial infections. Some of these fragments were found to kill harmful bacteria.

Many resembled components of the body’s innate immune system—the first line of defense against bacteria, viruses and parasites.

The findings suggest that the cell’s “dumpsters” may actually play a key role in fighting infection, opening a potential new frontier for personalized treatments at a time of growing antibiotic resistance.

Reflecting on her recognition by Nature, Merbl said the honor underscores how much remains unknown.

“It serves as a reminder of how much we still do not understand,” she said. “What excites me most is realizing how much there is still to uncover. Each answer opens a new set of questions, and each question expands the map of what is possible.”

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