About the Investigator:

Prof. Frenkel is a clinician-scientist who treats eye cancer patients while pursuing research to better understand these cancers and to develop novel therapies. He is a graduate of the MD-PhD program at Hebrew University Medical School. He performed his ophthalmology residency at both the University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago and at Hadassah University Hospital, with sub-specialties in Ocular Oncology and Ophthalmic Pathology respectively. He now heads the Ocular Oncology Unit and the Ocular Oncology Research Laboratory at Hadassah Medical Center.

About the Research:

Retinoblastoma (or RB) is the most common eye cancer in young children worldwide. Chemotherapy aims to avoid removing the eyes, but some RB tumors resist treatment due to a specific DNA methylation pattern, termed Cluster B. Prof. Frenkel’s research seeks to understand this resistance and develop new treatments to save vision, eyes, and lives.

Unlike normal cells, aggressive RB cells can survive in low oxygen (hypoxia). Two key proteins, CREB and HIF-1, help these tumors survive hypoxia and are linked to Cluster B genes. The Frenkel team has created gene therapy vectors that target and reduce CREB and HIF-1 in tumor cells, thus demonstrating that these vectors can slow tumor growth in mouse models and make tumors more responsive to chemotherapy. Prof. Frenkel will use these vectors to further study how reducing CREB and HIF-1 affects Cluster B genes, tumor growth, and response to hypoxia and chemotherapy.

Both CREB and HIF-1 are also important in other cancers, such as melanoma and lung cancer. It is Prof. Frenkel’s hope that if these vectors are proven effective in retinoblastoma, they could potentially benefit patients with various solid tumors as well.