Scientist Snapshot 
Tomer Kalisky

Tomer Kalisky, PhD
Assistant Professor, Dept of Bioengineering 
Bar-Ilan University, Israel 
Area of Focus: Characterizing cellular heterogeneity in renal cell carcinoma using single-cell genomics. 

Tomer Kalisky received his bachelor’s degree at Bar Ilan University and in 2006 received a PhD degree there in computational physics studying complex networks with Prof. Shlomo Havlin and then completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Prof. Uri Alon from the Weizmann Institute in systems biology. Following that he spent five years studying with Prof. Stephen Quake at Stanford, during which time he developed high throughput microfluidic technologies for single cell genomics and worked closely with Prof. Michael Clarke’s group at the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine to apply these technologies to cancer biology.

Tumor heterogeneity describes the observation that different tumor cells can show distinct morphological and phenotypic profiles, including cellular shape, gene expression, metabolism, motility, proliferation, and metastatic potential. This phenomenon occurs both between tumors and within tumors and presents a huge challenge for treatment since every tumor cell needs to be destroyed. Dr. Kalisky proposed to study renal cell carcinoma, a tumor that is particularly heterogeneous, to understand how and why these tumors differ from patient to patient. A key aspect of this variation is difference in the genes that are expressed in one tumor compared to another, this project proposes to study the genes expressed in individual cells of a tumor as a means to identify mechanisms that might underly these many differences.

This research will hopefully assist in finding better ways to stratify tumors into subtypes and might suggest an appropriate treatment for each sub-type according to its unique gene expression characteristics. Moreover, identification and characterization of cancer stem cells within the tumor will assist in the design of targeted anti-cancer therapies and might suggest new markers for early detection and better diagnosis.

Prior to pursuing training in biological research Dr. Kalisky served in the Israeli Defense Forces as a research and development physicist. While at University he was the recipient of several prestigious fellowship awards including a Fulbright Fellowship and a Fellowship from the Michiah Foundation. He is the author of numerous scientific publications and hold 2 patents for methods to use single cell analysis for diagnosis, prognosis and the identification of drug targets.

He then completed postdoctoral training in molecular biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2007 followed by a year’s work in Stanford University in Palo Alto.

Israeli researchers develop radioactive marker to detect tumours and replace biopsy

More than 200,000 cancer patients and persons in remission live in Israel. Each year, nearly 28,000 new patients are diagnosed, approximately 400 of whom are children.

According to data from the National Cancer Registry at the Ministry of Health, the four most common types in Israel are breast, colon, prostate, and lung cancer.

Scientific advances in cancer research and new means of diagnosis and treatment have made it possible to cure many patients. The probability of cure depends largely on the type of cancer tumour and the stage at which the disease is discovered. Accurate means of diagnosis in the early stages is key to saving lives.

New Israeli research by Isotopia Molecular Imaging Ltd., and led by Prof. Sharon Ruthstein from the Department of Chemistry at Bar-Ilan University, is being conducted to develop a hypoxia radioactive marker, a phenomenon of lack of oxygen in cells, based on the Copper 64 isotope to identify oxygen-deficient cells.

Cancer patients can safely get COVID-19 vaccine, Israeli study shows

Individuals being treated for cancer who get inoculated against COVID-19 are not expected to have any severe side effects, a study by Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and Bnai Zion Hospital in Haifa showed.
The study was published on Thursday in the Lancet.

Cancer patients who have been treated with all types of anticancer drugs have as much as a 40% increased likelihood of dying from COVID-19 than non-cancer patients, multiple studies have shown. As such, Israel’s Health Ministry prioritized the vaccination of these patients when rolling out its vaccination campaign in December.

However, some experts worried that cancer patients who were being treated with immunotherapy, which stimulates the immune system against tumors, could experience adverse events from the vaccination. Vaccines also stimulate the immune system.
The Pfizer vaccine Phase III trial did not include any active cancer patients, only healthy individuals or people with chronic but stable medical conditions.

Scientist behind Pfizer vaccine: mRNA shots for cancer coming ‘in couple years’

BioNTech’s Ozlem Tureci says the know-how behind revolutionary inoculations could soon be used to treat far more than the coronavirus pandemic



 

BERLIN (AP) — The scientist who won the race to deliver the first widely used coronavirus vaccine says people can rest assured the shots are safe, and the technology behind it will soon be used to fight another global scourge — cancer.

Ozlem Tureci, who co-founded the German company BioNTech with her husband, was working on a way to harness the body’s immune system to tackle tumors when they learned last year of an unknown virus infecting people in China.

Over breakfast, the couple decided to apply the technology they’d been researching for two decades to the new threat, dubbing the effort “Project Lightspeed.”

Within 11 months, Britain had authorized the use of the mRNA vaccine BioNTech developed with US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, followed a week later by the United States. Tens of millions of people worldwide have received the shot since December. Israel, the world leader in vaccinations per capita, is overwhelmingly using the Pfizer jabs.

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