Asya Rolls facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Asya Rolls
אסיה רולס
Asya Rolls in 2020
Born	Russia
Nationality	Israeli
Alma mater	The Hebrew Reali School in Haifa, Israel Israel Institute of Technology Weizmann Institute Stanford University
Known for	Brain representation and control of immunity and cancer
Scientific career
Fields	Psychoneuroimmunology
Institutions	Tel Aviv University
Doctoral advisor	Michal Schwartz Ofer Lider

Asya Rolls (Hebrew: אסיה רולס) is an Israeli scientist. She studies how our brain and immune system work together. This field is called psychoneuroimmunology.

Asya Rolls is a Professor at Tel Aviv University. Before 2024, she was a Professor at the Israel Institute of Technology. She leads a lab that explores how our nervous system affects how our body fights off sickness. Her work has shown how the brain's reward system can help with the placebo effect. It also shows how the brain and immune system can work together to fight serious illnesses like cancer.

Early Life and Education

Asya Rolls finished high school in Haifa, Israel in 1993. She then studied Life Sciences at the Israel Institute of Technology. After getting her first degree, she continued her studies there for her Master's degree.

Later, Rolls went to the Weizmann Institute in Israel for her advanced studies. She researched how the immune system affects brain repair and the growth of new brain cells. She completed her PhD in 2007.

Career and Research

In 2008, Asya Rolls received a special scholarship called the Fulbright Scholarship. This allowed her to do more research at Stanford University in California. There, she studied how sleep affects the brain and memory.

Rolls used a method called optogenetics to study sleep. This method uses light to control brain cells. She found that if sleep was interrupted after learning, it could affect memory the next day. She also discovered that preventing certain processes during sleep could reduce fear memories. This showed how important sleep is for memory.

Her team also looked at how sleep affects the body's ability to heal. They found that not getting enough sleep could make it harder for certain healing cells to work properly. This highlights why sleep is so important for our health.

In 2012, Rolls became a group leader at the Israel Institute of Technology. She is now a professor and leads the Rolls Lab. Her lab focuses on the link between the brain and the immune system. They study how our feelings and thoughts can affect our body's ability to stay healthy.

The Rolls Lab has developed new ways to study the immune system. They combine special technologies like DREADDs and CyTOF mass-cytometry. These tools help them measure how the immune system changes when brain cells are activated or stopped. Rolls is also a member of The Israel Young Academy.

Brain's Reward System and Immunity

Asya Rolls was one of the first scientists to show a connection between the brain's reward system and the immune system. She became interested in this link because of the placebo effect. The placebo effect is when someone feels better just because they expect to, even if they are given a fake treatment. Rolls wanted to know how these positive thoughts could actually lead to healing.

She found that activating the brain's reward system in mice could boost their immune response. This happened when the mice were exposed to bacteria.

Rolls then explored how the brain's reward system could affect the body's fight against serious illnesses. Her team found that activating this system could help shrink the size of tumors in mice. This showed that the brain can play a role in helping the body fight off these illnesses.

Studying Immune Cells in the Brain

Rolls has also been a leader in using a method called CyTOF mass cytometry to study immune cells in the brain. Using this method, she and her team found new types of immune cells in the brain. They also discovered that a marker called CD44 is common on immune cells that enter the brain.

Her team used CyTOF to see what happens to immune cells in the brain after not getting enough sleep. They found that certain immune cells called B cells started to enter the brain. This shows how lack of sleep can change the immune environment in the brain.

Brain's Immune Memories

In a recent important study, Rolls and her team showed that the brain can remember and bring back immune responses. They found that specific groups of brain cells in mice could remember different types of inflammation. When these brain cells were reactivated, they could bring back the same inflammatory response.

They also showed that stopping activity in a certain part of the brain could help reduce signs of inflammation in the colon. These findings help explain how our thoughts and feelings can affect our physical health. They also open doors for new ways to treat diseases where the immune system attacks the body.

