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Yair Ben-Chaim, Associate Professor

Contact Info

The Open University of Israel Department of Natural Sciences 1 University Road P.O.B. 808 Ra’anana 4353701, Israel
Office:972-9-7781756 / 972-2-9416334 Email:yairbc@openu.ac.il

Additional Information

My CRIS profile

Areas of Interest
  • Structure-function relationship of G protein coupled receptors
  • Signal transduction via G protein coupled receptors
  • Voltage-dependence of G protein coupled receptors

Yair Ben Chaim is an Associate Professor in the Department of Natural Sciences at The Open University of Israel. He received his PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem under the supervision of Prof. Hanna Parnas and Prof. Itzhak Parnas. Yair then did postdoc research at the lab of Prof. King Yau at the neuroscience department at Johns Hopkins Medical School, where he studied the signal transduction of olfactory receptor neurons.
Yair's research group employs molecular, biochemical and electrophysiological approaches to study the function of G protein coupled receptors and their regulation.

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2002 - 2006
Ph.D. (summa cum laude), Neurobiology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
2000 - 2002
M.Sc. Neurobiology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
1997 - 2000
M.Sc. Neurobiology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

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David, D., Bentulila, Z., Tauber, M., Ben-Chaim, Y. G protein Coupled Receptors Regulation by Membrane Potential. Int J Mol Sci 2022 23(22), 13988; 

Goldberger, E.; Tauber, M.; Ben-Chaim, Y. Voltage Dependence of the Cannabinoid CB1 Receptor. Frontiers in Pharmacology 2022, 13. 

Nitzan K, David D, Franko M, Toledano R, Fidelman S, Tenenbaum YS, Blonder M, Armoza-Eilat S, Shamir A, Rehavi M, Ben-Chaim Y, Doron R. Anxiolytic and antidepressants' effect of Crataegus pinnatifida (Shan Zha): biochemical mechanisms. Transl Psychiatry. 2022 May 19;12(1):208. doi: 10.1038/s41398-022-01970-6. PMID: 35589704; PMCID: PMC9117595. 

Tauber M, Ben Chaim Y. The activity of the serotonergic 5-HT1A receptor is modulated by voltage and sodium levels. J Biol Chem. 2022 Jun;298(6):101978. doi: 10.1016/j.jbc.2022.101978. Epub 2022 Apr 22. PMID: 35469922; PMCID: PMC9136116. 

Shefer K, Boulos A, Gotea V, Arafat M, Ben Chaim Y, Muharram A, Isaac S, Eden A, Sperling J, Elnitski L, Sperling R. A novel role for nucleolin in splice site selection. RNA Biol. 2022;19(1):333-352. doi: 10.1080/15476286.2021.2020455. Epub 2021 Dec 31. PMID: 35220879; PMCID: PMC8890436. 

Rozenfeld E, Tauber M, Ben-Chaim Y, Parnas M. GPCR voltage dependence controls neuronal plasticity and behavior. Nat Commun. 2021 Dec 13;12(1):7252. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-27593-x. PMID: 34903750; PMCID: PMC8668892. 

Friedman S., Tauber Y and Ben Chaim Y Sodium Ions Allosterically Modulate the M2 Muscarinic Receptor. Sci. Rep. 2020 Jul 7;10(1):11177.

Ben-Chaim Y, Broide C, Parnas H. The coupling of the M2 muscarinic receptor to its G protein is voltage dependent. PLoS One. 2019 Oct 31;14(10).

Barchad-Avitzur O, Priest MF, Dekel N, Bezanilla F, Parnas H, Ben-Chaim Y. A Novel Voltage Sensor in the Orthosteric Binding Site of the M2 Muscarinic Receptor. Biophys J. 2016 Oct 4;111(7):1396-1408.

Li RC, Ben-Chaim Y, Yau KW, Lin CC. Cyclic-nucleotide-gated cation current and Ca2+-activated Cl current elicited by odorant in vertebrate olfactory receptor neurons. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2016 Oct 4;113(40):11078-11087.

Ben Chaim Y, Bochnik S, Parnas I, Parnas H. (2013) Voltage Affects the Dissociation
Rate Constant of the m2 Muscarinic Receptor. PLoS One. Sep 3;8(9).

Kupchik YM, Barchad-Avitzur O, Wess J, Ben-Chaim Y, Parnas I, Parnas H  (2011) A novel fast mechanism for GPCR-mediated signal transduction - Control of neurotransmitter release. J. Cell. Biol.  192(1):137-51.

Ben-Chaim Y, Cheng M, Yau K-W. (2011) Unitary response of mouse olfactory receptor neurons. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA.;108(2):822-7.

Ben-Chaim Y, Chanda B, Bezanilla F, Dascal N, Parnas I, Parnas H (2006) Movement
of ”Gating Charge” is Coupled to Ligand Binding in a G-protein Coupled Receptor .
Nature 444: 106-109.

Ben-Chaim Y, Tour O, Dascal N, Parnas I, Parans H (2003) The M2 muscarinic G-
protein-coupled receptors is voltage sensitive. J. Biol. Chem. 278: 30248 - 30260.