Ze'ev Ronai

Ze’ev Ronai
Alma mater
Awards
Scientific career
InstitutionsSanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute
Website

Ze’ev Ronai is an Israeli-American cancer research scientist and Chief Scientific Advisor at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in La Jolla.[2][3][4][5]

Education

Ze’ev Ronai was born in Haifa in 1956.[6] He attended Hugim High School in Haifa, and received his B.S. (Biology) and Ph.D. (Immunology) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.[7][8][9]

Research

Ronai's studies provide new fundamental understanding for the role and function of epigenetic components (transcription factor and ubiquitin ligases) in cancer. Early in his career he developed a sensitive PCR approach to detect mutant Ras oncogene in normal appearing tissues.[10][11]

Later on, his studies provided the foundation for the rewired signaling in cancer,[12] by demonstrating the important role of protein subcellular localization in its oncogenic function[13] and by establishing the function of ubiquitin ligases in key cellular processes (i.e. hypoxia,[14] unfolded protein response,[15] mitochondrial dynamics,[16] anti-tumor immunity[17]) and their critical contribution to development, progression, and therapy resistance of prostate[18] and breast cancers[19] and melanoma.[20] He developed SBI-756,[21] a small molecule inhibitor, which targets the translation initiation complex, inhibiting melanoma[22] and lymphoid tumors. Ze’ev Ronai published close to 300 peer-reviewed publications, reflected in over 20,000 citations.

Following post doctoral training with I.B. Weinstein at Columbia University, Ronai began his independent career on the campus of the New York Medical College, followed by tenure at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NY.[23][24] He also served as SBP's Scientific Director.[25][26]

In Israel, he has established the Technion Integrated Cancer Center, (with the Nobel Laureate Aaron Ciechanover), first in class where engineers biologists and oncologists collaborate to defeat cancer.[27]

Awards and honors

Ronai received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Melanoma Research (2016).[28] Earlier, he obtained the Golda Meir Fellowship from the Hebrew University. He also served as editor in chief of Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research.[29]

Patents

Ronai obtained a number patents for his inventions; those include a "Quantitative method for early detection of mutant alleles and diagnostic kits for carrying out the method" (1996),[30] "Inhibition of ATF2 activity to treat cancer" (2011),[31] and "Compositions and methods for inhibiting growth and metastasis of melanoma" (2011).[32]

Publications

  • Kahn, S.M., Jiang, W., Culbertson, T.A., Weinstein, I.B. Williams, G.M., Ronai, Z. Rapid and sensitive nonradioactive detection of mutant K-ras genes via ‘enriched’ PCR amplification. Oncogene. 6(6):1079-83, 1991.
  • Tobi, M., Luo, F.C., Ronai, Z. Detection of K-ras mutation in colonic effluent samples from patients without evidence for colorectal carcinoma. J Natl Cancer Inst. 86(13):1007-10, 1994.
  • Fuchs, S.Y., Dolan, L.R., Davis, R., Ronai, Z. Phosphorylation dependent targeting of c-Jun ubiquitination by Jun N-kinase. Oncogene. 13(7):1531-5, 1996.
  • Adler, V., Yin, Z., Fuchs, S.Y., Benezra, M., Rosario, L., Tew, K.D., Pincus, M.R., Sardana, M., Henderson, C.J., Wolf, C.R., Davis, R. Ronai, Z. Regulation of JNK signaling by GSTp. EMBO J. 18:1321-34, 1999.
  • Habelhah, H., Shah, K., Hunag, L., Ostareck-Lederer. A., Burlingame, A.L., Shokat, K.M., Hentze, M.W., Ronai, Z. ERK phosphorylation drives cytoplasmic accumulation of hnRNP-K and inhibition of mRNA translation. Nat Cell Biol. 3(3):325-30, 2001.
  • Bhoumik, A., Jones, N., Ronai, Z. Transcriptional switch by activating transcription factor 2-derived peptide sensitizes melanoma cells to apoptosis and inhibits their tumorigenicity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 101(12):4222-7, 2004.
  • Nakayama, K., Frew, I.J., Hagensen, M., Skals, M., Habelhah, H., Bhoumik, A., Kadoya, T., Erdjument-Bromage, H., Tempst, P., Frappell, P.B., Bowtell, D.D., Ronai, Z. Siah2 regulates stability of prolyl-hydroxylases, controls HIF1alpha abundance, and modulates physiological responses to hypoxia. Cell. 117(7):941-52, 2004.

Personal life

Ze’ev Ronai is married to Iris Ronai (1980); they have three children.

