Merav Cohen, PhD

Project Title

Decoding the cellular and molecular patterns that predispose breast cancer initiation

Named Grant:

Funded In Partnership with the Redhill Foundation

Research Topics

Breast Cancer

About the Investigator:

Dr. Merav Cohen is an Assistant Professor at Tel Aviv University, where she is the head of the Systems Immunology & ImmunoGenomics Laboratory, specialized in Developmental-immunology and Cancer-Immunology. She holds M.Sc. in biotechnology engineering from Ben-Gurion University in the field of Tumor-Immunology (graduated Summa Cum Laude), and a Ph.D. in ‘Neuro-Immunology’ from the Weizmann Institute of Science. She spent four years as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Weizmann Institute of Science working on ImmunoGenomics. In 2019, she conducted a second Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the Department of Oncological Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine Mount-Sinai, NYC in the field of ‘Tumor-Immunology’.

About the Research:

During tissue development, intercellular communication can drive essential processes such as the normal physiological growth of the mammary gland in specific time points (puberty). For that, the mammary epithelial and stromal cells interact through specific molecules with other immune cells around them, to promote growth and expansion of the breast tissue. Disruption of this cell communication can drive a dysregulation of important processes in the breast tissue and lead to aberrant cell behavior, which may pre-dispose and support the initiation of cancer.

Dr. Cohen’s research focuses on revealing intercellular crosstalk between immune and epithelial cells in the normal breast tissue and in tissue that will develop cancer at adulthood, for identification of potential early immunotherapy targets. The team explores molecular signatures of cellular communication, and compares “physiological interactions” to crosstalk occurring prior to breast cancer onset in order to reveal novel immunotherapy and early-detection biomarkers for breast cancer. Dr. Cohen’s lab studies a mouse breast-cancer model that promotes cancer induction during adulthood, and is highly comparable to human breast tumors. By applying advanced single-cell RNA-sequencing based technologies, such as PIC-seq, together with novel computational analysis, the Cohen lab will construct the single-cell interaction molecular map highlighting signaling promoting physiological development, but also breast cancer initiation. The Cohen lab will validate the expression of molecular targets in tumor samples derived from patients with early-stage breast cancer (in-situ ductal adenocarcinoma) and with mutations leading to cancer at adulthood (BRCA1&2). Understanding the signaling that preconditions breast cancer initiation will have a high impact in the breast oncology field, by identifying novel personalized biomarkers and potential early immunotherapy targets.