Maya Schuldiner

Maya Schuldiner (Hebrew: מאיה שולדינר; born March 15, 1975) is an Israeli molecular geneticist, a full professor at the Faculty of Biochemistry in the Weizmann Institute of Science, who serves as the chair of its scientific council. Her research aims to achieve a mechanistic understanding of the basic functions underlying intracellular organization.

Maya Schuldiner
מאיה שולדינר
Born	March 15, 1975 Jerusalem, Israel
Alma mater	Hebrew University of Jerusalem (B.Sc., 1998) Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Ph.D., 2003)
Occupation	Molecular geneticist
Employer	Weizmann Institute of Science
Notable work	Mechanistic understanding of the basic functions underlying intracellular organization
Title	Dr. Gilbert Omenn and Martha Darling Professorial Chair in Molecular Genetics

Biography

Maya Schuldiner was born in Jerusalem, the daughter of Eli and Atara Rozik-Rosen. Her father was the Dean of Faculty of Arts in Tel Aviv University and her mother was a historian in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Maya was raised in Jerusalem and spent several years in the United States, United Kingdom and France, due to her parents career.

She graduated magna cum laude with a B.Sc. in Biology from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1998. She went on to complete both her M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in genetics, also at the Hebrew University, in 1999 and 2003, under the supervision of Prof. Nissim Benvenisti.

She then conducted postdoctoral research in the Laboratory of Jonathan Weissman at the University of California in San Francisco from 2003 until 2008, when she joined the faculty of the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. She has been a tenured associate professor since 2015 at the department of Molecular Genetics at the Weizmann Institute of Science and a Full Professor since 2020.

As of 2024, Schuldiner is a member of Molecular Systems Biology Editorial Board and of Life Science Alliance Advisory Editorial Boards. She received three consecutive European Research Council grants (StG in 2010, CoG in 2015 and in 2020). Schuldiner currently holds the Dr. Omenn and Martha Darling Professorial Chair in Molecular Genetics and currently (as of 2024), she serves as the Chair of the Weizmann Institute of Science “Scientific Council”. Throughout the years, she has been taking several other offices of academic administration at Weizmann Institute.

Schuldiner is married to Oren, a professor of molecular biology at the Weizmann Institute. They have three sons and reside at the institute. Her father-in-law, Shimon Schuldiner, is a professor emeritus of Biology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Research

Schuldiner’s research focuses on uncovering functions for uncharacterized proteins using the bakers yeast as a central eukaryotic model. She does this by using high content screening approaches coupled with dedicated follow-ups and with an interest on processes that occur inside organelles.

Targeting proteins to organelles

50% of eukaryotic proteins are synthesized on cytosolic ribosomes and are then targeted to their respective organelles to properly function. Hence a complete understanding of how proteins get to their functional localization is an important aspect of Cell Biology. In the past years her group has made several paradigmatic discoveries in this field: While carrying out her postdoctoral studies in the lab of Prof. Jonathan Weissman and in collaboration with Prof. Blanche Schwappach, she discovered the GET (Guided Entry of Tail Anchor proteins) pathway, which targets Tail Anchor proteins and GPI anchor proteins to the Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER); they discovered the EMC complex (ER Membrane complex); defined a role for the protease Ste24 in clearing blocked translocation pores into the ER; identified a new targeting pathway to the ER, the SND (Srp iNDependent) pathway which they and others have then shown is also conserved in humans; discovered a new targeting receptor to peroxisomes, Pex9 and a new mechanism for proteins to co-translationally target to peroxisomal membranes. Together with the lab of Johannes Hermann, Schuldiner's group uncovered a new strategy for mitochondria membrane protein targeting by which such proteins use the ER membranes to “surf” until reaching their mitochondrial destination. They name this mode of targeting ER-SURF. In addition, her lab has demonstrated a plethora of unconventional targeting signals and targeting methods, and also mapped the substrate range for various translocation machineries.

