NEWS

Cancer Conference Aimed To Spur U.S.–Israeli Collaborations

Damaris Christensen

Israel has historically been a strong center for cancer research; for example, the discovery of ubiquitin and the role of p53 in cancer are products of Israeli research. But concerns that the tense political situation in the region was leading to scientific isolation prompted a team of U.S. researchers to organize the first Joint American–Israeli Conference on Cancer, held in March in Jerusalem.

In the last 5 years, "Israel pretty much dropped off the map in terms of scientific conferences," said Joseph Rosenblatt, M.D., of the University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, one of three co-organizers of the conference. During that time, many scientific conferences were either canceled or moved because of security concerns.



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Joseph Rosenblatt, M.D., Eliezer Robinson, M.D., Robert Korngold, Ph.D., and Hyam Levitsky, M.D, were recognized by the Israel Cancer Association for coordinating the recent Joint American–Israel Conference on Cancer, held in March in Jerusalem.

 
Thus, Israeli scientists were sometimes left feeling isolated, said Miri Ziv, M.A., director general of the Israel Cancer Association, headquartered in Tel Aviv. "This initiative was really a light at the end of a tunnel," she said. "It was heartwarming and reassuring to know that you have friends even in hard times."

The practical motivation for the meeting was to present current research on novel therapeutic approaches to cancer and to promote collaboration between U.S. and Israeli physicians and scientists. The conference was especially helpful, she said, because it reached out to those who suffer most when scientific conferences are not held nearby—Ph.D. students, junior researchers, and postdocs who are unlikely to have the funding to travel to international conferences.

"In order to reach that audience [of junior scientists and postdocs], we had to bring America to them," said Rosenblatt. Therefore, he and his colleagues, Robert Korngold, Ph.D., of The Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, and Hyam I. Levitsky, M.D., of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, in coordination Eliezer Robinson, M.D., from the Israel Cancer Association, planned and spearheaded this conference.

According to participants and organizers, the highlight of the conference was a keynote lecture by Avram Hershko, M.D., Ph.D., on ubiquitin. Hershko, of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, along with Aaron Ciechanover, M.D., D.Sc., and Irwin Rose, Ph.D., won the 2004 Nobel Prize for the discovery of ubiquitin. This system is used in a variety of cell processes, including the immune system, cell division, and DNA repair. The discovery has already led to new approaches in the treatment of myeloma and other malignancies.

In some ways the conference was "a mini-AACR," said Levitsky, not focusing on a single disease but covering a broad range of cancer research such as cancer biology and genetics, signal transduction, stem cell transplantation, and immunology.

"The overall quality of lectures was excellent," said Shimon Slavin, M.D., of the Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem, who presented his work on activating donor lymphocytes before stem cell transplantation. "There's not just one thing you learn ...it's the opportunity to listen to different ideas, to see how your ideas fit in and how you can improve your work ... the little things that crystallize your thoughts."

"The nice thing about the conference was its broad appeal," agreed Mark Pegram, M.D, of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, who presented his own work on HER-2 family kinases for treatment of solid tumors. "The meeting was particularly strong in basic science, but the potential applications were apparent." Hearing the research presented by the Israel-based scientists "brought home the message of what can be accomplished with limited resources," he said.

In times of decreasing research funding on both sides of the Atlantic, collaborations are particularly important, Levitsky said. "There has been a long history of productive collaborations between American and Israeli scientists, resulting in significant increases in our understanding and treatment of cancer."

Organizers and conference attendants all pointed to the many conversations that occurred at poster sessions, over lunch, and in hallways as a sign of success addressing the conference's goals of promoting collaborations and interactions between American and Israeli scientists. "Anecdotally, a number of collaborations seem to have sprung up" through this meeting, said Levitsky.

The conference brought a fairly large cohort of American researchers to Israel; of the 50 or so presenters, half came from the United States and half from Israel. Overall, Korngold estimated that there were probably 70–100 American attendees and another 225–250 Israeli participants. In addition to the oral presentations, the conference had about 65–70 posters presented, "mostly junior [Israeli] researchers, which is very pleasing, since they are the people we were hoping to reach out to," said Korngold.

Although the conference rooms stayed full until the very end of the conference, the city of Jerusalem nonetheless offered tempting distractions for conference-goers: tours of the Old City, views of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the opportunity to observe an archaeological dig, and sneak previews of the Holocaust History Museum, which opened at Jerusalem's Yad Vashem memorial during the week of the conference.

"There was an outpouring of appreciation for visitors" to Israel, Levitsky said. "And there was a feeling among participants that we were really doing something special."

Indeed, "at the end of the meeting there was a lot of interest and enthusiasm on both sides to continue it," Rosenblatt said. Originally the organizers intended to alternate meeting locations between the United States and Israel, but now they are thinking it may be held in Israel each year, assuming funding can be found. Rosenblatt said that the theme of conference may change to include more clinical research. Finally, he said, "as the Middle East cools off we would like to invite participation from oncologists and scientists from neighboring Arab countries."

"The Israelis have made significant contributions, and this continued interchange will probably create new and productive collaborations that will benefit us all," said Rosenblatt, "especially our patients."



             
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