Prof. Karen Avraham

Karen Avraham heads the Laboratory for Neural and Sensory Genomics with a group of nine graduate and two undergraduate students, four research associates, and an administrator. Her team's research focuses on the discovery and characterization of genes responsible for hereditary hearing loss and neurodevelopmental diseases. They study the genetic basis of disease in families from the Middle East, including deafness , Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome (CCHS), and severe developmental epilepsy (DEE). The work covers the transcriptome and epigenome of the auditory and vestibular systems, in order to dissect the regulatory pathways of these systems, including microRNAs, long non-coding RNAs, whole genome methylation and enhancers.

The research facilitates the understanding of mechanisms of pathogenesis leading to human disease and the biological pathways required for development and maintenance of the inner ear and the brain.

Prof. Avraham also is Dean of the Faculty of Medicine.