Prof. Benjamin Dekel- 2015 Award Winner of the "Youdim Family" Prize for Excellence in Cancer Research

Prof. Benjamin Dekel, Head of the Pediatric Stem Cell Research Institute and Director of the Department of Pediatric Nephrology at Sheba Medical Center's Edmond and Lily Safra Children's Hospital, was awarded the 2015 prestigious Youdim Family Prize for Excellence in Cancer Research. Prof. Dekel is one of the world leaders in the field of stem cell tissue studies, especially of the kidney. Dekel and his team have been the first ones to identify and isolate kidney stem cells demonstrating that precursor tissues from humans could develop into fully functional nephrons. Moreover, when the research team scanned kidney tumors in children (Willem's tumor) they detected that the tumorous stem cell had considerable similarity to those found in the fetal kidneys and in cancerous transformation.  Treatment directed against these cancer stem cells that fuel the growth of tumors led to the disappearance of human tumors that had been taken from patients and were implanted in mice.
This treatment method of pediatric cancer in basic and pre-clinical experiments led by Professor Dekel is currently undergoing clinical trials in the United States. When this kind of research takes place, where patients are hospitalized and solutions have to be found, the scientist accompanies his research all the way from the laboratory to the patient's bed –bench to bed- which is the essence of translational medicine.
Based on these results, additional innovative treatments are being checked in a series of aggressive tumors.
The Award Committee decided to bestow the Youdim Family Award for Excellence in Cancer Research to Professor Dekel for his breakthrough discoveries of kidney cancer development mechanisms and new methods of treatment and for the whole of his research.