Speakers

Miki De Palma graduated in Biology (1999) at the University of Torino, Italy, with a master thesis on the antiproliferative activities of type-I interferons in cancer cells. In 2004, he obtained a PhD Degree in Cell Biotechnologies from the University of Torino Medical School, where he studied the contribution of bone marrow-derived cells to tumor angiogenesis under the direction of gene therapy pioneer, Dr. Luigi Naldini. He performed his post-doctoral training at the Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy (TIGET) in Milan, to further characterize the pro-angiogenic functions of tumor-associated macrophages and develop gene transfer strategies for reprogramming them into anti-tumoral immune cells. In 2008, he was appointed group leader (with tenure since 2011) at the San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, and joined the ISREC Institute, at the EPFL School of Life Sciences, in 2012. He teaches cancer biology at EPFL and serves on the editorial/advisory boards of Science Translational Medicine (AAAS), Cell Reports (Cell press), BBA-Reviews on Cancer (section editor), Cancer Immunology Research (AACR), and Carcinogenesis. In his spare time, he enjoys travelling to sub-saharan Africa and writing boring articles and books on the taxonomy of the African fruit and flower chafers. Miki received two ERC grants, in 2009 and 2016.

https://www.epfl.ch/labs/depalma-lab/

Dr. Ronald Germain is chief of the Lymphocyte Biology Section and Laboratory of Systems Biology at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH. His research contributes to the understanding of how the immune system functions from the molecular level up to the level of the organism. He’s helped elucidate the expression, structure, and function of antigen-presenting proteins; the cell biology of antigen processing; and the molecular basis of T cell recognition. His research group is currently focused on two different approaches to unraveling the integrated function of the immune system: (1) using advanced imaging techniques to understand immune cell dynamics and the role of tissue micro-anatomy in host defense and (2) using systems methods to quantitatively understand immunity at multiple scales. Dr. Germain received his BS and MS from Brown University in 1970 and his MD and PhD from Harvard Medical School and Harvard University in 1976.

https://irp.nih.gov/pi/ronald-germain

Dr. Lewis L. Lanier is the chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and the leader of the Cancer, Immunity, and Microenvironment Program at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr. Lanier is an expert on natural killer (NK) cells, and is renowned for his contributions to the characterization of how NK cells recognize and deal with virus-infected tissues. He’s identified many of the receptors that activate and inhibit NK cells, and has shown how they can be activated against cancer cells. For his contributions, he received the 2002 William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology, and earned membership in the National Academy of Sciences. He continues to explore the mechanisms that enable NK cells to distinguish between healthy cells and infected or cancerous cells.

In addition to being a member of CRI’s Scientific Advisory Council, Dr. Lanier serves on the Postdoctoral Fellowship Review Committee.

https://cancer.ucsf.edu/research/programs/cancer-immunology-immunotherapy

Michel Nussenzweig is interested in the molecular aspects of the immune system’s innate and adaptive responses. Using an approach combining biochemistry, molecular biology, and genetics, Nussenzweig and his team focus on B lymphocytes and antibodies to HIV-1 in their work on adaptive immunity, while their studies of innate immunity focus on dendritic cells. Through their work they aim to achieve a detailed understanding of the molecular basis of antibody production and the pathway of human dendritic cell development and differentiation. The team’s findings may help improve the effectiveness of vaccines for pathogens and therapies to prevent or control auto-immunity.

https://www.rockefeller.edu/our-scientists/heads-of-laboratories/875-michel-c-nussenzweig/

2011 Full Professor for Immunology at Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Technical University Dortmund, Germany

2006 Extraordinary Professorship (apl. Prof.), University Heidelberg, Germany

2002-2011 Group Leader at the Institute for Immunology, University Heidelberg, Germany

2004 Habilitation in Immunology, Medical Faculty, University Heidelberg, Gemrmany

1998-2002 PostDoc (University Heidelberg, Germany and NIAID-NIH, USA)

1998 PhD in biology at University Heidelberg, Germany

https://www.ifado.de/immunology/staff/carsten-watzl/

Prof. Ronen Alon earned his PhD in biophysics at the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1993. He was a research fellow at Harvard Medical School and in 1996 joined the Weizmann Institute Department of Immunology. He is an EMBO member since 2012. Prof. Alon investigates how white blood cells exit blood vessels at sites of inflammation and the functions of cell adhesion molecules on dendritic cell subsets in lymphocyte activation and differentiation during infection and cancer expansion. His lab also studies how metastatic tumor cells survive inside lung blood vessels and how they are attacked by innate and adaptive leukocytes inside this vasculature.

