Two researchers from the field of immunology and four young researchers in different fields won the 2020 Rapoport Prize

Rapaport Prizes for Biomedical Research will be awarded to Professor Ofer Mandelbaum from the Hebrew University and Professor Tamar Geiger from Tel Aviv University as well as to four outstanding young researchers on a direct path to a Ph.D.

Rapaport awards for excellence in biomedical research will be awarded this year to the senior scientist-Professor Ofer Mandelbaum from the Hebrew University and to the promising scientist-Professor Tamar Geiger from Tel Aviv University.
Another prize will be awarded to four outstanding researchers who are on a direct path to a doctorate, and they are: Itai Antoine Toker, from Tel Aviv University, Shiran Bar, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Idan Hexelman, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, and Adi Biram, from the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Prof. Aharon Chahanover, chairman of the judging committee for the Rapaport Prize in Medical Sciences, said: "The culture of philanthropy and mutual aid run like a second thread in the history of the Jewish people and has accompanied it since biblical times. Philanthropy serves as a necessary lever for the promotion of education, science and culture and for supporting various sectors in places where the governments' hand is too short to help." Prof. Chechenover added that "the selection of the senior scientist and the young scientist is an expression of their scientific achievements that may lead to a groundbreaking contribution to the benefit of humanity."

The selection of Professor Ofer Mandelbaum as the winner of the Senior Scientist award reflects his achievements in the field of immunology - the science of vaccines, and especially in the subfield of immunology that is used as a tool to fight cancer. Professor Ofer Mendelboim is considered a world-renowned expert in the mechanisms of action of Natural Killer cells (NK cells) of the immune system. These cells have diverse roles in killing pathogens that enter the body, such as viruses, and eradicating cancer cells. Ofer Mendelbaum's discoveries shed important light on the roles and mechanisms of action of NK cells in both healthy and sick people. Professor Mendelboim's many studies have the potential to be translated into therapeutic applications and thus promote human health.

The selection of Professor Tamar Geiger as the winner of the Young Scientist Award expresses her scientific achievements in the field of proteomics - the analysis of the changes that occur in the body's proteins. Tamar combines state-of-the-art analytical technologies and methods she developed in the field of proteomics together with basic research in the fields of biology to understand the dynamic processes that apply during the development of the malignant tumor. Using innovative methods she developed, Professor Geiger was able to characterize subtypes of breast cancer and track the progress of the disease and the changes that occur over time. Recently, Tamar together with her partners discovered differences in the structure of the proteins in malignant skin tumors of the melanoma type which will make it possible, most likely soon, to predict the degree of success in the treatment of these aggressive tumors through the activation of the immune system against them. The importance of prediction stems from the fact that some patients do not respond to these treatments that are largely successful in other patients. These innovative biological and clinical insights will greatly help advance the fields of "omics" - the analysis of the various body components - in medical practice, and lead not only to improving diagnoses and predicting therapeutic success, but also to the development of new treatment methods.

The works of Prof. Mandelbaum and Geiger complement each other and together form part of the front line of the campaign against various types of cancer - the leading cause of death in many countries, including our own.

Itai Antoine Toker from Oded Ravavi's laboratory at Tel Aviv University studies mechanisms of inheritance that do not depend on DNA. The very idea that biological information can be inherited in other ways was considered scandalous in the past, but in recent years research evidence has been accumulating to support the possibility that there are other forms of passing traits between generations. By focusing on microscopic worms as a model animal, Itay investigates the inheritance of molecules called small RNAs that affect the physiology of many animals, including humans, and change throughout life depending on environmental conditions.

Together with his colleagues, Itai discovered that small RNA molecules produced in the brains of worms affect the expression of genes and their behavior in future generations as well. In addition, Itai deciphered a mechanism in the gametes of these worms responsible for the controlled inheritance of small RNAs over generations, and showed that damage to this process leads to devastating results. At this point, it is not known whether inheritance independent of DNA also occurs in humans, but many diseases have been found to have inherited characteristics that cannot be deciphered by classical genetics. In light of this, a deeper understanding of unconventional forms of inheritance may in the future reveal new strategies for understanding, treating and preventing diseases.
oral vaccines.
Adi Biram, from the laboratory of Dr. Ziv Shulman from the Department of Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science, researched as part of her doctorate how an immune response develops that provides protection against the proliferation of pathogens in the digestive system. Antibodies are a necessary component of the immune system, and their presence provides long-term protection against various pathogens. Antibodies are secreted by the B cells of the immune system, and by creating a variety of cells that express different antibodies, there is a process of improving the antibody over time, and selecting cells that react against a foreign component (called an antigen) in a strong and specific way.
This process has been extensively studied in the context of routine vaccinations, but research has so far not been able to test how these cells are formed in an orally administered vaccine. Although giving vaccines orally is an effective and inexpensive way, many vaccines do not work well when given orally. During the research, Adi defined the principles according to which antibodies are formed that optimally bind the antigen in the organs of the immune system in the small intestine. To this end, Adi has developed unique imaging methods, which enable the monitoring of functional niches, where the improvement and selection processes of antibody-secreting cells take place. She found that the process that the cells go through in response to an oral vaccine is different from that which occurs in response to a routine vaccine. Adi characterized for the first time unique cell populations that participate in the process, and found that the process of selection and improvement requires unique threshold conditions for the intestinal environment. This work has revealed a conceptual difference between the processes that occur when a vaccine is given orally or by other routes, and provides important information for effective future planning of orally administered vaccines.

