My visits at the Center for Cancer Research generated fruitful multifaceted collaborations.
At the scientific level, my lab obtained several human melanoma cell lines, which served in studies on the crosstalk between brain-metastasizing melanoma cells and the brain microenvironment. An example of such studies is a paper published in 2015 coauthored with the research groups Michael Micksche and Walter Berger (Kahana, O. et al. Oncogene, 2002; Izraely S. et al. Int. J. Cancer, 2015).
In 2012, Dr. Michael Grush from Prof Berger’s group spent three months in my lab in Tel Aviv.
During my sabbatical stays at the Cancer Center, I served as reviewer in Prof. Zielinski’s “Initiative Krebsforschung” program that funded promising research proposals from the Vienna center.
As the Founding President of the Tel Aviv University Cancer Biology Research Center, I imitated collaboration between the Tel Aviv and the Vienna Centers. Several mutual visits of Viennese researchers in Israel and of Tel Aviv resechers in Vienna took place (see for example Izraeli S, Witz I, Micksche M. Cancer research--from bench to bedside. Isr Med Assoc J. 2002).
On October 23, 2011 Tel Aviv University’s Cancer Biology Research Center and the Comprehensive Cancer Center of the Medical University of Vienna signed a cancer-research cooperation agreement. The signing took place at Tel Aviv University. The Rector of Tel Aviv University and Prof. Christoph Zielinski signed the agreement on behalf of their respective centers.