📢To all the sex determination lovers! 📢

Get ready for the 10th International Symposium on the Biology of Vertabrate Sex Determination (VSD).

We exchange the nostalgic Hawaii beaches with the gorgeous Crete beaches 🏖!
The meeting will take place on 23-27 March 2026.

biology-of-vsd.my.canva.site

Publishing an exciting paper and getting an ISF grant, both at the same week, is a good justification of Pizza and Prosecco in the middle of the day! 🍾🥂 Huge congrats to Isabelle, Meshi and Elisheva for this superb publication 💪

9/n Last but not least, we performed ATAC TFs footprinting to look for TF occupancy on the regulatory regions. While we found the usual suspects in Sertoli cells: SOX, DMRT, NR5A1, the top occupied motif in granulosa cells was that of Lhx9/Emx2!!

8/n In addition, we conducted computational linkage analysis linking genes to their regulatory elements in a positive (enhancer) or negative manner (silencer).

6/n We then focused on regulatory elements. We identified numerous regulatory elements that are specific to the sex (testis/ ovaries) or to the developmental time

5/n We employed ATAC-seq and RNA-seq on these cells to identify their gene expression and functional regulatory elements. We provide a cool tool that enables you to track the expression of your gene of interest. Check this out:
4ljrl2-roni-weiss.shinyapps.io/tpm_allgenes/

4/n To start looking at that we started a project 5 years ago that came into completion now. We used existing and new transgenic mouse lines that enable u to purify Sertoli and granulosa cells during 4 key time pints in which the sex is being determined (E11.5-15.5)

Had the best time in Geneva, visiting my friend and collaborator Serge Nef.
I saw the beautiful city of Geneva, gave a seminar at the Medicine Faculty of Geneva University and met many brilliant scientists!!
Heading next to Zurich for the #TT2025 meeting to hear about transgenic mice technologies!

Among the fun parts of being a scientist is going to conferences!!
A first time in Washington D.C where I will present our work at the #asa_ica25conf tomorrow. Come and hear me if you are here

Ready for it???
To all the **sex determination lovers**
📢 Save the date to the 10th International Symposium on the Biology of Vertebrate Sex Determination (VSD) held in the beautiful Hawaii!!
Great community, amazing science, excellent speakers and superb location 🏝
📢 March 23-26, 2026 📢

Me and all my XYs... Love them!

After many postpones due to war, military service and just general depression, we went out today for a super fun day in Tel Aviv.
I have such an AMAZING lab and I am so happy to be thier friend, mentor, and just doing science and fun togerher ❤️

The Gonen Lab lighting the fifth Chanukah candle together ❤️

Makhtesh Ramon in the Negev Desert.
Beautiful and peaceful place.
Apparently 80/96 of the chemical elements in the periodic table can be found here!!!

It was great to gather around today all the PIs at the Life Sciences Faculty @Bar_ilan, light the second Candle of Hanukkah, have our dean Cyrille Cohen playing, and giving a talk about my lab science in my home base. Superb Faculty and such a great feeling of home

Boyond excited to announce that @MeshiRidnik is the first PhD student to graduate from my lab. Meshi had a superb PhD that she presented amazingly well today in her PhD seminar. I could not be more proud of the first newborn PhD (XX) of the GONEN LAB 🥳🥳. Such an amotional moment!