Idan Hexelman, a student in the MD-PhD program at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, which combines medical studies and research. Idan's research work under the direction of Prof. Esti Jaeger-Lotem deals with understanding the molecular mechanisms that cause hereditary diseases to manifest clinically in certain tissues and not in others. Idan combines in his research advanced approaches from the field of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence. Through these approaches and in combination with the advanced "Single cell RNA sequencing" technology, which allows the cell populations in the tissues to be described, Idan analyzes the molecular properties of the different types of cells, and characterizes the gene expression in the diseases manifested in those tissues.
Thanks to collaboration with the laboratories of Prof. Alon Monsongo from Ben-Gurion University and Prof. Nir Friedman from the Weizmann Institute, Idan was able to identify in old mice the presence of groups of lymphocytes that had not yet been described in old age. These cells are key players in the immune response, and the change in the structure of the population in old age may explain, on the one hand, the decrease in immune capacity with age, and on the other hand, the emergence of chronic inflammations. This collaboration and other projects emphasized to Idan the importance of interdisciplinary research and the synergistic potential in biological research that combines biological experimental methods together with advanced approaches from the computational world.

Shiran Bar is a researcher at the Azrieli Center for Stem Cell Research at the Institute of Life Sciences of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, under the direction of Prof. Nissim Benvanisti. Sheeran uses human embryonic stem cells to study epigenetic mechanisms essential for normal fetal development. Genomic imprinting is a fascinating epigenetic phenomenon that is unique to mammals and refers to genes that are expressed from only one chromosomal copy according to parental origin. This phenomenon is the reason why asexual reproduction is not possible in mammals, and the presence of the genome from the father and the mother is necessary for normal fetal development. In humans, problems in genomic imprinting cause several serious developmental diseases and are also implicated in cancer.
In her research, Sheeran examined the stability of imprinted genes and revealed a complex control mechanism that enabled the identification of new imprinted genes. In addition, an analysis of genomic imprinting in hundreds of stem cell samples revealed cells and genes with increased sensitivity to losing the normal imprinting state, a finding that may be of great importance for regenerative medicine. Sheeran also performed extensive analysis of X-chromosome silencing in embryonic stem cells. This is another critical epigenetic process that occurs in female mammals for comparing gene expression between males and females. In this study it was found that in a large part of the stem cells the pattern of silencing is not normal.
Since embryonic stem cells are widely used in research and have significant potential in tissue engineering, the findings indicating epigenetic changes linked to diseases may have significant implications for a variety of applications.

Irit Rapaport said: "The Rapaport Award is an important expression of the vision of excellence outlined by our parents Baruch and the late Ruth Rapaport. The award enterprise, for the variety of fields in which it is awarded, brings to light the main points of the family heritage: values ​​that we have received, that we cultivate, and pass on, both on a personal level and for the common good. We believe that encouraging excellence in biomedical research, art and groundbreaking female-social work contributes to significant social changes in Israel. Three years ago we expanded the awards in the research category and added an award for outstanding PhD students. This is an important recognition of the scientific endeavor which is still in its infancy and which is intended to encourage the students in their academic-research path so that in the future they will make breakthrough scientific discoveries for the benefit of humanity."

The decision on the award winners was made by an independent judging committee headed by Prof. Aharon Chachanover, winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The other members of the committee are: Prof. Eli Pikarski, from the School of Medicine, Immunology and Cancer Research, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Prof. Moti Segev, from the Faculty of Physics at the Technion, winner of the AMT Award for 2019, Prof. Rafi Biar, former director of Rambam Hospital, Prof. Michal Schwartz from the Department of Neurobiology, Faculty of Biology at the Weizmann Institute, winner of the Rapport Award for 2017 and a prize M.T. for 2019, Prof. Ohad Birak, Director of the Institute of Human Genetics, Soroka University Medical Center, and the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben Gurion University, Prof. Keren Avraham, from the Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Prof. Noam Ziv, director of the Rappaport Research Institute (outgoing), and Prof. Eyal Gottlieb, director of the Rappaport Research Institute (incoming). The professional center of the committee is Dr. Michael Kanovski, MD of Molecular Biology, Mount Sinai Hospital, New York.

The Rapaport Award for Biomedical Research was founded by the Baruch and Ruth Rapaport Foundation in 2010 and is awarded annually to scientists for medical or biomedical research that has excellence, a breakthrough, or a significant innovation and that contributes to the promotion of human health and the common good. The research must have real and practical therapeutic implications for the benefit of humanity.

The Baruch and Ruth Rapaport Foundation serves as the main arm of the philanthropic activity according to the vision of Baruch and Ruth Rapaport (the late). Among other things, the foundation worked to establish the Faculty of Medicine at the Technion and the Ruth Rapaport Children's Hospital at the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa. In addition, the foundation supports the Rapaport Institute, which deals with biomedical research, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and many other educational and cultural institutions.

In addition to the biomedical research, the Rapaport Art Awards (in collaboration with the Tel Aviv Museum of Art) will be awarded to a senior Israeli artist - Drora Domini and a young Israeli artist - Hila Toni Navok, as well as the Rapaport Award for a groundbreaking female act that creates change in Israeli society (in collaboration with the business newspaper 'Globes') will be awarded To Naomi Stochiner, for a lifetime's work, to Samach Salaima, for many years of work, to Nitzan Kahana and to Lich Tzur ben Moshe, for a woman's work at the beginning of the road.