References

  1. ^ "societymelanomaresearch". societymelanomaresearch.
  2. ^ "Ze'ev Ronai, Ph.D. | SBP". www.sbpdiscovery.org. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
  3. ^ "Home | SBP". www.sbpdiscovery.org. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
  4. ^ "??????????? ?????? ???????? | The Hebrew University of Jerusalem |". new.huji.ac.il. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
  5. ^ "Nature.com" (PDF).
  6. ^ "First-of-its-Kind Center Brings New Tools & Players to The Global Fight Against Cancer". ATS. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  7. ^ "Ze'ev Ronai - Professor of Immunology and Microbiology in La Jolla, California, United States of America | eMedEvents". www.emedevents.com. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
  8. ^ "??????????? ?????? ???????? | The Hebrew University of Jerusalem |". new.huji.ac.il. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
  9. ^ "Nature.com" (PDF).
  10. ^ Senft, Daniela; Leiserson, Mark D. M.; Ruppin, Eytan; Ronai, Ze'ev A. (October 2017). "Precision Oncology: The Road Ahead". Trends in Molecular Medicine. 23 (10): 874–898. doi:10.1016/j.molmed.2017.08.003. ISSN 1471-499X. PMC 5718207. PMID 28887051.
  11. ^ Kahn, S. M.; Jiang, W.; Culbertson, T. A.; Weinstein, I. B.; Williams, G. M.; Tomita, N.; Ronai, Z. (June 1991). "Rapid and sensitive nonradioactive detection of mutant K-ras genes via 'enriched' PCR amplification". Oncogene. 6 (6): 1079–1083. ISSN 0950-9232. PMID 1676837.
  12. ^ Lopez-Bergami, Pablo; Huang, Conway; Goydos, James S.; Yip, Dana; Bar-Eli, Menashe; Herlyn, Meenhard; Smalley, Keiran S. M.; Mahale, Alka; Eroshkin, Alexey; Aaronson, Stuart; Ronai, Ze'ev (May 2007). "Rewired ERK-JNK signaling pathways in melanoma". Cancer Cell. 11 (5): 447–460. doi:10.1016/j.ccr.2007.03.009. ISSN 1535-6108. PMC 1978100. PMID 17482134.
  13. ^ Lau, Eric; Kluger, Harriet; Varsano, Tal; Lee, KiYoung; Scheffler, Immo; Rimm, David L.; Ideker, Trey; Ronai, Ze'ev A. (2012-02-03). "PKCe promotes oncogenic functions of ATF2 in the nucleus while blocking its apoptotic function at mitochondria". Cell. 148 (3): 543–555. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2012.01.016. ISSN 1097-4172. PMC 3615433. PMID 22304920.
  14. ^ Nakayama, Koh; Frew, Ian J.; Hagensen, Mette; Skals, Marianne; Habelhah, Hasem; Bhoumik, Anindita; Kadoya, Takayuki; Erdjument-Bromage, Hediye; Tempst, Paul; Frappell, Peter B.; Bowtell, David D. (2004-06-25). "Siah2 regulates stability of prolyl-hydroxylases, controls HIF1alpha abundance, and modulates physiological responses to hypoxia". Cell. 117 (7): 941–952. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2004.06.001. ISSN 0092-8674. PMID 15210114. S2CID 1447980.
  15. ^ Scortegagna, Marzia; Kim, Hyungsoo; Li, Jian-Liang; Yao, Hang; Brill, Laurence M.; Han, Jaeseok; Lau, Eric; Bowtell, David; Haddad, Gabriel; Kaufman, Randal J.; Ronai, Ze'ev A. (May 2014). "Fine tuning of the UPR by the ubiquitin ligases Siah1/2". PLOS Genetics. 10 (5): e1004348. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1004348. ISSN 1553-7404. PMC 4014425. PMID 24809345.
  16. ^ Kim, Hyungsoo; Scimia, Maria C.; Wilkinson, Deepti; Trelles, Ramon D.; Wood, Malcolm R.; Bowtell, David; Dillin, Andrew; Mercola, Mark; Ronai, Ze'ev A. (2011-11-18). "Fine-tuning of Drp1/Fis1 availability by AKAP121/Siah2 regulates mitochondrial adaptation to hypoxia". Molecular Cell. 44 (4): 532–544. doi:10.1016/j.molcel.2011.08.045. ISSN 1097-4164. PMC 3360955. PMID 22099302.
