Rivka Dikstein Biography – Michigan Israel Partnership

Rivka Dikstein, Ph.D.

Prof. Rivka Dikstein earned a BSc from Tel Aviv University in 1985 and MSc and PhD from the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1988 and 1993 respectively. She spent three years conducting postdoctoral research at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1997, she joined the faculty of Biochemistry at the Weizmann Institute. From 2019-2022 she served as the head of the Dept of Biomolecular Sciences and in 2022 she was nominated the Dean of the Faculty of Biochemistry. Prof. Dikstein is the incumbent of the Ruth and Leonard Simon Professorial Chair of Cancer Research and since 2023, she is the WIS Director of the Michigan-Israel Partnership.

Prof. Dikstein investigates one of the most basic topics in biology: how the regulatory information encoded within our genes is decoded to produce proteins. She aims to gain a deep mechanistic understanding of the various stages of gene expression, particularly transcription and mRNA translation, as well as the interconnection between these stages and their role in disease. Specifically, her lab focuses on several key issues:

What is the role of the transcription elongation factor Spt4/Spt5 (DSIF) in the rapid transcriptional induction of pro-inflammatory genes and in inherited neurodegenerative diseases?
How do transcription and translation processes control the response to extracellular stimuli?
The mechanism underlying unique forms of translation initiation.
Developing chemical and genetic research tools for transcription and translation.
The connections between transcription, mRNA processing, and translation.

Her studies have contributed seminal discoveries that enhanced our understanding of transcriptional control of inflammation and neurodegenerative disease, the coordination between transcription and mRNA translation, and novel translation regulatory mechanisms. Their work led to the identification of drugs with potential therapeutic effects against inherited neurodegenerative disease, cancer, and viral infection.