Yael Amarilyo, a 17 year–old young scientist from Israel, who reached the finals in the "Young Scientists contest 2007" held by the Bloomfield Science Museum in Jerusalem and sponsored by Intel Israel in cooperation with the Israeli Ministry of Education, won second place last week in The 19th European Union Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS). This is the first time that an Israeli competitor has won such a significant international competition which takes place in Europe — one of the most well–respected international competitions in the world for young scientists.

Yael, who nabbed third place in the Israeli Young Scientists contest 2007, represented Israel at the EUCYS competition together with a number of other Israeli prize"winners.

The European competition, which took place this year in Valencia, Spain, brings together national finalists from all over the world. This year, young scientists from 33 countries participated, including those from Eastern European countries, the United States, and China. They presented 81 projects from various fields of science.

Yael, placing a respectable second in the EUCYS competition, took home a 3,000 Euro prize as well as an additional accolade — the honor of participating in the science seminar for young scientists which will take place in London.

The competition, which is open to young adults ages 15–20, and which is highly esteemed within the international science community, is held as part of a far–reaching scientific and social program which encourages youngsters to pursue a higher education in science and technology. Moreover, the competition encourages interactive creativity and crosses boundaries in the field of science, an important factor in the development of the scientific community. It also provides a welcome opportunity for the next generation of scientists from the various countries to meet.

Yael's prize–winning work deals with the subject of molecular identification and characterization of phytoplasma on grapevines, important work towards saving the wine industry. Phytoplasma is a pathogenic bacterium which causes a multitude of diseases in various plants in Israel and all over the world. The bacterium is considered to be the primary cause of jaundice, which causes significant financial damage to the wine industry. It is impossible to grow the bacterium in a culture and, therefore, molecular methods of identification were developed. Within the framework of the research, samples were taken of both healthy vines and those exhibiting signs of the disease from a Carignan vineyard in a Jerusalem suburb. Through the use of various molecular methods, the cause of the jaundice in the vineyard was identified as a Stolbur phytoplasma which was characterized as the primary cause of the disease in vineyards in the Golan Heights. In addition, a definite link was identified between the concentration of phytoplasma in the plant and the symptoms it displayed.

Yael's research, which has far–reaching financial ramifications for the wine industry and which is the key to dealing with this disease, provides a general picture of the pathological spread of the bacterium.

Yitzhak (Kiki) Ohayon, Chairman of the competition’s panel of judges of the Israeli Young Scientists competition and General Manager of Intel's Fab8 in Jerusalem, proudly supports the competition: "The students who participated are knowledgeable, curious and have the desire to investigate and cope with intellectual challenges. The work they prepared and submitted to the competition illustrates this well. We are proud of Yael and the other participants for so honorably representing Israel in the EUCYS competition and we are certain that important scientists will emerge from within this group, who will contribute greatly to the world of science in general and specifically to the future of the State of Israel.