Speakers

Michel Sadelain, MD, PhD, is the Director of the Center for Cell Engineering and the incumbent of the Stephen and Barbara Friedman Chair at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Sadelain’s research focuses on human cell engineering and cell therapy to treat cancer and hereditary blood disorders. His laboratory has made several seminal contributions to the field of chimeric antigen receptors (CARs), from design to clinical translation. His group was the first to publish dramatic molecular remissions in patients with chemorefractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia following treatment with CD19 CAR T cells.

Charles A. Dinarello is Distinguished Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Professor of Experimental Medicine at Radboud University in the Netherlands.  Dr. Dinarello received his medical degree from Yale University. He is known as a founding father of the field of cytokines having identified IL 1a and IL 1b in 1974, purified IL‑1a and IL‑1b in 1974, purified IL‑1b to homogenity and established the specific activity of IL‑1b in 1977.  He reported the first cDNA for IL‑1b in 1984.  Dr. Dinarello has published over 1000 original research articles on the IL‑1 Family and related cytokines.  Dinarello is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences and a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences.  He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Weizmann Institute (Israel) and Ben Gurion University (Israel).  He has received several awards including the Ernst Jung Prize in Medicine (Germany), Albany Prize in Medical Research (USA), Crafoord Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (Sweden), Paul Ehrlich Prize (Germany) and the Novartis Prize in Clinical Immunology (Switzerland), Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashdid al Maktoum Award (United Arab Emirates), Carol Nachman Prize (Germany), Drexel Prize in Immunology (USA) and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Eicosanoid Foundation for his pioneering studies on the role of lipids in cytokine-mediated inflammation.  In 2020, he received the Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Science (Taiwan).  Dr. Dinarello has has honorary degrees from the University of Marseille (France), the Weizmann Institute (Israel), the University of Frankfurt (Germany) and Roosevelt University (USA), Albany Medical College (USA), Radboud University (Netherlands), Trinity College (Ireland), University of Bonn (Germany) and Aarhus University (Denmark). The Institute for Scientific Information listed Dinarello as the world's 4th most-cited scientist during the 20 years 1983-2002.  In 2009, Dr. Dinarello established the Interleukin Foundation, an educational foundation that supports research on cytokines, particularly by young scientists.  He donates the monies from his awards and prizes to the Interleukin Foundation (interleukinfoundation.org).

Professor Amiram Ariel, Head, The Laboratory for Molecular Pathways in the Resolution of Inflammation

A.  Major research interests.

#Molecular and cellular mechanisms in the resolution of inflammation, with particular emphasis on the role played by macrophages in controlling tissue structure and function and prevention of pathological conditions.

#The role of apoptotic neutrophils in shaping macrophage phenotypes, and specifically, characterizing, gene profiling, and elucidating the function of non-phagocytic (satiated) macrophages during the healing of injury and prevention of tissue fibrosis in various organs.

# Molecular effectors of interest include 12/15-lipoxygenase, chemokines and their receptors, galectin-1, STING and IFNb.

B.  Honors and awards.

2001- The Rothschild Foundation

2003- The McDuffie award from the Arthritis foundation

2006- The young scientist award from Teva Pharmaceuticals LTD.

2016- The Rosetrees Foundation scholar award

C. Offices in Professional Academic Administration

2017-2020 Secretary/Vice president of the Israel Immunological Society        

2021-present President of the Israel Immunological Society

2021-present Treasurer of the Federation of Israeli Societies for Experimental Biology (FISEB)

2023-present  Speaker of the EFIS Study Group on “Innate immunity in sterile inflammation, autoimmunity, and their resolution”

D. Organizing Academic Events

2018 - Chair of the workshop on Phagocyte Biology, The 52nd ESCI meeting, Barcelona, Spain

2018 - Member of the abstract selection committee for the 5th ECI, Amsterdam, ND

2019 - Member of the organizing committee for the first joint IIS-ISCR meeting, Tel Aviv, Israel        

