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Yona Levites

  • Department of Pharmacology & Chemical Biology
    Associate Professor
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Overview

Dr. Levites is an Associate Professor at the CND and the Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology. She received her PhD in the laboratory of Professor Moussa Youdim at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, working on the benefits of Green Tea polyphenols in models of Parkinsons Disease. She continued her training as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Professor Todd Golde where she developed recombinant antibody fragments against amyloid beta and their delivery to the CNS via Adeno Associated virus. She continued this path at the CTRND at the University of Florida and her primary research there was focused on designing, engineering, and testing recombinant therapies for neurodegenerative disorders. These diseases are characterized by accumulation of misfolded proteins in the brain, initiating a cascade of neurotoxic and inflammatory events leading eventually to brain organ failure. In the recent years immunotherapeutic approach, specifically targeting misfolded proteins accumulation in the CNS has been very promising, although is facing many challenges in clinic. Dr. Levites group cloned variable regions from many newly developed antibodies against these proteins, modified them to increase their stability and efficacy and further test these novel therapeutics in vitro, cell culture, as well as in various mouse models.

The goal of her research is to get preclinical immunotherapy research to the stage where these agents can be evaluated in clinic. Additionally, Dr. Levites is investigating, as a part of a collaborative RF1 project with Drs. Golde, Seyfried and Dr. Prokop (UF), a role of Amyloid Associated Proteins in the pathology of Alzheimers disease. She also plays a key role in developing AAV toolkit, looking for optimal ways to deliver AAV to the CNS and achieve highest levels of gene expression in areas of interest.

Research

Publications

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