Scientific Biography

Esther Shohami has received her doctorate in Physiology from the Hebrew University (HU), Jerusalem, Israel and did her post-doc at MC-Gill University in Montreal, Canada. She later joined the HU School of Pharmacy at the faculty of medicine, and is currently a Professor Emerita in Pharmacology, at the HU Institute for Drug Research. Between 2006 - 2011 she served as the Dean of students at her University, and between 2012-2014 as the president of the Israel Society for Neuroscience. She is a member of the executive board of the International Neurotrauma Society (INTS) and serves at the editorial boards of J. Neurotrauma. She also served as council member in the US National Neurotrauma Society and at the editorial board of J. CBF&M.

Prof. Shohami has published more than 220 articles, reviews and book chapters. Her research is focused on experimental traumatic brain injury (TBI) in rodents and addresses mechanisms of injury (e.g inflammation, oxidative stress, the glutamate NMDAR) and endogenous neuroprotection (e.g. endocannabinoids and heat-acclimation induced preconditioning). Currently her work is focused on the effects of TBI on cognitive functions and on mechanisms that are involved in ameliorating these TBI-induced deficits. She also studies the involvement of the endocannabinoid system in the pathophysiology and rehabilitation after TBI, and is involved in the development of cannabinoid like novel drugs for TBI.