Prof. Barda-Saad's Lab, Head - Immunology and Cancer Research Lab

Bar Ilan University

Prof. Mira Barda-Saad, a returning scientist from the National Cancer Institute at NIH in Maryland, is a Senior Lecturer at the Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences. Barda-Saad is currently examining the molecular signaling mechanisms controlling immune cell response with the primary goal of relating this knowledge to pathophysiological conditions of the immune system. She believes that understanding the dynamic behavior of signaling and cytoskeletal molecules that control immune cell activation is essential for identification of targets relevant for the treatment of cancer, autoimmune diseases and immunodeficiencies.

Sol Efroni is the head of the systems biomedicine lab at Bar-Ilan University. Sol did his BSc in physics at Tel-Aviv University, his MA at the Hebrew University in Cognitive Sciences and his PhD at the Weizmann Institute in Immunology and in Computer Science. He then continued for a postdoc at the NCI, where he worked on cancer genomics. Sol started his own group at the Faculty of Life Sciences in 2009.

Moshe received his Ph.D degree from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) under the supervision of Prof. Ronnie Apte and Prof. Shraga Segal. Moshe awarded with a pre-doctoral fellowship and spent a year at Pasteur institute in the lab of Prof. James Di Santo. Moshe then conducted six years of postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School in the lab of Prof. Sandra McAllister and at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Dr. Jose Baselga laboratory. Prof. Elkabets joined BGU in October 2015. Moshe's research focuses primarily on identifying new therapies for head and neck cancer.

Ayelet Erez studied medicine at the Technion Institute in Haifa, did her Paediatric Residency at Sheba Hospital, and completed a Ph.D. in Cancer Genetics at Tel Aviv University. In 2012, following training in clinical genetics and a postdoctoral fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, Ayelet returned to Israel to the Weizmann Institute of Science, where she is currently an Associate Professor. Ayelet volunteers weekly at the oncogenetic clinic at Schneider Hospital she helped establish, where she sees children with a suspected genetic predisposition to cancer.  Ayelet’s research focuses on cancer genetic and metabolism for translational relevance.

Prof. Erez is studying the biology of tumor metastasis, focusing on the metastatic microenvironment, cancer-related inflammation and the role of stromal and immune cells in facilitating the early and late stages of metastasis. The main goal of her research is to characterize key molecular pathways in the communication between tumor cells and their microenvironment that can be targeted by novel therapeutics.

Prof. Erez began her academic career at the Weizmann Institute of Science, where she performed her PhD in molecular cell biology with Prof. Varda Rotter.
Supported by a fellowship from the Cancer Research Institute (CRI), Prof. Erez carried out her postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Prof. Doug Hanahan at UCSF (2005-2010). Prof. Erez is currently a board member of the Metastasis Research Society and Vice president of the Israeli Society for Cancer Research.

Nano Area: Nano Biotechnology & Nanomedicine

Ph.D.: System biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, 2012

M.Sc.: System biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, 2005

B.Sc.: Double major in Biology and Chemistry, Tel-Aviv University, 2002

Main Nano Field: Cellular and molecular level utilizing our experience in microbiology and immune cell repertoire analysis, in addition to our recent novel developments in live imaging of anaerobic gut bacteria

Research interests: In my newly established lab at the Technion, we are applying Systems-Biology thinking strategies together with Microbiology and Immunology approaches to study the mechanistic interactions of the gut microbiota with the mammalian host physiology at health and disease states. The gut microbiota has been shown to be important in many types of diseases. We view it as a treasure trove for therapeutics to improve human health.

Zvi Granot, Ph.D.
Professor, Dept. of Developmental Biology and Cancer Research, Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University

Zvi Granot did his Ph.D. in biochemistry at the Hebrew University. His postdoctoral studies in Dr. Robert Benezra’s lab at MSKCC highlighted a novel role for neutrophils is cancer. In August of 2012 he joined the faculty of medicine as an assistant professor. Since then, the function of neutrophils in the context of cancer has become Prof. Granot’s main focus. Research in his lab aims at gaining in-depth insight into the mechanism that regulate neutrophil function in cancer, inflammation and infection. Prof. Granot is CSO of Immunyx Pharma, a drug development company focused on modulating neutrophil function for therapeutical purposes

Shalev Itzkovitz uses tools from Systems Biology to study design principles of tissue organization, focusing on the key metabolic tissues – the liver, intestine and pancreas. He obtained his BSc in Physics and Mathematics at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, MSc in Electrical Engineering at the Technion and PhD in Systems Biology at the Weizmann Institute. Following a postdoc fellowship at MIT, Dr. Itzkovitz joined the Department of Molecular Cell Biology at the Weizmann Institute in 2012 and obtained tenure in 2017. He was selected as an HHMI International Research Scholar and a Vallee Young Investigator in 2017.

