
Zvia Agur
Professor Zvia Agur is an eminent international biomathematician, who has made major contributions to the theory of disease dynamics, chemotherapy and vaccination policies optimization. Prof. Agur is founder of the Institute for Medical BioMathematics (IMBM), has been the president of the Israeli Society of Theoretical and Mathematical Biology, a member of the Board of Directors of the European Society of Mathematical and Theoretical Biology, and an editor of several professional publications. Her innovative research work has won national awards, has been published in a long line of leading scientific journals and is recognized by the academic community worldwide. Prof. Agur holds a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Université Libre in Brussels.
Education and Positions:
2000 |
Chairperson & CSO, Optimata Ltd |
1999 |
President, Institute for Medical Biomathematics (IMBM) |
1994-9 |
Associate Professor, Cell Research and Immunology, Tel-Aviv University, Israel |
1987-4 |
Senior Scientist, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel |
1982 |
Ph.D., Biomathematics, Université Libre, Belgium |
1974 |
M,Sc studies in Philosophy of Science from the Hebrew University |
1973 |
M.Sc., Genetics from the Hebrew University |
1971 |
B.Sc, Genetics and Microbiology, from the Hebrew University |
Visiting Scientist:
1992-4 |
Oxford University, UK |
1991 |
Imperial College of Science, UK |
1989 |
Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris |
1989 |
Rockefeller University, New York, USA |
1985 |
University of New York at Stoney Brook, USA |
Activity on Professional Societies:
1998-01 |
President of the Israeli Society of Theoretical and Mathematical Biology. (ISMTB) |
1997-03 |
Board of Directors of the European Society of Mathematical and Theoretical Biology (ESMTB) |
1996-8 |
Acting President of the Israeli Society of Theoretical and Mathematical Biology (ISMTB) |
1991 |
Member of the European Society of Mathematics in Biology and Medicine (ESMTB) |
1986 |
Member of the Society of Mathematical Biology (SMB) |
Academic and Professional Awards:
2016 |
Finalist for EU Prize for Women Innovators, European Commission. |
2004 |
Best Paper Award, 6th International Conference on Cellular Automata for Research and Industry, ACRI. |
1989 |
The Juludan Prize for Outstanding Scientific Achievements, Technion — Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa |
1987 |
Jakubskind-Cymerman Research Prize, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel |
1987 |
The Elaine Blond Career Development Chair, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel |
1974 |
Aharon Katzir Prize for Scientific Writing, Israel Academy of Science, Israel |
Editorial Boards:
2012 |
Current Angiogenesis Editorial Board Member |
2010 |
Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine- Editorial Board Member |
2006 |
Mathematical Modelling of Natural Phenomena- Editorial Board Member on Hematopoiesis and blood diseases |
2000-08 |
Associate Editor-Journal of M3AS, Mathematical Methods and Models in the Applied Sciences / World Scientific Singapore. New Jersey. London. Hong Kong. |
1998 |
Associate Editor – Book Series in Mathematical and Computational Biology. Wiley, UK |
1997-8 |
Guest Associate Editor – Jour. Mathematical Bioscience / Elsevier. |
1996 |
Associate Editor – Jour. of Biological Systems / World Scientific Singapore. New Jersey. London. Hong Kong. |
Recent Selected Publications:
- Agur Z, Elishmereni M, Foryś U, Kogan Y. Accelerating the Development of Personalized Cancer Immunotherapy by Integrating Molecular Patients’ Profiles with Dynamic Mathematical Models. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/CPT.1942.
- Perlstein D, Shlagman O, Kogan Y, Halevi-Tobias K, Yakobson A, Lazarev I, et al. Personal response to immune checkpoint inhibitors of patients with advanced melanoma explained by a computational model of cellular immunity, tumor growth, and drug. PLoS One. 2019;14(12):e0226869. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0226869. PubMed PMID: 31877168.
- Tsur N, Kogan Y, Rehm M, Agur Z. Response of Patients with Melanoma to Immune Checkpoint Blockade – Insights Gleaned from Analysis of a New Mathematical Mechanistic Model. J Journal of Theoretical Biology 2019:110033. doi: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2019.110033. PubMed PMID: 31580835.
- Tsur N, Kogan Y, Avizov-Khodak E, Vaeth D, Vogler N, Utikal J, Lotem M, Agur Z. Predicting response to pembrolizumab in metastatic melanoma by a new personalization algorithm. J Journal of Translational Medicine 2019;17(1):338. doi: 10.1186/s12967-019-2081-2. PubMed PMID: 31590677.
- Gillis A, Beil M, Halevi-Tobias K, van Heerden PV, Sviri S, Agur Z. Alleviation of exhaustion-induced immunosuppression and sepsis by immune checkpoint blockers sequentially administered with antibiotics—analysis of a new mathematical model. J Intensive Care Medicine Experimental. 2019 7(1):32. doi: 10.1186/s40635-019-0260-3.
- Hochman G, Halevi-Tobias K, Kogan Y, Agur Z. Extracellular inhibitors can attenuate tumorigenic Wnt pathway activity in adenomatous polyposis coli mutants: Predictions of a validated mathematical model. J PLoS One 2017 Jul 14;12(7):e0179888.
- Agur Z, Halevi-Tobias K, Kogan Y & Shlagman O. Employing dynamical computational models for personalizing cancer immunotherapy. Expert Opin Biol Ther., 26, 2016, pp 1-13.
- Elishmereni M, Kheifetz Y, Shukrun I, Bevan GH, Nandy D, McKenzie KM, Kohli M, Agur Z. Prediction of individual response to androgen deprivation therapy in hormone sensitive prostate cancer stage patients by integrating a mathematical mechanistic model of tumor progression with clinical patient characteristics. Prostate, 76(1), 2016, pp 48-57.