Uri Ben-David, PhD
Project Title
Dissecting the selection pressures that shape anueploidy landscapes in cancer
Dr. Ben-David is a new junior faculty member in the Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry at Tel Aviv University and the recipient of a joint ICRF-Israel Ministry of Science and Technology Gesher Award, designed to help stellar junior scientists set up independent research labs upon returning to Israel after training overseas.
Dr. Ben-David’s laboratory (www.bendavidlab.com) focuses on a fundamental, understudied trait of cancer called aneuploidy – a change in the number of chromosomes in cancer cells. His lab applies a variety of experimental and computational approaches to deciphering the biological processes that underlie this phenomenon and develops novel strategies to exploit this unique trait in order to target cancer cells and eliminate tumors. By uncovering the basic biology underlying this unique trait, his lab aspires to expand the understanding of the genetic basis of cancer, and to open new avenues for personalized cancer treatments.
Dr. Ben-David completed his BSc and PhD at Hebrew University, where he studied stem cell biology under the supervision of Prof. Nissim Benvenisty. He then became a postdoctoral fellow at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, where he studied cancer genetics with Prof. Todd Golub. Throughout his training, Dr. Ben-David received numerous prestigious awards, including the Clore Doctoral Fellowship, Dan David Scholar Award, American Society of Cell Biology Kaluza Award, and the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), Rothschild and Human Frontiers Science Program (HFSP) Postdoctoral Fellowships.
Dr. Ben-David is the author of 39 peer-reviewed papers that were published in prestigious scientific journals, and his work was cited over 4,500 times. In 2018, a groundbreaking study led by Dr. Ben-David was published on the cover of the journal Nature, and in 2020 he led another seminal study that was published on the cover of the journal Nature Genetics. He currently leads a group of 9 staff scientists and students. As an independent investigator, Dr. Ben-David is also recipient of the European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant, the Azrieli Junior Faculty Fellowship, as well as multiple additional competitive research grants. In 2020, Dr. Ben-David was awarded the ‘Next Generation Star Award’ by the American Association for Cancer Research.
