Alexander Levitzki

Levitzki was born in 1940 in British Mandate for Palestine. He attended high school at the Hebrew University Secondary School.{{Cite web |title=הוקרה ופרסים |url=https://www.leyada.net/%D7%94%D7%95%D7%A7%D7%A8%D7%94-%D7%95%D7%A4%D7%A8%D7%A1%D7%99%D7%9D-2/ |access-date=2025-06-01 |website=בית הספר התיכון ליד האוניברסיטה |language=he-IL}} He completed his M.Sc. in chemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry and biophysics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Weizmann Institute of Science, in 1968. From 1968 to 1971, he was a post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Biochemistry, University of California at Berkeley in California, with Professor Daniel E. Koshland, Jr., where he worked in particular on negative cooperativity and half-of-the-sites reactivity.{{cite journal | title = The role of negative cooperativity and half-of-the-sites reactivity in enzyme regulation |

last1 = Levitzki | first1=A | last2 =Koshland | first2 = D E Jr | volume=10 | pages=1–40 | date= 1976 | journal=Current Topics in Cellular Regulation

|

doi = 10.1016/B978-0-12-152810-2.50008-5 |

pmid = 1253620 |

isbn = 9780121528102 }} Levitzki is not a descendant of the Hebrew Levite tribe.

In 1970, Levitzki became a senior scientist at the Department of Biophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science. In 1974, he became an associate professor at the same institute.

In 1974, he became an associate professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1976, he was promoted to professor of biochemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has been visiting scientist at the National Cancer Institute, and Fogarty International Scholar, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, visiting scholar at Stanford University in California, visiting professor at the University of Oregon (Eugene) and visiting professor at the University of California, San Francisco. He is also a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and was the head of its science section.

Levitzki is known for developing specific chemical inhibitors of cancer-induced protein kinases.{{cite journal | doi= 10.1073/pnas.1816012116| title= My journey from tyrosine phosphorylation inhibitors to targeted immune therapy as strategies to combat cancer| year= 2019| last1= Levitzki| first1= Alexander| last2= Klein| first2= Shoshana| journal= Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences| volume= 116| issue= 24| pages= 11579–11586| pmid= 31076554| pmc= 6575164| doi-access= free}} He was the first to develop systematically tyrosine phosphorylation inhibitors (tyrphostins) against a wide spectrum of protein tyrosine kinases.{{cite journal | doi= 10.1021/jm00130a020| title= Tyrphostins I: Synthesis and biological activity of protein tyrosine kinase inhibitors| year= 1989| last1= Gazit| first1= Aviv| last2= Yaish| first2= Pnina| last3= Gilon| first3= Chaim| last4= Levitzki| first4= Alexander| journal= Journal of Medicinal Chemistry| volume= 32| issue= 10| pages= 2344–2352| pmid= 2552117}} Levitzki demonstrated (1993) that such an inhibitor of Bcr-Abl kinase induces death of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) cells.{{cite journal | doi= 10.1182/blood.V93.11.3973.411k12_3973_3982| title= Effects of the Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor AG957 and an Anti-Fas Receptor Antibody on CD34+ Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Progenitor Cells| year= 1999| last1= Carlo-Stella| first1= Carmelo| last2= Regazzi| first2= Ester| last3= Sammarelli| first3= Gabriella| last4= Colla| first4= Simona| last5= Garau| first5= Daniela| last6= Gazit| first6= Aviv| last7= Savoldo| first7= Barbara| last8= Cilloni| first8= Daniela| last9= Tabilio| first9= Antonio| last10= Levitzki| first10= Alexander| last11= Rizzoli| first11= Vittorio| journal= Blood| volume= 93| issue= 11| pages= 3973–3982| pmid= 10339507}} This work led to the development of Gleevec by Novartis (1996), which is currently used, with great success, for therapy of patients afflicted by this disease.{{cite journal | doi= 10.1021/ar0201207| title= Protein Kinase Inhibitors as a Therapeutic Modality| year= 2003| last1= Levitzki| first1= Alexander| journal= Accounts of Chemical Research| volume= 36| issue= 6| pages= 462–469| pmid= 12809533| citeseerx= 10.1.1.570.1198}} Levitzki also pioneered the inhibitors of EGF receptor, PDGF receptor, Her-2/neu, Jak-2, VEGFR and peptide based cell permeable PKB/Akt inhibitors.{{cite journal | doi= 10.1021/bi061928s| title= A Novel Substrate Mimetic Inhibitor of PKB/Akt Inhibits Prostate Cancer Tumor Growth in Mice by Blocking the PKB Pathway| year= 2007| last1= Litman| first1= Pninit| last2= Ohne| first2= Osnat| last3= Ben-Yaakov| first3= Shirly| last4= Shemesh-Darvish| first4= Liron| last5= Yechezkel| first5= Tamar| last6= Salitra| first6= Yosef| last7= Rubnov| first7= Shai| last8= Cohen| first8= Ilana| last9= Senderowitz| first9= Hanoch| last10= Kidron| first10= Dvora| last11= Livnah| first11= Oded| last12= Levitzki| first12= Alexander| last13= Livnah| first13= Nurit| journal= Biochemistry| volume= 46| issue= 16| pages= 4716–4724| pmid= 17397140}} Levitzki also showed that PDGFR kinase inhibitors (PDGFR directed tyrphostins), released from nanoparticles or from a drug eluting stent can be used to inhibit restenosis after balloon angioplasty.{{cite journal | doi= 10.1161/01.CIR.97.19.1960| title= PDGF-Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Blocker AG1295 Selectively Attenuates Smooth Muscle Cell Growth in Vitro and Reduces Neointimal Formation After Balloon Angioplasty in Swine| year= 1998| last1= Banai| first1= Shmuel| last2= Wolf| first2= Yehuda| last3= Golomb| first3= Gershon| last4= Pearle| first4= Andrew| last5= Waltenberger| first5= Johannes| last6= Fishbein| first6= Ilia| last7= Schneider| first7= Aviva| last8= Gazit| first8= Aviv| last9= Perez| first9= Louise| last10= Huber| first10= Rita| last11= Lazarovichi| first11= Galila| last12= Rabinovich| first12= Laura| last13= Levitzki| first13= Alexander| last14= Gertz| first14= S. David| journal= Circulation| volume= 97| issue= 19| pages= 1960–1969| pmid= 9609090| doi-access= free}}

