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.
Research
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"
News
Fall 2021,
Somech's lab Welcomes:
Lidar Shir
Miran Odeh
Shir Dahaman
Natalie Khateb
Prof. Raz Somech is
2021 Laureate of the
Kadar Prize for Excellence in Research
Publications
Selected publications
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
Team
Who We Are
Professor Raz Somech
MD, PhD
Head of Lab
Contact
Address:
Laboratory Building, 2nd Floor, Rooms 266-268,
Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Ramat-Gan, Israel
Email:
Phone:
03-530-3477