Adele received her BSc degree with honors from the Technion’s faculty of biology (2006), where she also completed a direct tract PhD in molecular parasitology (2014). Her work focused on the role of a novel amino acid uptake mechanism in the development of unicellular human parasites of the genus Leishmania under the supervision of Prof. Dan Zilberstein.This work was the first to demonstrate that the ability of Leishmania parasites to sense and monitor arginine deprivation in phagolysosomes of host macrophages is essential for disease development. This work also described the molecular mechanism underlying this response, gave rise to several papers published in peer-reviewed journals and received an excellent research prize from the faculty.
As a post-doctoral research fellow at the laboratory of Prof. Barbara Burleigh from the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health, Adele studied the role of fatty acid metabolism in parasite-host interactions of the unicellular parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease. Upon return to Israel (2021) she has had the opportunity to implement her molecular and microbiological skills as an R&D lead at Biotax Ltd in the area of microbiome based treatments, and as an R&D lead at Rapid Diagnistic Systems Ltd working on saliva-based detection of viral infections.
Adele is now excited to be part of MATRiC working on in-vitro bronchial airways modeling in an air-liquid interface, leading the cell culture and molecular work in the lab. Her goal is to implement cutting edge academic research in a medical setting in order to further advance non-invasive diagnosis and personalized treatment.