The winner of Paper of the Month for December 2025 is Dr. Nir Strugo from Prof. Ariel Kaplan’s lab, whose article was published in Nature Communications.
This is an impressive achievement that marks the culmination of a long period of in-depth research. To celebrate the occasion, we asked him to share a few insights about the scientific work in the lab, the discoveries presented in the article, and a bit about himself.
- Nir – tell us briefly about yourself. What did you study, what led you to this field, and what is your current role and workplace?
I began my academic path at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, where I earned a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, specializing in electro-optics and communication. After graduating, I spent nearly a decade in industry at Mellanox Technologies (now part of NVIDIA), where I worked in a range of technological and managerial roles, developing high-speed communication technologies for advanced computing infrastructures.
Driven by a desire to deepen my scientific understanding, I later returned to the Technion for an M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering. My research focused on novel superconductor-semiconductor hybrid devices and was carried out in the Quantum and Ultrafast Advanced Devices Lab, led by Prof. Alex Hayat.
During this time, I became increasingly interested in applying engineering and physics tools to questions related to biology and human health. This motivation led me to pursue a Ph.D. in biophysics, where I joined the single-molecule biophysics lab of Prof. Ariel Kaplan at the Technion’s Faculty of Biology. My doctoral research explored, at the level of individual molecules, how proteins search for and interact with DNA – a fundamental process underlying gene regulation.
Today, I work at Johnson & Johnson MedTech (Biosense-Webster), as a Principal Physicist within the CTO organization. My role involves developing physics-based algorithms for next-generation catheter-based technologies aimed at improving the treatment of cardiac rhythm disorders.
- What is the general focus of the Kaplan Lab?
The Kaplan Lab focuses on understanding how gene expression is controlled. Genes are not simply switched on or off, their activity depends on dynamic interactions between DNA and many different proteins. The lab studies these interactions one molecule at a time, by developing and using sensitive physical tools that make it possible to watch how DNA and proteins move, bind, and respond to forces. By zooming in on these dynamic interactions, the group aims to reveal the basic rules that govern gene regulation and to show how physical principles shape the behavior of living cells.
- Tell us about the winning article: what was the central research question, what did you discover, and what was exciting or surprising during the process?
The central question of the study was how intrinsically disordered regions of transcription factors support an efficient search for target genes while achieving high promoter specificity.
We found that rather than binding directly from solution to a target site, these regions provide an additional search pathway. They allow the protein to first attach loosely to DNA far from the target and then slide along it, scanning until it reaches the correct gene site.
What was especially exciting was that this search mechanism turned out to be sensitive to DNA sequence, which helped explain how protein disorder support high selectivity in gene regulation.
- What is the significance of your discovery? What future directions or applications could mean?
This work provides the first direct evidence of how protein disorder can enhance both efficiency and specificity in gene regulation – two properties that are often thought to be in tension.
More broadly, the findings suggest that DNA recognition extends beyond direct binding to short target motifs, and instead involves dynamic interactions along longer DNA regions. This insight may help explain how changes in transcription factor sequences, especially in their disordered regions, affect gene regulation and lead to different cellular behaviors or disease-related phenotypes.
- What are your aspirations going forward in your career?
My aspiration is to continue developing at the boundary between fundamental science and applied innovation. I’m particularly motivated by multidisciplinary areas where deep physical understanding can be translated into meaningful improvements in human health.
⬅ Link to the article: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-67217-2
⬅ Link to Prof. Ariel Kaplan page: https://biology.technion.ac.il/en/member/kaplan/
⬅ Link to the Kaplan Lab website: https://kaplan.net.technion.ac.il/
