Joseph Yanai

Joseph Yanai is a researcher pioneering in studying the reversal of neurobehavioral birth defects in animal models.[1] He serves as a professor and Director of the Ross Laboratory for Studies in Neural Birth Defects at the Department of Medical Neurobiology, The Institute For Medical Research, Israel-Canada (IMRIC) at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School Jerusalem, Israel and was also appointed as Adjunct Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA.

Not to be confused with Joseph Yaani Labik.

Education

Yanai was born in Rehovot, Israel in 1944. After graduating from the Mikveh Israel Agricultural High School, he received his BSc Agr. in agriculture and genetics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1967; both his MA in 1970 and PhD in 1971 from the University of Colorado Boulder

Professional career

Research work

Since 1973, he has been among the forerunners in the study of behavioral birth defects.[3] His novel approach was to study the mechanism by which certain neuroteratogens induce their deleterious effect, focusing on behavioral defects that are mechanistically related to septohippocampal cholinergic innervation.[4] The results showed alterations in cholinergic neurotransmission cascade converging into the abolishment of the cholinergic receptor-induced activation/translocation PKC activity.[5] By ascertaining the mechanisms of the neuroteratogenicity, he pointed in his book “neurobehavioral teratology.” [6] to the future of the field by establishing the concept of "Neurobehavioral teratology. Furthermore, Yanai argued that understanding the mechanism of the developmental defect will eventually enable its reversal, a concept that seemed like science fiction in 1984.

Specifically since 1987, Yanai has developed animal models for the reversal of neurobehavioral birth defects, starting with manipulation of A10 septal dopaminergic innervation,[7] nicotine therapy,[8] but most significantly, by transplantation of cells to the impaired brain. These included fetal differentiated brain cells (neural grafting),[9] and in subsequent studies, stem cells of various origins: embryonic, neural stem cells,[10] subventricular stem cells,[11] and mesenchymal stem cells.[12][13] Transplantation of cells of all types reversed the prenatally-induced behavioral deficits and the mechanistically related neural alterations. Further studies suggested that one major mechanism by which the stem cells exert their therapeutic action is by enhancing neurogenesis.[14][15]

These findings were published in the leading journal (for example Molecular Psychiatry,[16]) and received an widespread media attention (external links[17][18]) and presented in an invited major address, at the  international conferences in San Antonio, Texas, in June 2016.[19] Review of Yanai’s work and the progress in reversal of neurobehavioral teratology that was advanced by other laboratories was published in 2019[20] and in Basel, Switzerland in February 2017.

