Investigating the progression of breast cancer and neutrophils

Dr. Zvika Granot, a senior lecturer, investigates breast cancer and its metastasis. A developmental biologist and award-winning scientist, he focuses on the role of neutrophils: white blood cells that help to fight infection. His laboratory recently discovered that healthy cells surrounding a tumor may be critically involved in the progression of cancer.

Dr. Granot co-led an important study that works with model tumors and human blood samples. His findings have challenged the concept that mature neutrophils have limited ability to change and adapt new characteristics. Dr. Granot discovered that while some neutrophils have anti-tumor properties, others promote tumor progression. In the early stages of cancer, tumor-limiting neutrophils prevail. However, as cancer progresses, the tumor-promoting neutrophil subpopulation outcompetes the tumor-limiting neutrophil subpopulation, leading to disease metastasis. Dr. Granot has received prestigious research grants, including from the Israel Cancer Research Fund. The Hebrew University Ph.D. conducted his postdoctoral training at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.