Professor Yifat Merbl: Uncovering a Hidden Layer of Immune Control

Professor Yifat Merbl is an internationally recognized leader in systems immunology and cancer biology whose groundbreaking research is reshaping understanding of how the immune system detects and responds to disease.

She is an ICRF-supported investigator and recipient of the ICRF–Cancer Research Institute (CRI) Collaborative Technology Impact Award, and studies the proteasome, the cell’s “garbage disposal,” uncovering how cells break down proteins to generate signals that influence immunity, cancer development, and disease progression. Prior to receiving this current grant, she was awarded the ICRF-Cancer Research Institute Clinic and Laboratory Integration Program Grant for her research on controlling proteasomal degradation for enhancing anti-tumor immunity.

Her discoveries have opened entirely new avenues in cancer and immune system research, revealing previously unknown connections between cellular protein degradation and immune surveillance.

In 2025, Prof. Merbl was named to Nature’s prestigious “Nature’s 10” list, recognizing scientists whose work made a major global impact that year. Nature highlighted her groundbreaking discoveries uncovering what it described as “an entirely new layer” of the immune system, underscoring the transformative potential of her research for cancer biology and immunotherapy.

That same year, she also received the inaugural AACR Trailblazer Cancer Research Grant from the American Association for Cancer Research, a highly competitive award supporting bold, high-risk research with the potential to redefine the future of cancer treatment. Her project explores how targeting protein modification pathways, including SUMOylation, could unlock powerful new therapeutic strategies against cancer.

Prof. Merbl has also won other awards, including the Rappaport Prize for Biomedical Research, given to promising researchers making exceptional contributions to the life sciences.

Through her ICRF-supported work and internationally celebrated achievements, Prof. Merbl exemplifies the strength of Israeli scientific research and the impact of sustained investment in advancing global cancer research and discovery.

Read more about Professor Merbl.