August 7th, 2008
Rehovot, Israel – August 7th, 2008 – Evogene (TASE:EVGN) announces that during the first half of 2008 it has significantly strengthened its scientific and management teams by the appointment of two additional program managers, additional plant growth manager, a senior bioinformatician and a new IP manager. Evogene has made tremendous progress during the last year, and in order to support its growing pipeline of R&D programs and collaboration agreements, the company had to strengthen its professional team.
Ofer Haviv, Evogene's president and CEO said: "Since its foundation, Evogene has worked to build one of the strongest platforms for gene discovery in the industry. Our team is an integral part of the platform, and we are now proud to employ more than 50 qualified employees from a wide range of disciplines – bioinformaticians, biologists, breeders, agronomists and others. We are certain that these individuals, together with our existing team, will allow us to achieve our commitment to be a leading provider of genes for improving key plant traits to our current and future partners."
The most significant additions to Evogene's team are:
Dr. Daphna Blachinsky - Program Manager
Prior to joining Evogene, Dr. Blachinsky worked for 4 years as a field trial manager at Agrogreen – Minrav, a company that develops and manufactures biological control agents for agriculture. During the years 1996-2001, Dr. Blachinsky worked in the Ministry of Agriculture as a plant protection adviser.
Dr. Blachinsky holds a Ph.D. (2004) and a M.Sc. (1996) from the Department of Plant Science and the Department of Plant Diseases, respectively, of the Faculty of Agriculture of the Hebrew University.
Dr. Zur Granevitze - Program Manager
Prior to joining Evogene, Dr. Granevitze initiated and managed a collaboration program between the Faculty of Agriculture of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the industry (2005-2006). In addition, He developed a DNA based gender sorting method for poultry in collaboration with the Faculty of Agriculture of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a U.S. based private company (2006-2007).
Dr. Granevitze did his PhD on genetics of populations (2008), a M.Sc (2003) and a B.Sc (2000) from the Faculty of Agriculture of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and did his postdoc research in system biology at Bar-Illan University (2008).
Dr. Yoav Herschkovitz - IP Manager
Prior to joining Evogene, Dr. Herschkovitz trained as a patent attorney in the Jeruslaem branch of Luzzatto & Luzzatto patent attorney firm, and worked in the R&D and Engineering departments of a diagnostics based biotech company.
Dr. Herschkovitz did his post doctoral study in the field of biocontrol of weedy infestations in the Department of Plant Science of the Weizmann Institute. Dr. Herschkovitz holds a Ph.D. from Department of Plant pathology and Microbiology of the Faculty of Agriculture of the Hebrew University (2005) and a M.Sc. (1998) and a B.Sc. from the Department of Molecular microbiology and biotechnology of the Faculty for life Sciences of the Tel Aviv University.
Ms. Sarah Pollock - Senior Bioinformatician
Prior to joining Evogene, Ms. Pollock worked in Yadata (recently purchased by Microsoft) as a senior data analyst. Prior to that, Ms. Pollock worked at Compugen (1997-2000, 2001-2007), where her last position was Bioinformatics Director, R&D; and at Pfizer, France (2000) as Chief Bioinformatics researcher. Ms. Pollock had been leading research projects in Genetics, Genomics & Diagnostics and Drug Discovery.
Ms. Pollock holds a M.Sc. in Pharmacology and Physiology from Tel Aviv University (Suma Cum Laude – Interdisciplinary Program for Outstanding Students - Direct Masters program).
Mr. Ialon Irijimovich - Head of Model Plant Growth Unit
Prior to joining Evogene, Mr. Irijimovich worked as an agronomist in nurseries specializing in producing vegetables, herbs and flower seedlings (2006-2008, 1993-2003). During the years 2003-2006, Mr. Irijimovich worked at Boyce Thompson Institute, Cornell, NY as a plant grower at the greenhouse facilities aside researchers growing different varieties of plants, such as Arabidopsis, Tobacco, Corn, Rice, Tomatoes and others.
Mr. Irijimovich holds a B.Sc. (1987-1990) from the Faculty of Agriculture of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot.
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