Prof. Ami Aronheim completed his B. Sc. in agriculture at the Hebrew University in 1986. Aronheim did his M.Sc. degree with JM Gershonni at the Weizmann Institute studying the acetylcholine receptor. Aronheim has graduated from the Weizmann Institute in 1993 studying control of Insulin gene expression and subsequently joined Prof. Michael Karin laboratory at UCSD for three years studying signal transduction mechanisms of the Ras exchange factor Sos. In 1996 Aronheim joined the Molecular Genetics Department at the faculty of Medicine of the Technion. Aronheim’s research is focused on characterization of signaling circuits involved in mediating extracellular signals into gene expression events.
Currently the lab focuses on characterization the role of bZIP transcription repressors JDP2 and ATF3 in cardiac remodeling. In addition, we study the two top rated deadly diseases in human; cancer and heart failure. Our main efforts are made to reveal how these diseases affect each other outcome. The model systems used in the lab involves transgenic and knockout mouse strains and carcinogenesis and cardiac hypertrophy model systems. These models mimics related human disease such as aortic stenosis and breast cancer and lung cancer in mice.
The current ongoing research projects in the Aronheim’s laboratory:
- The role of bZIP repressors, JDP2 and ATF3, in carcinogenesis and cardiac remodeling
- Small molecule screening for the bZIP repressors – new drugs for heart failure
- How Cardiac remodeling affects cancer growth and metastasis – from phenotype to mechanisms
- How cancer growth affects cardiac remodeling – from phenotype to mechanisms