Intercontinental Academia
fellow
Ithai Rabinowitch
Home institution
Hebrew University
Country of origin (home institution)
Israel
Discipline(s)
Biology
Health Sciences
Neuroscience and cognitive science
Theme(s)
Artificial Intelligence
Behavior & Cognition
Health
Fellowship dates
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Research Project
Significance and foreseeable consequences of human-endowed animal intelligence
We are interested in unraveling the fundamental principles of brain operation. What are the basic features that any brain of any animal should possess in order to produce coherent and adaptive behavior? How do brains implement these essential functions as an integral system? What is the role of neuronal connectivity in determining brain function?
We use two complementary approaches to address these questions. (1) Analysis of existing basic brain functions and circuits, examining how they co-function and co-exist. This provides fundamental knoweldge about system-level coordination and integration. (2) Synthesis of new synaptic connections and, ultimately, of entire new brain circuits, to achieve a construction-based level of understanding, and uncover the causative role of connectivity in circuit function. We conduct both of these forms of research using the relatively simple and well-characterized nervous system of the miniature roundworm C. elegans. C. elegans enables us to reduce complex problems into much simpler ones, in which the essential principles of brain operation can be traced. It also serves as a powerful platform for genetic engineering of new synaptic connections and circuit reconfiguration.
Biography
Ithai Rabinowitch is a neurobiologist and synthetic biologist. He has a very deep interest in neurobiology from both a scientific and engineering perspective. In fact, I began my academic journey studying Industrial Engineering at Tel Aviv University. I then carried out a PhD in Computational Neuroscience at the Hebrew University. After that I did extensive experimental postdoctoral work on the neural circuits of the nematode worm C. elegans, this was performed around the globe, in Cambridge (UK), Jerusalem (Israel) and Seattle (USA). I am now combining all these strands to study the foundations of neural function both by exploring the basic nervous system of C. elegans and by engineering new synaptic connections into this system.
Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, his research focuses on the tiny (1mm-long) nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans, taking advantage of its relatively simple nervous system to unravel molecular and cellular underpinnings of presumed early precursors of intelligence. Concomitantly, the amenability of C. elegans to genetic manipulation makes it possible to reconfigure its neural circuits, and thus incorporate human design into its behavior, opening the way for a new animal-based form of AI.