Rolls has also introduced the idea of "immunoception." This is the brain's way of watching and controlling the immune system. She also suggested that the brain stores information about the immune system in something she calls an "immunengram." This "immunengram" is stored in both the brain and in memory cells throughout the body.

Awards and Honors

• 2017 Howard Hughes Medical Investigator-Wellcome International Research Scholar
• 2017 Krill Prize - Wolf Foundation
• 2015-2019 FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence
• 2017 Adelis Brain Research Award
• 2010 NARSAD Young Investigator Award
• 2009 Rothschild Postdoctoral Fellowship
• 2009 Clore Foundation's Women in Science Award
• 2008 Fulbright Scholar

Selected Media

• 2019 TEDx Technion - Understanding the Brain's Role in Immunity
• 2018 Scientific American Article - Could Brain Stimulation Slow Cancer?
• 2013 Scientific American Mind Article - Faulty Sleep Mechanisms Might Cause Trauma to Linger
• 2012 Nature News Article “To Sleep, Perchance to Forget Fears”
• 2011 Los Angeles Times “ Fragmented Sleep May Impair Memory, Learning”

Selected Publications

• Koren T., Yifa R., Amer M., Krot M., Boshnak N., Ben-Shaanan TL., Azulay-Debby H., Zalayat I., Avishai E., Hajjo H, Schiller M., Haykin H., Korin B., Farfara D., Hakim F., Kobiler O., Rosenblum K., and Rolls A.(2021) Insular Cortex Neurons Encode and Retrieve Specific Immune Responses. Cell.
• Schiller M., Azulay-Debby H., Bushnak N., Ben Shannan T., Korin B., Koren T., Krot M., Elyahu Y., Hakim F., Rolls A.(2021) Optogenetic activation of local sympathetic innervations to the colon attenuates DSS-induced colitis. Immunity.
• Ben-Shaanan TL, Schiller M, Azulay-Debby H, Korin B, Boshnak N, Koren T, Krot M, Shakya J, Rahat MA, Hakim F & Rolls A. (2018) Modulation of anti-tumor immunity by the brain's reward system. Nature Communications
• Korin B, Dubovik T, Rolls A. (2018) Mass cytometry analysis of immune cells in the brain. Nature Protocols
• Korin B, Ben-Shaanan TL, Schiller M, Dubovik T, Azulay-Debby H, Boshnak NT, Koren T, Rolls A. (2017). High-dimensional, single-cell characterization of the brain's immune compartment. Nature Neuroscience.
• Ben-Shaanan T.L, Azulay-Debby H., Dubovik T., Starosvetsky E., Korin., Schiller M., Green NL, Admon Y., Hakim F., Shen-Orr S*., Rolls A*. (2016) Activation of the reward system boosts innate and adaptive immunity. Nature Medicine
• Rolls A., Fang W*., Ibarra i*., Bonovien P., Colas D., Heller HC,. Weissman I., de Lecea L. (2015) Sleep Regulates Hematopoietic Stem Cell Trafficking. Nature Communications (*equal)
• Rolls A., Makam M*., Kroeger D., Colas D., de Lecea L., Heller HC. (2013) Sleep to forget: context independent interference with fear during sleep. Molecular Psychiatry (*equal)
• Rolls A., Colas D, Adamantidis A, Carter M, Lanre-Amos T., Heller HC. de Lecea L. (2011) Optogenetic Disruption of Sleep Continuity Impairs Memory Consolidation. PNAS.
• Shechter R, Baruch K, Schwartz M*, Rolls A. (2010) Touch gives new life: mechanosensation modulates spinal cord adult neurogenesis. Molecular Psychiatry
• Rolls A., Schori H., London A. and Schwartz M. (2008) Decrease in hippocampal neurongenesis during pregnancy. Molecular Psychiatry
• Rolls A., Shechter R.*, London A., Ziv Y., Ronen A., Levy R. and Schwartz M. (2007) Toll-like receptors modulate adult hippocampal neurogenesis. Nature Cell Biology