2019-2021 - Member of the steering committee for the 6th (virtual) ECI, Belgrade, Serbia

2022- President, The 2^nd Immuno-oncology meeting of the IIS, Haifa, Israel

2023 - Member of the organizing committee for the 9th FISEB 2023 congress, Eilat, Israel

2023 – Member of the organizing committee, 3^rd Resolution days meeting, Besancon, France

2022-2023 Head of the academic committee, The 3^rd Immuno-oncology meeting of the IIS and ISCR, Beer Sheva, Israel

2023-2024 Member of the organizing committee, The 1^st German-Israel Immunology workshop, Rehovot, Israel

2022-2024 Member of the steering committee for the 7^th ECI, Dublin, Ireland

Michal Baniyash is a Full Professor of Immunology and a group leader at the Hebrew University Medical School, training MSc/PhD students, post-docs and teaching immunology. Prof. Baniyash and her team discovered more than a decade ago that chronic inflammation leads to immunosuppression mediated by myeloid derived suppressor cells and identified new biomarkers sensing the host’s immune function that are currently applied in the clinic. Baniyash’s team focuses on mechanisms underlying the link between chronic inflammatory diseases, immunosuppression and associated complications as cancer, bone loss and intestinal dysbiosis, translating basic research to clinical studies. She publishes in pear reviewed top journals, holds several patents/prizes, invited to meetings, and is part of scientific grant and top journals review panels.

Mira Barda-Saad obtained her Ph.D in Molecular Immunology through collaborative research at Bar-Ilan University (BIU) and the Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS). She performed postdoctoral studies at the WIS and later at the NCI/NIH, where she received the Fellows Award for Research Excellence (FARE). Later, she joined the Faculty of Life Sciences at BIU. She was awarded the Taubenblatt Award for Research Excellence in Biomedicine. Prof. Barda-Saad served as the president of the Israeli Immunological Society (IIS) (2017-2020). Currently, she serves as the President of the Federation of the Israel Societies for Experimental Biology (FISEB). Her research focuses on signal transduction mechanisms in immune cells, and specifically, on leukocyte behavior in health and disease.

Dr. Bel completed his PhD in the Bar-Ilan University in 2015 under the supervision of Prof. Uri Nir. He then moved to the lab of Dr. Lora V Hooper at UT Southwestern Medical Center for his postdoctoral research. In 2018 he established his lab at the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine of the Bar-Ilan University.

Dr. Ben-Baruch completed her PhD studies at Tel Aviv University and her Post-Doctoral fellowship at the NCI. As of 2010 she is a Full Professor at Tel Aviv University. She was the Head of the Cancer Biology Research Center at Tel Aviv University from 2006 to 2010, and was then appointed Head of the Ela Kodesz Institute for Research on Cancer Development and Prevention. On 2013-2017 she acted as Head of The Department of Cell Research and Immunology at the Faculty of Life Sciences. She is Incumbent of The David Furman Chair for Immunobiology of Cancer at Tel Aviv University.

Over the last 19 years I have been studying the interactions between myeloid cells and T cells in the tumor microenvironment and the means to employ these understanding for cancer therapy. I completed my PhD studies summa cum laude, post-doctorate at Stanford University, and since 2016 I run my own research group at Tel-Aviv University. I co-authored over 40 papers in peer-reviewed journals, four patent applications, and I was the scientific co-founder of two companies (Nasdaq: BOLT and Gilboa Therapeutics).

Dr. Merav Cohen (Ph.D.) is an Assistant Professor at Tel Aviv University, where she is head of the Systems Immunology & ImmunoGenomics Laboratory, specialized in Developmental-immunology and Cancer-Immunology. She holds a Ph.D. in Neuro-Immunology from the Weizmann Institute of Science. She then performed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Weizmann Institute of Science working on ImmunoGenomics and at the Icahn-School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NYC in the field of Tumor-Immunology. She published 15 Peer reviewed manuscripts in high impact journals, and is named inventor on 3 patents. She was awarded the 2020 Alon Fellowship, and the 2021 ERC-StG.

