BOG 2023: New Kadar MD-PhD Fellowships

We are pleased to announce the recipients of the Kadar MD-PhD Fellowship, made available through a generous donation by the Naomi Foundation to the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University. The Foundation, which supports innovation in education, medical and scientific research, as well as Yiddish scholarship, has long supported programs at Tel Aviv University. Within its medical portfolio, the Naomi Foundation supports scientific discovery, medical advancements, and cancer research.  

This prestigious fellowship is awarded to high achieving MD-PhD students researching the molecular, cellular, and physiological processes underpinning medical science. The scholarship funding will be provided to each recipient for the duration of their MD-PhD studies at Tel Aviv University, and will be awarded annually to new students as well. 

TAU held a ceremony to celebrate this year’s awardees as part of its 2023 Board of Governors meeting. Nadav Kadar, Naomi Foundation board member and TAU Governor, spoke on his family’s long and dedicated involvement with TAU, telling the new MD-PhD Fellows, “I’m really looking forward to seeing where all of you end up.”  

Dean of Medicine Karen Avraham added that burgeoning AI and medical technology make the combination of science, research, and medicine ever more crucial—a combination best carried out by MD-PhDs. “The Kadar MD-PhD Fellowship will ensure our best and brightest students can do their finest work during their studies.”   

The 2022-2023 Kadar MD-PhD Fellowship recipients are:  

Alice Tamar Raizman at the Department of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology in Dr. Merav Cohen’s lab. She explores the role of the immune system in the process of tissue development, looking at the molecular signals directing the healthy development of tissues. Through this she can help us better understand how cellular communications can go wrong, leading to tissue pathologies.  

Dror Ben Ruby is performing his research in the Genetic Kidney Diseases Research Group, under the supervision of Prof. Asaf Vivante and Dr. Dan Dominissini (Medicine), on the Sheba Medical Center campus. His work aims to unravel the genetic basis of chronic kidney disease to enable early diagnosis and gene-based therapy studies.  

Omer Azar recently began his MD-PhD in the Immunology and Advanced CAR-T Therapy Lab under the supervision of Prof. Dan Grisaru (Medicine), with advisor Dr. Anat Globerson Levin at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center. His research is directed toward the development of cancer-fighting CAR-T cell therapy for ovarian cancer, by genetic editing of the CAR-T cells themselves, to allow them to penetrate deeper into the tumor mass.  

We wish the awardees great success in their endeavors!