Ben-Gurion University of the
Negev's Dr. Benyamin Rosental (pictured below) has won a Falling Walls Science Breakthrough
of the Year 2022 Award in the field of Life Sciences.
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The Falling Walls Foundation is inspired by the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November
1989 and the dawn of a new era of freedom. The non-profit foundation promotes
breakthrough thinking and builds a growing network of leaders from science,
business, and the public sector to tackle great challenges and make
groundbreaking ideas accessible to society.
The juries chaired by Helga Nowotny, President Emerita of the European Research
Council, selected the winning projects out of 1,000 nominations submitted from
105 countries.
Dr. Rosental received his award at the Falling Walls Science Summit in Berlin
on November 9, 2022.
Dr. Benyamin Rosental is an
Assistant Professor in The Shraga Segal Department of Microbiology, Immunology
and Genetics at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He received his PhD in
Immunology in 2013. His laboratory research focuses on tissue acceptance by the
immune system, and stem cell transplantation. Among their projects, he is
modulating the immune system in blood-forming stem cell transplantation (bone
marrow transplantation) to make it a safer process. Additionally, he and his
team are looking for the immune system’s “tipping point” between tissue
regeneration and inflammatory destruction. While most of the work in the
laboratory is focusing on improving transplantation and modulating the immune
system in medical settings, they also translate their research to other fields
of stem cells and immunity for ecological questions.
"We are developing the tools for stem cell-based therapy for corals. The
idea is to translate medical tools for an ecological need. To be able to
transfer heat resilience from one individual to another, so when the next heat
wave hits the corals, they could survive it. This is similar to bone marrow
transplantation in humans, when we transplant to an immune deficient child bone
marrow containing stem cells from a healthy donor," Dr. Rosental explains.
“The Falling Walls Science Breakthroughs of the Year 2022 provide answers to
urgent questions such as climate justice or the current global energy crisis.
All nominated projects are of outstanding scientific excellence! I thank all
participants and awardees for breaking the walls towards crucial scientific
achievements with their outstanding work”, says Jürgen Mlynek, Chairman of the
Falling Walls Foundation.