Dr. Rony Dahan is a Senior Scientist (assistant professor) at the Department of Systems Immunology, the Weizmann Institute of science. He completed his BA in Molecular Biology in 2004 and his PhD in Molecular Immunology in 2010, at the Technion. He served as a Cancer Research Institute Irvington Postdoctoral fellow in Cancer Immunology at the Laboratory of Prof. Jeffrey Ravetch at Rockefeller University in New York from 2013 until joining the faculty of the Weizmann Institute of Science in August 2017. Dr. Dahan is the incumbent of the Rina Gudinski Career Development Chair.

Moshe Elkabets received his Ph.D. degree in tumor immunology from BGU in 2010. During his student years, he received many prizes and awards, including the prestigious Chateaubriand Fellowship awarded to Israeli students by the French government. Moshe then conducted six years of postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School and at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He joined BGU in October 2015, and since then has received over 20 competitive grants and awards, including the career development of the ICRF, BSF and Concern Foundation.  His research focuses primarily on ovarian and head and neck cancers, and he has already published over 50 peer-reviewed articles and patents.  

Research Focus: Cancer therapy, tumor immunology, drug development, and pre-clinical models

The research of his lab focuses primarily on head and neck cancer (HNC) therapy. Here are a few of the ongoing projects:

1. Development of a bi-specific Ab for the elimination of metastatic cells
2. Development of a new technology that predicts response to immunotherapy
3. Development of unique pre-clinical models for the investigation of new treatments against HNC. 
4. Investigation of new treatments and new therapies in combination.

Prof. Erez is studying the biology of tumor metastasis, focusing on the metastatic microenvironment. The main goal of her research is to characterize stromal and immune pathways that can be targeted by novel therapeutics.

Prof. Erez did her MSc and PhD at the Weizmann Institute of Science, and her Postdoctoral fellowship with Prof. Doug Hanahan at UCSF.

Neta is the Vice Dean for Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring at TAU Faculty of Medicine, and former Chair of Pathology. She is the Vice President of the Israeli Society for Cancer Research (ISCR), and a board member of the MRS and EACR.

Neta is also an enthusiastic mentor and advocate for women in science. She dedicates time and effort to nurturing young scientists. In 2020, she was awarded the Nature Research Award for Mentoring in Science.

Prof. Fridlender is a physician and scientist at the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem. He was trained in the Hebrew University (MD, MSc) and did his postdoc at the University of Pennsylvania. He currently heads the Department of Internal Medicine D and the Laboratory of Lung Cancer Research. Prof. Fridlender serves as Chair of the Israeli Society of Pulmonary Medicine. In addition to his clinical work, Prof. Fridlender is a leader in the field of Immunology and Immunotherapy of lung cancer, with special focus on the role of neutrophils in cancer and other respiratory diseases. He was the first to describe N1 and N2 neutrophils, and to clarify the role of low-density neutrophils in cancer. His research highlights the direct and indirect effects of neutrophils' functions (e.g., ROS production, degranulation, NETosis, etc.) on the tumor microenvironment. Recently he co-founded and serves as Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Immunyx Pharma, a drug development company focused on modulating neutrophils' function to treat cancer and inflammatory diseases.

Prof. Friedmann-Morvinski completed her postdoctoral research at the Salk Institute (USA), and holds a Ph.D. in Immunology from the Weizmann Institute of Science. The research in her lab 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 contribution of the tumor microenvironment to this process. She believes that understanding these mechanisms and interactions will facilitate the development of novel strategies (currently focusing on nanomedicine and immunotherapy) to attack this aggressive type of cancer.

Roi Gazit, PhD. is a Principal Investigator of Hematopoietic Stem Cell (HSC) and Immunology at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He is an active member of NIBN, ISCS, IIS, and ISEH.  

