Prof. Malka Halpern

Associate Professor

Phone: 972-4-9838978

Email: mhalpern@research.haifa.ac.il

Lab website

Education

2003 - PhD (Microbiology), University of Haifa

1997 - M.Sc. (Zoology), Tel Aviv University

Research Interests

I am an Environmental Microbiologist. My main research interests are:

1. The ecology of waterborne pathogens and in particular: Vibrio cholerae, Aeromonas and Legionella pneumophila
2. Interactions between chironomids (Diptera; Chironomidae) and their endogenous bacterial communities (V. cholerae, Aeromonas and others)
   
3. Microorganisms in floral nectar and their role in mediating the interactions between plants and their pollinators
4. Bacterial systematics and industrial exploitation of novel bacterial species

Selected Publications

Senderovich, Y. and Halpern, M. (2013) The protective role of endogenous bacterial communities in chironomid egg masses and larvae. ISME Journal. doi:10.1038/ismej.2013.100.

Halpern, M., Fridman, S., Aizenberg-Gershtein Y. and Izhaki, I. (2012) Transfer of Pseudomonas flectens Johnson (1956) to Phaseolibacter gen. nov., in the family Enterobacteriaceae, as Phaseolibacter flectens comb. nov. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 63: 268-273.

Fridman S., Izhaki, I., Gerchman Y. and Halpern M. (2012) Bacterial communities in floral nectar. Environmental Microbiology Reports. 4: 97–104.

Halpern, M. (2010) Novel Insights into Hemagglutinin Protease (HAP) Gene Regulation in Vibrio cholerae. Molecular Ecology. 19: 4108-4112.

Senderovich, Y., Izhaki, I. and Halpern, M. (2010) Fish as reservoirs and vectors of Vibrio cholerae. PLoS ONE. 5: e8607. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008607.

Halpern, M., Senderovich, Y. and Izhaki I. (2008) Waterfowl — the missing link in epidemic and pandemic cholera dissemination? PLoS Pathogens. 4: e1000173. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1000173.

Senderovich, Y., Gershtein, Y. Halewa, E. and Halpern, M. (2008) Vibrio cholerae and Aeromonas; do they share a mutual host? ISME Journal. 2: 276-283.

Broza, M. and Halpern, M. (2001) Chironomid egg masses and Vibrio cholerae. Nature 412: 40.

Teaching

Introduction to Microbiology, Environmental Microbiology, Medical Microbiology, Molecular Microbiology workshop