The Judith and Stewart Colton Center for Autoimmunity at Tel Aviv University was established to make a significant impact on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of autoimmune diseases – conditions in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s healthy cells and tissues. Examples include rheumatoid arthritis, which affects the joints; type 1 diabetes, which destroys insulin-producing cells in the pancreas; and lupus, which can affect several organs. There are over 100 diseases in this group that affect between 5% and 8% of the population, posing a chronic health problem to those afflicted with these ailments.
Prof. Uri Nevo, Head of the Colton Center, explains that what makes it unique is its multidisciplinary setup. “One would expect that an autoimmune disease research center would include researchers in the life sciences and medicine. At the Colton Center, we also include engineers, computer scientists, chemists, physicists, and mathematicians. This creates an amplification of the strength of what we can do.”
Nevo adds that the Center does not limit its work to the science surrounding autoimmune diseases, but also addresses issues related to the needs of patients themselves. “In some cases, we are not only finding the exact medicine, but creating an optimized treatment to help manage the disease by adding other professionals, such as social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists.”
The Colton Center has close ties with Israel’s kupot holim (health funds) and several major hospitals, including Beilinson, Meir, Schneider, Tel Hashomer, and Ichilov, which are involved in its research studies. “This relationship between clinicians and researchers creates another added value that makes the University unique,” says Nevo.
Recently, the Center initiated “autoimmune disease committees,” a project developed jointly with the Clalit health fund, in which patients meet with multiple doctors in different disciplines to address their condition. For example, a patient with a rheumatological issue would meet not only with the rheumatologist, but also with a dermatologist, a neurologist, and a chemist. Dr. Gali Lerman, Chief Scientific Officer at the Colton Center, explains that most patients with autoimmune diseases have comorbidities – additional diseases or medical conditions that require attention from multiple disciplines. “You have to see the entire committee of physicians to see the whole picture,” she says.
One of the Center's most exciting developments is a new $15 million, three-year investment from the Colton Foundation to strengthen scientific leadership, expand faculty expertise, and advance collaborative research to accelerate breakthroughs in autoimmune disease across its three partner institutions at New York University, Tel Aviv University, and Yale University. “Collaboration is key,” says Nevo, “and that will create additional value.”
This investment strengthens the consortium’s ability to operate as an integrated, high-performing research network—supporting work that no single institution could accomplish alone. The consortium investment supports three core pillars: advancing faculty recruitment across the three institutions, accelerating cross-consortium research collaboration, and strengthening leadership and research infrastructure.
Nevo says the consortium hopes to reduce the occurrence of autoimmune diseases, better understand their triggers, and develop treatments that eliminate symptoms with minimal side effects.
Written in collaboration with Tel Aviv University