COVID-19 Pandemic

Prof. Oren Kobiler

Organoid models

SARS-CoV-2 is a new emerging coronavirus that cause the COVID-19 global pandemic. The clinical manifestations among SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals vary from asymptomatic infection to acute respiratory failure and death. While SARS-CoV-2 share many features of the other human coronaviruses, it has become a major threat on https://www.tau.ac.il/~okobiler/Home.html global human health. By comparing basic infection processes of the seasonal coronaviruses to the SARS-CoV-2, Kobiler anticipates to identify the unique features of this virus. His team is establishing a model system for coronavirus infection of patient-derived airway organoids. The reproducibility of the model system will allow the team to test and identify the role of specific parameters of the SARSCoV-2 infection, and to test possible drugs.

Prof. Kobiler is at the Department of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology. Kobiler obtained his BSc from the Hebrew University in Medical Sciences. He received, in parallel, his MD and PhD from the Hebrew University. As a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University, he received a Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) Long Term Fellowship and the ISF Bikura Postdoctoral Award. He frequently appears on the news to share a scientist’s perspective on the COVID-19 pandemic.