Dr. Yotam Cohen was awarded a Fulbright postdoctoral fellowship to pursue his research project titled “Modeling the Molecular Pathways Linking Diet, Microbiome, and Cancer Metabolism through Computational and Experimental Flux Analysis.” In his research, Yotam will develop a predictive model of dietary metabolite flux that connects food composition, microbial metabolism, host biochemistry, and tumor physiology. By combining computational modeling, isotope tracing, and experimental cancer models, he aims to build a mechanistic map linking the chemistry of diet to the biology of disease, laying the foundation for predictive, personalized nutrition strategies in oncology. 

During his PhD at the Weizmann Institute of Science, under the supervision of Professor Eran Elinav, Yotam studied how diet and the gut microbiome jointly shape human metabolism and health, combining computational modeling with human clinical research. In 2023 he was awarded the Clore scholarship for Outstanding Doctoral Students for his achievements. His doctoral work spanned metabolic modeling of dietary-molecule breakdown by the microbiome, personalized nutrition, and microbiome-based therapeutics, bridging computational and experimental biology. He co-authored studies on the person-specific metabolic effects of non-caloric sweeteners and on vaginal microbiome transplantation for recurrent bacterial vaginosis.

Lev-Sagie A*, Goldman-Wohl D*, Cohen Y*, …, Elinav E: Vaginal microbiome transplantation in women with intractable bacterial vaginosis. Nat Med 2019

Suez J*, Cohen Y*, …, Segal E, Elinav E: Personalized microbiome-driven effects of non-nutritive sweeteners on human glucose tolerance. Cell 2022

Cohen Y. & Borenstein E. “The microbiome’s fiber degradation profile and its relationship with the host diet.” BMC Biology, 2022.