Prof. Jonathan Gershoni

Our objective is to elucidate molecular mechanisms of biorecognition. How do receptors bind their corresponding ligands? How do viruses recognize their target cells? What enables the immune system to identify self antigens and to eliminate foreign invaders? The research is a combination of protein biochemistry, monoclonal antibody technology and combinatorial phage display systems employing the full range of molecular biology methodologies. We view our research as midway between basic and applied - "inventive research", with the goal of discovering and describing new phenomena that are then incorporated into novel and useful applications. The current purpose of our work is to apply our understanding of recognition to the development of novel vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics, so to combat infectious diseases and cancer.

 

A more specific target has been the elucidation of novel neutralizing epitopes of HIV-1. Major questions that motivate our research program are: What constitutes protective immunity and how does one rationally design an effective cross reactive AIDS vaccine? The current focus of the lab is on the immunogenicity of the HIV-1 envelope protein, gp120 and its interactions with the HIV receptor CD4. The experimental strategy consists of high resolution molecular analysis of the epitopes of known cross reactive neutralizing monoclonal antibodies against HIV or systematic analysis of polyclonal sera of HIV infected long term non-progressors. This research has led to more basic studies regarding structural aspect of antigen-antibody recognition, maturation of the humoral immune response as well as autoimmunity in HIV infected individuals.

 

Selected articles last 10 years

Kantor, R., J.M. Gershoni 1999 Distribution of the CCR5-gene 32 basepair deletion in Israeli ethnic groups. J. AIDS . 20 :81-84.

 

Denisova, G., M. Zerwanizer, D.A. Denisov, E. Spectorman, I. Mondor, Q. Sattentau, J.M. Gershoni 2000 Expansion of epitope cross-reactivity by anti-idiotype modulation of the primary humoral response. Mol. Immunol. 37 :53-58.

 

Seagal, J., E. Spectorman, J.M. Gershoni , G. Denisova 2001 Use of human CD4 transgenic mice for studying immunogenicity of HIV-1 envelope protein gp120. Transgenic Research 10 :113-120.

 

Enshell-Seijffers, D., L. Smelyanski, J.M. Gershoni 2001 The rational design of a "type88" genetically stable peptide display vector in the f il amentous bacteriophage fd. Nuc Acid Res 29: e50

 

Enshell- Seijffers, D., L. Smelyanski, N. Vardinon, I. Yust, J.M. Gershoni 2001 Dissection of the humoral response towards an HIV epitope: a model for the analysis of antibody diversity in HIV+ individuals. FASEB J 15 :2112-2120

 

Denisova G., L. Lideman, E. Spectorman, R. Abulafia-Lapid, M. Burke, I. Yust, J.M. Gershoni 2003 Characterization of new monoclonal antibodies that discriminate between sol uble and membrane CD4 and compete with human anti-CD4 autoimmune sera. Mol. Immunol 40 :231-239

 

Enshell-Seijffers D., D. Denisov, L. Smelyanski, R. Meyuhas, G. Gross, G. Denisova, J.M. Gershoni 2003 The mapping and reconstitution of a conformational discontinuous B-cell epitope of HIV-1 . J Mol Biol. 334 :87-101

 

Meyuhas R., H. Noy, D.C. Montefiori, G. Denisova, J.M. Gershoni , G. Gross 2005 HIV-1 neutralization by chimeric CD4-CG10 polypeptides fucsed to human IgG1. Mol. Immunol 42 :1099-1109

 

Sima n-Tov, D.D., L. Perry-Navon, N.L. Haigwood, J.M. Gershoni 2006 Differentiation of a passive vaccine and the humoral immune response toward infection: analysis of phage displayed peptides. Vaccine . 24 :607-612.