Undergraduate and Ph.D. at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem focused on NK-cells in vivo, supervisor Ofer Mandelboim. The Harvard Medical School postdoc at Derrick Rossi's lab focused on identifying and utilizing HSCs’ genes. Since 2013, his lab at Ben-Gurion University has been studying HSCs’ transcriptome during development and immune challenges. Interested in splicing, Myeloma, and immunotherapies. 

Dr. Madi completed his Ph.D.  studies at Tel Aviv University in computational immunology. Dr. Madi then continued to do a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women Hospital, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. The main interest of his lab is studying gene circuits of immune cells involving differentiation, activation and regulation. The lab focus on exploring these cells and circuits mainly in the context of the tumor pathology following stimulation, immunotherapies or cell-cell interactions. They apply cutting-edge technologies including single cell RNAseq and spatial transcriptomics, mouse tumor models, molecular biology, and other high-throughput genetic and genomic methods combined with advanced computational approaches to identify and functionally characterize genes that play an important role in immune cell circuits and their effect on tumor growth. This approach, will enable in-depth studies of immune-cell signaling in the context of interaction with tumor-resident cell types and tumor microenvironment.

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

Steffen Jung performed his Ph.D. at the University of to Cologne, under the guidance of Andreas Radbruch in the Institute of Genetics headed by Klaus Rajewsky. In 1993, Steffen moved for post-doctoral training to Israel and joined the laboratory of Yinon Ben-Neriah at the Lautenberg Center (Hebrew University, Jerusalem. In 1997, Steffen went to New York for a post-doc in the laboratory of Dan Littman at the Skirball Institute for Molecular Pathogenesis, NYU Medical Center. In 2002, Steffen returned to Israel and joined the faculty of the Weizmann Institute, where he received tenure in 2009 and full professorship in 2015.

Chemokines are small (8-14 kDa), secreted proteins that are involved in leukocyte migration. For many years, Nathan Karin and his team have focused on key chemokines chemokine-receptor interactions that beyond chemoattraction are also involved in directing the biological function of effector and regulatory T cells, particularly in the context of cancer and autoimmunity. Currently, the lab focuses on a key chemokine receptor that is largely expressed on effector and cytotoxic CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, named CXCR3, and two of its ligands: CXCL9 and CXCL10, and in exploring the crosstalk between the CXCR3 axis and the PD-1/PD-L1 axis in cancer diseases.

Prof. Keisari holds M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Microbiology and Immunology from Tel Aviv University.

Prof. Keisari served as a faculty member at the department of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University (1979 until 2015), and Professor Emeritus since 2015.

Prof. Keisari is a co-founder and served as a president of the Israeli Society for Cancer Research (2013-5). He serves as treasurer of International Cancer Microenvironment Society since 2015.

Prof. Keisari studies tumor immunology and develops tumor destruction methods which expose tumor antigens and thus stimulate anti-tumor immunity. Together with Prof. I. Kelson, they developed the Diffusing Alpha emitters Radiation Therapy (Alpha DaRT) technology which is used for the treatment of cancer patients. He is one of the founders of Alpha Tau Medical and serves as Chief Scientific Officer.

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.

Dr. Merbl earned her BSc in computational biology, summa cum laude (2003) from Bar-Ilan University, and her MSc in immunology (2005) in the lab of Prof. Irun Cohen at the Weizmann Institute. Dr. Merbl earned her PhD in systems biology (2010) from Harvard Medical School.

Working at the meeting point between biochemistry, proteomics, and immunology, Dr. Merbl is addressing both basic and translational research questions in the field of cancer and immunity. Her lab focuses on uncovering regulatory mechanisms of the epiproteome, by studying changes in posttranslational modifications and protein degradation. Her lab developed several platform technologies which enable the analysis of biological samples in different disease settings.   In the context of cancer, harnessing these approaches they have uncovered mechanisms regulating anti-tumor immunity by the ubiquitin-proteasome system. They also revealed the modified immunopeptidome landscape in cancer. These discoveries set the basis for translational research for biomarker and target discovery as well as novel therapeutic opportunities in a diverse set of human pathologies.

