Orly Efros: Excited to Share a Major Milestone From My PhD at the Weizmann Institute of Science
Orly Efros, Thrombosis and Hemostasis Senior Physician at Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Excited to share a major milestone from my PhD at the Weizmann Institute of Science, guided by Prof. Liran Shlush.
In this study, we:
- Built a comprehensive atlas of 212,000+ endothelial cells across 23 human tissues to define vascular and tissue-specific programs.
- Isolated and profiled circulating endothelial cells (CECs) from 287 donors, showing that they originate from diverse vascular and tissue sources.
- Discovered that CECs display striking plasticity: dedifferentiating into a progenitor-like state in-vitro, but re-differentiating under Notch pathway modulation into angiogenic and mature endothelial phenotypes.
- Uncovered a previously unrecognized paraneoplastic effect in breast cancer, where contralateral normal tissue shows enrichment of angiogenic endothelial cells—suggesting systemic tumor-driven vascular remodeling.
Together, these findings provide a framework to trace endothelial identity, introduce CECs as a model for studying tumor-associated vascular reprogramming, and open avenues for new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.
Grateful to my amazing collaborators from the Weizmann Institute and Sheba Medical Center, and to my mentor Prof. Liran Shlush! Dror Brook, Yotam Yaniv, Jacob Elkahal, Nili Furer, Gal Dadi, Hadas Naor, Nimrod Rappoport, Oren Milman, Merav Kedmi, Uriel Katz, Sigal Tavor, Adrian Duek, Elad Maor, Leonid Sternik, Nathali Kaushansky, Eldad Tzahor, Karina Yaniv, Liran Shlush”
Title: Deciphering the Origin and Plasticity of Circulating Endothelial Cells: A Model for Systemic Angiogenesis Programs in Health and Disease
Authors: Orly Efros, Dror Brook, Yotam Yaniv, Jacob Elkahal, Nili Furer, Gal Dadi, Hadas Naor, Nimrod Rappoport, Oren Milman, Merav Kedmi, Uriel Katz, Sigal Tavor, Adrian Duek, Elad Maor, Leonid Sternik, Nathali Kaushansky, Eldad Tzahor, Karina Yaniv, Liran Shlush
Check out our preprint on bioRxiv.
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