Uri Ben-David

2026 Israel Award Winner — Faculty

Uri Ben-David

Current Position:
Professor, Department of Human Genetics & Computational Medicine

Institution:
Tel Aviv University

Discipline:
Genetics & Genomics

Recognized for: State-of-the-art experimental and computational approaches that reveal how cancer cells develop aneuploidy – an abnormal chromosome number – and how these changes create vulnerabilities that can be exploited to design more precise and effective cancer treatments.

Areas of Research Interest and Expertise:
Molecular genetics, Genomic instability, Chromosome biology, Precision oncology, Cancer Biology

Previous Positions:

  • BSc, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  • PhD, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Advisor: N. Benvenisty)
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Broad Institute of Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Advisors: T. Golub and R. Beroukhim)

Research Summary:
Uri Ben-David, PhD, investigates a long-standing mystery in cancer biology, examining how cancer cells survive and thrive despite having an abnormal number of chromosomes, a condition known as aneuploidy. Ben-David uniquely combines genetic engineering, genomic analyses, large-scale functional screening and live-cell imaging to develop realistic cancer models and innovative experimental and computational tools to uncover how aneuploidy shapes tumor evolution, chemotherapy resistance, and disease progression across different cancers. Notably, his discoveries expose hidden vulnerabilities in cancer cells, revealing actionable therapeutic targets, such as the KIF18A gene. Inhibitors targeting KIF18A are already being tested in clinical trials, paving the way for more precise and effective cancer treatments.

“Aneuploidy - a change in the number of chromosomes - is a biological enigma that defines most cancers. My lab combines experimental and computational approaches to decipher how this genomic imbalance drives tumor development and progression. We use this information to uncover the hidden cellular vulnerabilities created by chromosomal chaos. Our goal is to turn cancer’s most common genetic hallmark into its Achilles’ heel.”

Key Publications:

  1. Laue, K., Pozzi, S., Zerbib, J., Bertolio, R., Eliezer, Y., Cohen-Sharir, Y., Winkler, T., Caputo, M., Ricci, A.A., Adler, L., Khoury, R., Longobardi, G., Slutsky, R., Leikin-Frenkel, A.I., Ovadia, S., Lange, K., Rustighi, A., Piazza, S., Sacconi, A., Magesh, R.Y., Keller, F.N., Berthelet, J., Schäffer, A., Saad, R., Dangoor, S.I., Szczepanowska, K., Barshack, I., Liao, Y., Malitsky, S., Brandis, A., Broggini, T., Czabanka, M., Shi, W., Merino, D., Watson, E.V., Blandino, G., Erez, A., Ashery-Padan, R., Medyouf, H., Bertero, L., Del Sal, G., Satchi-Fainaro, R., Ben-David, U. p53 inactivation drives breast cancer metastasis to the brain through SCD1 upregulation and increased fatty acid metabolism. Nature Genetics, 2026.
  2. Ippolito, M.R., Zerbib, J., Eliezer, Y., Reuveni, E., Viganò, S., De Feudis, G., Shulman, E.D., Savir Kadmon, A., Slutsky, R., Chang, T., Campagnolo, E.M., Taglietti, S., Scorzoni, S., Gianotti, S., Martin, S., Muenzner, J., Mülleder, M., Rozenblum, N., Rubolino, C., Ben-Yishay, T., Laue, K., Cohen-Sharir, Y., Vigorito, I., Nicassio, F., Ruppin, E., Ralser, M., Vazquez, F., Santaguida, S., Ben-David, U. Increased RNA and protein degradation is required for counteracting transcriptional burden and proteotoxic stress in human aneuploid cells. Cancer Discovery, 2024.
  3. Cohen-Sharir, Y., McFarland, J.M., Abdusamad, M., Marquis, C., Bernhard, S.V., Kazachkova, M., Tang, H., Ippolito, M.R., Laue, K., Zerbib, J., Malaby, H.L.H., Jones, A., Stautmeister, L.M., Bockaj, I., Wardenaar, R., Lyons, N., Nagaraja, A., Bass, A.J., Spierings, D.C.J., Foijer, F., Beroukhim, R., Santaguida, S., Golub, T.R., Stumpff, J., Storchová, Z., Ben-David, U. Aneuploidy renders cancer cells vulnerable to mitotic checkpoint inhibition. Nature, 2021.
  4. Enache, O.M., Rendo, V., Abdusamad, M., Lam, D., Davison, D., Pal, S., Currimjee, N., Hess, J., Pantel, S., Nag, A., Thorner, A.R., Doench, J.G., Vazquez, F., Beroukhim, R., Golub, T.R., Ben-David, U. Cas9 activates the p53 pathway and selects for p53-inactivating mutations. Nature Genetics, 2020.

Other Honors:

2025 The Schmidt Science Polymaths Award
2024 The Israel Young Academy Elected Member
2023 Dr. Joseph Steiner Cancer Research Award – Finalist
2023 The Kadar Family Award for Outstanding Research
2022 EMBO Young Investigator Member
2022 The Wolf Foundation’s Krill Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research
2021 Cells 2021 Young Investigator Award
2020 The American Association for cancer Research ‘Next Generation Star’ Award

In the Media:

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