Steffen Jung performed his Ph.D. under the guidance of Andreas Radbruch, University of Cologne, defining cis-acting control elements of immunoglobulin class switch recombination. In 1993, Steffen joined the Lautenberg Center (Hebrew University, Jerusalem) and in 1997, the Skirball Institute for Molecular Pathogenesis, (New York). His postdoctoral studies involved the generation of CX3CR1^gfp reporter mice and study monocyte subsets. Furthermore, he developed a diphtheria toxin receptor (DTR)-based cell ablation strategy to investigate dendritic cells. In 2002, Steffen joined the Weizmann Institute. Current work focuses on the ontogeny and differential functions of monocytes and macrophages in health and disease context.

Nathan Karin is a professor of immunology. His laboratory focuses on the role of chemokines in directing the biological function of effector and regulatory T cells in the interface between cancer and autoimmunity: Among the key discoveries of the lab are The discovery of the alpha4 beta 1 integrins (VLA-4) as the drivers of effector T cells and monocytic migration to the inflamed central nervous system (CNS) (Nature 1992), a novel antibody-based regulatory mechanism (immunity 2003), the differential role of CXCR3 ligand in directing the biological function of effector and T-regulatory 1 cells (JCI 2014) and more recently the identification of CCR8+ regulatory T cells as master drivers of immune regulation (PNAS 2017).

My research spams around melanoma development, from the very primary stage to metastases, melanocyte function, skin physiology and UVB exposure. I have established my lab, following post-doc at Harvard Medical School, in 2011 at Tel Aviv University. My laboratory has made several fundamental discoveries. We discovered novel factors in the tumor microenvironment that drive melanoma metastasis independent of mutation acquisition (Molecular Cell 2015, Nature Cell Biology 2016 and Science Signaling 2019). Using computational tools, we discovered the regulation of miRNA enhancers’ methylation (Genome Research 2016 and Nature Communications 2019) and created a decision tree in melanoma prognostication (Oncogene 2021).

Prof. Yoram Louzoun has studied mathematics and physics, then continued to brain research in his Ph.D. and from there to immunology in his post doc. He now heads a laboratory composed of mathematicians, Life scientists, Computer scientists and physicists involved in multiple domains of computational biology, machine learning, stochastic processes and graph theory.  

His main contributions in immunology are novel methods to understand and predict the relation between peptides, MHC and TCR and their impact on T cell repertoires,  and multiple studies in HLA population genetics, as well

Prof. Dinorah Friedmann-Morvinski is an Assistant Professor at the School of Neurobiology, Biochemistry and Biophysics at the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Science and the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University. Her research focuses on glioblastoma, one of the most heterogeneous and aggressive human brain tumors. Her lab seeks to understand how tumor cells change their differentiation state, also referred to as tumor plasticity and the role of the tumor microenvironment in this process. She believes that understanding these mechanisms and interactions will facilitate the development of novel strategies (e.g. nanomedicine and immunotherapy) to attack brain tumors.

Prof. Ariel Munitz is Professor of Immunology and The Faculty of Medicine of the Tel Aviv University. His laboratory is focused on elucidating cellular and molecular mechanisms that are involved in mucosal inflammation and cancer with specific interest in the roles of eosinophils. Studies from his laboratory established key roles for eosinophils in lung metastasis and colorectal cancer. Prof. Munitz’s research is supported by the US-Israel Bi-national Science Foundation, the Israel Science Foundation, The Israel Cancer Research Foundation, The Israel Cancer Association, The Israel Ministry of Health, the Emerson Foundation and the European Union. Recently, his laboratory received recognition as a Center of Excellence by the World Allergy Organization.

I study the multifunctional protein EMMPRIN/CD147 in the context of malignancy and autoimmune diseases. As a mediator of epithelial cells-macrophage interactions, it is involved in angiogenesis, EMT and metastasis. Two approaches targeting a specific epitope in the protein were developed, one using an active peptide and the other using an antibody. The two approaches inhibited tumor progression and metastasis. I now study the efficacy and mechanisms of action of these vaccinations, focusing on their ability to prevent the metastatic outbreak. Additionally, I investigate the pro-angiogenic role of EMMPRIN in autoimmune diseases (e.g., RA, PsA, and T2DM). 