Dr. Merbl is the recipient of numerous awards for her scholastic and academic excellence, including the Peter and Patricia Gruber Award, an ERC Starting and Consolidator Grants, innovation awards in collaboration with leading pharma companies and the Israeli Centers of Excellence - Young Investigator Award. She is also a co-founder of two biotech companies base d on her technologies.

Alon Monsonego is a Full Professor at Ben-Gurion University, Israel. He holds the Lawrence W. and Marie Feldman Chair in Neurophysiology in the Faculty of Health Sciences. He is a member of the National Institute of Biotechnology in the Negev and Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell research center. His laboratory explores mechanisms of immune system aging, autoimmunity and brain-immune interactions, and their impact on immunity and neurodegeneration such as occurring in Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy and stroke. Research in the lab is carried in animal models as well as in human subjects affected with neurodegenerative and autoimmune diseases. For additional details see http://fohs.bgu.ac.il/monsonegolab

Prof. Ariel Munitz received a PhD in Pharmacology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and conducted a postdoctoral training in the field of Allergy and Immunology at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. In 2009, he joined the Department of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology at the Sackler Medical School of the Tel-Aviv University where he is now a Full Professor.

He has established a broad and internationally recognized research program aimed at understanding the roles of eosinophils in acute and chronic mucosal inflammation. He has authored more than 90 peer-reviewed manuscripts prestigious journals in the field of allergy, immunology, and cancer (Nature Immunology, Science Immunology, Nature Reviews in Cancer, Cancer Cell, Immunity, Cancer Research, Allergy). Specifically, his laboratory is interested in understating the molecular mechanisms underlying the recruitment and activation of eosinophils into the lungs and gastrointestinal tract and how to translate these pathways into novel therapeutics.

Prof. Munitz received numerous awards including the prestigious Alon Fellowship, the Teva Research Grant Award, the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology Sepracor Research Excellence Award and the Eva & George Klein Award given by the Israel Science Foundation. In collaboration with the Meir Hospital, Prof. Munitz’s laboratory received (twice) recognition as a Center of Excellence by the World Allergy Organization. Prof. Munitz serves as a consultant and an international advisory board member to several Israeli biotech and large pharma companies such as GSK, AstraZeneca and Sanofi. His 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, and the Tel Aviv University Cancer Biology Research Center.

Vered Padler-Karavani received her PhD in biochemistry from Tel Aviv University. She then did her postdoctoral training with Prof. Ajit Varki at The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and subsequently established The Laboratory for Glycoimmunology at Tel Aviv University The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Department of Cell Research and Immunology, The Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research.  Her research combines glycobiology, immunology, bio-nanotechnology, cancer research and xenotransplantation, and involves cutting edge technologies within these disciplines. She received several prestigious grants from the European Commission (Marie Curie, Health Consortium, ERC) to investigate various aspects of immunology of carbohydrates.

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). 

Reiter is a full professor and the head of the Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and Cancer Immunotherapy. 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-Israel Institute of Technology faculty since 1998. The lab has more than 25 years of experience in molecular immunology, antibody and cell engineering related to cancer immunotherapy. Reiter 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). 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.

Prof. Yardena Samuels received her BSc from Cambridge University, UK in 1993, and earned an MSc in immunology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in 1997. She completed a PhD at Imperial College, London in 2002. She worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Prof Vogelstein’s laboratory at Johns Hopkins University from 2003 to 2006. She served as an assistant professor at NIH before joining the Weizmann Institute in 2012. Today she is the director of the EKARD Institute for Cancer Diagnosis Research and is the incumbent of the Knell Family Professorial Chair. Prof. Samuels is the recipient of the Pezoller Foundation Award, the Youdim Family Prize for Excellence in Cancer Research, an EMBO member and is President Elect of the European Association for Cancer Research. 