References
  1. Yanai, Joseph; Vigoda, Myles J.; Ornoy, Asher (August 2019). "Reversal of neurobehavioral teratogenicity in animal models and human: Three decades of progress". Brain Research Bulletin. 150: 328–342. doi:10.1016/j.brainresbull.2019.06.009. ISSN 0361-9230. PMID 31207281. S2CID 189820103.
  2. "Professor Joseph Yanai". The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
  3. "Behavior genetics association abstracts". Behavior Genetics. 3 (4): 393–419. December 1973. doi:10.1007/bf01070223. ISSN 0001-8244. S2CID 189854750.
  4. "Behavior genetics association abstracts". Behavior Genetics. 3 (4): 393–419. December 1973. doi:10.1007/bf01070223. ISSN 0001-8244. S2CID 189854750.
  5. Yanai, Joseph; Beer, Avital; Huleihel, Rabab; Izrael, Michal; Katz, Sofia; Levi, Yaarit; Rozenboim, Israel; Yaniv, Shiri P.; Slotkin, Theodore A. (October 2004). "Convergent Effects on Cell Signaling Mechanisms Mediate the Actions of Different Neurobehavioral Teratogens: Alterations in Cholinergic Regulation of Protein Kinase C in Chick and Avian Models". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1025 (1): 595–601. doi:10.1196/annals.1316.074. ISSN 0077-8923. PMID 15542768. S2CID 10927050.
  6. Neurobehavioral teratology. Joseph Yanai. Amsterdam: Elsevier. 1984. ISBN 0-444-80516-8. OCLC 10275574.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  7. Yanai, Joseph; Laxer, Uri; Pick, Chaim G.; Trombka, David (August 1989). "Dopaminergic denervation reverses behavioral deficits induced by prenatal exposure to phenobarbital". Developmental Brain Research. 48 (2): 255–261. doi:10.1016/0165-3806(89)90080-1. ISSN 0165-3806. PMID 2505945.
  8. Beer, Avital; Slotkin, Theodore A; Seidler, Frederic J; Aldridge, Justin E; Yanai, Joseph (2004-10-20). "Nicotine Therapy in Adulthood Reverses the Synaptic and Behavioral Deficits Elicited by Prenatal Exposure to Phenobarbital". Neuropsychopharmacology. 30 (1): 156–165. doi:10.1038/sj.npp.1300582. ISSN 0893-133X. PMID 15496940.
  9. Yanai, Joseph; Pick, Chaim G. (1988). "Neuron transplantation reverses phenobarbital-induced behavioral birth defects in mice". International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience. 6 (5): 409–416. doi:10.1016/0736-5748(88)90046-9. ISSN 0736-5748. PMID 3202000. S2CID 23370083.
  10. Kazma, Meital; Izrael, Michal; Revel, Michel; Chebath, Judith; Yanai, Joseph (2010-02-01). "Survival, differentiation, and reversal of heroin neurobehavioral teratogenicity in mice by transplanted neural stem cells derived from embryonic stem cells". Journal of Neuroscience Research. 88 (2): 315–323. doi:10.1002/jnr.22193. ISSN 0360-4012. PMID 19746435. S2CID 24682086.
  11. Turgeman, Gadi; Pinkas, Adi; Slotkin, Theodore A.; Tfilin, Matanel; Langford, Rachel; Yanai, Joseph (2011-04-21). "Reversal of chlorpyrifos neurobehavioral teratogenicity in mice by allographic transplantation of adult subventricular zone-derived neural stem cells". Journal of Neuroscience Research. 89 (8): 1185–1193. doi:10.1002/jnr.22631. ISSN 0360-4012. PMID 21520219. S2CID 3424029.
  12. Yanai, Joseph; Vigoda, Myles J.; Ornoy, Asher (August 2019). "Reversal of neurobehavioral teratogenicity in animal models and human: Three decades of progress". Brain Research Bulletin. 150: 328–342. doi:10.1016/j.brainresbull.2019.06.009. ISSN 0361-9230. PMID 31207281. S2CID 189820103.
  13. "Stem cell therapy may reverse brain birth defects". Oneindia.com. 30 December 2008.
  14. "Health Scan: Stem cell therapy may reverse brain defects". The Jerusalem Post.
  15. Ben-Shaanan, T L; Ben-Hur, T; Yanai, J (2007-09-18). "Transplantation of neural progenitors enhances production of endogenous cells in the impaired brain". Molecular Psychiatry. 13 (2): 222–231. doi:10.1038/sj.mp.4002084. ISSN 1359-4184. PMID 17876325. S2CID 12784221.
  16. Ben-Shaanan, TL, Ben-Hur, T, and Yanai, J.: “Transplantation of neural progenitors enhances production of endogeneous cells in the impaired brain”. Molecular Psychiatry, September 18, 2007. Vol. 13, No. 2, pp222-231
  17. "Hebrew University Scientists Succeed Through Stem Cell Therapy in Reversing Brain Birth Defects". Technology Networks.
  18. "Stem Cells Undo Birth Defects". MIT Technology Review.
  19. Yanai, Joseph (May 2016). "Fortieth Anniversary Annual Meeting of the Developmental Neurotoxicology Society Held in Conjunction with the 56th Annual Meeting of the Teratology Society Grand Hyatt San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas June 25–29, 2016". Neurotoxicology and Teratology. 55: 58–75. doi:10.1016/j.ntt.2016.04.003. ISSN 0892-0362.
  20. Yanai, Joseph; Vigoda, Myles J.; Ornoy, Asher (August 2019). "Reversal of neurobehavioral teratogenicity in animal models and human: Three decades of progress". Brain Research Bulletin. 150: 328–342. doi:10.1016/j.brainresbull.2019.06.009. ISSN 0361-9230. PMID 31207281. S2CID 189820103.
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