Michal Shapira received the Ph.D. degree in life sciences in 1984 from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovoth, Israel. Between 1984 and 1986 she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, working on regulation of herpes virus genes. From 1986 to 1995 she worked at the Weizmann Institute of Science as an Assistant Professor, on molecular genetics of the protozoan parasite Leishmania, with a special focus on mechanisms of developmental gene regulation in this organism. During 1995 she was a Visiting Professor at Duke University, Durham, NC, and since 1995 she is at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel, currently an Associate Professor, working on regulatory mechanisms of stress- induced gene expression in microorganisms.