Yair Reisner

Yair Reisner (born 1948) is Professor emeritus in the department of Immunology at Weizmann Institute of Science, and Professor in the Department of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation and Cell Therapy at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.
Reisner is known for his pioneering studies in developing bone marrow transplantation across major genetic barriers.
== Biography ==
Reisner was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, and grew up in Ramat Gan. He completed his undergraduate studies in chemistry and psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1972, and an MSc in biochemistry at the University of California at Berkley in 1973.
In 1978 he completed his PhD under the supervision oProf. |f Nathan Sharon in the Department of Biophysics at the Weizmann Institute of Science, 
He subsequently performed postdoctoral research at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Institute, in New York City|New York as part of the research group of Robert Good, one of the founders of modern immunology. Reisner returned to The Weizmann Institute in 1981"Enhancement by dimethyl myleran of donor type chimerism in murine recipients of bone marrow allografts - Blood 1989"
== Academic activities ==
Reisner is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot Israel, and Professor in the Department of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation and cell therapy at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston Texas.
Between the years 2005-2014 he served as chairman of the Immunology Department at the Weizmann Institute.
In 2005 he was selected as the first president of the Israel Stem Cell Society.
Reisner has published more than 230 scientific articles in leading scientific journals. He served on the editorial boards of many journals, and between 2004 and 2009 served as the associate editor of Experimental Hematology. 
In 2020 he was elected to the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities"Enhancement by dimethyl myleran of donor type chimerism in murine recipients of bone marrow allografts - Blood 1989".
== Scientific work ==
In 1980 at the Sloan Kettering Cancer institute, Reisner and Richard O'Reilly demonstrated that it was possible to cure severe combined immune deficiency (SCID) patients (also known as bubble babies) by bone marrow transplantation (BMT) from a mis-matched family member (haploidentical), following T-cell_depletion|T -cell depletion of the donor marrow using lectin separated grafts, an approach developed in his PHD preclinical studies ( PNAS 1978). This was the first successful T cell depleted haploidentical BMT, demonstrating complete prevention of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and immune reconstitution with donor-derived immune cells.Transplantation for severe combined immunodeficiency with HLA-A,B,D,DR incompatible parental marrow cells fractionated by soybean agglutinin and sheep red blood cells - Blood 1983"Bone Marrow Transplants: New Methods May Save Lives - New-York Times 1983"The protocol enabled the cure of a large number of these babies."Transplantation outcomes for severe combined immunodeficiency, 2000-2009 - NEJM 2014". Following the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, Reisner was invited to Moscow as part of the effort to treat those exposed to extremely high doses of radiation. Together with Robert Gale and Richard Champlin from the US and local experts, they performed four T cell-depleted haploidentical BMT in patients with no suitable matching donor. Two of them made a complete recovery."Bone Marrow Transplantation after the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident - NEJM 1989"."Inside the Mission to Perform Bone-Marrow Transplants on Survivors of the Chernobyl Disaster".
From the 1980s, Reisner's research concentrated on optimizing protocols to overcome the activity of residual host T cells that survive the pre transplant chemotherapy and radiation used for conditioning in leukemia patients. These T cells can prevent transplant engraftment especially in recipients of T cell depleted BMT. In the mid-1990s he showed that infusion of megadoses of donor-derived T cell-depleted hematopoietic stem cells can overcome this obstacle."Enhancement by dimethyl myleran of donor type chimerism in murine recipients of bone marrow allografts - Blood 1989"."Megadose of T cell-depleted bone marrow overcomes MHC barriers in sublethally irradiated mice - Nature Medicine 1995". He showed that the hematopoietic stem cells in the megadose transplants exhibit unique "Veto" activity, able to eliminate host immune cells directed against the graft. 
He studied this veto activity beginning in the mid 90s and these findings led to a collaboration continuing over decades with Massimo Martelli of Perugia, Italy. Together, they performed more than 300 transplants using unmatched haploidentical marrow, demonstrating that the approaches are effective in preventing not only GVHD but also graft rejection."Successful engraftment of T-cell-depleted haploidentical "three-loci" incompatible transplants in leukemia patients by addition of recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor-mobilized peripheral blood progenitor cells to bone marrow inoculum - Blood 1994"."Treatment of High-Risk Acute Leukemia with T-Cell–Depleted Stem Cells from Related Donors with One Fully Mismatched HLA Haplotype - NEJM 1998".marrow transplantation across HLA barriers by increasing the number of transplanted cells - Immunology Today 1995"."Study Offers Patients Hope On Leukemia - New-York Times 1994"."Full haplotype-mismatched hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation: a phase II study in patients with acute leukemia at high risk of relapse - JCO 2005".
Reisner is continuing his research investigating the activity of cell populations that contribute to immune tolerance. In particular, he described in detail the activity of Veto T cells, which can specifically block rejection through a mechanism based on Fas-FasL."Anti-third party CD8+ CTLs as potent veto cells: coexpression of CD8 and FasL is a prerequisite - Immunity 2000". Furthermore, this cell population can be effectively expanded in culture prior to transplantation."Murine anti-third-party central-memory CD8(+) T cells promote hematopoietic chimerism under mild conditioning: lymph-node sequestration and deletion of anti-donor T cells - Blood 2013".Next-generation CD8 memory veto T cells directed against memory antigens - Leukemia 2019". Subsequently, he demonstrated that using such veto cells in conjunction with megadose of T cell depleted BMT, can facilitate safer transplants using more gentle conditioning protocols, that are less likely to be associated with infections or other transplant related adverse effects."Toward safer haploidnetical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation - Bone Marrow Transplant 2019"."The evolution of T-cell depletion in haploidentical stem-cell transplantation -Br J Haematol 2016". Initial clinical trials are ongoing at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston Texas. If successful, this safer haploidentical BMT modality could be attractive for elderly patients with hematological malignancies or with non-malignant diseases such as sickle cell anemia or thalassemia, as well as for a variety of autoimmune diseases. 
For the past decade, lung stem cell transplantation has become an additional major focus of Reisner's research. Based on nsights from bone marrow transplantation he developed strategies to use lung stem cell transplantation by simple intravenous infusion. In particular he demonstrated initially the importance of stem cell competition between host and donor cells."Preconditioning allows engraftment of mouse and human embryonic lung cells, enabling lung repair in mice -Nature Medicine 2015"."Lung Injury Repair by Transplantation of Adult Lung Cells Following Preconditioning of Recipient Mice -Stem Cells Transl Med 2018". and more recently he developed a new strategy for lung stem cell transplantation across major genetic barriers."Multi-lineage Lung Regeneration by Stem Cell Transplantation across Major Genetic Barriers -Cell Rep 2020".
Category:Professors
Category:People from Tel Aviv