In 2006 his research team developed a method for inducing brain tumor cells to "commit suicide"."Killing Cancer", 'Dateline World Jewry', World Jewish Congress Foundation, December 2006/January 2007

In 1990, he was awarded the Israel Prize, in life sciences{{Cite web| title = Israel Prize Official Site - Recipients in 1990 (in Hebrew)| url = http://cms.education.gov.il/EducationCMS/Units/PrasIsrael/Tashmag/Tashnab_Tashmag_Rikuz.htm?DictionaryKey=Tashan}} (following in the footsteps of his father, Jacob Levitzki, who had received the prize, for exact sciences, in 1953).

In 2005, he was awarded the Wolf Prize in Medicine for "pioneering signal transduction therapy and for developing tyrosine kinase inhibitors as effective agents against cancer and a range of other diseases".[http://www.wolffund.org.il/cat.asp?id=24&cat_title=MEDICINE The Wolf Prize in Medicine] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226015735/http://www.wolffund.org.il/cat.asp?id=24&cat_title=MEDICINE |date=2009-02-26 }}

• I. & H. Wachter Award, I. & H. Wachter Foundation (2014){{Cite web | url=http://www.wachterstiftung.org/index.php/en/2014 | title=2014 – Alexander Levitzki}}

• List of Israel Prize recipients

{{reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070817084557/http://biolchem.huji.ac.il/levitzki/cv.html The CV of Alexander Levitzki]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928073027/http://www.wolffund.org.il/full.asp?id=21 The Wolf Prize in Medicine in 2005 (detail)]

{{Wolf Prize in Medicine}}

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Category:Living people

Category:1940 births

Category:Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni

Category:Israel Prize in life sciences recipients

Category:Israel Prize in life sciences recipients who were biochemists

Category:Israeli Jews

Category:Israeli people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent

Category:Jewish chemists

Category:Wolf Prize in Medicine laureates

Category:Members of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities

Category:Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences

Category:Hebrew University Secondary School alumni