{"id":60,"date":"2025-06-20T15:39:47","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T19:39:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/?post_type=ud_entry&#038;p=60"},"modified":"2026-03-04T09:47:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T14:47:01","slug":"tal-kafri-md-phd","status":"publish","type":"ud_entry","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/people\/tal-kafri-md-phd\/","title":{"rendered":"Tal Kafri, MD PhD"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Kafri completed his B.Sc. in Medical Sciences, and his MD and PhD in Biochemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, graduating <em>Summa cum laude.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The research focus of the Kafri lab includes the efficacy of the lentiviral vector system, the safety of the retro\/lentiviral vector system, and the role of episomal HIV in the viral lifecycle, variations of RT products, HIV silencing, packaging signal mapping.<\/p>\n<h3>Dr. Kafri&#8217;s Research Focuses<\/h3>\n<div class=\"page\" title=\"Page 1\">\n<div class=\"section\">\n<div class=\"layoutArea\">\n<div class=\"column\">\n<ul>\n<li>The efficacy of the lentiviral vector system: Production systems, vector titer, vector specific activity, duration of transgene expression.<\/li>\n<li>The safety of the retro\/lentiviral vector system: Vector mobilization, insertional mutagenesis, contamination with endogenous retroviruses.<\/li>\n<li>Basic HIV biology: The role of episomal HIV in the viral lifecycle, variations of RT products, HIV silencing, packaging signal mapping.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Current translational challenges\/questions which keeps gene therapy within the bounds of fatal diseases:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Patient to patient variations in the outcomes of clinical trials<\/li>\n<li>Discrepancies between the outcomes of preclinical animal models and clinical trials<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Working Hypothesis<\/h3>\n<p>The current preclinical studies (premised on a single mouse strain) ignore the host\u00a0factors effects on:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The efficacy and safety of viral vector gene delivery<\/li>\n<li>The ability of a particular mouse strain to accurately emulate specific gene delivery traits in humans<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>New Directions<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Treating the outcomes of gene therapy as a HIGHLY multigenic\/ complex trait\/phenotype<\/li>\n<li>Moving from animal models based on single mouse strain concept<\/li>\n<li>Can we target the modifier genes?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Model System of Interest<\/h3>\n<p>We employ the collaborative cross mouse panel to identify host factors affecting lentiviral vector transduction and HIV biology<\/p>\n<h3>Relevant Publications<\/h3>\n<p>Suwanmanee and Kafri et al. (2017) <a href=\"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1016\/j.omtm.2017.03.009\">http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1016\/j.omtm.2017.03.009<\/a>.<br \/>\nHu and Kafri et al. (2025). <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/v17020276\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/v17020276<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Key words to\u00a0 search with Tal Kafri:<\/h3>\n<p>Lentiviral vectors, IDLV, PPT deleted, isogenic phenotypic discordance, DNA methylation, epigenetics, packaging cell line, host factors, personalized gene therapy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":99,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"ud_division":[4],"class_list":["post-60","ud_entry","type-ud_entry","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","ud_division-members","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Tal Kafri, MD PhD - The Center for Molecular Medicine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/people\/tal-kafri-md-phd\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tal Kafri, MD PhD - The Center for Molecular Medicine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dr. Kafri completed his B.Sc. in Medical Sciences, and his MD and PhD in Biochemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, graduating Summa cum laude. 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The safety of the retro\/lentiviral vector system: Vector mobilization, insertional mutagenesis, contamination with endogenous retroviruses. Basic HIV biology: The role of episomal HIV in the viral lifecycle, variations of RT products, HIV silencing, packaging signal mapping.<\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n","ud_telephone":[{"ud_location":"Office","ud_number":"9198437635"}],"ud_email":"kafri@med.unc.edu","ud_positions":[{"ud_title":"Professor, Microbiology &amp; Immunology"},{"ud_title":"Director, Lenti Viral Vector Core, Lenti-shRNA Core Facility"}],"ud_options":[],"ud_sort_order":"11"},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1462\/2025\/06\/tal-kafri-MI-415x482-1.jpg","featured_image_medium":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1462\/2025\/06\/tal-kafri-MI-415x482-1-258x300.jpg","featured_image_medium_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1462\/2025\/06\/tal-kafri-MI-415x482-1.jpg","featured_image_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1462\/2025\/06\/tal-kafri-MI-415x482-1.jpg","featured_image_thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1462\/2025\/06\/tal-kafri-MI-415x482-1-150x150.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ud_entry\/60","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ud_entry"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ud_entry"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ud_division","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/molecularmedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ud_division?post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}