Formation and function of contact sites

Organelle communication is instrumental in coordinating cellular function and maintaining homeostasis. One way by which organelles communicate is by forming contact sites of close apposition between their respective membranes. In the last years, Schuldiner's group has expanded the understanding in this field: discovering new contact sites and their tethers and functions such as the Vacuole-Mitochondria contact; the Mitochondria-Peroxisome contact, the Inclusion body-Lipid droplet contact & the Nucleus-Mitochondria contact. They characterized the first contact site regulator; uncovered new functions for the ER-Mitochondria contact site; identified a new lipid droplet subpopulation sitting at defined cellular contact sites; recognized a new tether for the contact site between ER and Golgi membranes; and created a new tool to visualize contact sites and used it to systematically screen all contact sites for their resident proteins. Schuldiner's studies have dramatically increased the number of known contact sites, the tethers that form them, and their regulators as well as the molecules that transfer through these specialized domains.

Tool creation

To systematically explore Cell Biology in increasing resolution and throughput, her group also constantly create new tools and approaches as well as optimize existing ones. In the last years they have made major technological breakthroughs in the field of yeast systematic screening: In collaboration with the lab of Michael Knop, they created a powerful new collection of yeast strains that enables anyone to introduce any genetic modification of choice into the entire proteome in under a month. This tool, termed SWAp Tag (SWAT), is already changing the way that yeast biology is performed; utilizing the SWAT technology they, and others, have already been making numerous new yeast libraries for various applications.

Together with the lab of John Briggs, her group invented an approach to screen for phenotypes with electron microscopy resolution that they call MultiCLEM now being developed in her lab also for use in mammalian cells.

Awards

• 2011: EMBO Young Investigator award
• 2014: Selected as one of the most prominent “40 under 40” young scientists by “Cell” press
• 2014: Weizmann Institute of Science Scientific Council Prize
• 2015: FEBS Anniversary Prize
• 2017: FEBS National Prize
• 2017: EMBO Gold Medal
• 2017: Elected member of EMBO
• 2017-2018: Appointed as a TUM-IAS Hans Fischer Senior Fellow
• 2020: Elected member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
• 2020: Elected TUM Ambassador
• 2022: Ira Herskowitz Award for leading yeast geneticist
• 2023: FEBS Bucher medal
• 2023: Jean Vance prize for breakthroughs in Contact Site research

