‍Naama Barkai was born and raised in Jerusalem. During her doctoral studies in the Physics Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, she became interested in biological computation and applied tools from statistical physics to study neural-network–inspired learning models. Her interests later shifted to computational systems operating within cells, leading her to join a group at Princeton University studying a bacterial sensing system. Her theoretical work, followed by experimental studies, helped establish this pathway as a central model system in systems biology.

Barkai joined the Weizmann Institute in late 1999, just as the genomic revolution was gaining momentum. She was among the physics-trained biologists applying quantitative concepts and tools to understand the design of cellular computation systems, a group that formed the founding core of the emerging field of systems biology. Her work has contributed to two major areas of the field: elucidating the design principles of biological circuits at relatively small scales, and uncovering principles governing gene expression at the genomic level.

A central contribution of Barkai’s research is the formulation and application of the robustness principle. Unlike man-made computational devices, biological circuits operate in inherently noisy environments. The robustness principle posits that biological circuits selected by evolution are robust, performing their functions reliably despite noise and with minimal dependence on precise quantitative parameters. Over the years, Barkai has applied this principle to uncover design principles and operational mechanisms of diverse biological circuits. Notably, her work has revealed mechanisms involved in multicellular development and body plan patterning. Currently, her group is investigating the role of intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) in transcription factors as a potential key to understanding genome specificity.

Barkai is a faculty member in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the Weizmann Institute of Science. She has received several awards in recognition of her work, including the EMBO Award for Women in Science and the Rothschild Prize.

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