Leadership Team
Asaf Shiloni | CEO
Mr. Asaf Shiloni, brings more than 20 years of biotech executive experience and a deep knowledge of the cell therapy industry. Mr. Shiloni joins Kadimastem after an impressive 13 years at PeproTech Inc.
Based in California, he served as the company’s Vice President of Sales and Business Development.
PeproTech is the leading manufacturer of GMP Cytokines, vital components in all stem cell and cell therapy clinical trials. At PeproTech, Mr. Shiloni established collaborations and joint ventures with top US stem cell companies and leading research labs worldwide as well as led M&A processes.
Mr. Shiloni has extensive knowledge of the biotechnology market and close relations with the global investment community. He played a crucial role in making PeproTech an industry leader.
Prior to PeproTech, in 2007, Mr. Shiloni sold an Israeli biotech company CytoLab, that he co-founded and led for seven years. The Company specialized in the development and production of proteins, antibodies, and assays. Mr. Shiloni sold the company as a result of his successful business development activities there.
Before CytoLab, Mr. Shiloni served for three years as the CEO of a technology startup company ABN Global. Mr. Shiloni was hired by VC Delta Ventures, which had invested in the company. Mr. Shiloni lead the company, through his management and raised its capital to ongoing stable growth.
Mr. Shiloni holds a BA in Computer Information Systems and Business from The College of Management and an MBA from Tel Aviv University.
Ronen Twito CPA | Chairman of the Board
Mr. Twito brings with him over 20 year of financial and managerial experience, executive positions and investor in NASDAQ and TASE listed companies. Mr. Twito is the founder of Amplify Capital Ltd.
He led multiple IPOs, and follow on offerings, strategic licensing and collaboration agreements mainly within the biotech and technology spaces such as XTL Biopharmaceuticals “XTLB“, Cellect Biotechnology “APOP”, BioBlast pharma “ORPN”, “MTSL”.
Prior to that, served at a global Telecom company listed on London LSE and as a senior manager at EY. Ronen is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Israel, He has a B.A. in Business and Management: Major - Accounting from Management College (TheMichlala L’Minhal Collman) Ronen is a member of the Institute of CPAs in Israel.
Prof. Michel Revel, MD, PhD | Chief Scientist
Prof. Revel is Professor Emeritus of Molecular Genetics at the Weizmann Institute of Science. His research on Interferon, its mechanisms of action and the isolation of the human Interferon-beta gene, have led to the development of Interferon-beta therapy for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, Rebif®, Blockbuster drug marketed worldwide.
In recent years, Prof. Revel's laboratory focused on hESC and succeeded to produce nerve myelinating cells that, when transplanted in myelin-deficient animals, have regenerated the myelin coating. These studies contributed to the development of a suspension culture technology for hESC which can then be used to produce differentiated human cells such as insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells and nerve myelinating cells.
Alongside his research and development activity, Prof. Revel is deeply involved in the ethics of science and biotechnology, and served as chairman of the Israel National Bioethics Council, and was a member of the International Bioethics Committee of UNESCO.
Prof. Revel was the recipient of the Israel Prize for medical research, the EMET Prize for biotechnology, and is a member of the Israel Academy of Science and Humanities. He has been a member of Israel's National Committee for Biotechnology, serving for three years as its chairman.
CLICK HERE FOR Prof. Michel Revel full CURRICULUM VITAE
Ariel Revel, MD, | Director of Medical Affairs
Prof. Ariel Revel, MD, is a professor of medicine at Tel Aviv University and a Visiting Professor at Oxford University in the UK and Stanford University in California. He is among Israel's leading specialists in gynecology and obstetrics and has for many years been involved in IVF and minimally invasive surgery.
Ariel Revel served as a battalion and brigade physician, and raised his family in Nataf. He volunteers with Etgarim, where he kayaks and rides tandem bikes with children and teens with disabilities, and with Physicians for Human Rights, as a physician at the clinic for status-less individuals in Jaffa.
He is a an important figure on the medical landscape, and this together with his impressive knowledge and many years of experience has produced one of the most fascinating books published in recent years in Israel.
Ariel at Kadimastem is responsible for the following areas
1) To represent the surgical and medical aspects of islet transplantation for patients with diabetes.
2) To promote to medical doctors that cell therapy is the future of medicine. To improve and perhaps cure neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS.
3) Present to general public and potential inventors the potential of human embryonic stem cells to produce clinical level adult cells to cure Diabetes, Glaucoma and Traumatic Spinal Cord Injuries.
Arik Hasson, PhD | Executive VP Business Development
Dr. Hasson was Kadimastem ’s first employee when it was founded in fall of 2009. Prior to Kadimastem, Dr. Hasson was the head of Stem Cell Projects in Gamida Cell, a stem cell therapeutic company. While at Gamida Cell, Dr. Hasson also headed the diabetic and neurological projects.
In addition, Dr. Hasson helped to initiate and served as the R&D Director of the Israeli Consortium for Stem Cells R&D (“Bereshit”), a consortium funded by the Chief Scientist in the Israeli Office of Industry, Trade & Labor. Prior to these roles, Dr. Hasson was head of Development in Gamida Cell and helped developing its first Cell Therapy product, StemEx® into clinical trial (Currently completing phase III clinical trials for treatment of hematological malignancies).
Dr. Hasson holds a PhD in cellular neurobiology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and did a post-doctoral research in the Biotechnology Laboratory, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. He is the author of tens of peered review papers in the fields of stem cell, cell therapy and neurobiology and of 17 patents in these fields.
Michal Izrael, PhD | VP Research and Development
Dr. Izrael Joined Kadimastem in 2009. Prior to joining Kadimastem, as part of her doctoral work at the Weizmann Institute of Science in the laboratory of Prof. Revel, Dr. Izrael was a central part of the team that invented and developed the technology which became the basis for Kadimastem’s cell therapy product for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and other neurodegenerative diseases.
At Kadimastem she served as the head of the drug screening team, based on human oligodendrocytes (Myeling forming cells), and in 2012 was appointed to run the neurodegenerative department at Kadimastem, responsible for Kadimastem’s cell product for ALS.
In 2017 she was appointed as VP for Research and Development for ALS and Neurodegenerative Diseases.
Dr. Izrael holds a PhD in molecular genetics from the Weizmann Institute of Science and M.Sc. in Neurobiology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Dr. Izrael has published 16 scientific papers and patents in the field of neurobiology and development of technologies based on stem cell derivatives for the treatment of central nervous system disease and drug screening.
Kfir Molakandov PhD | Director of Diabetes and Innovation
Dr. Kfir Molakandov started his academic career in developmental biology with Prof. Sarah Ferber's research on transdifferentiation of liver to the pancreas.
During his PhD, he trained at the Gene Therapy Center, Alabama, USA, and specialized in adenoviral vectors construction, modifications and purification. Following the completion of his thesis, Dr. Molakandov joined Kadimastem.
He leads the team that is developing cell-therapy for diabetes using Pluripotent Stem Cells as the cell source. His team has dedicated the last few years in developing a large scale robust protocol for generating islet cells in high quantities and high quality.
Currently, we have finalized the production process that includes a full characterization of the different stages of differentiation using molecular tools and physiological parameters.
Accordingly, we are now moving towards the clinical application of this technology, aiming to bring these therapeutic cells to clinical trials.