---

---

Liron Bar-Peled

Biography

Dr. Bar-Peled received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Georgia and his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studied amino acid sensing in David Sabatini’s lab. He received the 2014 Weintraub Award for Graduate Research, the 2013 Gary Bokoch memorial award from the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and the 2012 Abraham J. Siegel Fellowship Award from the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. He is investigating how cells respond to oxidative stress in the laboratory of Benjamin Cravatt at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla. He is a Lallage Feazel Wall Fellow of the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.

Synopsis

Size does matter

From Nanoarchaeum equitans, a microbe barely measuring 400 nm across, to Balaenoptera musculus, the blue whale that often exceeds 30 m in length, one of the most distinguishing characteristics of an organism is its size. Animal size is determined by total cell number, which is achieved through cell proliferation. Proliferation in turn depends on cell growth, a process regulated by both genetic and environmental factors.