Alex Levitzki

Professor of biochemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Early in his career he earned his Ph.D. in (Biochemistry and Biophysics) Summa cum Laude at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem and The Weizmann Institute.

Amongst many visiting professorships he also served as a Fogarty International Scholar at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. Several of his outstanding honors include: The Israel Prize in Biochemistry (1990), the Rothschild Prize in Biology (1990), The Wolf Prize in Medicine (2005), The EMET Prize for Cancer Research (2017), The Nauta Award by The European Federation of Medicinal Chemistry (2012), the 7th Annual AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Chemistry in Cancer Research (2013) and was elected as Member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) in 2017.

Dr. Levitzki and his group pioneered the development tyrosine phosphorylation inhibitors (tyrphostins/TKIs) and later IGF1R/Irs/Stat3 (NT219) to treat tumors that become resistant to targeted therapies. His research led to the development of Gleevec® by Novartis, Sunitinib/Sutent® by Sugen and of NT219 by TyrNovo (previously Novotyr, which Levitzki founded in 2005). Levitzki’s laboratory pioneered the research of CTPIC platform technology.