Yosef Buganim, PhD

About the Investigator:

Prof. Buganim’s research focuses on cell plasticity and cellular transformation. He received his BSc and MSc degrees from Bar-Ilan University, and his PhD in cancer research from the Weizmann Institute of science. After postdoctoral training at the MIT Whitehead Institute in Massachusetts, he returned to Hebrew University, where he is now an Associate Professor in the Department of Developmental Biology and Cancer Research.

About the Research:

New, ground-breaking research has found that several types of cancer have acquired a distinctive genetic makeup, similar to the cells forming an embryo’s outer layer, known as the extraembryonic trophectoderm. This finding raises several important questions: What role does this trophectoderm-like state play in cancer development? How and when is it induced in cancer cells? Can this state be changed, and how would that affect cancer cells?

Prof. Buganim’s research aims to understand how the trophectoderm-like state promotes cancer initiation and progression. Using innovative techniques in nuclear reprogramming, he will induce this state in normal and partially-transformed cells to see how cancer cells benefit from it. The Buganim lab will also investigate the impact of removing key trophectodermal factors — proteins or molecules that might contribute to cancer cell behaviors — on cancer aggressiveness.

He and his team will identify key features associated with the trophectoderm-like state through transcriptomic and epigenetic analysis and validate these findings in human cancer samples. By examining their role in cancer initiation and progression, Prof. Buganim hopes to identify new targets for cancer therapy.