Aeid Igbaria, PhD

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About the Investigator:

Dr. Igbaria’s research focuses on how protein changes can lead to cancer. He is studying this problem at the molecular, cellular, and organismal levels. He received his BSc and MSc degrees from the Technion and his PhD from the University of Paris-11, France. After postdoctoral training at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), he returned to Rennes, France, to lead a research team on Glioblastoma. In September 2020, he joined Ben-Gurion University, where he is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Life Sciences of the Faculty of Natural Sciences.

About the Research:

In recent years, we have witnessed the development of a new field called “Cardio-oncology” that focuses on the relationship between cardiovascular disease and cancer. This field has paid great attention to the side effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy on developing cardiovascular disease. On the other hand, nowadays, we know that many patients with heart failure are at risk of developing specific types of cancer. Those patients are usually diagnosed with aggressive cancer and have a poor prognosis. Despite that, the connection between these two diseases is not well understood.

Recently, Dr. Igbaria’s team found a new way for cancer cells to communicate with healthy cells. They called it ERCYS, and this mechanism helps cancer cells grow and resist chemotherapy. Interestingly, it also causes heart cells to die. In this project, they will study how chemotherapy affects the heart and how heart cells can activate ERCYS in cancer cells. Moreover, the team will look for ways to stop ERCYS in cancer cells to make them more sensitive to chemotherapy. This research is based on solid evidence and could help identify early warning signs of cancer in patients with heart failure