Professor Roee Ozeri speaks in front of damage to the Weizmann Institute of Science

The Wiezmann Institute is one of Israel’s most notable scientific facilities

Many of these labs focus on life sciences, with projects particularly vulnerable to physical damage, according to Sarel Fleishman, a professor of biochemistry who visited the site after the strike. The labs were researching areas like tissue generation, developmental biology, and cancer, with much of their work now halted or severely hindered by the damage. Just two days post-attack, the esteemed European Research Council announced the 281 recipients of its Advanced Grants, totaling €721 million ($830,128,000). Out of the 12 grants awarded to Israeli universities, half went to the Weizmann Institute. In the Life Sciences category, Weizmann secured four out of the 81 grants awarded by the ERC. Oren Schuldiner, a professor in the department of molecular cell biology and molecular neuroscience, whose lab was destroyed in the strike, said, “It’s a moral victory” for Iran. “They managed to harm the crown jewel of science in Israel.” Around 45 labs were destroyed, including the one focused on heart biology research. The Department of Molecular Cell Biology was left in ruins, with its leader, Prof. Eldad Tzahor, describing the scene as a “war zone” when speaking to The Times of Israel. “It was a war zone,” Tzahor lamented on the call. “Everything in our beautiful institute was covered in glass and pieces of metal.” His laboratory, home to 22 years of research and irreplaceable scientific samples like heart tissues and genetic material, now lies shattered.

Labs lost decades of research in heart health, neurology, and much more

“All of our studies have stopped,” he revealed, with the prospect of restoring operations seeming years away. “It’s very significant damage to the science that we can create and to the contribution we can make to the world.” Previously, an alleged assassination plot by Iran against an Israeli nuclear scientist at Weizmann was unearthed by local authorities. “The Weizmann Institute has been in Iran’s sights,” opined Yoel Guzansky, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv and an Iran specialist. Guzansky emphasized his uncertainty about Iran’s specific intentions but suspected the institute was targeted. A senior Weizmann academic, who wished to remain anonymous, told the economic news outlet Calcalist that building an empty laboratory facility is estimated to cost around $50 million, with an additional $50 million needed to equip it properly. While Weizmann is a multidisciplinary research institute, it has ties to Israel’s defense establishment, similar to other Israeli universities. However, Guzansky stated that the institute primarily symbolizes “Israeli scientific progress” and the attack against it reflects Iran’s mindset: “You harm our scientists, so we are also harming (your) scientific cadre.”

Scientists at the institute are shocked at the loss, as many scrambled to try and save their samples

Schuldiner expressed that it’s not the money that worries him the most. His research focuses on developmental neurobiology, aiming to uncover the processes the brain undergoes during development and how disruptions in these processes can lead to conditions such as autism, schizophrenia, ADHD, and other neuropsychiatric disorders. “My lab investigates these mechanisms at the basic molecular level, using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism,” he elaborated. “Over the years, we’ve developed a range of tools that allow us to visualize individual neurons within the intact brain of the fly. Our most dramatic loss is the hundreds of transgenic flies that we had created over the years,” Schuldiner lamented. Schuldiner’s lab employs around 10 people, and the researcher, who was in Germany during the attack and remains there, expressed shock at seeing a lifetime’s work disappear. “It is heartbreaking; there is no other word for it,” he confessed. “We are talking about 17 years of my career, all that we had built as a group, completely vaporized.” Researcher Ast highlighted Weizmann Institute’s commitment to supporting its staff, especially the international community. “For very understandable reasons, the size of the international community on campus got smaller after October 7, but a lot of them came back because Weizmann really does cutting-edge science,” she noted.

The Weizmann institute of science before the Iranian attack