# @denverjewishdayschool on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/Da5QTW3kmca
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/68098248-denverjewishdayschool-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/69632ede45.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-07-17T12:50:07.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Denver Jewish Day School (@denverjewishdayschool) — https://gondola.cc/denverjewishdayschool

## Caption

🧬✨ Today's Summer Student Spotlight & Shabbat Shout Out goes to rising junior Kobi Benel! ✨🧠

This summer, Kobi is interning with a biotech startup, working alongside undergraduate and graduate students from MIT and Harvard to explore how AI can help researchers develop safer, more effective medications. His work focuses on using AI to make therapeutic proteins more compatible with the human immune system—research that could one day improve treatments for patients around the world.

🔬 "Every hour something goes wrong... you get something and then it goes wrong, then you fix it and then something else goes wrong... At times I think I've almost figured it out and then I have to go all the way back."

One of Kobi's biggest surprises wasn't the science—it was the culture.

💡 "I think what surprised me the most was how unplanned and unorthodox the whole thing is... There's no traditional office structure... It's so open-ended."

Although AI often makes headlines for its risks, Kobi is optimistic about its potential.

🤖 "I think there's a lot of danger in AI, but I think it might all be offset just by the medical leaps that will occur once AI is used in fields like this... and allow more drugs to be used and better drugs."

Kobi credits DJDS with giving him both a strong scientific foundation and the confidence to pursue opportunities beyond the classroom.

🌟 "DJDS not only gives you the base knowledge... but it also gives you the mental direction to... start your own thing and learn your own things... and go out into the world and bring things into the world."

Favorite takeaway:

💬 "It's very easy to learn. It's not very easy to apply."

Kol HaKavod, Kobi! And a special shout-out to Melanie Knowles and our Upper Division science faculty for helping build the foundation that makes opportunities like this possible.

👏 Shabbat Shalom, DJDS fam!

#ShabbatShoutOut #StudentSpotlight #DJDSProud #DenverJDS #FutureScientist #STEM #AIforGood #Biotech #Innovation #WhyDJDS #mydjds #MIT #Harvard

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## Tags

djdsproud, mydjds, stem, mit, innovation, harvard, futurescientist, studentspotlight, denverjds, biotech, whydjds, aiforgood, shabbatshoutout

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