Cancer and Molecular Therapies

Prof. Zvi Fishelson

Cancer cells resisting immunity

Several therapeutic approaches try to enlist the patient’s immune system for killing of his/her cancer. All these approaches face a major obstacle : cancer cells are resistant to any type of damage inflicted by the armory of our immune system . Prof. Fishelson has uncovered several defense strategies employed by cancer cells to resist immune attack . His team is currently investigating the molecules that protect the cancer cells and their mode of action, and seek potential intervention points through which this protection could be annulled They develop reagents that block resistance of cancer cells, sensitize them to available immunotherapies and enable the patient’s immune system to destroy its cancer

Prof. Fishelson is a member of the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology and an Incumbent of The Roberts -Guthman Chair in Immunopharmacology. He served as President of both the International Complement Society and European Complement Network (ECN) and was awarded an ECN Gold Medal. He is treasurer of the Israeli Society for Cancer Research, Board Member of the Israel Immunological Society and member of the Henry Kunkel Society. He is an editorial board member of Molecular Immunology and associate editor of Frontiers in Immunology .