Dr. Sarah Ferber, head of the Endocrine Research Unit
Dr. Sarah Ferber is the head of the Endocrine Research Unit at the Sheba Medical Center. 
She graduated in biochemistry at the Technion under the supervision of Professor Avram Hershko and Professor Aharon Ciechanover, winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2004. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Joslin Diabetes Lab at Harvard Medical School.
The research in the Ferber's group focuses on tissue engineering, adult cells reprogramming and cell replacement therapy for diabetes. The research is based on the assumption that developmental factors that control pancreas organogenesis in the embryo can be implemented in redirecting the developmental fate of other adult tissues towards the pancreatic lineage and function. The capacity to activate the pancreatic lineage and function in adult liver cells, suggest that we carry our own 'stem-like-cells throughout adulthood, thus obviating the need for embryonic stem cells for generating organs in need.
The lab has established a pioneer therapeutic approach based on converting adult liver tissue into functional glucose regulated insulin producing cells. The promising results in in-vitro studies using human liver tissues and in mice in-vivomodel, were published in important scientific papers. (Selected Publications)
The proof of concept studies demonstrated that adult human liver cells retain substantial plasticity and can be induced to assume new fates and function, upon appropriate molecular manipulation. As such liver has become a pancreatic progenitor tissue that can be used for autologous cell replacement therapy for diabetic patients.
Methods used in the lab: The developmental redirection process is analyzed at molecular, cellular and functional levels.
Some of the methods include: primary culture of adult tissues, gene delivery using recombinant adenoviruses, lineage tracing using Lenti-viruses, Global analyses of alterations in the profile of gene expression by micro-array-chip analyses, physiological studies using mice models.
E-mail: sferber@sheba.health.gov.il
