Marcelle Machluf

Marcelle Machluf was born in 1963 in Casablanca

Machluf was born in Casablanca, Morocco, in 1963. As a baby she moved to Israel with her mother and grandmother, and the family settled in Ashdod. Her mother supported the family as a seamstress and a cleaning lady.

After high school she joined the IDF and served as a communications technician in the Air Force. She was discharged in 1984.

She applied to medical school but was not accepted, so she studied biology at the Hebrew University and finished in 1987. She then earned a master's degree and a Ph.D. at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, receiving her doctorate in 1997. She did postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School on gene therapy, tissue engineering and drug delivery in cancer therapy.

In 2001 she joined the Technion's Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, where she became a full professor and dean. Her lab developed the Nanoghost, a modified stem cell for treating metastatic melanoma and mesothelioma, with NYU Langone Medical Center. In 2021 she founded Meatafora, a company working on cultured meat.

In 2018 she lit a torch at the ceremony for Israel's 70th Independence Day. She is married to Yigal and has 3 children.