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Dan S Tawfik

Dan Tawfik was an Israeli biochemist at the Weizmann Institute of Science known for his work on protein engineering and enzyme evolution.

1955 to 2021Research on enzyme evolutionDeveloping in vitro compartmentalizationStudy of enzyme promiscuity

Born: 28 May 1955, Jerusalem
Died: 5 May 2021
Occupation: researcher, professor, biochemist
Education: Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Weizmann Institute of Science

Dan S Tawfik was born in 1955 in Jerusalem

Dan Salah Tawfik was born in Jerusalem in 1955 to a Jewish family that came from Iraq. His father Albert and two uncles owned a family company that dealt in vehicles and real estate. He served as an officer in the Israeli Air Force and later worked in the family company.

He earned a BSc in chemistry and biochemistry in 1988 and an MSc in biotechnology in 1990 from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He received his PhD from the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1995, under Michael Sela and Zelig Eshhar.

He did postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge with Alan Fersht, then became a senior research fellow at Sidney Sussex College and the MRC Centre for Protein Engineering. He became a group leader there in 1999. In 2001 he joined the Weizmann Institute, where he held a professorial chair of biochemistry from 2010.

With Andrew Griffiths he developed in vitro compartmentalization, which places single genes in emulsion droplets and allows enzyme evolution without living cells. He studied enzyme promiscuity, the origins of the first enzymes and an enzyme that breaks down nerve gas. He was vice chair of the institute's Scientific Council from 2019 and died in a climbing accident in Croatia in 2021.