23rd January at 12:00-13:oo
Onsite event
in Lauren 2, Medisiina D

Prof. Gilad Bachrach, The BacteriOncology Lab, The Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Dental Medicine
Tumor acceleration by Fusobacterium nucleatum: mechanisms and opportunities

Host: Prof. Ulvi Gürsoy

The seminar is open for everyone and no registration is needed. Welcome everyone!

Dr. Bachrach is a microbiologist at the Institute of Dental Sciences of the Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Dental Medicine in Jerusalem. He is investigating the involvement of fusobacteria in tumor acceleration and the possible use of bacteria for cancer therapy. Dr. Bachrach received his BSc, MSc and PhD from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He was a post doctorate fellow at the National Institute of Medical Research in Mill Hill London where he investigated molecular mechanisms involved in the virulence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and in the National Institutes of Health (USA) where his interest in fusobacteria begun.  https://giladba.wixsite.com/laboratory

F. nucleatum is an oral anaerobic pathobiont found to accumulate in human colorectal, pancreatic, esophageal and breast cancers. In these cancers, fusobacterial overabundance is correlated with poor treatment outcome. The fusobacterial Fap2 outer-membrane protein was found to mediate specific colonization of high Gal-GalNAc displaying tumors. Once in the tumor, fusobacterial- induced suppression of anti-tumor immunity appears to play a key role in tumor acceleration by F. nucleatum. Can F. nucleatum be used to target tumors?

Selected publications

Chander A, Iacovacci J, …., Bachrach G, Urbano TG, Lei M, Petkar I, Kong A, Ng T, Orlandi E, Iacovelli NA, De Cecco L, Serafini MS, Moyes D, Rancati T, Ferreira MR. Fusobacterium is toxic for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and its presence may determine a better prognosis. Cancer Commun (Lond). 2024 Aug;44(8):879-883. doi: 10.1002/cac2.12588

Parhi L, Shhadeh A, Maalouf N, Alon-Maimon T, Scaiewicz V, Bachrach G. Multiphoton Microscopy of FITC-labelled Fusobacterium nucleatum in a Mouse in vivo Model of Breast Cancer. Bio Protoc. 2023 Mar 20;13(6):e4635. doi: 10.21769/BioProtoc.4635.

Parhi L, Alon-Maimon T, …, Mandelboim O, Granot Z, Straussman R, Bachrach G. Breast cancer colonization by Fusobacterium nucleatum accelerates tumor growth and metastatic progression. Nat Commun. 2020 Jun 26;11(1):3259. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-16967-2.

Gur C, Maalouf N, Shhadeh A, Berhani O, Singer BB, Bachrach G, Mandelboim O. Fusobacterium nucleatum supresses anti-tumor immunity by activating CEACAM1. Oncoimmunology. 2019 Mar 27;8(6):e1581531. doi: 10.1080/2162402X.2019.1581531.