 

Tarnovitski, N., L. J. Matthews, J. Sui, J.M. Gershoni , W. A. Marasco 2006 Mapping a neutralizing epitope on the SARS Coronavirus spike protein: computational prediction based on affinity-selected peptides . J Mol Biol. 359 :190-201

 

Bublil, E. M., S. Yeger-Azuz, J.M. Gershoni 2006 Computational prediction of the cross-reactive neutralizing epitope corresponding to the monoclonal antibody b12 specific for HIV-1 gp120. FASEB J 20 :1762-1774

 

Mayrose, I., T. Shlomi, N. D. Rubinstein, J.M. Gershoni , E. Ruppin, R. Sharan, T. Pupko 2007 Epitope mapping using combinatorial phage-display libraries: a graph-based algorithm. Nuc Acid Res 35 :69-78

 

Bublil, E.M., N. Tarnovitski Freund, I. Mayrose, O. Penn, A. Roitburd-Berman, N.D. Rubinstein, T. Pupko, J.M. Gershoni 2007 Stepwise prediction of conformational discontinuous B-cell epitopes using the Mapitope alghorithm. Proteins 68 :294-304

 

Gershoni J.M., A. Roitburd-Berman, D.D. Siman-Tov, N. Tarnovitski Freund, Y. Weiss 2007 Epitope mapping: the first step in developing epitope-based vaccines. BioDrugs 21 :1-12

 

Kantor R., J.M. Gershoni 2007 HIV/AIDS and the genetic revolution – custom tailoring antiretroviral regimens in the management of HIV. Int. J. Healthcare Technology and Management 8 :478-491

 

Mayrose, I, O. Penn, E. Erez, ND Rubinstein, T Shlomi, N Tarnovitski Freund, EM Bublil, R Sharan, J.M. Gershoni , E Martz, T Pupko 2007 Pepitope: Epitope mapping from affinity-selected peptides. Bioinformatics 23: 3244-3246

 

Rubinstein, ND, I Mayrose, D Halperin, D Yekutieli, J.M. Gerhsoni , T Pupko 2008 Computational characterization of B-Cell epitopes. Mol. Immunol. 45: 3477-3489

 

Bergstein, DA, E Ozukumur, AC Wu, A Yalcin, JR Colson, JW Needham, RJ Irani, J.M. Gershoni , BB Goldberg, C DeLisi, MF Ruane, MS Unlu 2008 Resonant cavity Imaging: a means toward high thoughput label free protein detection Selec. Top. Quantum Electronics 14 :131139

 

Ozkumur, E, JW Needham, DA Bergstein, R Gonzalez, M Cabodi, J.M. Gershoni , BB Glodberg, MS Unlu 2008 Label-free and dynamic detection of biomolecular interactions for high-throughput microarray applications. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA 105 :7988-7992

 

Gershoni, J.M. 2008 Molecular decoys: antidotes, therapeutics and immunomodulators. Curr. Opin. Biotech. 19 :644-651

 

Freund Tarnovitski, N, D Enshell-Seijffers, J.M. Gershoni 2009 Phage display selection, analysis and prediction of B cell epitopes. Curr Protoc Immunol 9: unit 9.8

 

Conformational and structural features of HIV-1 gp120 underlying the dual receptor antagonism by cross-reactive neutralizing antibody m18. Gift SK, Zentner IJ, Schon A, McFadden K, Umashankara M, Rajagopal S, Contarino M, Duffy C, Courter JR, Zhang MY, Gershoni JM, Cocklin S, Dimitrov DS, Smith AB 3rd, Freire E, Chaiken IM. Biochemistry. 2011 Apr 12;50(14):2756-68. doi: 10.1021/bi101160r. Epub 2011 Mar 18.

 

Site directed biotinylation of filamentous phage structural proteins. Smelyanski L, Gershoni JM. Virol J. 2011 Nov 1;8:495. doi: 10.1186/1743-422X-8-495.

 

A general insert label for peptide display on chimeric filamentous bacteriophages. Kaplan G, Gershoni JM. Anal Biochem. 2012 Jan 1;420(1):68-72. doi: 10.1016/j.ab.2011.08.050. Epub 2011 Sep 8.

 

Deep Panning: steps towards probing the IgOme. Ryvkin A, Ashkenazy H, Smelyanski L, Kaplan G, Penn O, Weiss-Ottolenghi Y, Privman E, Ngam PB, Woodward JE, May GD, Bell C, Pupko T, Gershoni JM. PLoS One. 2012;7(8):e41469. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0041469. Epub 2012 Aug 1.

 

The use of epitope arrays in immunodiagnosis of infectious disease: hepatitis C virus, a case study. Siman-Tov DD, Zemel R, Tur Kaspa R, Gershoni JM. Anal Biochem. 2013 Jan 15;432(2):63-70. doi: 10.1016/j.ab.2012.09.025. Epub 2012 Sep 24.