The Edmond J. Safra Center for Bioinformatics at Tel Aviv University (TAU) was inaugurated in June 2012. It replaced the Edmond J. Safra Bioinformatics Program, which operated from 2005 through 2012.

The Center has been supported by multiple grants from the Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation since its inception. In 2014 Yad Hanadiv Foundation graciously pledged to provide additional support for the Center for the next five years.

We are deeply indebted to the Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic foundation and to Yad Hanadiv Foundation for their generous donations for the Center.

The vision of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Bioinformatics is to preserve and enhance the role of Tel Aviv University as an international leader in research and education in bioinformatics. To achieve this, the Center strives to bring together all bioinformatics-related research and teaching activities across campus into one multidisciplinary hub of excellence. It aims to secure Tel Aviv University's future as a leading force in the development of novel drugs and biomedical technologies that will improve human health worldwide. To do so, the Center undertakes the following activities:

• Recruiting outstanding young faculty members
• Preserving and enhancing the quality of the TAU interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate programs
• Establishing a fellowship program to support graduate and post-graduate candidates
• Enhancing the computational infrastructure available to bioinformatics at TAU in terms of hardware as well as software engineers
• Encouraging and supporting state-of-the-art collaborative research-enhancing activities (conferences, workshops, distinguished speaker series, informal meetings, and more)
• Maintaining a program for distinguished visiting scholars
• Developing outreach activities to strengthen public awareness of the contributions of bioinformatics
• Developing tools and software for broad use by the biomedical community
• Researchers and students from Life Sciences, Exact Sciences, Medicine and Engineering collaborate and interact in the program's activities. The backing for joint research and cross-discipline interaction brings coherence and synergy to this important field.

Our Mission

The Koret - UC Berkeley - Tel Aviv University (KBT)  initiative is aimed to advance breakthroughs in biomedical and information technologies by fostering and leveraging academic ties between experts from the most innovative technology-driven ecosystems in the world. UCB and TAU scientists will jointly develop computational tools that integrate patient genetic, genomic and other data for advancing basic biology as well as precision medicine.

The KBT initiative will be run jointly by the Edmond J. Safra Center for Bioinformatics at TAU and the Center of Computational Biology at UC Berkeley, and is made possible by a generous gift from the Koret Foundation.

The five-year partnership will enable a variety of collaboration activities for the TAU and UC Berkeley bioinformatics communities, among them are:

• Award joint research grants to UCB and TAU research groups
• Enable research visits of trainees (graduate students and post-docs) from one university to spend a meaningful period of time at the other university.
• Hold an annual joint workshop for the TAU and UCB communities, rotating annually between the two universities. Workshops will bring together researchers from both institutions for lectures and scientific interaction.
• Hold an seminar series for the TAU and UCB communities. Seminars will be held throughout the academic year in both universities, bringing researchers together for short-term visits.
• Operate a visiting scientists program that will enable long-term collaborative research visits by senior researchers from each of the two institutions.
• Organize a joint summer research program at the Simons Institute for the Theory and Computing at UCB on the third year. This unique program, featuring the participation of prominent TAU and UCB researchers, will bring together senior researchers and post-docs from around the world for an intensive program of research, workshops and conferences on computational methods.
• Enhance long-term collaborations already in place between TAU and UCB bioinformatics researchers.