Prof. Ronit Satchi-Fainaro, Ph.D.

Prof. Ronit Satchi-Fainaro (Ph.D.) is Head of the Cancer Angiogenesis & Nanomedicine Laboratory;

 

Associate Professor, Chair of the Department of Physiology & Pharmacology, Sackler School of Medicine. Prof. Satchi-Fainaro received her Bachelor of Pharmacy from the Hebrew University, Israel (1995) and her Ph.D. from the University of London, UK (2000). She then spent four years as postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and Children’s Hospital Boston working with Judah Folkman. She joined Tel Aviv University in 2005.

 

She is a leader in the field of nanomedicine and angiogenesis. She serves as advisor to several Israeli and International biotech companies, is President of the Israeli Society for Controlled Release. She has published 65 papers, 12 book chapters, edited 2 books, is named inventor on 25 patents, appeared on several lists (Forbes, Globes, Calcalist, The Marker) of the 40 most promising and influential people in Israel and was awarded numerous prestigious grants and prizes.

 

She has major expertise in tumor biology, tumor dormancy, angiogenesis, molecular imaging, non-invasive intravital imaging of tumor models, personalized nanomedicines for cancer theranostics. Her multi-disciplinary research laboratory focuses on basic research leading to the design of highly-selective targeting molecules integrating biology, chemistry, protein engineering, molecular imaging, computational approaches, material sciences and nanotechnology to selectively guide drugs into pathological sites.

 

The presence of dormant, microscopic cancerous lesions possesses a major obstacle for the treatment of metastatic and recurrent cancers. While it is well-established that microRNAs play a major role in tumorigenesis, their involvement in tumor dormancy has yet to be fully elucidated. We developed a human osteosarcoma and glioblastoma dormancy models of pairs of cells originating from the same parental tissue; one that remains avascular and non-palpable a year following inoculation into mice and another that generates vascularized palpable tumors one month following inoculation.

 

Using this model of cell lines generating dormant or fast-growing osteosarcomas, we identified novel molecular regulators and signatures of tumor dormancy. This is the first time to show that loss of signature microRNAs or family of genes occurs during the switch from dormant avascular into fast-growing angiogenic phenotype. Furthermore, we validated their downregulation in patients' tumor samples compared to normal tissues.

 

Reconstitution of these signature microRNAs or silencing these overexpressed signature genes by siRNAs using our novel polyglycerol dendritic nanocarrier significantly prolonged their dormancy period. Taken together, these findings provide the rationale for the development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic tools for osteosarcoma, glioblastoma and other malignancies.