Moshe Elkabets, PhD

About the Investigator:

Dr. Moshe Elkabets received his PhD degree in Tumor Immunology from Ben-Gurion University. After carrying out postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, he joined the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben-Gurion University where he is currently an Associate Professor in the Shraga Segal Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Genetics. His research focuses primarily on ovarian and head and neck cancers, he has published over 70 peer-reviewed articles, and holds several patents.

About the Research:

Elimination of metastatic lesions and killing of metastatic tumor cells is the only way to improve the survival of cancer patients diagnosed with metastatic disease. Thus, developing new treatments to eliminate metastatic tumors is urgently needed. One of the possible solutions that is currently being considered is to target the metastasis-enhancing protein AXL, which is present on the tumor cell membrane. However, clinical studies have shown that blocking AXL alone is not sufficient to limit tumor progression and metastasis. Dr. Elkabets and his team plan to develop a unique therapeutic approach that aims to activate the patient’s immune system to eliminate AXL-expressing tumor cells. Specifically, they will generate a new immunotherapy agent in the form of a bi-specific inhibitor that binds to AXL on tumor cells and simultaneously activates cytotoxic lymphocytic cells by binding to their suppressive protein, PD1. The inhibitor-mediated interaction between T cells and tumor cells should directly enhance the killing of the AXL-expressing cells.

The proposed research project will test the new therapeutic in pre-clinical models using human tumors
implanted in mice and will study its mode of action in genetically-similar tumors derived directly from mice.

They predict that treatment with the bi-specific inhibitor will reduce or eliminate metastatic disease in mice bearing breast and head and neck cancers. Also, because AXL is found in a wide variety of cancer types and is present in enhanced concentrations in metastatic lesions, the Elkabets team envisions that their research should significantly contribute to the critical fight against metastatic malignancies.