2025 – Ido Amit

Ido Amit is the winner of 2025 Translational Cancer Researcher Award, for his pioneering studies about modern immunology and cancer immunology.

His outstanding discoveries are greatly impacting and shaping basic immunology and immunotherapy research, finding chances of cure for currently incurable cancer.

Professor Ido Amit has led and pioneered the development of single-cell genomics and its application to characterization of the immune system. Noticeably, his lab has made some of the most dramatic technology developments in this emerging field. His research using these technologies has revolutionized our understanding of the immune system, identifying dozens of new immune cell states and pathways and their roles in tumor immunology. Ido is a world leader and pioneer of modern immunology and Cancer Immunology, with outstanding contributions and discoveries that are greatly impacting and shaping basic immunology and immunotherapy research. His research studying the complex immune – tumour interaction enabled the discovery of a highly central immune regulatory tumour associated macrophages checkpoint blocking effective immunotherapy responses – the TREM2 pathway.

His research uncovered that TREM2 is a potent myeloid checkpoint regulating the pathological immune microenvironment. These studies have led to an international effort to translate myeloid checkpoints and the TREM2 pathway for cancer therapy that are already showing promising pre-clinical results.
In cancer, Immune checkpoint inhibition treatment using anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibodies is a promising cancer immunotherapy approach effecting the lives of millions, yet most patients remain unresponsive. In a seminal study, Prof. Amit research has showed that the crosstalk between conventional type I dendritic cells (cDC1) and T cells is essential for an effective aPD-1-mediated T cell response and anti-tumour efficacy.