Bio
Dr. Jerby is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetics at Stanford University, an Allen Distinguished Investigator, and a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator. Intrigued and inspired by the way the immune system works (while also recognizing its limitations), her research group aims to decode and augment mechanisms that have evolved for millions of years with mechanisms that they “evolve” and rationally design in the lab to target malignant and premalignant cells. Building upon her multidisciplinary expertise, her group combines advanced genetic tools with high-content, high-throughput readouts, AI/data-driven experimental design, cell engineering, synthetic biology, and directed evolution to scan large combinatorial search spaces, optimize cell functions of interest, and identify nonlinear interactions to obtain precise and targeted interventions. In line with this, they have also been at the forefront of studying tumor immunology directly in patients by applying emerging technologies to large patient populations.
Recent work from her laboratory identified programmable mechanisms to redirect T cells and Natural Killer (NK) cells to solid tumors – providing a potential basis for “spatially targeted cell therapies”, identified novel regulators and RNA-based interventions that selectively sensitize cancer and virally infected cells to immune-based elimination, developed new technologies to track the impact of genetic perturbations in the intact tissue, and mapped tumor organization at unprecedented scales.
Dr. Jerby holds a BSc, MSc, and PhD in life sciences and Computer Science (CS) from Tel Aviv University and conducted her postdoctoral research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Dr. Aviv Regev’s laboratory. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF) Career Award at the Scientific Interface (CASI), the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance (OCRA) Liz Tilberis Early Career Award, Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator Award, Paul G. Allen Distinguished Investigator Award, Stanford Cancer Institute Innovation Awards, awards from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Marsha Rivkin Center for Ovarian Cancer, Basser Center, Cancer Research Institute (CRI), Schmidt Family Foundation, Dan David Foundation, Rothschild Foundation, Stanford Innovative Medicines Accelerator (IMA), the National Institute of Health (NIH), and the Department of Defense (DOD).
