Isaac P. Witz (born November 7, 1934) is an Israeli Immunologist and cancer researcher, professor Emeritus at the Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research in Tel Aviv University (TAU). The former vice president for Research and Development and the Dean of Faculty of Life Sciences. A world-renowned cancer researcher and one of the scientists who laid the foundations of the Tumor Microenvironment (TME) research field.
Biography
Isaac Witz was born in Vienna. In September 1939 he immigrated with his parents to Palestine which was administered by a British-held mandate. In 1952, Witz joined the Israeli Defense Forces, where he served as an officer in the armored forces. He did his reserve service in the medical corps.
Soon after his discharge, he initiated his Masters studies in Microbiology, Biochemistry and Parasitology which he completed in 1959. He then started his Doctoral studies in on various aspects of Cancer Immunology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem – Hadassah Medical School.
In 1965, upon completion of his PhD studies, Witz moved to the United States, for post-doctoral training at Roswell Park Memorial Institute, Buffalo, New York under the guidance of the world-renowned Immunochemist David Pressman.
In 1968 he returned to Israel and was appointed as lecturer of Immunology at TAU where he established his research lab. In 1972 he was promoted to Associate Professor and elected to chair the Department of Microbiology, leading the transition of the Department of Microbiology from its temporary residence at Abu Kabir to the Ramat Aviv campus. In 1975, he was promoted to full Professorship.
In 1979, Witz was elected as Dean of the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences. In 1980 he founded the Cancer Biology Research Center of TAU, being its first head. He served in these academic/administrative positions until 1984, when he was elected as the Vice President for Research and Development of TAU and as the chair of Ramot, the technology transfer company of TAU. He held these positions until 1987.
Witz served in several public positions in Israel as well as in international forums. In Israel, he served as the President of the Immunological Society (1986–1989) and as the Founding-President of the Israeli Society for Cancer Research (2008–2011). He was also a member of International Committees on scientific cooperation between Israel and Germany, and Israel and France.
Witz retired from teaching and from administrative positions in 2003 but kept heading an active research group. Among his former students are Drs. Adit Ben Baruch and Yona Keisari, both Professors at Tel Aviv University.
Witz is a father of two, grandfather of five and great-grandfather of two.
Research
Isaac Witz is the most veteran cancer researcher at Tel Aviv University. He has authored over 230 papers in leading academic journals, edited 11 books, and written many book sections. He is a member of several scientific societies and associations in immunology and cancer research and served as a visiting professor in American and Austrian institutes, as well as at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. He was the editor of several journals in cancer research.
In his very beginning as a principal investigator, he headed a team that tried to understand why cancer patients do not reject their tumors. He then pioneered the research field of the Tumor Microenvironment (TME) being the Founding-President of the International Cancer Microenvironment Society. He organized and presided over seven international conferences focusing on TME: Sea of Galilee (1995), Vienna (2002), Prague (2004), Florence (2007), Versailles (2009), Suzhou (2012), and Tel Aviv (2015).
Witz's scientific career of over fifty years of focusing on the cancer ecosystem was pioneered in late 1960s and early 1970s by the groundbreaking discovery that humoral immune components (antibodies) localized in the microenvironment of cancer cells and coated these cells. These antibodies affect cancer growth and progression to metastasis by a variety of molecular pathways. These studies coupled with similar findings that cells of the immune system penetrate the microenvironment of solid tumors and interact with cancer cells, formed the basis for the Tumor Immune Microenvironment (TIM) research field. Ways to modify and normalize TIM led to the development of contemporary life-saving immunotherapy modalities.