Neta Erez, PhD

Named Grant:

Funded In Partnership with The Redhill Foundation

About the Investigator:

Prof. Erez studies the biology of tumor metastasis, focusing on the microenvironment and cancer-related inflammation. The main goal of her research is to characterize the communication between tumor cells and their microenvironment that can be targeted by novel therapeutics. She began her academic career at the Weizmann Institute of Science, where she received her PhD in molecular cell biology. Following her postdoctoral training at UCSF, she returned to Tel Aviv University, where she is a Full Professor and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Medical & Heath Sciences. Prof. Erez is President of the Israeli Society for Cancer Research (ISCR), President-Elect of the Metastasis Research Society (MRS), a board member of the EACR, and a member of the AACR TME Working Group.

About the Research:

Breast cancer mortality is almost exclusively the result of tumor metastasis to distant organs, frequently the brain. Despite therapeutic advances, brain metastases remain a grim prognosis, with a median survival rate of less than a year. Extensive research in recent years has led to the understanding that cells in the tumor microenvironment play a central role in all stages of cancer progression, and highlight the need for a better understanding of the unique brain metastatic microenvironment to inhibit brain metastatic relapse. Dr. Erez’s previous studies demonstrated that in the brain, activation of astrocytes instigated inflammation, which facilitated the growth of disseminated cancer cells. Moreover, she and her team recently discovered a novel subpopulation of astrocytes, capable of communicating with T lymphocytes that may combat tumor cells in the brain. In this study, Dr. Erez will characterize this novel subpopulation of astrocytes in both murine models and human patients, elucidate their functional interactions with T lymphocytes and the regulatory pathways that govern their functions, and harness this knowledge to improve the efficacy of immune checkpoint therapy for treatment of brain metastasis. The team will also use multi-dimensional spatial proteomics technologies to map the microenvironment in human brain metastases from breast cancer patients. The combined insights gained from mechanistic studies and molecular analyses of patient samples will shed light on novel immune-regulatory pathways in the brain microenvironment and facilitate the rational design of innovative immunotherapeutic treatments that will improve the response of patients with brain metastasis to immunotherapy.