Vice President of Research
Dr. Orit Lavi’s expertise lies in the intersection of biomedical science, computation, and technology, aiming to make a positive and impactful contribution. With more than 20 years of experience in leading scientific research projects, establishing scientific partnerships, initiating and directing actionable strategic plans, and developing scientific computational applications, Dr. Lavi is eager to continue the path of offering, and developing innovative scalable solutions for real world problems with wide impact. Starting from the ideation to full execution.
Dr. Lavi received her B.Sc., M.Sc,. and Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics (focused on dynamic complex systems) at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. She completed her postdoctoral training at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), NIH, specializing in multi-drug resistance mechanisms in cancer while applying mathematical approaches at Dr. Michael Gottesman Lab. From 2017, she started her own research lab at NCI, NIH (Bethesda, MD), focused on developing an integrative computational program that addresses fundamental challenges in brain cancer. Main focus was on modeling the heterogeneity of brain cancer, and in general addressing diseases at the brain environment. Developing tools for brain measurements and its investigation will be crucial especially with the combination of climate change and disease development.
Since 2021, Dr. Lavi has been transitioning from the academic and government setting to the startup industry, further exploring scientific and technological translational approaches to address a variety of problems. Execution of large-scale ventures is not less challenging than the ideas and tech behind them. Among others, she worked as a Founder of a digital integrative health startup (stealth mode), a Director of Science in an AI biotech startup, and as an independent consultant in scientific and business research plans.
In February 2024, Dr. Lavi joined the Human Immunome Project as the Vice President of Research. In this role she will contribute to HIP’s scientific plans, vision, and execution, and is looking forward to its positive impact on global health.