Professor Yoram Reiter, Laboratory of Molecular Immunology, Sebba chair in Sciences. Director of the Lokey interdisciplinary Center for Life Sciences and Engineering.

Reiter is a Professor and the head of the Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and Cancer Immunotherapy at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. His research involves basic and translational research in antibody and cell engineering for the design of novel immunotherapies. Reiter is a graduate of the Weizmann Institute of Science and post doc fellow at the NCI, NIH. He is at the Technion faculty since 1998. He has more than 25 years of experience in molecular immunology, antibody and cell engineering related to cancer immunotherapy. He is pioneer in the field of TCR mimicking antibodies. This work lead to the creation of Applied Immune Technologies developing next generation antibody-based immunotherapies. AIT was acquired and merged into Adicet Bio Inc (NASDAQ:ACET) which recently presented highly promising clinical data in NHL with CAR-engineered gamma-delta1 T cells. Reiter's lab combines basic and translational research related to T cell biology, effector T cells functions, design of optimal CARs and well as multiple project on antibody engineering and T cell engagers. Reiter was the dean of the faculty of Biology (twice) and is director of an institutional interdisciplinary research. He published >120 papers, patents, review articles in the fields of molecular immunology and antibody engineering.

Prof. Ronit Satchi-Fainaro (Ph.D.) is a Full Professor at Tel Aviv University, where she is head of the Cancer Research & Nanomedicine Laboratory, Director of Tel Aviv University Cancer Biology Research Center, Director of the TAU Kahn 3D BioPrinting Initiative, and holds the Lion Chair in Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies. She serves on the BoD of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and the BoG of TAU, and is a member of the SAB of several Innovation Centers, Universities, Hospitals, Fellowships Committees, VCs, and editorial boards of scientific journals.

Her multidisciplinary research laboratory focuses on basic research elucidating the mechanisms underlying the switch from cancer dormancy leading to the discovery of new molecular targets to interrupt tumor-host interactions. She has published more than 130 manuscripts, 13 book chapters, edited two books, is named inventor on 60 patents, some of which were licensed to Pharmaceutical and Biotech companies. She founded two spin-off companies and is actively engaged in translational research with several industry partners and in science outreach.

Prof. Boaz Tirosh is a full professor of the Hebrew University and currently serves as the head of the School of Pharmacy of the Hebrew University.

His lab is interested in stress signaling as a regulator of cell function and response to drug therapy. A major interest of the lab is the unfolded protein response and the mTOR pathway.

Prof. Tirosh published more than 70 peer-reviewed scientific papers and is the inventor of several technologies in the field of antibody production.

Chen Varol (PhD) is the director of the Research Center for Digestive Tract & Liver Diseases, at Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center. He is also a Senior lecturer at the Department of Clinical Microbiology & Immunology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv Israel.

Dr. Varol is an Immunologist, who strives to decipher the involvement of phagocytic innate immune cells in diseases of the digestive tract and metabolic syndrome. Our studies had major contribution to the current comprehension of gut and liver macrophage ontogeny and functional heterogeneity. We are in uncovering immunoregulatory pathways that mediate the pathological versus restorative activity of these cells.

Elena Voronov received her MD degree in 1980 from the Samara Medical School, Samara, Russia.  In 1988, Dr. Voronov was awarded her PhD by The State Institute for Continuing Education for Physicians, Leningrad, Russia. The title of her thesis was: "Immunology of viral hepatitis: Prognostic role of immune-complexes and functional activity of leukocytes".  Dr. Voronov worked as a physician and an Assistant Professor in the Medical Institute in Samara. In 1990, Dr. Voronov and her family immigrated to Israel and began working in Professor Apte’s lab in the Immunology Department of Ben Gurion University of the Negev School of Medicine, in Beer Sheva, Israel. During these years, Dr. Voronov has been investigating the role of Interleukin-1 family molecules and their role in inflammation and cancer.

Deborah Yablonski heads the Immune Cell Signaling lab at the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, where she studies intracellular regulatory mechanisms that precisely control immune responses in T cells and mast cells. Our work focuses on adaptor proteins, as regulators and organizers of signal transduction cascades. As part of this work, we identified a regulatory junction at which dimerization of an adaptor protein known as Gads is required for T cell and mast cell-mediated immune responses. In ongoing research, are using a unique mouse model to reveal the regulatory roles of Gads in setting the threshold for cell-mediated immune responsiveness.