Born in Israel, Prof. Idit Shachar earned her BSc (1987) and MSc (1989) degrees with honors in biochemistry from Tel-Aviv University, and a PhD in biochemistry in 1993 from the same institution. Her postdoctoral research was undertaken at Yale University School of Medicine from 1993-1997. In 1998, she returned to Israel and joined the Weizmann Institute. She served as head of the Department of Immunology 2014 - 2017 she is currently the head of the office of gender equality and promoting women in science.

Prof. Shachar investigates the immune system, identified some key junctions where molecular interactions contribute to promoting immunosuppressive microenvironments in different tumors.

She holds four U.S. patents in the treatment of inflammation and one for treating cancer. 

Prof. Shachar has two children: a daughter, Yuval, and a son, Daniel.

Yuval Shaked is a Professor at the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion, Israel, and the director of the Rappaport-Technion Integrated Cancer Center. He obtained his PhD from the Hadassah University Hospital (Israel) and was trained as a post-doctoral fellow at University of Toronto, Canada. In 2008, he started his independent career at the Technion. He has pioneered and coined the term host response to anti-cancer therapy. He served as the vice dean for research in his faculty. Prof. Shaked received a number of awards including the Yigal Allon fellowship, Krill Prize from the Wolf foundation, Youdim prize for Excellence in Cancer Research and Hershel prize for innovation. He is supported by national and European grant agencies including ICRF, BSF, ISF and ERC. Prof. Shaked is an author of over 150 published studies and holds more than 5 approved patents.

Dr. Tal Shay is the head of the ImmunoInformatics lab at the Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Her group uses and develops computational methods to study the immune system. Specifically, the lab aims to understand what changes in immune cells during differentiation and activation, and how immune cells differ between male and female, young and old, and between different species. The study of immune cells is mostly done at the transcriptomics level, both gene expression and gene splicing, and their regulation.

Educated as M.D. at Hamburg University, Germany he joined Richard Ulevitch in 1987 to Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation, La Jolla, USA, where he published “The Structure-Function-Analysis of LBP” 1990 in Science. After a medical internship at University Hospital of Freiburg, Germany he moved to Max-Delbrück Centrum (MDC) and later, until present, to “Charité” Faculty of Medicine, Berlin. There he served as full professor and acting Director of the Institute of Microbiology. He received numerous scientific prizes and awards, among them the Ben-Gurion Medal of the BGU. As visiting Professor he spent a sabbatical at Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem, 2004-2005.

Benjamin Sredni obtained his PhD in Immunology at Prof. L.A. Rozenszajn's lab at Bar-Ilan University. He performed his postdoctoral studies on cell cloning as a tool to analyze the immune response at W.E. Paul laboratories of immunology at the NIH. Later, he joined the Faculty of Life Sciences at BIU. Prof. Sredni served as the Dean of Faculty of Natural sciences and Mathematics, Chief scientist of the ministry of health.  And Chief Scientist of Bar Ilan Research & Development Company. Since 1988 until present he serves as the Director of The Cancer AIDS and Immunology Research Institute (C.A.I.R. Institute) at Bar Ilan University.  Tellurium is the fourth most abundant trace element in the human body. Prof. Sredni's research focuses on Tellurium based small molecules as immunomodulators, now involved in advanced clinical trials in which they are given both topically IV and orally.

Itay Tirosh obtained his PhD in computational biology from the Weizmann Institute; he was then a postdoctoral fellow at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and since 2017 he is a PI at the Weizmann Institute. The Tirosh lab combines computational approaches and single cell methods to understand the diversity of cells within human tumors, with a focus on glioma and head and neck cancers. 

Chen Varol is the director of the Research Center for Digestive Tract & Liver Diseases, at Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center. He is also an associate professor at the Department of Clinical Microbiology & Immunology, Tel Aviv University. Prof. 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, liver and adipose tissue macrophage ontogeny and functional heterogeneity. We try to elucidate novel immunoregulatory pathways that mediate the pathological versus restorative activity of these cells.

