Visiting Faculty: January 31, 2008

Posted 09:11 AM, January 31, 2008, by jaruiz

Hadassa Degani, PhD, is a recent visitor to our Department and on sabbatical from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. Professor Degani has also spent a sabbatical year at Yale University and at the Pasteur Institute, as well as summers at the University of Oxford; University of the UK; Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia; and the University of Pennsylvania, where she also serves as an adjunct professor. She is known internationally for her work in MR imaging of breast cancer and, more recently, for her work on prostate cancer. She received a BSc in chemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1966, an MSc in physical chemistry from the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1969, and a PhD in chemistry from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1974. Her postdoctoral research was carried out both at Stony Brook and at the University of Tel-Aviv. In 1976, she joined the staff of the Weizmann Institute; she currently serves as a full professor in the Department of Biological Regulation and the Willner Family Center for Vascular Biology. Professor Degani is the incumbent of the Fred and Andrea Fallek Professorial Chair for Breast Cancer Research.

Professor Degani's research focuses on the development of magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy in biomedical research and the integration of these state-of-the-art methodologies with modern molecular biology. Specifically, her research centers on the hormonal regulation of breast cancer, as well as the role of blood vessels in the progression and metastasis of this malignancy. She and her colleagues use magnetic resonance to detect and diagnose breast and prostate cancer and to monitor the effectiveness of cancer therapy. For more information on her research and publications, please access http://www.weizmann.ac.il/Biological_Regulation/degani/. Professor Hadassa Degani and her husband, Dr. Gabriel D. Degani, have two daughters and a son; they also enjoy being grandparents to three grandchildren.