Prof. Sarit Larisch
Head of Cell Death and Cancer Research Laboratory
Sarit Larisch is Professor and Head of Cell Death and Cancer Research Laboratory at the University of Haifa, and past chair of the Departments of Biology and Medical Sciences. She received her Ph.D. from the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School and conducted her post-doctoral studies at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, USA. She discovered the ARTS protein and devoted her career to understanding its role in cancer as basis for developing novel anti-cancer therapies. She received many awards, including the Wolfson Trust Award and the Johnson & Johnson Focused Funding Award. Prof. Larisch holds eleven patents and patent applications.
The lab investigates how apoptotic signaling can be harnessed for disease prevention and therapy. A major contribution of my work is the discovery of ARTS, a tumor suppressor protein whose expression is frequently lost in human cancers. Genetic studies in ARTS-deficient mice demonstrated spontaneous tumor development, establishing ARTS as a physiological tumor suppressor. ARTS is a direct antagonist of XIAP. We have identified small molecules that show high affinity for the unique binding site of ARTS in Bir3/XIAP and promote efficient killing of a wide variety of cancer cells.
Prof. Sarit Larisch
Head of Cell Death and Cancer Research Laboratory
Sarit Larisch is Professor and Head of Cell Death and Cancer Research Laboratory at the University of Haifa, and past chair of the Departments of Biology and Medical Sciences. She received her Ph.D. from the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School and conducted her post-doctoral studies at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, USA. She discovered the ARTS protein and devoted her career to understanding its role in cancer as basis for developing novel anti-cancer therapies. She received many awards, including the Wolfson Trust Award and the Johnson & Johnson Focused Funding Award. Prof. Larisch holds eleven patents and patent applications.
The lab investigates how apoptotic signaling can be harnessed for disease prevention and therapy. A major contribution of my work is the discovery of ARTS, a tumor suppressor protein whose expression is frequently lost in human cancers. Genetic studies in ARTS-deficient mice demonstrated spontaneous tumor development, establishing ARTS as a physiological tumor suppressor. ARTS is a direct antagonist of XIAP. We have identified small molecules that show high affinity for the unique binding site of ARTS in Bir3/XIAP and promote efficient killing of a wide variety of cancer cells.