​The PPARCA Student Scholarship for 2024 has been awarded to Ms. Tehila Atlan, a Ph.D. student working under the guidance of Dr. Itamar Harel in the Department of Genetics at the Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, HUJI.

She earned her B.Sc. in Bioinformatics in 2019 from the Jerusalem College of Technology (JCT) and joined Dr. Harel's team in 2020 through the direct-Ph.D. program. Ms. Atlan's groundbreaking research aims to decipher the genetic foundations of aging using a comprehensive two-fold approach. Initially, she examines intra-species aging mechanisms, with a focus on sex-dimorphic lifespan regulation, using the short-lived turquoise killifish as a model system. Her investigation encompasses the study of specific genes and gonadal signals affecting metabolic health and longevity. Additionally, her research extends to inter-species aging comparisons, analyzing genetic and regulatory elements across various vertebrates to identify both shared and distinct mechanisms of aging. By integrating genomic technologies, CRISPR editing, and advanced computational methods, Ms. Atlan's work is poised to illuminate the intricate mechanisms that control aging and lifespan variations among species. She has co-authored two papers as an equal-first author in prestigious journals, Developmental Cell and Nature Aging, signalling more significant contributions to come in the field of aging research. In addition to her research, Ms. Atlan excels as a teaching assistant in Introduction to Probability and Statistics course and as a supervisor of high-school students in the Alpha program.