Dr. Leonid Livshits

Dr. Leonid Livshits
Principal Investigator
Dr. Leonid Livshits
Research Group Leader
Research Group Leader
PhD, 2007 PhD Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel 
Phone
972-544931425
Principal Investigator

Our research focuses on studying the physiological, biophysical, and rheological characteristics of healthy and pathological Red Blood Cells (RBCs), with a special emphasis on the RBC changes in metabolic complications and hemoglobinopathies. 

The specific issues we work on include:

- Glucose uptake into human RBC: open (and very intriguing) questions.

Although the mechanisms of the regulation of glucose uptake and its impact on RBC physiology and rheology have been under intensive investigation for the last 70 years, we are still far from a complete understanding of these fundamental processes. The unique perturbations of numerous membrane protein complexes, the regulative redistribution of ATP, Ca 2+ , hemoglobin isoforms, and water molecules within the cell, the affected membrane charge, and adapted rheology are only a few from the myriads of the pathways triggered by acute glucose influx into human erythrocyte. 

The following questions are at the top of our research interest:

(a)   The regulative role of Protein Kinase C (PKC) isoforms in glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1)-mediated glucose transport.
(b)   The effect of insulin, adrenergic hormones, adipokines, and sex hormones on GLUT1-mediated uptake and associated processes in human RBC.
(c)   The influence of glucose uptake on RBC deformability: a possible regulative role of lipid raft constituents.
(d)   The mechanisms of altered glucose uptake in patients with congenital membranopathies and hemoglobinopathies in RBC.

- RBC Features as Early Prognostic Biomarkers

- The physiological and clinical roles of various hemoglobin isoforms with a particular view on the roles of minor adult hemoglobin, HbA2, and glycated hemoglobin.

CV

Academic positions 
2024 - Research Group Leader, MIGAL– Galilee Research Institute, Israel  
2017-2024 - Post-doctoral Research assistant, Institute of Veterinary Physiology, Vetsuisse Faculty, Center for Integrative Human Physiology (ZIHP), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland 
2008-2012 - Post-doctoral Research fellow, The Diabetes Research Center, Hadassah Medical University Center, Jerusalem, Israel.

Academic Education 
2002-2008 - PhD Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel 
1999-2001 - MSc Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

Scientific Publications 
For a complete list of publications please see Dr. Livshits' Google Scholar page (https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=iw&user=Y4I1DxcAAAAJ)

Awards and Honors 
Research award, 9th Regional Medical Conference on the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, Berlin, Germany, 2009

 

Awards and Honors
Research award, 9th Regional Medical Conference on the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, Berlin, Germany, 2009

Scientific Publications

Iron Metabolism in Thalassemia and Sickle Cell Anemia: The influence of Genetic Modifiers

doi: 10.20944/preprints202407.0167.v1
2024

Distribution of Red Blood Cells Deformability: Study on Density-Separated Cell Subpopulations‏

Gregory Barshtein, Dan Arbell, Alexander Gural, Leonid Livshits
MDPI
2024

Support Vector Machine-Based Formula for Detecting Suspected α Thalassemia Carriers: A Path toward Universal Screening

Idit Lachover-Roth, Sari Peretz, Hiba Zoabi, Eitam Harel, Leonid Livshits, Dvora Filon, Carina Levin, Ariel Koren
2024

The effect of ionic redistributions on the microwave dielectric response of cytosol water upon glucose uptake

Cindy Galindo, Leonid Livshits, Lama Tarabeih, Yuri D Feldman
April 2024 European biophysics journal 53(17)
2024

Hemoglobin Binding to the Red Blood Cell (RBC) Membrane Is Associated with Decreased Cell Deformability

Gregory Barshtein, Leonid Livshits, Alexander Gural, Saul Yedgar
May 2024International Journal of Molecular Sciences 25(11):5814
2024

5613260 A PHASE -- IIA-IIB, OPEN LABEL, SINGLE CENTER TRIAL TO STUDY SAFETY, TOLERABILITY AND EFFICACY OF MEMANTINE AS SUPPORTIVE LONG-TERM TREATMENT OF SICKLE CELL PATIENTS: TRIAL DESIGN AND ENROLLMENT

Levin, C.L.; Koren, A.K.; Peretz, S.S.P.; Livshits, L.L.; Makhro, A.M.; Bogdanova, A.B.; Gassmann, M.G.
HemaSphere 7(S1):p 41-42, April 2023. | DOI: 10.1097/01.HS9.0000928448.56489.9
2023

