Researcher Profile Form First National Pediatric Brain Tumor Research Meeting March 9, 2025 - Jerusalem
Researcher: Prof. Gad David Vatine
Current Role & Affiliation
Title/Position: Associate Professor
Institution: Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell (RMSC) Research Center
Email: vatineg@bgu.ac.il
Phone: 0587877293
Dr. Vatine is an Associate Professor and Director of the iPS-Core Facility at the RMSC Research Center.
Research Focus
● Developing stem-cell (iPSC) based personalized platforms of the human BBB in order to study diversity in brain penetrability among individuals.
● Studying cell-to-cell interactions between the various cells of the neurovascular unit.
● Pre-clinical development of translational strategies for BBB-targeted gene therapy, to treat the Allan Herndon Dudley syndrome (AHDS, also known as MCT8-deficiency)
Current Projects Related to Pediatric Brain Tumors
● Development of physiologically relevant iPSC-derived models
● Study of neurological disorders with implications for pediatric brain tumor research
Laboratory/Research Resources
● iPS-Core Facility
● Advanced reprogramming methods for iPSCs
● Bioengineered disease modeling platforms
Collaboration Interests
● Stem cell research for neurological disorder modeling
● Personalized disease modeling approaches
What You Can Offer Potential Collaborators
● Expertise in iPSC generation and disease modeling
● Access to cutting-edge bioengineered platforms
Selected Publications
1. Gordon T, et.al. Proteomic analysis of human iPSC-derived sympathetic neurons identifies proteostasis collapse as a molecular signature following subtoxic rotenone exposure. Toxicology. 2025 Jan;510:154015. doi: 10.1016/j.tox.2024.154015. Epub 2024 Nov 26
2. Ben-Zvi H, et.al. PLEKHM2 Loss of Function Impairs the Activity of iPSC-Derived Neurons via Regulation of Autophagic Flux. Int J Mol Sci. 2022 Dec 17;23(24):16092. doi: 10.3390/ijms232416092.
3. Zlotnik D, et.al. P450 oxidoreductase regulates barrier maturation by mediating retinoic acid metabolism in a model of the human BBB. Stem Cell Reports. 2022 Sep 13;17(9):2050-2063.
Keywords
Stem Cells, iPSCs, Neurological Disorders, Disease Modeling, Organ-on-Chip,BBB
Brief Bio
Dr. Vatine received his Ph.D. in 2011 from Tell Aviv University. He followed this with a short postdoc at Bar-Ilan University where he established a zebrafish model for the rare psychomotor disability disorder MCT8-deficiency. Next, he joined the laboratory of Dr. Clive Svendsen at the Regenerative Medicine Institute at Cedars-Sinai where he pioneered the concept of disease modeling at blood-brain barrier (BBB) using patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). In 2017, he became an assistant professor at The Physiology and Cell Biology Department and the Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research Center at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The Vatine lab generates personalized iPSC-based models to study mechanisms underlying various rare neurological disorders, and to test potential treatments. He is also the director of the BGU-iPS-core facility.
