Research Interests:
Population Genetics, Health and Disease Gene Mapping, Kidney Health and Disease
Short Synopsis:
The Molecular Medicine laboratory that Prof. Skorecki directs together with Dr. Sara Selig and Dr. Maty Tzukerman conducts research in varied areas
of human molecular genetics and biology. These range from large-scale population genetics projects to the use of the human embryonic stem cells
in cancer research. Together with other clinician-scientists– especially Dr. Daniella Magen of Pediatric Nephrology at
Rambam Medical Center, we use advanced disease gene discovery approaches to uncover novel pathways and mechanisms in kidney functional
integrity. Using whole-exome sequencing technologies at the Technion Genome Center, we are currently searching for causative mutations in
families with evident clustering of serious disease, including rare cancers .
Rosset S, Tzur S, Behar DM, Wasser W, Skorecki KL. Population Genetics in Chronic Kidney Disease: Insights from the MYH9 – APOL1 Example. Nat Rev Nephrol. 7(6):313-326, 2011.
Yehezkel S, Rebibo-Sabbah A, Segev Y, Tzukerman M, Shaked R, Huber I, Gepstein L, Skorecki K, Selig S. Reprogramming of telomeric regions during the generation of human induced pluripotent stem cells and subsequent differentiation into fibroblast-like derivatives. Epigenetics 6(1): 63-75, 2011.
Abelson S, Shamay Y, Berger L, Skorecki K, Tzukerman M. Intratumoral heterogeneity in the self-renewal and tumorigenic differentiation of ovarian cancer. Stem Cells 30(3):415-424, 2012.
Katz, E., Skorecki, K., Tzukerman, M. 2009. Niche-dependent tumorigenic capacity of malignant ovarian ascites-derived cancer cell subpopulations. Clin Cancer Res 15, 70-80.
Shlush, L. I., Behar, D. M., Yudkovsky, G., Templeton, A., Hadid, Y., Basis, F., Hammer, M., Itzkovitz, S., Skorecki, K. 2008. The Druze: A population genetic refugium of the Near East. PLoS ONE 3, e2105.
Yehezkel, S., Segev, Y., Viegas-Pequignot, E., Skorecki, K., Selig, S. 2008. Hypomethylation of subtelomeric regions in ICF syndrome is associated with abnormally short telomeres and enhanced transcription from telomeric regions. Hum Mol Genet 17, 2776-2789.