Amir Sagi (; born May 22, 1956) is a professor of

life sciences This list of life sciences comprises the branches of science that involve the scientific study of life – such as microorganisms, plants, and animals including human beings. This science is one of the two major branches of natural science, ...

at Ben Gurion University of the

Negev The Negev ( ; ) or Naqab (), is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. ), in the north. At its southern end is the Gulf of Aqaba and the resort town, resort city ...

, whose field of expertise is

crustacean Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthrop ...

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

physiology Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...

endocrinology Endocrinology (from ''endocrine system, endocrine'' + ''wikt:-logy#Suffix, -ology'') is a branch of biology and medicine dealing with the endocrine system, its diseases, and its specific secretions known as hormones. It is also concerned with the ...

, and

functional genomics Functional genomics is a field of molecular biology that attempts to describe gene (and protein) functions and interactions. Functional genomics make use of the vast data generated by genomic and transcriptomic projects (such as genome sequen ...

. He contributed to the study of

sexual differentiation Sexual differentiation is the process of development of the sex differences between males and females from an undifferentiated zygote. Sex differentiation is usually distinct from sex determination; sex determination is the designation of the de ...

cell growth Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life * Cellphone, a phone connected to a cellular network * Clandestine cell, a penetration-resistant form of a secret or outlawed organization * Electrochemical cell, a de ...

and

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. Nelu ...

Early life and education

Sagi completed his MSc, in

oceanography Oceanography (), also known as oceanology, sea science, ocean science, and marine science, is the scientific study of the ocean, including its physics, chemistry, biology, and geology. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of to ...

and

marine biology Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms that inhabit the sea. Given that in biology many scientific classification, phyla, family (biology), families and genera have some species that live in the sea and ...

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. It is the second-ol ...

which marked the start of his interest in crustacean reproduction strategies. and during his PhD he addressed

anatomical Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

and

physiological Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...

aspects of differentiation in prawns, with special attention to the

androgen An androgen (from Greek ''andr-'', the stem of the word meaning ) is any natural or synthetic steroid hormone that regulates the development and maintenance of male characteristics in vertebrates by binding to androgen receptors. This includes ...

gland A gland is a Cell (biology), cell or an Organ (biology), organ in an animal's body that produces and secretes different substances that the organism needs, either into the bloodstream or into a body cavity or outer surface. A gland may also funct ...

Research and career

His postdoctoral training in

comparative endocrinology Comparative endocrinology focuses on the complexities of vertebrate and invertebrate endocrine systems across sub-molecular, molecular, cellular, and organismal levels of analysis. It is an interdisciplinary field that bridges biology and medicine, ...

was at the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

and the

Marine Biological Laboratory The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is an international center for research and education in biological and environmental science. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution that was independent ...

Woods Hole Woods Hole is a census-designated place in the town of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. It lies at the extreme southwestern corner of Cape Cod, near Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands. The population was 78 ...

, Massachusetts. under Prof Hans Laufer. Sagi than moved to Ben Gurion University of the Negev (1992) in which he was promoted to the degree of full professor of life sciences (2005), and distinguished professor (since 2018). He was also president of the International Society for Invertebrate Reproduction and Development (ISIRD) between 2011 and 2013, and held various roles within academic and professional

committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

s such as Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Ben Gurion University of the Negev (2008–2011) and as a board member of the National Institute for Biotechnology in the

. Sagi's group has discovered the IAG

sexual switch,Kenji Toyota, 2024
Crustacean endocrinology: Sexual differentiation and potential application for aquaculture
General and Comparative Endocrinology, Vol. 356, September 15, 2024, 114578. and its associated

gene expression Gene expression is the process (including its Regulation of gene expression, regulation) by which information from a gene is used in the synthesis of a functional gene product that enables it to produce end products, proteins or non-coding RNA, ...

Miao M.''
CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated Gene Mutation of ''EcIAG'' Leads to Sex Reversal in the Male Ridgetail White Prawn ''Exopalaemon Carinicauda''
'.'' Front Endocrinol (Lousanne), November 21, 2023 (references: 1, 17, 20, 22, 24 & 52). in

decapods The Decapoda or decapods, from Ancient Greek δεκάς (''dekás''), meaning "ten", and πούς (''poús''), meaning "foot", is a large order (biology), order of crustaceans within the class Malacostraca, and includes crabs, lobsters, crayfis ...

investigating multigenic functions in crustacean

reproduction Reproduction (or procreation or breeding) is the biological process by which new individual organisms – "offspring" – are produced from their "parent" or parents. There are two forms of reproduction: Asexual reproduction, asexual and Sexual ...

and growth and the establishment of

genome A genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding genes, other functional regions of the genome such as ...

editing in

prawn Prawn is a common name for small aquatic crustaceans with an exoskeleton An exoskeleton () . is a skeleton that is on the exterior of an animal in the form of hardened integument, which both supports the body's shape and protects the intern ...

s using application of CRISPR. His group established monosex biotechnologies in crustacean culture including the application of temporal

RNA Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule that is essential for most biological functions, either by performing the function itself (non-coding RNA) or by forming a template for the production of proteins (messenger RNA). RNA and deoxyrib ...

interference (

RNAi RNA interference (RNAi) is a biological process in which RNA molecules are involved in sequence-specific suppression of gene expression by double-stranded RNA, through translational or transcriptional repression. Historically, RNAi was known b ...

) in the field of aquaculture for all-male culture. Crustacean monosex technologies are applied in Vietnam, Thailand, China, Malaysia, Israel. He is a co-founder of the all-female culture biotech company Enzootic Ltd. Prawns are efficient predators thus might serve as sustainable and responsible biocontrol agents over various invasive and pest

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

. The Sagi lab development of monosex prawn biotechnologies enables the application of responsible, efficient, and non- invasive

biocontrol Biological control or biocontrol is a method of pest control, controlling pests, whether pest animals such as insects and mites, weeds, or pathogens affecting animals or phytopathology, plants by bioeffector, using other organisms. It relies o ...

agents in various parts of the world. Prof. Amir Sagi has received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the ACEEU Asia-Pacific Triple E Awards in Malaysia 2024, recognizing his contributions to aquaculture biotechnology over the past two decades.

Awards and honors

* Vice President and Dean of R&D Award for Breakthrough Research (2022) * ICA award for leading entrepreneurship in agriculture and biotechnology (2018) * The Crustacean Society Excellence in Research Award (2015 -16) * The Landau Prize for Sciences and Arts (2014) * The

Global Aquaculture Alliance Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) is an international non-profit trade association dedicated to advancing responsible aquaculture. Established in 1997, GAA works with industry, the NGO community, governments, academia and the investment community. ...

's inaugural Novus Global Aquaculture Innovation Award (2013) * Lily and Sidney Oelbaum Chair in Applied Biochemistry * Lifetime Achievement Award at the ACEEU Asia-Pacific Triple E Awards, 2024. * Recognition from the Bard Foundation for his contribution to aquaculture and global food security, 2024

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sagi, Amir Living people 1956 births Israeli biologists Carcinologists Biotechnologists