Invited Speakers

Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA USA

Director of Research, Manchester Collaborative Center for Inflammation Research.

Daniel M Davis began studying the immune system at Harvard University with Jack Strominger, after obtaining a PhD in Physics in Glasgow, UK. Currently, he is a Professor of Immunology at Manchester University and Director of Research in the Manchester Collaborative Centre for Inflammation Research. Prior to this, he was the Head of the Immunology Section at Imperial College London in South Kensington. He has published over 130 academic papers, collectively cited over 11,000 times, including articles in Nature, Science and Scientific American.

Davis pioneered the use of many imaging techniques to help visualize key molecular components of an immune response. His work has helped establish new concepts in how immune cells communicate with each other; especially the immune synapse and membrane nanotubes.  He became a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2011 and currently chairs their selection panel for immunology candidates. He is also the author of a popular-level book THE COMPATIBILITY GENE, described by Bill Bryson in the Guardian’s Books of the Year as ‘elegantly written and unexpectedly gripping’. His second book, THE BEAUTIFUL CURE, has been described by Stephen Fry as 'One of those books that makes you look at everything human in a new, challenging and thrilling way'.

M.D. Professor of Oncology, Deputy Director, The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, USA

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.

President of the Israeli Society of Gene and Cell Therapy, Chair of the International Conference on Lymphocyte EngineeringSenior Lecturer, Department of Biochemistry, School of NeuroBiology, Biochemistry and Biophysics, Tel Aviv University, Co-founder of LogicBio Therapeutics Inc.

I was born in Givatayim and grew up in Gedera. I studied for my undergraduate degree in the Faculty of Life Sciences at Tel Aviv University. I then studied in a track leading directly to a doctorate in the Faculty of Medicine, also at Tel Aviv University. After a short post-doc at the Weizmann Institute of Science, I continued to a further post-doc at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

During my undergraduate degree, I was already drawn to cancer research. During my doctoral studies, I developed, along with my advisors and other students, a unique treatment method for solid masses based on ionized alpha-type radiation. Advanced clinical trials of this treatment are currently being carried out in a number of countries around the world, including the US, Japan, Italy and Israel. Over the years, I delved deeper into the vast field of tumor microenvironment and examined the connections between cancerous cells and the supportive non-cancerous cells that allow them to flourish. Over the last few years, I was drawn into a sub-niche of this field: exosomes. These are vesicles whose size is under 100 nanometers and which allow the passing of information and molecules between cells. This is a new and exciting field, where much remains to be discovered and which has great potential for precision medicine.

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.

Cell Migration and Invasion Laboratory,  a member of the Dangoor Center for Personalized Medicine.

Prof. Sarit Larisch was until recently chair of the Departments of Biology and Medical Sciences, and Head of the Apoptosis and Cancer Research Laboratory at the University of Haifa, Israel.

She received her BSc in Biology from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, her MSc (cum Laude) from the Lautenberg Center for General and Tumor Immunology, Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, and her Ph.D from the same institution. For her PhD research, Prof. Larisch was awarded the Lamas-Foundation Award from the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School. Prof. Larisch received the Fogarty International Research Fellowship Award for her post-doctoral studies at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, USA. During this period, she discovered a novel cell death protein, termed ARTS, which is a key protein promoting apoptosis and a tumor suppressor protein.

Prof. Larisch has received several awards, including the Focused Funding Award by Johnson&Johnson and the Hyman Milgrom Award. 
She has won a large number of competitive grant awards from the Israel Science Foundation (ISF), US-Israel Binational foundation (BSF), Israel Cancer Association, Israeli Ministry of Health grant, NPF-National Parkinson’s Foundation Award, NIH grant-FIRCA, and others. 
Prof. Larisch is listed as the inventor/co-inventor of several patents and patent applications for her discoveries.

Dean - Faculty of Life Sciences, Head of Prof. Michaeli’s Lab, Bar Ilan University

Prof. Shulamit Michaeli of the Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences and member of the Nano Medicine Center at the Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials (BINA), is an expert on silencing RNA. Michaeli designs and synthesizes RNA-protein complexes that inhibit the function of a variety of genes from human parasites to man.

