Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases

Prof. Ariel Munitz

Immunity in health and disease

Type 2 immunity occurs during allergic diseases or infection with parasites

Emerging data highlight new roles for Type 2 immune responses in metabolism, tissue regeneration and cancer. We aim to define the roles of cells and proteins that are “traditionally” associated with allergy in additional chronic inflammatory diseases and the tumor microenvironment. Our main research aim is to define how eosinophils, white blood cells, operate in settings of allergy and cancer. How and when do eosinophils recognize tumor cells? Do resident and recruited eosinophils www.munitzlab.com act differently in the tumor microenvironment? Are the opposing activities of eosinophils dictated by heterogeneity of these cells in distinct microenvironments? Finally, can eosinophils be therapeutically targeted as a new cellular target in the cancer? Answering these questions will introduce a conceptual shift from allergy to tumor biology providing crossdisciplinary understandings of the tumor microenvironment that can be translated into novel immunotherapy.

Prof. Munitz, PhD, is at the Department of Clinical Microbioloy and Immunology at the School of Medicine. He obtained a BSc in Medical Science and direct PhD in Pharmacology at Faculty of Medicine at Hebrew University. His post-doctoral training was at the Division of Allergy and Immunology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Ohio. Munitz was awarded the Alon Fellowship, the Teva Medicine Award for Outstanding Research, the Eva and George Klein Award by the Israel Science Foundation, the Tel Aviv University Rector Award for Outstanding Teaching Achievements and the Dean Prize for Excellent Teaching Skills. He is a board member of the International Eosinophil Society.