I am a physician scientist who focuses on translational laboratory-based of pediatric hematological malignancies and on cancer predisposition syndromes. My vision is to promote innovation by integrating multidisciplinary basic, translational and clinical research to improve the care of children with cancer. I am particularly interested in studying developmental aspects of childhood leukemia. Over the last decade we have focused on leukemia predisposition syndroes in particular Down Syndrome. We discovered a subtype of high-risk ALL characterized by mutational activation of the JAK-STAT pathway (Lancet 2008, JEM 2011, Blood 2010, 2014, PNAS 2017). These discoveries have led to ongoing clinical trials of the children oncology group with JAK inhibitors for pediatric ALL.  More recently we have focused on the metabolic adaptation of ALL to their micronvironment especially the central nervous system (Nature Cancer, in press) and in the role of signaling and transcriptional regulation in normal and malignant hematopoiesis. These studies have been funded by multiple national and international grants and have involved multiple national and international collaborations in both basic and clinical research with scientists and clinicians in North America, Australia, Japan and Europe.

Clinically I am the chair of the Division of Pediatric Hematology and Onclology in the Schneider Children’s  Medical Center of Israel, also affiliated to Tel Aviv University. We are leading the ALL trials in Israel as part of the European BFM-AIEOP group. Internationally I have been involved in leading position in several hematology and cancer organizations. Most significantly, I am a member of the executive Board of the European Hematology Association (EHA), the previous chair of Biology and Diagnosis of the international BFM childhood leukemia group, the biology and clinical committees of the International Treatment of Children with Cancer (ITCC) and the co-chair of the biology committee of TACL, USA.