Oded Beja

Israeli researcher

Oded Béjà

עודד בז'ה

Born|  (1964-01-29) January 29, 1964 (age 61)
Alma mater| Hebrew University, Weizmann Institute of Science
Known for| Bacterial Rhodopsin discovery, Viral Photosynthesis
Children| 3
Awards|

* American Society for Photobiology 2002
* Faculty Member of the Year 2012 Faculty of 1000
* Advanced ERC grant awardee 2012

Scientific career
Fields| Metagenomics, Microbiology
Doctoral advisor| Prof. Eitan Bibi
Website| https://beja.net.technion.ac.il/

Oded Béjà (Hebrew: עודד בז'ה) is a professor in the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, in the field of marine microbiology and metagenomics.[1]

## Academic work

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Oded Béjà is best known for discovering the first bacterial rhodopsin[2] naming it proteorhodopsin,[3] during his postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Edward DeLong. Oded Béjà's laboratory focuses currently on the role and diversity of photosynthetic viruses infecting cyanobacteria in the oceans,[4] and the use of functional metagenomics for the discovery of new light sensing proteins.

In 2018, the team of Oded Beja discovered a new family of rhodopsins with an inverted membrane topology, which can be found in bacteria, algae, algal viruses and archaea.[5] Members of the new family were named heliorhodopsins.[5]

## Early life and education

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Oded Béjà graduated with a B.Sc. degree from the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment - Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He earned his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1998.[1]

## Recognition

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* Editorial board of the International Society for Microbial Ecology[6]
* Faculty Member of the Year 2012 by Faculty of 1000.[7]
* EMBO Young Investigator 2002-2004[8]
* American Society for Photobiology 2002 [2] New Investigator Award.
* Ranked 443 in the Ranking of scientists in Israel Institutions according to their Google Scholar Citations public profiles[9]

## References

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1. ^ "Technion - Department of Biology". biology.technion.ac.il. Retrieved 2017-01-25.
2. ^ Béjà, Oded; Aravind, L.; Koonin, Eugene V.; Suzuki, Marcelino T.; Hadd, Andrew; Nguyen, Linh P.; Jovanovich, Stevan B.; Gates, Christian M.; Feldman, Robert A. (2000-09-15). "Bacterial Rhodopsin: Evidence for a New Type of Phototrophy in the Sea". Science. 289 (5486): 1902–1906\. Bibcode:2000Sci...289.1902B. doi:10.1126/science.289.5486.1902. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 10988064.
3. ^ Grote, Mathias; O'Malley, Maureen A. (2011-11-01). "Enlightening the life sciences: the history of halobacterial and microbial rhodopsin research". FEMS Microbiology Reviews. 35 (6): 1082–1099\. doi:10.1111/j.1574-6976.2011.00281.x. ISSN 1574-6976. PMID 21623844.
4. ^ Sharon, Itai; Alperovitch, Ariella; Rohwer, Forest; Haynes, Matthew; Glaser, Fabian; Atamna-Ismaeel, Nof; Pinter, Ron Y.; Partensky, Frédéric; Koonin, Eugene V. (2009). "Photosystem I gene cassettes are present in marine virus genomes". Nature. 461 (7261): 258–262\. Bibcode:2009Natur.461..258S. doi:10.1038/nature08284. PMC 4605144. PMID 19710652.
5. ^ a b Pushkarev, Alina; Inoue, Keiichi; Larom, Shirley; Flores-Uribe, José; Singh, Manish; Konno, Masae; Tomida, Sahoko; Ito, Shota; Nakamura, Ryoko (June 2018). "A distinct abundant group of microbial rhodopsins discovered using functional metagenomics". Nature. 558 (7711): 595–599\. Bibcode:2018Natur.558..595P. doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0225-9. ISSN 0028-0836. PMC 11128463. PMID 29925949. S2CID 49330919.
6. ^ "Editors List | ISME-International Society for Microbial Ecology". www.isme-microbes.org. Retrieved 2017-01-26.
7. ^ "Oded Beja | Faculty Member | Faculty Opinions".
8. ^ "Browse Form". 194.94.44.233. Retrieved 2017-01-26.
9. ^ "Ranking of scientists in Israel Institutions according to their Google Scholar Citations public profiles | Ranking Web of Universities". www.webometrics.info. Retrieved 2017-01-26.

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* Israel

Academics|

* ORCID
* Google Scholar