The Impact of Ca2+ on Intracellular Distribution of Hemoglobin in Human Erythrocytes

Leonid Livshits, Sari Peretz, Anna Bogdanova,Max Gassmann
September 2023Cells
2023

Red Blood Cell Deformability Is Expressed by a Set of Interrelated Membrane Proteins

Gregory Barshtein, Alexander Gural, Dan Arbell, Refael Barkan, Leonid Livshits, Ivana Pajic-Lijakovic, Saul Yedgar
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(16), 12755
2023

The inhibition of glucose uptake to erythrocytes: microwave dielectric response

Cindy Galindo, Larisa Latypova, Gregory Barshtein, Leonid Livshits, Dan Arbell, Sharon Einav, Yuri Feldman
Springer International Publishing
2022

PB2222: THE PROTECTIVE EFFECT OF THE SPLEEN IN SICKLE CELL PATIENTS. A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN PATIENTS WITH ASPLENIA AND HYPERSPLENISM.

Sari Peretz, Leonid Livshits, E. Pretorius, Carina Levin
HemaSphere June 2022 6:2092-2093
2022

The distribution of HbA2 between the membrane-associated and cytosolic hemoglobin pools: Role of external factors.

Carina Levin, Anna Bogdanova, Ariel Koren, Leonid Livshits
Conference: 24TH MEETING OF THE EUROPEAN RED CELL SOCIETY May 2022
2022

The protective effect of the spleen in sickle cell patients. A comparative study between patients with asplenia/hyposplenism and hypersplenism

Sari Peretz,Leonid Livshits, Etheresia Pretorius, Carina Levin
Frontiers in Physiology August 2022 13:796837
2022

Back to the "Gold Standard": How Precise is Hematocrit Detection Today?

Leonid Livshits, Tal Bilu, Sari Peretz, Carina Levin
Mediterranean Journal of Hematology and Infectious Diseases 14(1):e2022049 July 2022
2022

The Power of Laughter: “Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand!”

Leonid Livshits
Take in Mind
2021

Do We Store Packed Red Blood Cells under “Quasi-Diabetic” Conditions?

L Livshits, G Barshtein, D Arbell, A Gural, C Levin, H Guizouarn
Biomolecules 2021, 11, 992.
2021

“I found myself within a forest dark…”

Leonid Livshits
Take in Mind
2021

Do We Store Packed Red Blood Cells under “Quasi-Diabetic” Conditions?

Do We Store Packed Red Blood Cells under “Quasi-Diabetic” Conditions?
Biomolecules 2021, 11(7), 992
2021

Fourier Transform of Percoll Gradients Boosts CNN Classification of Hereditary Hemolytic Anemias

2021 IEEE 18th International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI)
2021

Sickle Cell Disease Severity Prediction from Percoll Gradient Images using Graph Convolutional Networks

Ario Sadafi, Asya Makhro, Leonid Livshits, Carsten Marr
September 2021
2021

Ferritin is regulated by a neuro-intestinal axis in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans

Leonor Romero-Afrima, Veronica Zelmanovich, Zohar Abergel, Binyamin Zuckerman, Maayan Shaked, Rachel Abergel, Leonid Livshits, Yoav Smith, Einav Gross
Redox Biology Volume 28, January 2020, 101359
2020

The Power of Forgiveness

Leonid Livshits
Take in Mind
2020

Screen Maestro: about the auditory Kuleshov effect

Leonid Livshits
Take in Mind
2020

The dielectric spectroscopy of human red blood cells during 37-day storage: β-dispersion parameterization

Marcelo David, Evgeniya Levy, Gregory Barshtein, Leonid Livshits, Dan Arbell, Paul Ben Ishai, Yuri Feldman
Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA)-Biomembranes
2020

Water is a biomarker of changes in the cellular environment in live animals

Pratibha Siwach, Evgeniya Levy, Leonid Livshits, Yuri Feldman, Daniel Kaganovich
Scientific Reports volume 10, Article number: 9095
2020

Non-oxidative band-3 clustering agents cause the externalization of phosphatidylserine on erythrocyte surfaces by a calcium-independent mechanism

Alexander Koshkaryev, Leonid Livshits, Ivana Pajic-Lijakovic, Alexander Gural, Gregory Barshtein, Saul Yedgar
Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Biomembranes
Volume 1862, Issue 6
2020