Francesca Levi-Schaffer - Biography#

Francesca Levi-Schaffer is a Professor at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI) in the Institute for Drug Research of the School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine. She holds the Isaac and Myrna Kaye Chair in Immunopharmacology. From 2006-2009 Prof. Levi-Schaffer was Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics and head of the Teaching Unit of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics in the HUJI Faculty of Medicine, School of Pharmacy. Prof. Levi-Schaffer was born in Italy and completed her PharmD degree at the University of Milano. In 1984 she received her PhD degree in Immunology from the Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, Israel. Her post-doctoral training was at Harvard Medical School (1984-86).

Prof. Levi-Schaffer has published 161 articles in peer-reviewed journals, 84 reviews and editorials and 25 book chapters. She has two patents and one provisional patent pending. In 2011 she was elected Chairperson of the National Committee of the International Union of Pharmacology (IUPHAR) representing the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. In 2012, she was instrumental in the establishment of an Immunopharmacology Section in the IUPHAR and serves as its first Chairperson.

She is a member of the Israeli Ministry of Health Committee for Human Experimentation of New Drugs, a Councilor and member of the Executive Committee of the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (IUPHAR); treasurer (2016-18), Secretary General (2018-20) and member of the Board of Directors of the World Allergy Organization; a Council member of the Collegium Internationale Allergologicum (CIA); a member of the Immunopharmacology Task Force and the AllergoOncology Task Force of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI). She was a member of various EU Cost Action including serving as a member of the Management Committee of EU COST Action BM1007 Mast Cells and Basophils – Targets for Innovative Therapies. She has been been an invited speaker at scientific congresses and meetings around the world.

Prof. Levi-Schaffer teaches undergraduate and graduate pharmacy, medical and nursing students, and she has mentored over 40 MSc, PhD and post-doctoral students at the Hebrew University.

Prof. Levi-Schaffer's expertise is in the area of immunopharmacology of allergy focusing on mast cells and eosinophils, their activating and inhibitory receptors, their cross-talk for a better prophylaxis/treatment of allergic diseases. She is studying the role of mast cells and eosinophils in hypoxia (allergy, COPD); mastocytosis and its treatment via inhibitory receptors; the crosstalk between atopic dermatitis and asthma with the microbiome; and she is developing novel monoclonal antibodies and bispecific antibodies against activating and inhibiting receptors on mast cells and eosinophils for the treatment of allergy and of selected solid tumors.

Most notable awards incude: 2014 Honorary Member, Societa Italiana de Allergologia, Asma Ed Immunologia Clinica;
2007 Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic conferred by the President of the Republic of Italy; 2007 Woman in Inflammation in Science Award, presented at the 8th World Congress on Inflammation, Copenhagen, Denmark; 2006 Honorary Corresponding Member, German Society for Allergology and Clinical Immunology (DGAKI); 2001 Premio Internazionale Sicilia-Il Paladino (International Champion Prize Sicily, Italy) for scientific contributions; 2000 Honorary Fellowship of the Hungarian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology; 1992 Fellow, American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology; Concil Memember Collegium Internationale Allergologicum; ard for carrying out Allergy-Related Studies in the U.K.; 1990 Orna Stern Memorial Award of the Faculty of Medicine (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) for excellence in research and the 1984-1986 Chaim Weizmann fellowship for postdoctoral studies in USA