Selected publications

• Schuldiner M, Collins SR, Thompson NJ, Denic V, Bhamidipati A, Punna T, Ihmels J, Andrews B, Boone C, Greenblatt JF, Weissman JS & Krogan NJ (2005). Exploration of the function and organization of the yeast early secretory pathway through an epistatic miniarray profile. Cell. 123, 507-519.
• Schuldiner M, Metz J, Schmid V, Denic V, Rakwalska M, Schmitt HD, Schwappach B & Weissman JS (2008). The GET complex mediates insertion of tail-anchored proteins into the ER membrane. Cell. 134, 634-645.
• Jonikas MC, Collins SR, Denic V, Oh E, Quan EM, Schmid V, Weibezahn J, Schwappach B, Walter P, Weissman JS & Schuldiner M (2009). Comprehensive characterization of genes required for protein folding in the endoplasmic reticulum. Science. 27, 1693-1697.
• Ast T, Cohen G & Schuldiner M (2013). A Network of Cytosolic Factors Targets SRP-Independent Proteins to the Endoplasmic Reticulum. Cell. 152, 1134-1145.
• Breker M, Gymrek M & Schuldiner M (2013). A novel single-cell screening platform reveals proteome plasticity during yeast stress responses. J Cell Biol. 200, 839-850.
• Cohen Y, Klug YA, Dimitrov L, Erez Z, Chuarzman SG, Elinger D, Yofe I, Soliman K, Gärtner J, Thoms S, Schekman R, Elbaz-Alon Y, Zalckvar E & Schuldiner M (2014). Peroxisomes are juxtaposed to strategic sites on mitochondria. Mol Biosyst. 10, 1742-1748.
• Elbaz-Alon Y, Rosenfeld-Gur E, Shinder V, Futerman AH, Geiger T & Schuldiner M (2014). A dynamic interface between vacuoles and mitochondria in yeast. Dev Cell. 30, 95-102.
• Elbaz-Alon Y, Eisenberg-Bord M, Shinder V, Stiller SB, Shimoni E, Wiedemann N, Geiger T & Schuldiner M (2015). Lam6 regulates the extent of contacts between organelles. Cell Rep. 12, 7-14.
• Ast T, Michaelis S & Schuldiner M (2016). The Protease Ste24 Clears Clogged Translocons. Cell. 164, 103-114.
• Yofe I, Weill U, Meurer M, Chuartzman S, Zalckvar E, Goldman O, Ben-Dor S, Schütze C, Wiedemann N, Knop M, Khmelinskii A & Schuldiner M (2016). One library to make them all: streamlining the creation of yeast libraries via a SWAp-Tag strategy. Nat Methods. 3, 371-378.
• Yifrach E, Chuartzman SG, Dahan N, Maskit S, Zada L, Weill U, Yofe I, Olender T, Schuldiner M & Zalckvar E (2016). Characterization of proteome dynamics during growth in oleate reveals a new peroxisome-targeting receptor. J Cell Sci. 129, 4067-4075.
• Aviram N, Ast T, Costa EA, Arakel EC, Chuartzman SG, Jan CH, Haßdenteufel S, Dudek J, Jung M, Schorr S, Zimmermann R, Schwappach B, Weissman JS & Schuldiner M (2016). The SND proteins constitute an alternative targeting route to the endoplasmic reticulum. Nature. 540, 134–138.
• Eisenberg-Bord M, Mari M, Weill U, Rosenfeld-Gur E, Moldavski O, Castro IG, Soni KG, Harpaz N, Levine TP, Futerman AH, Reggiori F, Bankaitis VA, Schuldiner M & Bohnert M (2018). Identification of seipin-linked factors that act as determinants of a lipid droplet subpopulation. J Cell Biol. 217. 269-282.
• Shai N, Yifrach E, van Roermund CWT, Cohen N, Bibi C, IJlst L, Cavellini L, Meurisse J, Schuster R, Zada L, Mari MC, Reggiori FM, Hughes AL, Escobar-Henriques M, Cohen MM, Waterham HR, Wanders RJA, Schuldiner M & Zalckvar E. (2018) Systematic mapping of contact sites reveals tethers and a function for the peroxisome-mitochondria contact. Nature Comm. 9. E1761.
• Weill U, Yofe I, Sass E, Stynen B, Davidi D, Natarajan J, Ben-Menachem R, Avihou Z, Goldman O, Harpaz N, Chuartzman S, Kniazev K, Knoblach B, Laborenz J, Boos F, Kowarzyk J, Ben-Dor S, Zalckvar E, Herrmann JM, Rachubinski RA, Pines O, Rapaport D, Michnick SW, Levy ED & Schuldiner M (2018). Exploring the yeast proteome using a whole genome SWAp-Tag (SWAT) library. Nature Methods 15. 617-622.
• Hansen KG, Aviram N, Laborenz J, Bibi C, Meyer M, Spang A, Schuldiner M & Herrmann JM (2018). An ER surface retrieval pathway safe-guards the import of mitochondrial membrane proteins. Science 361, 1118-1122
• Bykov YS, Cohen N, Gabrielli N, Manenschijn H, Welsch S, Chlanda P, Kukulski W, Patil KR, Schuldiner M & Briggs JAG (2019). High-throughput ultrastructure screening using electron microscopy and fluorescent barcoding. J Cell Biol. 218, 2797-2811.
• Eisenberg-Bord M, Zung N, Collado J, Drwesh L, Fenech E, Fadel A, Dezorella N, Bykov Y, Rapaport D, Fernandez Busnadiego R & Schuldiner M (2021). Cnm1 mediates nucleus-mitochondria contact site formation in response to phospholipid levels. J Cell Biol. 220, e202104100.
• Yifrach E, Holbrook-Smith D, Bürgi J, Othman A, Eisenstein M, van Roermund CW, Visser W, Tirosh A, Rudowitz M, Bibi C, Galor S, Weill U, Fadel A, Peleg Y, Erdmann R, Waterham HR, Wanders RJA, Wilmanns M, Zamboni N, Schuldiner M & Zalckvar E (2022). Systematic multi-level analysis of an organelle proteome reveals new peroxisomal functions. Mol Syst Biol. 18, e11186.
• Gomes Castro I, Shortill S, Katarzyna Dziurdzik S, Cadou A, Ganesan S, Valenti R, David Y, Davey M, Mattes C, Thomas F.B., Ester Avraham R, Meyer H, Fadel A, Fenech E J, Ernst R, Zaremberg V, Tim P Levine T.P, Stefan C, Conibear E & Schuldiner M (2022). Systematic analysis of membrane contact sites in Saccharomyces cerevisiae uncovers modulators of cellular lipid distribution. Elife. 11, e74602.