Brain Cancer Molecular Medicine Research lab

Director: Dr. Ruty Shai

While recent decades saw great strides in the treatment of cancer, brain malignancies remain a major challenge. This is especially true when it comes to medulloblastoma, the most common type of malignant brain tumor in children, and glioblastoma, the most common type of malignant brain tumor in adults.

Our goal is to find the targets that slow or stop tumor growth and spreading, push the boundaries of what is possible, to break free from the constraints of conventional treatments and to forge a path towards more effective, personalized therapies to improve patient survival and quality of life.

Dr. Ruty Shai incorporates state-of-the-art technologies into her work in order to develop new therapeutic approaches and apply them to brain cancer translational research. These include determination of genes involved in pathogenesis of brain cancer, discovery of molecular pathways and potentially new therapeutic targets for molecular based diagnosis, prognosis and treatment administration. The brain cancers that the Shai Laboratory studies are medulloblastomas and glioblastomas. Both tumors are difficult to treat, and new therapies are urgently needed for these cancers.

Longitudinal assessment of tumor state by a simple blood test: