Sima Lev received Bachelor’s degree in 1986 and Master degree in 1988, both of them with distinction, from the Tel-Aviv University. Sima Lev obtained her Ph.D. degree from ” Weizmann Institute of Science ” in 1994.
Prof. Sima Lev received many awards for excellent studies during her Ph.D. including an award from Wolf foundation, European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) postdoctoral fellowship.
Prof. Sima Lev joined Prof. J. Schlessinger for postdoctoral training at NYU Medical center and Sugen Inc. In 1998 Sima Lev returned to Weizmann Institute as a senior scientist of the Department of Neurobiology, and was awarded an Alon Fellowship by the Israel Council for Higher Education – Israel highest award for returning scientists. SIma Lev was promoted to associate professor in 2005 and now she is working at the Molecular Cell Biology department.
Prof. Sima Lev is an expert in cell signaling and membrane trafficking. Her studies focus on breast cancer signaling and metastasis.
Over the last 20 years Sima Lev research ranged across:
- Different aspects of membrane trafficking, in particular regulatory mechanisms of intracellular lipid transport and vesicular fusion.
- Hosphatidylinositol (PI)-transfer proteins and their role in phosphoinositide signaling.
- Signaling by the non-receptor tyrosine kinase PYK2 in cancer cells.
- Regulatory mechanisms of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) progression and metastasis.
- Identification of therapeutic targets and combination therapies for different molecular subtypes of TNBC.
Sima Lev pioneer studies provide novel mechanistic insights into the field of membrane trafficking and cell signaling in cancer biology. Prof. Sima Lev discovered the non-receptor tyrosine kinase PYK2, and then isolated a family of lipid transfer proteins designated Nir1, Nir2, and Nir3.
Prof. Sima Lev is an associate professor at the Molecular Cell Biology Department of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.