Associate professor Irena Manov received her PhD from the Institute of Influenza, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, St. Petersburg and MD from the Ural State Medical Academy of Yekaterinburg, USSR. Prior to taking her position at the University of Haifa, Dr Manov has held senior academic positions at Faculty of Medicine of the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. Her current research interests lie in the mechanisms of cancer resistance and longevity in the hypoxia-tolerant Mediterranean rodent blind mole-rat, Spalax. In particular, her group focuses on studying the behavior of stromal cells in the creating of cancer suppressive microenvironment.