Rona completed her BSc in Marine Biology at Ruppin Academic Center. From there, she moved inland to the Weizmann Institute of Science, and joined Gad Asher’s lab in the Biomolecular Sciences Department for her MSc and PhD. Rona was awarded the Azrieli Fellowship for Excellence and Leadership as well as awards from EMBO, Keystone and others.

 

In her research, Rona worked on elucidating a biological function we all share: timekeeping. Mammals have elaborate clock mechanisms that generate daily rhythms in behavior and physiology. A recurrent theme in Rona’s work was exploring non-canonical rhythms, such as those that occur in intracellular organelles, and finding novel alternative oscillators.

 

More recently, Rona’s desire to expand the conceptual borders of biological rhythms has led her to study menstrual cycles and reproductive biology more generally. Rona intends to start her postdoctoral research in the lab of Dr. Nizan Gonen at Bar-Ilan University, researching embryonic stages of mammalian sex determination. Using genetic mouse models, she will work to decipher gene regulatory networks governing male/female development.

 

Rona grew up in Tel Aviv and dedicated most of her early life to studying and creating art and film. Equipped with this creative mindset, her academic life also included fostering ties between different disciplines and paradigms. For example, in independent, published research projects, she studied the dynamics between science and the internet, as well as the role of metaphors in scientific practice.