Coordinator: Professor Howard (Haim) Cedar
Department of Developmental Biology and Cancer Research, Faculty of Medicine, haimc@ekmd.huji.ac.il
Scientific Background
The goal of epigenetics is to understand the internal switches that carry out the reprogramming process that causes cancer cells to grow in a malignant manner.
Research Hub Goals and Activities
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Bringing together scientists and physicians working in the fields of cancer biology, cancer therapy, epigenetics and preventative medicine in order to find new approaches for understanding and conquering cancer
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Deciphering the epigenetic makeup of cancer to discover the most promising routes for treating and preventing cancer
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Encouraging funding opportunities for collaborative projects and offering new graduate courses that integrate the subjects of tumor biology with epigenetics
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Acquiring funding for common equipment such as the sophisticated microarray and sequencing instruments needed for carrying out genome-wide epigenetics analysis
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Organizing and establishing a local mouse repository for tumor models
Existing Industry Collaborations
Tiltan Pharma, an Israeli start-up company developing an anti-angiogenic treatment for cancer
Agilent Technologies, a major life sciences company
Hub Members and Focus
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Prof. Howard Cedar – DNA methylation and chromatin structure, major effectors in all forms of cancer
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Dr. Yuval Dor – Biology of the pancreas, diabetes and pancreatic cancer
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Prof. Yehudit Bergman – Stem cell biology; molecular biology of lymphomas and leukemias; DNA methylation
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Dr. Dina Ben-Yehuda – Clinical and molecular biology of lymphomas and leukemia
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Dr. Tamar Peretz – Clinical and molecular biology of breast cancer
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Dr. Asaf Hellman – Epigenetics of populations
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Prof. Yechiel Friedlander – Population biology of cancer
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Dr. Ittai Ben-Porath – Animal models of breast, prostate and colon cancer; epigenetics of cancer
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Prof. Eli Pikarsky – Tumor pathology; animal models of liver cancer
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Prof. Shmuel Ben-Sasson - Tumor biology
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