  17. ^ Li, Yan; Tinoco, Roberto; Elmén, Lisa; Segota, Igor; Xian, Yibo; Fujita, Yu; Sahu, Avinash; Zarecki, Raphy; Marie, Kerrie; Feng, Yongmei; Khateb, Ali (2 April 2019). "Gut microbiota dependent anti-tumor immunity restricts melanoma growth in Rnf5-/- mice". Nature Communications. 10 (1): 1492. Bibcode:2019NatCo..10.1492L. doi:10.1038/s41467-019-09525-y. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 6445090. PMID 30940817.
  18. ^ Qi, Jianfei; Tripathi, Manisha; Mishra, Rajeev; Sahgal, Natasha; Fazli, Ladan; Fazil, Ladan; Ettinger, Susan; Placzek, William J.; Claps, Giuseppina; Chung, Leland W. K.; Bowtell, David (2013-03-18). "The E3 ubiquitin ligase Siah2 contributes to castration-resistant prostate cancer by regulation of androgen receptor transcriptional activity". Cancer Cell. 23 (3): 332–346. doi:10.1016/j.ccr.2013.02.016. ISSN 1878-3686. PMC 3750989. PMID 23518348.
  19. ^ Jeon, Young Joo; Khelifa, Sihem; Ratnikov, Boris; Scott, David A.; Feng, Yongmei; Parisi, Fabio; Ruller, Chelsea; Lau, Eric; Kim, Hyungsoo; Brill, Laurence M.; Jiang, Tingting (2015-03-09). "Regulation of glutamine carrier proteins by RNF5 determines breast cancer response to ER stress-inducing chemotherapies". Cancer Cell. 27 (3): 354–369. doi:10.1016/j.ccell.2015.02.006. ISSN 1878-3686. PMC 4356903. PMID 25759021.
  20. ^ Kim, Hyungsoo; Frederick, Dennie T.; Levesque, Mitchell P.; Cooper, Zachary A.; Feng, Yongmei; Krepler, Clemens; Brill, Laurence; Samuels, Yardena; Hayward, Nicholas K.; Perlina, Ally; Piris, Adriano (2015-06-09). "Downregulation of the Ubiquitin Ligase RNF125 Underlies Resistance of Melanoma Cells to BRAF Inhibitors via JAK1 Deregulation". Cell Reports. 11 (9): 1458–1473. doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2015.04.049. ISSN 2211-1247. PMC 4681438. PMID 26027934.
  21. ^ "Potential melanoma drug found". San Diego Union-Tribune. 2015-12-05. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
  22. ^ Feng, Yongmei; Pinkerton, Anthony B.; Hulea, Laura; Zhang, Tongwu; Davies, Michael A.; Grotegut, Stefan; Cheli, Yann; Yin, Hongwei; Lau, Eric; Kim, Hyungsoo; De, Surya K. (2015-12-15). "SBI-0640756 Attenuates the Growth of Clinically Unresponsive Melanomas by Disrupting the eIF4F Translation Initiation Complex". Cancer Research. 75 (24): 5211–5218. doi:10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-15-0885. ISSN 1538-7445. PMC 4681635. PMID 26603897.
  23. ^ "Lab Members | Ronai Lab | La Jolla, California, USA". ronailab. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  24. ^ Ronai, Ze'Ev. "ATF2 in melanoma development and progression". Grantome.
  25. ^ "NCI-Designated Cancer Center | SBP". www.sbpdiscovery.org. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
  26. ^ "Ze'ev Ronai, Ph.D. | SBP". www.sbpdiscovery.org. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  27. ^ Press, Viva Sarah (2016-12-04). "Technion opens new cancer research center". Israel21c. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  28. ^ "Society for Melanoma Research - Awards and Honors". www.societymelanomaresearch.org. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
  29. ^ "Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research". Wiley Online Library. doi:10.1111/(ISSN)1755-148X. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
  30. ^ US 5512441, Ronai, Zeey A., "Quantitative method for early detection of mutant alleles and diagnostic kits for carrying out the method", published 1996-04-30, assigned to American Health Foundation 
  31. ^ US 7935525, Ronai, Ze'ev, "Inhibition of ATF2 activity to treat cancer", published 2011-05-03, assigned to Mount Sinai School of Medicine 
  32. ^ US 7888355, Ronai, Ze′ev A.; Bhoumik, Anindita & Cosford, Nicholas D. P. et al., "Compositions and methods for inhibiting growth and metastasis of melanoma", issued 2011-02-15, assigned to Burnham Institute for Medical Research 

Ze’ev Ronai lab page is www.ronailab.net