In 2012 Elinav moved to the Weizmann Institute of Science and in 2016 was made a professor.[3]
He heads the Institute of Microbiome research[9] and the Center of Host-Pathogen Interaction Research at the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Microbiome & Cancer Division at the DKFZ.[4] Since 2022, he heads the Department of Systems Immunology, Weizmann Institute of Science.
Research
Elinav studies the molecular basis of host-microbiota interactions,[10] and their effects of diet,[11][12] environmental factors,[13] immune function[14] and host genetics[15] on the intestinal microbiome and associated multi-factorial metabolic,[16][17] inflammatory,[18] malignant[19] and neurogenerative disease.[20][21]
His most-cited papers have more than 2,000 cites each.[22]
Elinav developed precision microbiota interventions, including Personalized Nutrition,[23][24] Precision Probiotics,[25] small molecule ″postbiotics″,[12] Phage Therapy,[26][27] autologous fecal microbiome transplantation,[28][29] Vaginal Microbiome Transplantation (VMT) [30][31] and gut epithelial[32][33] interventions.
Personalized Nutrition
In 2014 Elinav discovered that people consuming identical foods and additives, such as non-nutritive sweeteners,[23][34] general foods[24] and bread,[35][36] feature a unique and personalized glycemic response, thereby potentially explaining the lack of uniform metabolic responses to generalized dietary approaches. [37]Personalized dietary recommendations,[38] based on individualized dietary, [39]clinical and microbiota data, improved pre-diabetes control.[24] He similarly showed, that consumption of probiotics[40] leads to a person-specific colonization resistance and physiological patterns.[41]
Nutritional timing and the Microbiota
Elinav discovered, that the gut microbiota features a compositional and functional diurnal activity during a 24-hour cycle, which is dictated by host and environmental factors, mainly by the timing in food consumption. [42][43] These microbiota diurnal activities are tightly coordinated with the host gastrointestinal and systemic circadian activity,[44] while disruption of circadian activity by jet-lag[45] or shift work may lead to alterations in the microbiota behavior, which contribute to the development of common metabolic,[43] immune[18] and liver diseases.[46][44]
Awards and recognition
Elinav was awarded the Rappaport prize for biomedical research in 2015,[47] the Levinson award for basic science research in 2016,[48] the Landau prize of Immunology in 2018[49] and was inducted to the American Academy of Microbiology in 2021.[50]
^Elinav, E., Waks, T., and Eshhar, Z. 2008. Redirection of regulatory T cells with predetermined specificity for the treatment of experimental colitis in mice. Gastroenterology 134:2014-2024. PMID18424268.
^Koren T, Ze'evi D, Suez J, Weinberger A, Avnit-Sagi T, Pompan-Lotan M, Matot E, Jona G, Harmelin A, Cohen N, Sirota-Madi A, Thaiss CA, Pevsner-Fischer M, Sorek R, Xavier R, Elinav E (co-corresponding co-last author), Segal E. 2015. Growth dynamics of gut microbiota in health and disease inferred from single metagenomic samples. Science 349(6252):1101-6. PMID26229116.
^Levy M, Thaiss CA, Ze'evi D, Dohnalova L, Zilberman-Schapira G, Ali Mahdi J, David E, Savidor A, Korem T, Herzig Y, Pevsner-Fischer M, Shapiro H, Christ A, Harmelin A, Halpern Z, Latz E, Flavell RA, Amit I, Segal E, Elinav E. 2015. Microbiota-modulated metabolites shape the intestinal microenvironment by regulating NLRP6 inflammasome signaling. Cell, 163(6), 1428–1443. PMID26638072.
^Rothschild D, Omer Weissbrod O, Barkan E, Kurilshikov A, Korem T, Zeevi D, Costea PI, Shilo S, Lador D, Godneva A, Kalka IA, Bar N, Vilq VA, ZmorA N, Pevsner-Fischer M, Israeli D, Kosower N, Malka G, Wolf BC, Avnit-Sagi T, Lotan-Pompan M, Weinberger A, Halpern Z, Carmi S, Fu J, Lifelines cohort study, Wijmenga C, Zhernakova A, Elinav E (co-corresponding last author), Eran Segal. 2018. Environmental factors dominate over host genetics in shaping human gut microbiota composition. Nature, 555(7695):210-15. PMID29489753.
^Blacher E, Bashiardes S, Shapiro H, Rothschild D, Mor U, Dori-Bachash M, Kleimeyer C, Moresi C, Harnik Y, Zur M, Zabari M, Ben-Zeev Brik R, Kviatcovsky D, Zmora N, Cohen Y, Bar N, Levi Y, Amar N, Mehlman T, Brandis A, Biton I, Kuperman Y, Tsoory M, Alfahel L, Harmelin A, Schwartz M, Israelson A, Arike L, Johansson MEV, Hansson GC, Gotkine M, Segal E, Elinav E. 2019. Potential roles of gut microbiome & metabolites in modulation of murine ALS. Nature, 572(7770):474-80. PMID31330533.
^ abcZe'evy D, Korem T, Rothschild D, Weinberger A, Zmora N, Israeli D, Ben-Yacov O, Lador D, Avnit-Sagi T, Lotan-Pompan M, Suez J, Ali Mahdi, J, Matot E, Malka G, Kosower N, Rein M, Zilberman-Schapira G, Dohnalova L, Pevsner-Fischer M, Bikovsky R, Halpern Z, Elinav E (co-corresponding last co-author), Segal E. Personalized Nutrition for the Prediction of Glycemic Responses. Cell, 163(5):1079-1094. PMID26590418.
^Suez J, Zmora N, Zilbrerman-Schapira G, Mor U, Dori-Bachash M, Bashiardes S, Zur M, Regev-LehavI D, Ben-Zeev Brik R, Federici S, Horn M, Cohen Y, Moor AE, Zeevy D, Korem T, Harmelin A, Itzkovitz S, Maharshak N, Shibolet O, Pevnser-Fishcher M, Shapiro H, Sharon I, Halpern Z, Segal E, Elinav E. 2018. Post-antibiotic gut mucosal microbiome reconstitution is impaired by probiotics and improved by autologous FMT. Cell, 174, 1406–1423. PMID30193113.
^Thaiss CA, Levy M, Grosheva I, Zheng D, Soffer E, Blacher E, Braverman S, Tengeler A, Barak O, Elazar M, Ben-Zeev R, Lehavi-Regev D, Katz MN, Pevnser-Fischer M, Gertler A, Halpern Z, Harmelin A, Aamar S, Serradas P, Grosfeld A, Shapiro H, Geiger B, Elinav E. 2018. Hyperglycemia drives intestinal barrier dysfunction and risk of enteric infection. Science, 359(6382):1376-83. PMID29519916.
^Korem T, Zeevi D, Zmora N, Weissbrod O, Bar N, Lotan-Pompan M, Avnit-Sagi T, Kosower N, Malka G, Rein M, Suez J, Goldberg B, Weinberger A, Levy AA, Elinav E (co-corresponding last co-author), Segal E. 2017. Bread affects clinical parameters and induces gut microbiome associated personal glycemic responses. Cell Metabolism, 25, 1243–1253. PMID28591632.
^ abThaiss CA, Levy M, Korem T, Zweevi D, Jaitin DA, David E, Dohnalova L, Meijer M, Kartvelishvily E, Pevsner-Fischer M, Gatt ME, Harmelin A, Halpern Z, Amit I, Segal E, Elinav E. 2016. Microbiota diurnal rhythmicity program host trascriptome oscillations. Cell, 167, 1495–1510. PMID27912092.