I have started my scientific training as a master student in the lab of Prof. Moshe Mevarech at Tel-Aviv University, studying microbes (Archaea) from the Dead Sea. Then I moved into research on viruses as a graduate student in the lab of Prof. Yosef Shaul at the Weizmann Institute of Science, studying carcinogenesis by Hepatitis B virus. For my postdoctoral training I joined the lab of Prof. S. Diane Hayward at the viral oncology program, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland. Where studied two additional viruses associated with human malignancies, Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) and Epstein Barr virus (EBV). After completion of my post-doctorate training I have been asked to run the Tumor Virology Lab in the Division of Biomedical Sciences at Johns Hopkins in Singapore, Singapore. In 2013 I have returned to Israel to join the Faculty of Medicine in the Galilee, Bar-Ilan University in Safed, and established the Viral Oncology lab. The goal of my lab is to expand our knowledge on viral infections, and to utilize this knowledge for the development of drugs that specifically target virally infected cells.

Research Lab:
The goal of our lab is to expand our knowledge on viral infections, and to utilize this knowledge for the development and use of drugs that specifically target virally infected cells. About 15% of the cancer cases are associated with viral infections. The two herpes viruses we study; Kaposi’s sarcoma associated herpesvirus (KSHV, HHV-8) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV, HHV-4), are associated with increasing number of human malignancies. By studying the changes these viruses impose on the cells, that later become cancers, we aim to develop novel strategies for the treatment and detection of viral associated malignancies.