Yardena Samuels

Yardena Samuels or Samuels-Lev is an Israeli molecular biologist who is the Director of the Ekard Institute for Cancer Diagnosis Research at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Her research considers the genetic mutations of melanoma.

Early life and education Samuels was born in Tel HaShomer, Israel. She first visited the Weizmann Institute of Science at the age of seventeen, when she attended a summer school at the international summer science institute. Her mother is a diplomat and her father is a Director for International Relations. She identified that the gene encoding PI3-Kalpha is mutated in one third of colorectal cancer patients. During this position, she became interested in personalised medicine for cancer treatment. She established a tumour bank of almost 120 normal and tumour tissue samples. She identified a mutation that is present in one in five of melanoma cases.

Awards and honours Elected to the Council of the European Molecular Biology Organization European Research Council award Alfred Blalock, Young Investigators' Day Award Genome Technology’s Top 25 Young Investigators Elected Fellow of the European Academy of Cancer Sciences

Selected publications

Personal life Samuels is married to Ori Lev and has two sons.