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Laboratory of
Primary Immunodeficiency

From "Bedside" to "Bench" and back to "Bedside"

Pediatric Immunology Laboratory
Sheba Medical Center
Tel-Aviv University

Raz Somech Laboratory at a Glance

Here at Somech's Laboratory, we are driven by a single goal - to do our part in improving the life of the patients with Primary Immunodeficiencies. Patients with Primary Immunodeficiecy are born with defects in the immune system due to genetic mutation. It is a rare disease, and most of the patients do not survive their first year if left untreated. Thus we focus on; developing and improving strategies to diagnose the patients as early as possible; understanding the mechanism behind the different diseases and developing strategies for novel therapeutics.

Petri Dish

Research

Newborn Baby Foot

Diagnosing PID

National newborn screening (NBS) program already exist for the most severe type of T cell deficiency. However, there are no national programs to detect B cell deficiency and less severe forms of T and B cell deficiencies as of toray. Since early diagnosis of PIDs are critical for treatment of the disease, we are working to expand upon the current NBS, to increase the number of immunological diseases to be diagnosed early in life.

"Successful clinical and translational research requires that science goes where the patients and diseases are"

Characterization of the adaptive immune repertoire using NGS review MARCH 2024.pdf

News

Image by Towfiqu barbhuiya

Characterization of the adaptive immune repertoire using NGS 

MARCH 2024

Dr. Tal Beit Halevi wrote a review article summarizing the immune repertoire studies characterizing various Primary Immunodeficiencies that were carried out in our Primary Immunodeficiency Laboratory. The review is writen in Hebrew and it is published in the journal "Harefuah", in the March 2024 edition. Click on the picture above to see the article.

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We welcome:
Dr. Ido Someckh, 

Ms. Coral Haddad and
Ms. Danielle Raveh 

Dr. Ido Someck is a physician scientist.

Ms. Coral Haddad is medical student and Ms. Danielle Raveh is a senior High School student, and both are Arrow Project participants for the year 2023-2024.

Publications

Selected publications

SLP76 Mutation Associated with Combined Immunodeficiency and EBV-Related Lymphoma

Lev A, Asleh M, Levy S et al

J Clin Immunol. 2023 Apr

Inadequate Activation of γδT- and B-cells in Patient with Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome (WAS) Portrayed by TRG and IGH Repertoire Analyses

Palevski D, Simon ALev A, Somech S and Lee YN

J Clin Immunol​. 2023 Jan.

Lessons Learned from Five Years of Newborn Screening for Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID) in Israel

Lev A, Sharir I, Simon AJ et al.

J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract. 2022 Apr 26. 

Inherited SLP76 deficiency in humans causes severe combined immunodeficiency, neutrophil and platelet defects

Lev A, Lee YN, Sun G et al

J Exp Med. 2021; 218 (3).

Reduced Function and Diversity of T Cell Repertoire and Distinct Clinical Course in Patients With IL7RA Mutation

Lev A, Simon AJ, Barel O, et al.  

Front Immunol. 2019;10:1672. Published 2019 Jul 17.

Disruption of Thrombocyte and T Lymphocyte Development by a Mutation in ARPC1B

Somech R, Lev A, Lee YN, et al.  

J Immunol. 2017;199(12):4036‐4045.

Characterization of T and B cell repertoire diversity in patients with RAG deficiency

Lee YN, Frugoni F, Dobbs K, et al. 

Sci Immunol. 2016;1(6):eaah6109.

Mutations in STN1 cause Coats plus syndrome and are associated with genomic and telomere defects

Simon AJ, Lev A, Zhang Y, et al.  

J Exp Med. 2016;213(8):1429‐1440.

Timely and Spatially Regulated Maturation of B and T Cell Repertoire During Human Fetal Development

Rechavi E, Lev A, Lee YN et al. 

Sci Transl Med. 2015 Feb 25;7(276):276ra25.

A Congenital Neutrophil Defect Syndrome Associated With Mutations in VPS45

Vilboux T, Lev A, Malicdan MC, Simon AJ et al. 

N Engl J Med. 2013 Jul 4;369(1):54-65.

“The past is in the present,
but the future is still in our hands”

Elie Wiesel - Writer, Nobel Peace Prize Winner

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Team

Who We Are

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Prof. Raz Somech

MD, PhD

Head of Lab

Contact

Thanks for submitting!

Address:

Laboratory Building, 2nd Floor, Rooms 266-268,
Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Ramat-Gan, Israel

Email:

Phone:

03-530-3477

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