Gal Cafri, PhD

Email: gal.cafri@sheba.health.gov.il

Position: Immunotherapy and Genetic Engineering Group leader

Areas of Expertise: Tumor Immunology, Tumor immunotherapy, mRNA cancer vaccines, Genetic Engineering

Position: Immunotherapy and Genetic Engineering Group leader

Areas of Expertise: Tumor Immunology, Tumor immunotherapy, mRNA cancer vaccines, Genetic Engineering

Education:

2008-2013, PhD, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

Supervisor: Professor Lea Eisenbach, Department of Immunology

Thesis topic: Development of novel genetic cancer vaccines encoding dendritic cell activation receptors

• Developed a universal cancer vaccine platform based on chimeric MHC-I/II molecules
• Inventor on one patent application.

2005-2007, MSc, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

Supervisors: Prof. Yona Keisari and Prof. Gideon Gross, Department of Immunology and Microbiology.

Thesis topic: Harnessing toll-like receptor signaling pathways for genetic modulation of the immune response

2001-2004, BSc, Tel Hai Academic College, Jpper Galilee, Israel

Department of Biotechnology

Residencies and Further Training:

2015-2019, Postdoctoral fellowship, Surgery Branch, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA

Host: Dr. Steven A Rosenberg, Chief, Surgery Branch, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA

Research topic: Development of personalized neoantigen vaccines and T cell-based therapies for epithelial cancer patients

• Led the pre-clinical and clinical development of two clinical trials focusing on personalized neoantigen vaccines for metastatic cancer patients (NCT03480152, NCT03300843). One protocol was developed at the Surgery Branch and the second in collaboration with Moderna Therapeutics Inc. 
• Developed a method that allows the identification and isolation of T cells reactive against unique immunogenic mutations from patients’ blood, without the need for tumor resection.
• Isolated and cloned T cell receptors targeting mutated KRAS for potential adoptive T-cell cancer immunotherapy.
• Inventor on seven patent applications.

Affiliations:

Sheba Medical Center

Research Interests:

Development of T-cell receptor therapy targeting oncogenic mutations, genetic engineering platforms for T-cell therapy, tumor immunology, mRNA vaccines

Publications: 

Here is a link to the list of publications of Dr. Gal Cafri