Voronov, Elena, MD/PhD, finished her medical studies in 1980 at the Medical University, Samara, USSR. In 1988 she received her PhD degree in Hepatology and Immunology. In 1992, after immigrating to Israel, she confirmed her medical license and started working in Prof. Ronnie Apte’s laboratory in the Faculty of Medical Sciences of Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Prof. Apte’s laboratory studies the biology of Interleukin-1 and its role in inflammation and cancer. The main focus of the lab is the role of microenvironment and intra-tumoral Interleukin-1 in the development of local tumors and metastases in breast and colorectal cancer in mice. Based on the evaluation of different aspects of Interleukin-1 biology, our lab proposed novel therapeutic protocols for breast and colorectal cancer, based on a combination of standard chemotherapy with inhibition of inflammation via neutralization of Interleukin-1.

Dr. Shurin joined the department of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA in 1991 after graduation from the Moscow Medical School in 1984 and clinical and postdoctoral training at the National Mental Health Research Center in Moscow. His research program focuses on the tumor immunoenvironment, solid tumor innervation and neuro-immunological axis in cancer. He is a also a Medical Director of the Division of Clinical Immunopathology responsible for immunodiagnostic at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Born in Vienna, Austria.

Education: PhD (Hebrew University 1965); Post-doctoral training (Roswell Park Memorial Institute, Buffalo, NY 1965 -1968).

Academic Appointments: Full professor Tel Aviv University (1975). Professor Emeritus (2003).

Present: Head, Laboratory of Tumor Microenvironment & Metastasis Research, The Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research, Tel Aviv University. Several visiting professorships in the USA and Europe

Scientific Interests: The crosstalk between cancer and non-cancerous cells in the tumor microenvironment (TME); Metastasis and the metastatic microenvironment.

Scientific Publications: Authored 231 research papers & reviews. Edited and guest-edited 11 books. Wrote the Chapter on: “Tumor Microenvironment” – Encyclopedia of Cancer – 2^nd & 3^rd Edition.

Main Professional Occupations (former & present):
Tel Aviv University: Chairman Department of Cell Research and Immunology; Founding Head, Cancer Biology Research Center; Dean, Faculty of Life Sciences; Vice President for R&D; Member, Board of Governors.                                                                                                       
 

National: President, Israel Immunological Society; Chairman, French-Israeli Scientific Cooperation in Immunology; Founding President – Israel Association for Cancer Research; Member, Scientific Committee- DKFZ - Ministry of Science Cooperation in Cancer Research.

International: Council Member EACR; Council Member IUIS; Member Steering Committee AACR’s TME Working Group; Founding President, International Cancer Microenvironment Society. Organizer & President of 7 International Conferences on TME:

Major Honors & Awards (from 2000):

2003-The Jacqueline Seroussi Award for Cancer Research (with Judah Folkman)

2008- Life Time Achievement Award for Scientific Contributions, University of Maryland

2018- Doctor Honoris Causa – University of Vienna, Austria

2019- 14^th Annual Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Lecture, Institute of Human Virology University of Maryland 

2022 - Honorary Member - The European Academy of Tumor Immunology 

2022- Lifetime Achievement Award - Israeli Society for Cancer Research

2023- Career Achievement Award in Cancer Research - The Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research, Tel Aviv University

2023- Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research! 

Dr. Nissan Yissachar is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Life Sciences at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. He received his Ph.D. in molecular biology from Bar-Ilan University, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in systems immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science. He then moved to Harvard Medical School for a second postdoctoral research in the lab of Profs. Christophe Benoist and Diane Mathis, where he developed a novel gut organ culture system. This unique approach led him to discover that the enteric nervous system mediates intestinal microbe-immune interactions. His research focuses on host-microbiome interactions and their impact on immune system function, in health and disease.