Mia Horowitz graduated from the department of Genetics, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot Israel, in 1980. Following a two and half years as a post-doctoral fellow under the supervision of Prof. P. A. Sharp at MIT, Massachusetts, USA, she joined the Weizmann institute as an investigator. She initiated a project aiming at understanding the molecular biology underlying Gaucher disease in 1985. In 1990 she moved to Tel Aviv University and in 1998 became a full professor. She served as department head between 1999-2003.