Zelig Eshhar is an Israeli immunologist at the

Weizmann Institute of Science The Weizmann Institute of Science ( he, מכון ויצמן למדע ''Machon Vaitzman LeMada'') is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli unive ...

and the

Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center ( he, המרכז הרפואי תל אביב ע"ש סוראסקי; commonly referred to as Ichilov Hospital) is the main hospital complex serving Tel Aviv, Israel and its metropolitan area and the second-largest ho ...

. He was Chairman of the Department of Immunology at the Weizmann Institute twice, in the 1990s and 2000s.

Biography

Zelig Lipka (later Eshhar) grew up in

Rehovot Rehovot ( he, רְחוֹבוֹת ''Rəḥōvōt'', ar, رحوڤوت ''Reḥūfūt'') is a city in the Central District of Israel, about south of Tel Aviv. In it had a population of . Etymology Israel Belkind, founder of the Bilu movement, ...

. After his

IDF IDF or idf may refer to: Defence forces * Irish Defence Forces * Israel Defense Forces *Iceland Defense Force, of the US Armed Forces, 1951-2006 * Indian Defence Force, a part-time force, 1917 Organizations * Israeli Diving Federation * Interac ...

service in

Nahal Nahal ( he, נח"ל) (acronym of ''Noar Halutzi Lohem'', lit. Fighting Pioneer Youth) is a program that combines military service with mostly social welfare and informal education projects such as youth movement activities, as well as training ...

, he joined

Kibbutz A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...

Yad Mordechai Yad Mordechai ( he, יַד מָרְדְּכַי, ''lit.'' Memorial of Mordechai) is a kibbutz in Southern Israel. Located 10 km (6.2 mi) south of Ashkelon, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. In it had a popula ...

, where he became a beekeeper. He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from

the Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

, and his Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute.

Medical research

He is mainly known for his studies on

T cells A T cell is a type of lymphocyte. T cells are one of the important white blood cells of the immune system and play a central role in the adaptive immune response. T cells can be distinguished from other lymphocytes by the presence of a T-cell re ...

and his pioneering work on

chimeric antigen receptor In biology, chimeric antigen receptors (CARs)—also known as chimeric immunoreceptors, chimeric T cell receptors or artificial T cell receptors—are receptor proteins that have been engineered to give T cells the new ability to target a specific ...

s. His work has been the basis of the development of a

cancer immunotherapy Cancer immunotherapy (sometimes called immuno-oncology) is the stimulation of the immune system to treat cancer, improving on the immune system's natural ability to fight the disease. It is an application of the fundamental research of cancer im ...

, involving genetic modifications of T lymphocytes extracted from a cancer patient to produce chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-Cells, which are then injected back into the patient in a process called

adoptive cell transfer Adoptive cell transfer (ACT) is the transfer of cells into a patient. The cells may have originated from the patient or from another individual. The cells are most commonly derived from the immune system with the goal of improving immune function ...

, that produced startlingly good results in clinical trials in the mid-2010s and millions of dollars of investment.

Awards and recognition

In 2013 Eshhar was awarded the CAR Pioneering award by the ATTACK European Consortium as well as the European Society of Gene & Cell Therapy Outstanding Achievement Award. In 2014 he shared the

Massry Prize The Massry Prize was established in 1996, and until 2009 was administered by the Meira and Shaul G. Massry Foundation. The Prize, of $40,000 and the Massry Lectureship, is bestowed upon scientists who have made substantial recent contributions in ...

with

Steven Rosenberg Steven A. Rosenberg (born 2 August 1940) is an American cancer researcher and surgeon, chief of Surgery at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland and a Professor of Surgery at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences an ...

and

James P. Allison James Patrick Allison (born August 7, 1948) is an American immunologist and Nobel laureate who holds the position of professor and chair of immunology and executive director of immunotherapy platform at the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the Uni ...

and the Pioneer Award with Carl H. June. He is the recipient of the 2015

Israel Prize The Israel Prize ( he, פרס ישראל; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor. History The Israel Prize is awarded annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state cer ...

in Life Sciences and the 2019

Cancer Research Institute The Cancer Research Institute (CRI) is a US non-profit organization funding cancer research and based in New York City. They were founded in 1953 to develop immunologically-based treatments for cancer, and despite their name are a funding body fo ...

William B. Coley Award The William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology is presented annually by the Cancer Research Institute, to scientists who have made outstanding achievements in the fields of basic and tumor immunology and whose w ...

. In 2021 he was awarded the

Dan David Prize The Dan David Prize is a major international award that recognizes and supports outstanding contributions to the study of history and other disciplines that shed light on the human past. It awards nine prizes of $300,000 each year to outstanding ...

.Dan David Prize 2021
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eshhar, Zelig Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Israel Prize in life sciences recipients Israeli immunologists Massry Prize recipients Weizmann Institute of Science faculty

Biography

Medical research

Awards and recognition

See also

References