The Institute for Medical Research was founded in 2008. It conducts fundamental and applied research in the field of biomedicine and has five departments: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Developmental Biology and Cancer Research; Lautenberg Center for Immunology and Cancer Research; Medical Neurobiology; and Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. IMRIC also offers a bachelor's degree course in Biomedical Sciences, teaches the basic sciences for the undergraduate, pre-clinical programs of the Hebrew University's Faculty of Medicine and is the largest educational institute in Israel for graduate studies in Biomedical Sciences having about 600 master and doctoral students. The doctoral programs offer a wide range of multidisciplinary research areas in basic medical science and related fields and collaborative programs with clinicians from the Hadassah Medical Center. The first and founding IMRIC chair was Professor Eitan Yefenof, that oversaw the establishment of the institute and shaped its vision and scope. Since 2012, the chair of the institute has been Professor Haya Lorberboum-Galski who took over from Professor David Lichtstein, the chair from 2008-2012. IMRIC is supported in part by the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University through the establishment of scholarships and research funding. In addition, the CFHU aids in creating key collaborative medical research partnerships between Canada and Israel, such as the Alex U. Soyka Pancreatic Cancer Research Project, the Grafstein Network for Cancer Research the Canada-Israel International Fetal Alcohol Consortium and the Joseph and Wolf Lebovic Cancer Genomic and Immunotherapy Program. IMRIC is also the largest educational institute in Israel for graduate studies in Medical Sciences. In 2016, it had 600 master and doctorate students.
Lautenberg Center for Immunology and Cancer Research The center was established in 1968 as the first department of Immunology at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School and named after the US senator, Frank Lautenberg.
Medical Neurobiology
Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
Teaching divisions
The Institute provides a bachelor's degree in Biomedical Sciences. In addition its faculty teaches the basic sciences for the undergraduate, pre-clinical programs of the Faculty of Medicine. These include programs for Medicine, Military Medicine, Dentistry, Biomedical Sciences, and Nursing. In 2016, more than 2800 students were enrolled in these programs.
Research hubs and centers
Research Hubs gather together scientists and clinicians focusing on a specific subject or disease, integrating various scientific and medical disciplines. Each hub consists of researchers from IMRIC, Hadassah Medical Center, The School of Pharmacy, The School of Public Health, Shaare Zedek Medical Center and more. The following research hubs are currently active:
The Herbert and Dorothy Nadolny Cardio-Metabolic Diseases Research Hub
Microbe Brain Storming - MIBS
Muscle Degeneration Diseases
Virus-host Interactions and Viral Pathogenesis.
There are six research centers affiliated with IMRIC: The Lautenberg Center for General and Tumor Immunology; The Kuvin Center for the Study of Infectious and Tropical Diseases; The Brain Disease Research Center - BDRC; The Autism Center; The Hubert H. Humphrey Center for Experimental Medicine and Cancer Research; and The Rogoff Center for Research in Physiology.
The EMET Prize for Art, Science and Culture: Moshe Abeles 2004; Eli Keshet 2006; Howard Cedar & Aaron Razin 2009; Baruch Minke 2010; Hanna Engelberg-Kulka 2018; Yinon Ben-Neriah 2019
