People

Giora earned his PhD degree from Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheva, Israel in 2010.

During last seven years his research interests are focused on immunology and particularly on the connection between molecules of Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) and immunodominance.

Giora explains:

“Immunodominance is a general phenomenon when immune response is directed against only few of antigenic epitopes of apathogen.  

MHC molecules controls how the immune system recognizes and reacts to specific antigens. They bind and presentantigens to T cells. MHC class I molecules present antigens that are intracellular (i.e. viral or connected to cancer) and MHC class II molecules present antigens that are extracellular (bacterial pathogens). Binding of antigens to MHC molecules creates mechanistical basis of immunodominance”

During Giora’s postdoc project (2010-2015) in the lab of David Margulies at National Institutes of Health, he created a novel approach to purify recombinant peptide-free MHC class I molecules in the complex with its peptide editor TAPBPR protein. For the first time Giora and his colleagues presented functional characteristics and structure of MHC class I molecules in stable peptide-free and peptide-receptive state in vitro.

Later (between 2016-2021) Giora worked in Israel (Faculty of Agriculture, Hebrew University) and in the US (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia) participating in projects connected to characterization of immune status using recombinant MHC-I molecules.

Giora joined the lab of Dr. Timothy Lu at SMART on May 2021. His project is connected to creation of a new viral carrierfor gene therapy with diminished immunogenic properties.

During his free time Giora likes exploring Singapore attractions, long trail walks and reading history books.