Institute Activities

The build-up of senescent cells—cells that stop dividing, but do not die—is a hallmark of aging tissues as well as cancer. Prof. Valery Krizhanovsky has helped clarify how senescence, known to block the proliferation of premalignant cells, can also promote tumor growth and progression. Studying premalignant pancreatic lesions, he demonstrated that senescent cells within such tumors exhibit high levels of a protein called Cox2. Further, he showed that pharmacologic inhibition of this protein prevented the lesions from progressing and becoming pancreatic carcinoma. These findings indicate that targeted elimination of senescent cells may be effective in limiting progression of precancerous lesions, and serve as an effective strategy for cancer prevention.

Until now, most individuals referred to early CT screening for lung cancer have been smokers. Prof. Zvi Livneh and his colleagues are exploring a different approach, examining the efficacy of determining lung cancer risk through an individual’s “DNA repair score”—a summation of the activity of a number of molecular pathways through which cells are known to respond to genetic damage, as revealed in a blood test. Prof. Livneh’s study confirmed that a low DNA repair score indicates a heightened risk for lung cancer, regardless of the case’s disease stage. This may significantly improve current standards for identifying individuals who are candidates for early lung cancer screening.

Prof. Rivka Dikstein of the Department of Biomolecular Sciences recently demonstrated how a mutation that affects mRNA translation “sets the stage” for cancer. Using mammalian cells, she showed that an initiation factor called elF1A—known, in its mutated form, to be associated with cancers of the ovaries, thyroid, and eye—plays a critical role in maintaining both cell cycle progression and cell proliferation. Prof. Dikstein’s study reveals that this initiation factor is an essential component of an inhibitory feedback loop that blocks the overexpression of proteins, thereby controlling molecular dynamics that can trigger cancer onset. Her work reveals eIF1A as a biomarker that may eventually contribute to new protocols for preventative cancer screening, as well as diagnosis and personalized cancer therapy.

On December 7th, 2016, the Swiss Society Institute for Cancer Prevention Research, a division of the Moross Integrated Cancer Center (MICC) at the Weizmann Institute of Science hosted a talk by Prof. Avrum Spira.  Prof. Spira, Director of the Boston Medical Center Cancer Center of Boston University, spoke about “the airway transcriptome as a biomarker for lung cancer detection and prevention.” In his lecture, Prof. Spira described techniques he and his team have developed for the identification of gene-expression-based biomarkers that can contribute to the personalized care of patients with lung cancer, as well as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Extensive studies have established a causal link between smoking and cancer. While the danger of smoking is now well known, the general public is less aware of cancer-related risk factors stemming from air pollution. This is one area of research being pursued by Prof. Yinon Rudich of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.

When the body identifies flawed cells, programmed cell death kicks in and prevents their proliferation.  Dysregulationof this process–also called apoptosis–can lead to cancer onset. Dr. Valery Krizhanovsky, of the Department of Molecular Cell Biology, is examining one apoptotic process called senescence, in which flawed cells are left to live, but cannot proliferate. While a senescent state, which can occur in response to cancer-inducing mutations, serves as an initial barrier to tumor development, the presence of non-dividing, senescent cells is also linked to inflammation, tissue destruction, tumorigenesis and metastasis. Using a small molecule, Dr. Krizhanovsky has demonstrated that it is possible to target and trigger apoptosis in senescent cells.  Working in a model of pancreatic cancer, his team’s work is contributing to new strategies that may eliminate senescent cells, and thus prevent the progress of pancreatic cancer to its more advanced stages.

Lymphocytes are cells in our immune system that work as sentinels, identifying and eliminating flawed cells, including those that have been transformed into a pre-cancerous state.  Researchers at the Swiss Society Institute for Cancer Prevention Research are examining new avenues towards the characterization of this “surveillance” function, in order to eventually adopt this functionality in preventative therapeutics for high-risk patients.

Translational research is essential in moving basic research discoveries from the lab to the public health arena, and tissue samplesare a necessary and precious resource for these studies.

Blood is a common tissue often used in translational and medical research. Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells or PBMC (composed primarily of lymphocytes) are isolated by fractionation in Ficoll tubes.