Roten Sorek’s team has managed to decode molecular mechanisms of the bacterial “immune system”. They have examined how bacteria defend against what are known as phages – viruses that can attack and destroy bacteria. This research led to the realisation that bacteria encode a complex network of over 100 anti-phage immune systems. One of the central insights of Sorek’s research is the discovery that key components of humans’ innate immune system have developed in an evolutionary process arising from archaic bacterial systems that protect against phages. In recent years, Rotem Sorek’s working group has focused on the question of how phages evade the bacterial defence mechanisms. The group’s current research activities focus on whether the resistance mechanisms identified also exist in viruses that affect humans.
Rotem Sorek studied life sciences and genetics in Tel Aviv/Israel, and obtained his doctorate in 2007 in human genetics at the University of Tel Aviv. After a two year stay as a postdoctoral fellow at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in Berkeley/USA, he moved to the Weizmann Institute of Science, where he worked as an Associate Professor from 2014, before being promoted to Full Professor at the Department of Molecular Genetics in 2018. Sorek is currently director of the Knell Family Center for Microbiology at the Weizmann Institute and a visiting professor at the Gene Centre and Department of Biochemistry at LMU Munich. He has already received numerous awards for his research activities. Among the most important of these are the Anniversary Prize of the Federation of the European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) in 2014, the Beutler Research Program Award (2019), the Andre Deloro Prize (2021), and the Max Planck-Humboldt Research Award (2023). This year, Sorek has also received the Gruber Prize in Genetics. In addition to membership of the Leopoldina since 2022, Sorek is also a member of various other science academies and organisations, including the Young Israel Academy of Sciences (since 2012), the European Academy of Microbiology (since 2015), the European Molecular Biology Organization (since 2018), and the US National Academy of Sciences (since 2025).
The Robert Koch Award, presented by the Robert Koch Foundation under the patronage of the German Federal Ministry of Health, honours scientific breakthroughs that help lead to a better understanding of illnesses and to the development of new therapies. It is considered one of the most renowned scientific distinctions in Germany and is endowed with 120,000 euros. The prize has already been awarded to Leopoldina members in the past, including Andreas Bäumler (2021), Ralf Bartenschlager (2015), and Tasuko Honjo (2012), who went on to win the Nobel Prize.
Roten Sorek’s team has managed to decode molecular mechanisms of the bacterial “immune system”. They have examined how bacteria defend against what are known as phages – viruses that can attack and destroy bacteria. This research led to the realisation that bacteria encode a complex network of over 100 anti-phage immune systems. One of the central insights of Sorek’s research is the discovery that key components of humans’ innate immune system have developed in an evolutionary process arising from archaic bacterial systems that protect against phages. In recent years, Rotem Sorek’s working group has focused on the question of how phages evade the bacterial defence mechanisms. The group’s current research activities focus on whether the resistance mechanisms identified also exist in viruses that affect humans.
Rotem Sorek studied life sciences and genetics in Tel Aviv/Israel, and obtained his doctorate in 2007 in human genetics at the University of Tel Aviv. After a two year stay as a postdoctoral fellow at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in Berkeley/USA, he moved to the Weizmann Institute of Science, where he worked as an Associate Professor from 2014, before being promoted to Full Professor at the Department of Molecular Genetics in 2018. Sorek is currently director of the Knell Family Center for Microbiology at the Weizmann Institute and a visiting professor at the Gene Centre and Department of Biochemistry at LMU Munich. He has already received numerous awards for his research activities. Among the most important of these are the Anniversary Prize of the Federation of the European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) in 2014, the Beutler Research Program Award (2019), the Andre Deloro Prize (2021), and the Max Planck-Humboldt Research Award (2023). This year, Sorek has also received the Gruber Prize in Genetics. In addition to membership of the Leopoldina since 2022, Sorek is also a member of various other science academies and organisations, including the Young Israel Academy of Sciences (since 2012), the European Academy of Microbiology (since 2015), the European Molecular Biology Organization (since 2018), and the US National Academy of Sciences (since 2025).
The Robert Koch Award, presented by the Robert Koch Foundation under the patronage of the German Federal Ministry of Health, honours scientific breakthroughs that help lead to a better understanding of illnesses and to the development of new therapies. It is considered one of the most renowned scientific distinctions in Germany and is endowed with 120,000 euros. The prize has already been awarded to Leopoldina members in the past, including Andreas Bäumler (2021), Ralf Bartenschlager (2015), and Tasuko Honjo (2012), who went on to win the Nobel Prize.