Molecular cell biologist Professor Sima Lev has been researching cancer biology for over twenty years. Sima Lev, specifically, investigates cell signaling and membrane trafficking.

This research has included studying phosphatidylinositol (PI)-transfer proteins, signaling by tyrosine kinase PYK2 in cancer cells, triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) progression, and finding therapeutic targets and therapies for different subtypes of TNBC.

Prof. Sima Lev’s studies have uncovered new information about membrane trafficking and cell signaling in the specific areas of human neurodegenerative diseases and human cancer. Success in discovering important information through research began back at her postdoctoral training where she isolated an enzyme which plays a key role in cell signaling. She found that this enzyme enhances the growth and progression of several human cancers.

Now Prof. Sima Lev and her team are working hard to identify possible treatments of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) by studying the major signaling pathways that determine the course of the disease. TNBC primarily affects young women and currently has no known cure.She believes that this research will help to find new therapeutic targets that can prevent the progression of TNBC.

Prof. Sima Lev currently holds the Joyce and Ben B. Eisenberg Professorial Chair of Molecular Endocrinology and Cancer Research at the Weizmann Institute. She earned her BSc and MSc from Tel Aviv University and her PhD in Molecular Biology from the Weizmann Institute of Science prior to her postdoctoral research at New York University Medical Center and SUGEN, Inc. She has been awarded many fellowships and awards, including the Alon Fellowship by the Israel Council for Higher Education, the Bergmann Memorial Award from the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation, and a Research Career Development Award from the Israel Cancer Research Fund.