Dr. Meir is an active senior physician in pediatric infectious diseases, and a Senior Clinical Lecturer in the Ruth Rapport Faculty of Medicine in the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.
Dr. Michal Meir completed her medical doctoral degree at the Tel-Aviv University Faculty of Medicine in 2007, and Pediatrics residency at Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, in 2012, following which she went on to continue her training as a post-doctoral fellow in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at UT Southwestern, Dallas, Texas. During her fellowship, Dr. Meir has developed a special interest in host-pathogen interactions, especially in the immune-compromised population, and gained experience in translational research in the field of microbiology and infections in immune-compromised hosts.
In 2015, Dr. Meir returned to Israel, where she joined the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Unit in the Ruth Rappaport Children’s Hospital in Rambam. As an infectious diseases specialist, Dr. Meir had repeatedly encountered cases of severe infections with Mycobacterium abscessus, a non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), especially in patients with chronic lung diseases. Seeking knowledge and a cure for these devastating infections, she joined the Mycobacterial Genetics research laboratory in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as an associate researcher. Among Dr. Meir’s achievements in mycobacterial research were establishment of a NTM infection model in Galleria mellonella, evaluation of novel antibiotic therapies for NTM infections, studies relating to transmissibility and antibiotic resistance patterns of NTM, and several studies relating to the molecular determinants of NTM pathogenesis. In 2021, Dr. Meir joined the Clinical Research institute at Rambam (CRIR) as an associate member, and in 2022, she became the head of the Mycobacterial Infections research laboratory.
As a physician-scientist, Dr. Meir continues to pursue knowledge and understanding of the host-pathogen interactions in mycobacterial infections, to develop novel disease models, and search for new therapeutics, in hope of advancing care for patients suffering from these devastating infections.
