The 2025 Annual Lautenberg Center Retreat took place from February 25th to 27th at the beautiful Elma Hotel in Zichron Ya’akov.
This year, we had the privilege of hosting Prof. Stipan Jonjić from the University of Rijeka, a world-renowned leader in viral immunology. He gave two fascinating lectures: one on the Immunobiology of Congenital Cytomegalovirus Infection in the Central Nervous System and another on how CMV acts as a masterful manipulator of MHC I and its receptors.
We were also delighted to welcome new faculty members: Dr. Alex Sigal, Dr. Inbal Benhar, and Prof. Carlos Caldas. Prof. Caldas is a clinician-scientist and Professor of Cancer Medicine at the University of Cambridge, and he gave an excellent talk focused on modeling breast cancer using patient-derived xenografts, providing valuable insights into instructive tissue architecture.
It was an honor to hear the history of the Lautenberg Center presented in such an engaging way by Prof. Eithan Yefe Nof, one of the center’s pioneers.
In addition to the outstanding student presentations and engaging scientific discussions, the retreat featured a fun dance party and an entertaining stand-up comedy show. We had an incredible time dancing, laughing, and enjoying great company, and we also raised a toast in honor of Oren Parnas’s promotion to professorship.
In these complex times, it was wonderful to take this break, enjoy the retreat, and appreciate the time spent together.
The Lautenberg Center Annual Retreat in 2024 was a single-day retreat in memory of Prof. Moshe Kotler, who was a dear colleague and left an indelible mark on the department through his personality and dedicated research.
This remarkable retreat took place on July 29, 2024, at the Shalva National Center, an organization dedicated to providing transformative care and promoting social inclusion for individuals with disabilities.
We enjoyed listening to outstanding talks given by excellent PIs from our faculty. In addition, we were glad to have Prof. Roni Nowarski from Harvard University and Dr. Yotam Bar-On from the Technion join us and share their fascinating research.
We were also honored to hear a few words from Moshe’s family, shared by his son Yaniv Kotler.
The 2023 retreat of the Lautenberg Center was held on June 19th-21st at the lovely NEA Hotel in Moshav Shavey Zion.
This year we had the honor of having Prof. Alex Sigal join us from the Africa Health Research Institute and the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Prof. Sigal gave fascinating talks on ‘lessons for future pandemics’, SARS-CoV-2 and HIV co-infection, and the effect of vaccine platforms on boosting the immune response to SARS-CoV-2.
We enjoyed listening to outstanding student talks accompanied by great scientific discussions. In addition, flash talks were incorporated into the retreat for the first time, allowing more students to present their research and for us to enjoy more excellent talks.
The retreat also included bonding activities such as sailing Tornado boats along Israel’s rugged northern coast between Achziv and the cliffs of Rosh Hanikra, enjoying a delicious lunch on the beach, a funny and challenging Kahoot quiz made by Leonor Daniel, and an evening party with wine and good music.
The 2022 retreat was in a 1 day format, as the IMRIC retreat was held a couple of months later. This unforgettable retreat took place on June at the Jerusalem Butanical Gardens Conference Center.
This year we had the honor of having Prof. Dinorah Friedmann-Morvinski to join us.
Remarkably, the lectures were given by the PIs of the department, each of them gave an overview lecture of their labs’ work!
And last, the James Sivartsen Prize in Pediatric Cancer Research was given to Dr. Batya Isaacson for receiving the 2022 !
The 2021 retreat went ahead after the cancellation of the 2020 retreat due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This unforgettable retreat took place on June 20th-22nd at the Galilion Hotel and Conference Center.
This year we had the honor of having Prof. Steffen Jung from the Weizmann Institute and Prof. Liran Carmel from the Hebrew University join us.
Prof. Jung gave the opening talk about Differential Functions of Tissue Macrophages, and Prof. Carmel gave a talk about “what makes us humans”; the epigenetic underpinning of recent human evolution.
In addition to enjoying outstanding student talks accompanied by great scientific discussions, we also had the pleasure of kayaking in the Hazbani River, participating in a “mentalist” performance, and enjoying a great live performance by the Tzanchany Brothers band.
Download: Retreat Program 2021
The 2019 retreat of the Lautenberg Center was held at June in Kibbutz Merom Golan at the Golan Heights.
This year we had the honor of having Prof. Christoph Hess from the Basel University to be joining us and not only comment and ask great questions at the end of each lecture, but also to take an active part in the departmental social activities. The Students, post-doctoral fellows and research collaborators presented their work in an informal round-table discussion.
This year we also had ATV 4*4 drive through the Golan wilderness, evening party with home brewed beer made by Micha bergers student Eliran Arbib. Finally, at the end of the retreat, Mr. Eliran Kadosh from the Ben Neriah lab gave his outstanding PhD lecture.
The 2018 retreat of the Lautenberg Center was held at April in the city of Zafat in the scenic north of Israel. Students, post-doctoral fellows and even one PI presented their work in an informal round-table discussion. This year we had the honor of having Prof. Anton Berns from the Netherlands Cancer Institute and Prof. Miriam Chang from as guests in our lectures, which contribted much of thier knowlege into the discussions.
At the evenings, we broke the high tension with karaoke and pool party at the spa facilities.
The annual Retreat of the Lautenberg Center was held on March at Kibbutz Ein Gedi which is located in the Judean desert.
Students and post-doctoral fellows presented their research projects in an informal round-table discussion.
Prof. Feng Zhang of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT was invited to offer his insights and comments to the works presented by the Centers’ students.
The 2016 retreat was held in Ramot, above the Sea of Galile.
We had the honor of having Prof. Michel Nussenzweig from the Rockefeller university as our guest.
The 2015 retreat was held in Kibbutz Nahsholim, at the foot of Mt. Carmel and on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea.
Our guest this year was Prof. Alexander Rudensky from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
The 2011 Retreat was held on March 28-30, 2011 at Kibbutz Mashabei Sade in southern Israel. Dr. Ruslan Medzhitov from the Yale University School of Medicine was invited to participate and to offer his insights and comments to the works presented. The topic of Dr. Medzhitov lecture was “Innate Control of Adaptive Immunity”. The second lecture was presented by Dr. Yaakub Hana, a Ph.D graduate of the Center and now working at the Weizmann Institute. Dr. Hana spoke on “The Epigenetic “Instability of the Pluripotent and Somatic Cell States”.
The Lautenberg center for immunology and cancer research
Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada (IMRIC), Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
POB 12272, Jerusalem 91120, Israel
Tel: 972-2-6757725
Fax: 972-2-6430834
