Yona Levites, PhD
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Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology, School of Medicine
Graduate Programs
- Affiliate Member - Molecular and Systems Pharmacology
- Affiliate Member - Neuroscience
Education
Postdoctoral Fellow, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, 2006PhD, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, 2002
BS, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, 1995
Contact Information
Email: yona.levites@emory.edu
Address:
Health Sciences Research Building II, Room N643
1750 Haygood Drive NE
Atlanta, GA 30322
I study neurodegeneration for over 20 years. My passion has always been to develop a therapy or a drug that will be able to reverse or prevent these devastating diseases. But more I investigate and learn about them; more I understand how far we are from having a cure. So one of the most intriguing questions I have been puzzled by is why neurons die and what is the reason for selectivity of neuronal death in different diseases, such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, ALS, etc.
Recombinant immunotherapy
Since then, my research was primarily focused on development novel recombinant antibodies against varieties of neurodegenerative disorders, utilizing resources for novel antibodies as well as pioneering discoveries in the aspects of adeno-associated virus delivery tools available at the University of Florida. A common feature of many neurodegenerative diseases is believed to be an accumulation of misfolded proteins in the brain, initiating a cascade of neurotoxic and inflammatory events leading eventually to brain organ failure. There are no current therapies against most of these diseases. In the recent years immunotherapeutic approach, specifically targeting misfolded proteins' accumulation in the CNS has been very promising, although is facing many challenges in clinic. I have utilized my prior expertise with anti-amyloid beta immunotherapy to clone variable regions from newly developed antibodies against these proteins, modify them to increase their stability and efficacy and further test these novel therapeutics in vitro, cell culture, as well as in various mouse models.
Although I started Recombinant Immunotherapy as a specific project, cloning variable regions from anti-Abeta and anti-tau hybridomas during my postdoctoral training, over the time I developed the approach and was able to apply it to my independent funded projects, as well as to earn a reputation in the field of an expert in design, characterization, and delivery of recombinant scFvs against a variety of misfolded proteins and neurodegenerative conditions. Another approach that we took was to stabilize single chain fragments and increase their avidity. The project turned out to be technically very challenging, as a lot of scFvs, especially the ones we targeted intracellularly, lost the parental antibody binding properties, did not fold or express as expected. Although this project did not yield a large number of publications, Marshall became an accomplished antibody engineering scientist and is applying acquired expertise in the biotech industry.
AAV
My most impactful line of research to date, is probably development of most efficient routs of viral delivery and expression. Adeno-associated virus has been the focus of gene therapy field for many years now, but limited expression and spread are the main obstacles encountered by the scientists trying to develop new models of neurodegenerative diseases or new therapies.
We have been both developing and characterizing new viral capsids in collaboration with UF AAV experts, as well as testing various methods of delivery into the brain, spinal cord, muscle, ganglion. I was a lead of the team who developed and coined the term "somatic brain transgeniesis" for neonatal AAV delivery and consulted many collaborators and colleagues in the field on this technique.
Amyloid Associated proteins
Another project that budded from a collaboration with Emory Department of Biochemistry and Emory ADRC, is looking into the roles Amyloid Associated proteins play in development of pathology in Alzheimer's Disease. My expertise to overexpress genes in the brains of mice and assess their effects on Alzheimer's pathology led to a collaborative project that resulted in MPI RF1 funding. I hope to continue this line of research here at Emory.
In addition to main projects, I collaborate with a number of researchers at UF and outside, utilizing my knowledge of Alzheimers Disease mouse models and AAV delivery into the CNS.
For example, I was a co-I on a NIH funding, in collaboration with Dr. Rangachary from USM looking into the effects of soluble Amyloid beta oligomers on AD pathology and cerebral amyloid angiopathy in the transgenic mouse model. We plan to obtain additional funding to continue this project.
Recombinant immunotherapy
Since then, my research was primarily focused on development novel recombinant antibodies against varieties of neurodegenerative disorders, utilizing resources for novel antibodies as well as pioneering discoveries in the aspects of adeno-associated virus delivery tools available at the University of Florida. A common feature of many neurodegenerative diseases is believed to be an accumulation of misfolded proteins in the brain, initiating a cascade of neurotoxic and inflammatory events leading eventually to brain organ failure. There are no current therapies against most of these diseases. In the recent years immunotherapeutic approach, specifically targeting misfolded proteins' accumulation in the CNS has been very promising, although is facing many challenges in clinic. I have utilized my prior expertise with anti-amyloid beta immunotherapy to clone variable regions from newly developed antibodies against these proteins, modify them to increase their stability and efficacy and further test these novel therapeutics in vitro, cell culture, as well as in various mouse models.
Although I started Recombinant Immunotherapy as a specific project, cloning variable regions from anti-Abeta and anti-tau hybridomas during my postdoctoral training, over the time I developed the approach and was able to apply it to my independent funded projects, as well as to earn a reputation in the field of an expert in design, characterization, and delivery of recombinant scFvs against a variety of misfolded proteins and neurodegenerative conditions. Another approach that we took was to stabilize single chain fragments and increase their avidity. The project turned out to be technically very challenging, as a lot of scFvs, especially the ones we targeted intracellularly, lost the parental antibody binding properties, did not fold or express as expected. Although this project did not yield a large number of publications, Marshall became an accomplished antibody engineering scientist and is applying acquired expertise in the biotech industry.
AAV
My most impactful line of research to date, is probably development of most efficient routs of viral delivery and expression. Adeno-associated virus has been the focus of gene therapy field for many years now, but limited expression and spread are the main obstacles encountered by the scientists trying to develop new models of neurodegenerative diseases or new therapies.
We have been both developing and characterizing new viral capsids in collaboration with UF AAV experts, as well as testing various methods of delivery into the brain, spinal cord, muscle, ganglion. I was a lead of the team who developed and coined the term "somatic brain transgeniesis" for neonatal AAV delivery and consulted many collaborators and colleagues in the field on this technique.
Amyloid Associated proteins
Another project that budded from a collaboration with Emory Department of Biochemistry and Emory ADRC, is looking into the roles Amyloid Associated proteins play in development of pathology in Alzheimer's Disease. My expertise to overexpress genes in the brains of mice and assess their effects on Alzheimer's pathology led to a collaborative project that resulted in MPI RF1 funding. I hope to continue this line of research here at Emory.
In addition to main projects, I collaborate with a number of researchers at UF and outside, utilizing my knowledge of Alzheimers Disease mouse models and AAV delivery into the CNS.
For example, I was a co-I on a NIH funding, in collaboration with Dr. Rangachary from USM looking into the effects of soluble Amyloid beta oligomers on AD pathology and cerebral amyloid angiopathy in the transgenic mouse model. We plan to obtain additional funding to continue this project.
