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Rotem Sorek

Rotem Sorek is an Israeli scientist known for discoveries on the bacterial immune system and on how viruses communicate using small molecules.

born 1975Discoveries on bacterial immune systemsEvolutionary origins of human innate immunityThe Arbitrium viral communication system

Born: 16 March 1975, Tel Aviv
Occupation: researcher
Education: Tel Aviv University

Rotem Sorek was born in 1975 in Tel Aviv

Rotem Sorek was born in Tel Aviv on March 16, 1975.

He studied at Tel Aviv University, earning a bachelor's degree in life sciences in 2000, a master's in molecular evolution and a PhD in human genetics. His doctoral work, advised by Ron Shamir and Gil Ast, examined how new exons arise during evolution. He then did postdoctoral research at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

He joined the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2008 and became a professor of molecular genetics there in 2014. He heads its laboratory of microbial genomics and systems biology. Starting in 2015, his studies revealed dozens of mechanisms bacteria use to defend against phages, and showed that parts of human innate immunity evolved from such bacterial systems.

In 2017 he found that phages use a small peptide he named Arbitrium to coordinate infection decisions. Technologies from his lab served as a basis for several biotech and agritech startups. He was elected to the Leopoldina and to the US National Academy of Sciences.

Milestones in Rotem Sorek's life

1975
Born in Tel Aviv.
2000
Earned a bachelor's degree in life sciences from Tel Aviv University.
2008
Joined the Weizmann Institute of Science.
2014
Became a professor of molecular genetics at the Weizmann Institute.
2017
Discovered that viruses communicate using the Arbitrium peptide.
2018
Elected a member of EMBO.
2022
Received the Michael Bruno Memorial Award and the Landau Prize.
2023
Received the Max Planck-Humboldt Research Award.
2025
Received the Waksman Award in Microbiology and was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences.