Yaacov Davidov has extensive experience in microbiology. He received his Ph.D in Microbiology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and has held several post-doctoral and research positions. Currently, he is the Head of the Campylobacter and Vibrio national reference center at the Central laboratories of the Ministry of Health in Jerusalem. He has published numerous papers on predatory bacteria and their diversity and evolution. Davidov also has experience developing and implementing clinical laboratory tests and managing a national reference laboratory.

1. CURRICULUM VITAE
Yaacov Davidov
yadavidov@gmail.com
Tel: 0506248106
EDUCATION
2006-2008 Post-doctoral fellow at the Weizmann Institute for Science,
Dep. of Biological chemistry, Rehovot, Israel.
2000-2006 Ph. D. Microbiology (Microbial ecology). The Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, Faculty of Agricultural, Food and
Environmental Quality Sciences, Rehovot, Israel.
1996-1998 M. Sc. Environmental Sciences. The Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, Faculty of Sciences, The Fredy and Nadine
Herrmann Graduate School of Applied Science, Jerusalem,
Israel.
1991-1994 B. Sc. Life Sciences. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
Faculty of Sciences, Jerusalem, Israel, magna cum laude.
EMPLOYMENT AND PROFESIONAL EXPERIENCE
2015-Now Head of Campylobacter and Vibrio national reference center,
Central laboratories, Ministry of Health, Jerusalem.
2012-2015 Research and development at the microbial molecular biology
laboratory, Central laboratories, Ministry of Health, Jerusalem.
2009-2011 Lecturer and teaching assistant at Biochemistry courses,
academic retraining to nursing, Hadassah medical center, and
Hadassah College, Jerusalem.
2008-2009 Post-doc fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Faculty
of Agriculture, Department of Microbiology
2001-2005 Teaching assistant at the Department of Microbiology, Faculty
of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Quality Sciences, The
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in the course General
Microbiology (chief instructor in 2005).
1999 Hygiene guide, The Institute for Safety and Hygiene.
1996-1999 Teaching assistant at the Belmonte Youth Laboratories, The
Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

2. 1996-1998 Research assistant at the Laboratory for Environmental
Microbiology, The division of Environmental Sciences, The
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
PUBLICATIONS
Koval SF, Hynes SH, Flannagan RS, Pasternak Z, Davidov Y, Jurkevitch E. 2013.
Bdellovibrio exovorus sp. nov., a novel predator of Caulobacter crescentus Int
J Syst Evol Microbiol. 63:146-151
Davidov Y, Jurkevitch E. 2009. Predatory interactions between prokaryotes and
the origin of eukaryotes. Bioessays 31:748-757.
Van Essche M, Sliepen I, Loozen G, Van Eldere J, Quirynen M, Davidov Y,
Jurkevitch E, Boon N, Teughels W. 2009. Development and performance of a
quantitative PCR for the enumeration of Bdellovibrionaceae. Environmental
Microbiology Reports 1:228-233.
Cohen-Ben-Lulu GN, Francis NR, Shimoni E, Noy D, Davidov Y, Prasad K, Sagi
Y, Cecchini G, Johnstone RM, Eisenbach M. 2008. The bacterial flagellar
switch complex is getting more complex. EMBO J. 27:1134-1144
Davidov Y, Jurkevitch E. 2007. How incompatibilities may have led to eukaryotic
cell. Nature 448:130
Davidov Y, Jurkevitch E. 2007. Comments of Poole and Penny's essay
"Evaluating hypotheses for the origin of eukaryotes". Bioessays 29:615-616
Davidov Y, Huchon D, Koval SF, Jurkevitch E. 2006. A new α-proteobacterial
clade of Bdellovibrio-like predators: implications for the mitochondrial
endosymbiotic theory. Environ Microbiol 8:2179-2188
Davidov Y, Friedjung A, Jurkevitch E. 2006. Structure analysis of a soil community
of predatory bacteria using culture-dependent and culture-independent methods
reveals a hitherto undetected diversity of Bdellovibrio-and-like organisms.
Environ Microbiol 8:1667-1673
Herschkovitz Y, Lerner A, Davidov Y, Okon Y, Jurkevitch E. 2005. Azospirillum
brasilense does not affect population structure of specific rhizobacterial
communities of inoculated maize (Zea mays) Environ Microbiol 7:1847-1852
Herschkovitz Y, Lerner A, Davidov Y, Rothballer M, Hartmann A, Okon Y,
Jurkevitch E. 2005. Inoculation with the plant growth promoting
rhizobacterium Azospirillum brasilense causes little disturbance in the
rhizosphere and rhizoplane of maize (Zea mays). Microbial Ecology. 50:277-
288
Davidov Y, Jurkevitch E 2004. Diversity and evolution of Bdellovibrio-and-like
organisms (BALOs), reclassification of Bacteriovorax starrii as Peredibacter
starrii gen. nov., comb. nov., and description of the Bacteriovorax

3. Peredibacter clade as Bacteriovoracaceae fam. nov. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol
54:1439-1452
Shemesh Y, Davidov Y, Koval S, Jurkevitch E. 2003. Small eats big: Ecology and
diversity of Bdellovibrio and like organisms, and their dynamics in predator-
prey interactions. Agronomie 23:433-439.
Rosen R., Davidov Y., LaRossa R. A., and S. Belkin. 2000. Microbial Sensors of
UV Radiation Based upon recA’::lux Fusions. Appl Biochem Biotechnol
89:151-160.
Davidov Y, Rosen R, Smulski DR., Van Dyk TK, Vollmer AC, Elsemore DA,
LaRossa RA, and Belkin S. 2000. Improved bacterial SOS promoter::lux
fusions for genotoxicity detection. Mutation Res 466:97-107.
Books Chapters:
Jurkevitch E, Davidov Y. 2007 Phylogenetic diversity and evolution of predatory
prokaryotes. In Predatory Prokaryotes - Biology, Ecology, and Evolution.
Jurkevitch E. ed. Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg.
Davidov Y, Smulski DR, Van Dyk TK, Vollmer AC, LaRossa RA, Belkin S.
1999. Genotoxicity detection by bacterial strains harboring recA’::lux
fusions. In Bioluminescence and Chemiluminescence: Perspectives for the
21st Century. A. Roda, M. Pazzagli, L. J. Kricka and P. E. Stanley, eds.
John Wiley & Sons, Chichester. pp. 597-600.
Selected Abstracts of presentations in congresses:
Davidov, Y., Shemesh, Y., Barel, G., and E. Jurkevitch. Bdellovibrio-like
organisms: diversity of terrestrial populations, predator-prey relationship and
characterization of axenic mutants. 9th
Symposium of the International
Society of Microbial Ecology. Amsterdam, August 26-31 2001
Davidov Y., Shemesh Y., and E. Jurkevitch. Bacteria-bacteria trophic
interactions: Great predator diversity and prey-controlled predation. IUMS
X, Paris, 27 June-1 August 2002.
Davidov Y. and E. Jurkevitch. Large diversity of predatory bacteria: evolutionary,
taxonomy and functional implications. (Oral presentation). 1st
FEMS
Congress of European Microbiologists. Ljubljana, 29 June-3 July 2003.
Davidov Y. and E. Jurkevitch. Diversity and evolution of predatory bacteria. The
4th
FISEB Congress, Eilat, 7-10 February 2005.
Davidov Y., Zagron G., Feldman N., Ohayon S., Lerner L., Stein Zamir C.,
Agmon V. and Valinsky L. Detection and quantification of Campylobacter

4. on poultry meat using a TaqMan real-time PCR. ISM annual meeting, Bar-
Ilan University, 17-18 February 2015.
SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS
2007 Clore Post-doc Fellowship, The Weizmann Institute of Science.
2006 Dean Post-doc Fellowship, The Faculty of Biochemistry, The
Weizmann Institute of Science.
2004 FEMS Research Fellowship performed in the laboratory of Dr. O.
Berge, St Paul-Lez Durance, Cedex, France (August-September,
2004).
2003 Young Scientist Grant of the Federation of European Microbiological
Societies (FEMS) to attend the 1st
FEMS Congress of European
Microbiologists, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
1992 Dean List, Faculty of Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
SCIENTIFIC TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS
Classical microbiological techniques.
Molecular biology techniques: PCR amplification, real time PCR, cloning, restriction
assays, nucleic acid electrophoresis, PFGE, MLST.
Biochemistry techniques: protein extraction and purification, polyacrylamide gel
electrophoresis, Western-blotting, HPLC, protein-protein interaction assays (SPR and
pull-down assays).
Bioinformatics: sequence analyses and phylogeny.
Implementation and development of clinical laboratory tests.
Characterization of bacterial strains, detection and monitoring of disease outbreaks.
Managing clinical national reference laboratory.
Quality systems in clinical laboratory.
Diploma of recognition as medical laboratory worker.
MILITERY SERVICE
Combat medic and combat medic officer at the medical corps, IDF. Rank: captain.