Education: 

1981-Ph.D (Photochemistry) Weizmann Inst. of Science; 1982-1984, Stanford University, CA Post-Doc, Molecular Biology.

Research Interests: 

• Tumor biology;
• Molecular Mechanisms of Breast Cancer;
• Signal Transduction of proliferation and differentiation;
• Protein kinase C;
• Cell cycle regulation;
• PKC in drug resistance and apoptosis;
• Regulation of phosphorylation;
• Nucleocytoplasmic shuttling;
• Translational regulation

Research Projects:

Role of PKC in the resistance to chemotherapy and cell death 2) Translational regulation of PKC via upstream open reading framed (uORFs) 3) Cancer stem cells (CRC) in breast cancer 4) PKC as a prognostic and therapeutic target in breast cancer 5) Signaling pathways and cell cycle regulation in breast cancer.

The Shraga Segal Dept. of Microbiology, Immunology and Genetics
The Faculty of Health Sciences, and The National Institute of Biotechnology in the Negev, Ben-Gurion University

Director, Research Laboratories and Immunotherapy Lab at Carmel Medical Center

We investigate the effects of cell-cell interaction (especially tumor cell-macrophage) and the effects of the changing microenvironment (e.g. ischemia/hypoxia) on macrophage activation and functions, We focus on macrophage roles in angiogenesis and invasiveness/metastasis in the context of cancer and inflammatory diseases, as manifested by key effector molecules, such as TNF, nitric oxide (NO), matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), VEGF and EMMPRIN. We currently focus on these areas:
1) Targeting EMMPRIN to inhibit tumor progression and metastasis: Developing a new immunotherapeutic approach for the treatment and prevention of cancer diseases, metastases and autoimmune diseases.
2) Neuronal regulation of EMMPRIN expression.
3) MicroRNA-146a as a control switch between angiogenesis and life/death decisions: regulation of EMMPRIN and iNOS.
4) Monitoring the inflammatory status of patient. 

Professor, Head of Ron-Harel Lab, Technion

Metabolic regulation of T cell function and aging

Principal Investigator, Head of Schvartzman Lab,

Molecular Scale Fabrication and Complex Nanosystems,

Ben Gurion University

Associate Professor at Technion - Israel Institute of Technology

We study how cellular metabolism is rewired in cancer cells and how this can be exploted for cancer diagnosis and treatment. Towards this end, we combine quantitative experimental approaches with computational modelling. We expertise in mass-spectrometry based metabolomics, isotope tracing techniques, metabolic network modelling, and ‘omics’ data analysis.

Hermona Soreq (H-factor: 84) was trained at The Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, Weizmann Institute and the Rockefeller University. Soreq joined The Hebrew University in 1986, where she holds a University Slesinger Chair in Molecular Neuroscience and is also a founding member of the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Science. Her research pioneered the application of molecular biology and genomics to the study of cholinergic signaling, with a recent focus on its microRNA regulation and on signaling changes in health and disease. Soreq is the elected head of the International Organization of Cholinergic Mechanisms, was the elected Dean of the Faculty of Science from 2005-2008 and authored hundreds of publications, including 57 published in Science, Nature, PNAS, Neuron and other high-impact journals. Notably, 25 of Soreq’s trainees are faculty members in Israel (In Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, the Galilee and Beer Sheva) and overseas (UC Berkeley, Maryland, Ann Arbor, Paris, Tours, Gottingen, London). Others are post-doctoral fellows or PhD students in her lab or contribute to government and private biotechnology organizations and Life Sciences companies.

Education

• 1989-1991: B.Sc., Chemistry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem , Israel.
• 1992-1997: Ph.D., Biochemistry (Signal Transduction by G-proteins), Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
• 1998-2003: Post-doctoral research, Structural Biology (transcription regulation), The Scripps Research  Institute, La-Jolla, California, USA.

Current research grants

• Israel Cancer Association, Roles of ceramide 1-phosphate (C1P) in cancer, 1/2018 – 12/2019, $20,000