Michal Schwartz

Professor of Neuroimmunology
Department of Brain Sciences
Weizmann Institute of Science
Rehovot | Israel

Education

1978-1980 Postdoctoral fellow, Dept. of Neuroscience, University of Michigan, MI, USA
1977-1978 Postdoctoral fellow, Dept. of Chemical Immunology, Weizmann Institute, Israel
01/05/1977 Ph.D., Dept. of Chemical Immunology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel.
1968-1971 B.Sc., Chemistry (Cum Laude), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

Current position

1998- Professor, Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.

Scientific autobiography

Discovered (against the dogma at the time), that the brain is tightly dependent on the immune system for its maintenance and repair (Nature Medicine, 1998; Nature Medicine, 1999; Nature Neuroscience, 2006). Identified the brain’s choroid plexus epithelium as the nexus for brain-immune system communication, through which monocytes attain access to the CNS, and through which T cells can affect healthy brain plasticity (Immunity, 2013; Brain, 2013). These discoveries allowed us to suggest that brain-immune crosstalk is pivotal for the brain’s well-being, and could be the missing link in aging and neurodegenerative diseases (Science, 2014). My contribution transformed the understanding of the brain (as recently reviewed in Neuron, 2022; and Science, 2023). Based on this breakthrough, we discovered that transiently breaking immune tolerance, by blocking the PD-L1 inhibitory immune checkpoint in a well-controlled way, can be adopted to fight neurodegenerative diseases (Nature Medicine, 2016). This treatment is now in a First-in-Human clinical trial in the UK, Amsterdam and Israel, which will be completed at the end of 2025. I have received numerous invitations to international conferences as a keynote and named lecturer. I was awarded numerous awards, including 2019-Outstanding Mentor of the year by the Israel Neuroscience society; 2019-

EMET Prize in Biomedical Research; 2022-Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS-EJN)

Award given in recognition of my outstanding career in the area of neuroimmunology; 2023- Israel Prize in Life Sciences. In 2016-2018, I served as president, the International Society of Neuroimmunology.

Selelcted Publications (H factor 124, Google Scholar)

1. Peralta Ramos JM, Castellani G, Kviatcovsky D, Croese T, Tsitsou-Kampeli A, Burgaletto C, Abellanas MA, Cahalon L, Phoebeluc Colaiuta S, Salame TM, Kuperman Y, Savidor A, Itkin M, Malitsky S, Ovadia S, Ferrera S, Kalfon L, Kadmani S, Samra N, Paz R, Rokach L, Furlan R, Aharon-Peretz J, Falik- Zaccai TC, Schwartz M. 2025. Nat Commun 16: 3736
2. Abellanas MA, Purnapatre M, Burgaletto C, Schwartz M. 2025. Nat Neurosci 28: 436-45
3. Basurco L, Abellanas MA, Purnapatre M, Antonello P, Schwartz M. 2025. Neuron 113: 140-53.
4. Rachmian N, Medina S, Cherqui U, Akiva H, Deitch D, Edilbi D, Croese T, Salame T, Peralta Ramos J, Cahalon L, Krizhanovsky V, Schwartz M. 2024. Nat Neurosci 27: 1116-24
5. Castellani G, Croese T, Peralta Ramos JM, Schwartz M. 2023. Science, 380: eabo7649.
6. Dvir-Szternfeld R, Castellani G, Arad M, Cahalon L, Colaiuta SP, Keren-Shaul H, Croese T, Burgaletto C, Baruch K, Ulland T, Colonna M, Weiner A, Amit I, Schwartz M. 2022. Nature Aging 2: 60-73.
7. Rosenzweig N, Dvir-Sternfeld R, Tsitsou-Kampeli A, Keren-Shaul H, Ben-Yehuda H, Weill-Raynal P, Cahalon L, Kertser A, Baruch K, Amit I, Weiner A, Schwartz M. 2019. Nat Commun. 10: 465.
8. Baruch K, Deczkowska A, Rosenzweig N, Tsitsou-Kampeli A, Sharif AM, Matcovitch-Natan O, Kertser A, David E, Amit I, Schwartz M. 2016. Nat Med 22: 135-7
9. Baruch K, Deczkowska A, David E, Castellano JM, Miller O, Kertser A, Berkutzki T, Barnett-Itzhaki Z, Bezalel D, Wyss-Coray T, Amit I, Schwartz M. 2014. Science, 346: 89-93.
10. Shechter R, Miller O, Yovel G, Rosenzweig N, London A, Ruckh J, Kim KW, Klein E, Kalchenko V, Bendel P, Lira SA, Jung S, Schwartz M. 2013. Immunity 38: 555-69.
11. Rapalino O, Lazarov-Spiegler O, Agranov E, Velan GJ, Yoles E, Fraidakis M, Solomon A, Gepstein R, Katz A, Belkin M, Hadani M, Schwartz M. 1998. Nat Med 4: 814-21
12. Moalem G, Leibowitz-Amit R, Yoles E, Mor F,. Cohen I. R, Schwartz M. 1999. Nat Med 5, 49-55.
13. Ziv Y, Ron N, Butovsky O, Landa G, Sudai E, Greenberg N, Cohen H, Kipnis J, Schwartz M. 2006. Nat Neurosci 9: 268-75