Name: Dana Wolf

Title： Professor, Head of Clinical Virology

Email: danaw@ekmd.huji.ac.il

Tel: +972-2-6777890

Research Interests

As a clinical and molecular virologist, my studies have focused on understanding the mechanisms of viral transmission and damage, and on exploring innate and adaptive immune responses against human viral infections, including human cytomegalovirus, SARS-CoV-2, influenza virus, and Zika virus.

In recent years, we have established unique ex vivo viral infection models in native three-dimensional human target tissues, maintained viable as multi-cell type organ cultures. We apply these models, coupled with genome-wide transcriptional analysis, to investigate early patterns of viral tropism and spread and mucosal innate immune effectors in the authentic respiratory tract milieu and in the placenta.  

We further evaluate the effect of new therapeutic measures and antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 and other human respiratory pathogens, as well as new diagnostic and preventive approaches to congenital viral infections.    

Ten Selected Papers

*co-corresponding authors; #co-first authors

1.Alfi O, Yakirevitch A, Wald O, Wandel O, Izhar U, Oiknine-Djian E, Nevo Y, Elgavish S, Dagan E, Madgar O, Feinmesser G, Pikarsky E, Bronstein M, Vorontsov O, Jonas W, Ives J, Walter J, Zakay-Rones Z, Oberbaum M, Panet A, Wolf DG. Human nasal and lung tissues infected ex vivo with SARS-CoV-2 provide insights into differential tissue-specific and virus-specific innate immune responses in the upper and lower respiratory tract. J Virol. 2021 Apr 23:JVI.00130-21. doi: 10.1128/JVI.00130-21. Online ahead of print. PMID: 33893170

2.Rottenstreich A, Zarbiv G, Oiknine-Djian E, Zigron R, Wolf DG*, Porat S. Efficient maternofetal transplacental transfer of anti- SARS-CoV-2 spike antibodies after antenatal SARS-CoV-2 BNT162b2 mRNA vaccination. Clin Infect Dis. 2021 Apr 3:ciab266. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciab266. Online ahead of print. (*Corresponding author)

3.Barak N, Ben-Ami R, Sido T, Perri A, Shtoyer A, Rivkin M, Licht T, Peretz A, Magenheim J, Fogel I, Livneh A, Daitch Y, Oiknine-Djian E, Benedek G, Dor Y*, Wolf DG,*, Yassour M* Lessons from applied large-scale pooling of 133,816 SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR tests. Sci. Transl. Med; 13(589):eabf2823. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abf2823.  (*Corresponding author)

4.Miller D, Martin MA, Harel N, Tirosh O, Kustin T, Meir M, Sorek N, Gefen-Halevi S, Amit S, Vorontsov O, Shaag A, Wolf D, Peretz A, Shemer-Avni Y, Roif-Kaminsky D, Kopelman NM, Huppert A, Koelle K, Stern A. Full genome viral sequences inform patterns of SARS-CoV-2 spread into and within Israel. Nat Commun. 2020 Nov 2;11(1):5518. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-19248-0.

5.Alfi O, From I, Yakirevitch A, Drendel M, Wolf M, Meir K, Zakay-Rones Z, Nevo Y, Elgavish S, Ilan O, Weisblum Y, Tayeb S, Gross M, Jonas W, Ives J, Oberbaum M, Panet A, Wolf DG. Human Nasal Turbinate Tissues in Organ Culture as a Model for Human Cytomegalovirus Infection at the Mucosal Entry Site. J Virol. 2020 Sep 15;94(19):e01258-20. doi: 10.1128/JVI.01258-20. Print 2020 Sep 15.PMID: 32727881

6.Ben-Ami R, Klochendler A, Seidel M; Sido T, Gurel-Gurevich O, Yassour M, Meshorer E, Benedek G, Fogel I, Oiknine-Djian E, Gertler A, Rotstein Z, Lavi B, Dor Y*, Wolf D*, Salton M*, Drier Y*. Large-scale implementation of pooled RNA extraction and RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 detection. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2020 Sep;26(9):1248-1253. doi: 10.1016/j.cmi.2020.06.009. Epub 2020 Jun 23. (*Corresponding author)

7.Oiknine-Djian E, Bar-On S, Laskov I, Lantsberg D, Haynes RK, Panet A, Wolf DG*. Artemisone demonstrates synergistic antiviral activity in combination with approved and experimental drugs active against human cytomegalovirus. Antiviral Res. 2019 Dec;172:104639. doi: 10.1016/j.antiviral.2019.104639. Epub 2019 Oct 22.PMID:31654672

8.Eventov-Friedman S, Manor H, Bar-Oz B, Averbuch D, Caplan O, Lifshitz A, Bdolah-Abram T, Wolf DG. Saliva real time polymerase chain reaction for targeted screening of congenital cytomegalovirus infection. J Infect Dis. 2019 Oct 22;220(11):1790-1796. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiz373.

9.Weisblum Y, Oiknine-Djian E, Zakay-Rones Z, Vorontsov O, Haimov-Kochman R, Nevo Y, Stockheim D, Yagel S, Panet A, Wolf DG. APOBEC3A is Upregulated by Human Cytomegalovirus in the Maternal-Fetal Interface, Acting as an Innate Anti-HCMV Effector. J Virol. 2017 Sep 27. pii: JVI.01296-17. doi: 10.1128/JVI.01296-17.

10.Weisblum Y, Oiknine-Djian E, Vorontsov OM, Haimov-Kochman R, Zakay-Rones Z, Meir K, Shveiky D, Elgavish S, Nevo Y, Roseman M, Bronstein M, Stockheim D, From I, Eisenberg I, Lewkowicz AA, Yagel S, Panet A, Wolf DG. Zika Virus Infects Early- and Midgestation Human Maternal Decidual Tissues, Inducing Distinct Innate Tissue Responses in the Maternal-Fetal Interface. J Virol. 2017 Jan 31;91(4). pii: e01905-16. doi: 10.1128/JVI.01905-16.