Michal Linial

{{short description|Israeli computational biologist}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Michal Linial

| native_name = מיכל ליניאל

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| native_name_lang = he

| image = MichaI_Linial_ISMB12-Jul15-050_(7632225440).jpg

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| caption = Michal Linial speaking at the ISMB conference in Long Beach, California, in 2012

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| fields = {{ubl|Bioinformatics |Molecular biology | Computational Biology | Neuroscience}}

| workplaces = {{ubl|Hebrew University of Jerusalem | Israel Institute for Advanced Studies{{cite web|url=http://www.cfhu.org/news/prof-michal-linial-is-appointed-new-director-of-the-israel-institute-for-advanced-studies|title=Prof. Michal Linial Is Appointed New Director Of The Israel Institute For Advanced Studies|website=CFHU}}|Stanford University}}

| education = {{ubl|Tel Aviv University (BA, 1979)| UCLA (MA, 1981)|Hebrew University of Jerusalem (PhD, 1986)}}

| notable_students = Roy Varshavsky

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| awards = ISCB Fellow (2016)

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| website = {{URL|1=https://michal-linial.huji.ac.il/ |2=The Michal Linial Lab}}

}}

Michal Linial (Hebrew: מיכל ליניאל) is a Professor of Biochemistry and Bioinformatics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI). Linial is the Director of The Sudarsky Center for Computational Biology at HUJI.{{cite web|url=http://www.ls.huji.ac.il/michall/|title=Prof. Michal Linial - Director of The Sudarsky Center for Computational Biology. Computational biology, Sudarsky Center Bioinformatics MOLECULAR CELLULAR NEURON Protein classifications ProtoNet Science synapse genomics|website=www.ls.huji.ac.il}}{{cite journal| last1=Friedman|first1=Nir|last2=Linial|first2=Michal|last3=Nachman|first3=Iftach|last4=Pe'er|first4=Dana|title=Using Bayesian Networks to Analyze Expression Data|journal=Journal of Computational Biology|volume=7|issue=3–4|year=2000|pages=601–620|issn=1066-5277|pmid=11108481|doi=10.1089/106652700750050961|url=http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~nir/Papers/FLNP1Full.pdf|citeseerx=10.1.1.191.139}} {{free access}} Since 2015, she is head of the ELIXIR-Israel node (European life-sciences Infrastructure for biological Information).

Linial was elected a fellow of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) in 2016, for outstanding contributions to the fields of computational biology and bioinformatics and served on the Board of Directors (2005–2016), and as a Vice-President (2007–2016), of the ISCB.{{cite web|url=https://www.iscb.org/iscb-fellows|title=ISCB Fellows|website=iscb.org|publisher=International Society for Computational Biology|author=Anon|year=2018|access-date=2018-03-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170320114530/https://www.iscb.org/iscb-fellows|archive-date=2017-03-20|url-status=dead}}

She was a Director at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies (IIAS) from 2012 to 2018. She earned her BA from Tel Aviv University in 1979, her MA from UCLA in 1981, and her PhD in molecular biology from HUJI in 1986.{{cite web | website=The Linial Lab, Hebrew University of Jerusalem | url=https://michal-linial.huji.ac.il/about-michal-0 | title=About Michal Linial | accessdate=1 December 2020}} Linial completed her post-doctoral training at Stanford University in cellular neurochemistry. She joined the faculty of HUJI in 1989, and she founded and has chaired since 1999, the educational program for computational biology in HUJI.{{cite web | website=PeerJ | url=https://peerj.com/MLinial/ | title=Michal Linial | accessdate=1 December 2020}}

Linial came to wider public prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic as her research and forecasts on the virus were carried in mainstream media.{{cite news | newspaper=Haaretz | date=19 March 2020 |accessdate=1 December 2020 | url=https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/.premium-biology-or-behavior-scientists-study-why-coronavirus-kills-more-men-than-women-1.8688767 | title=Why coronavirus kills more men than-women | first=Asaf | last=Ronel}}{{cite news | newspaper=The Times of Israel | date=19 August 2020 | accessdate=1 December 2020 | url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/century-old-vaccine-limits-covid-spread-so-bring-it-back-say-israeli-experts/ | title=Century-old vaccine limits COVID spread, so bring it back, urge Israeli experts | first=Nathan | last=Jeffay}}{{cite news | url=https://www.jpost.com/health-science/could-an-mrna-vaccine-be-dangerous-in-the-long-term-649253 | title=Could mRNA COVID-19 vaccines be dangerous in the long-term? | first= Maayan | last=Jaffe-Hoffman | newspaper=The Jerusalem Post | date=17 November 2020 | accessdate=1 December 2020 }}{{cite news | newspaper=The Jerusalem Post | url=https://www.jpost.com/health-science/hadassah-research-head-raises-questions-about-mrna-vaccine-safety-650803 | title=Hadassah research head raises questions about mRNA vaccine safety | first=Maayan | last=Jaffe-Hoffman | date=1 December 2020 | accessdate=1 December 2020}}{{Cite journal |last1=Klinger |first1=Danielle |last2=Blass |first2=Ido |last3=Rappoport |first3=Nadav |last4=Linial |first4=Michal |date=September 2020 |title=Significantly Improved COVID-19 Outcomes in Countries with Higher BCG Vaccination Coverage: A Multivariable Analysis |journal=Vaccines |language=en |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=378 |doi=10.3390/vaccines8030378 |doi-access=free |issn=2076-393X |pmc=7563451 |pmid=32664505}}