Ronen Alon Prof. Ronen Alon
The Linda Jacobs Chair in Immune and Stem Cell Research
E-mail: ronen.alon@weizmann.ac.il
Phone: +972 8 934 2482
Fax: +972 8 934 2724
Location: Wolfson Bldg., Room 330

Selected Publications
  1. Grabovsky, V., Feigelson, S., Chen, C., Bleijs, D.A., Peled, A., Cinnamon, G., Baleux, F., Arenzana-Seisdedos, F., Lapidot, T., Van Kooyk, Y. Lobb, R. and Alon, R. (2000). Sub-second Induction of α4 integrin clustering by immobilized chemokines stimulates leukocyte tethering and rolling on endothelial VCAM-1 under flow conditions. J. Exp. Med. 192: 495-506.

  2. Feigelson, S., Grabovsky, V., Winter, E., Chen LL., R., Pepinsky, B., Yednock T., Yablonski D., Lobb, R. and Alon, R. (2001). The Src kinase P56lck up-regulates VLA-4 integrin affinity. Implications for rapid spontaneous and chemokine-triggered T-cell adhesion to VCAM-1 and fibronectin. J. Biol. Chem. 276: 13891-13901.

  3. Cinamon, G., Shinder, V. and Alon, R. (2001). Wall shear forces promote lymphocyte migration across inflamed vascular endothelium presenting apical chemokines. Nature Immunology 2: 515-522.

  4. Dwir, O., Kansas, G.S., and Alon, R. (2001). Cytoplasmic anchorage of L-selectin controls leukocyte capture and rolling by increasing the mechanical stability of the selectin tether. J. Cell. Biol. 155, 145-156.

  5. Grabovsky, V. Dwir, O., and Alon, R. (2002). Endothelial chemokines destabilize L-selectin-mediated lymphocyte rolling without inducing selectin shedding. J. Biol. Chem. 277, 20640-20650.

  6. Dwir, O, Steeber, D.A., Schwarz, U.S., Camphausen, R.T., Kansas, G.S., Tedder, T.F., and Alon, R. (2002). L-selectin dimerization enhances tether formation to properly spaced ligand above a threshold hydrodynamic shear. J. Biol. Chem. 277, 21130-21139.

  7. Shamri, R., Grabovsky, V., Feigelson, S. van Kooyk, Y., and Alon, R. (2002). Chemokine-stimulation of lymphocyte α4 integrin avidity but not of LFA-1 avidity to endothelial ligands under shear flow requires cholesterol membrane rafts. J. Biol. Chem. 277, 40027-40035.

  8. Alon, R., Aker, M., Feigelson, S., Sokolovsky-Eisenberg, M., Staunton, D.E., Cinamon, G., Grabovsky, V., Shamri, R., and Etzioni, A. (2003). A novel genetic leukocyte adhesion deficiency in subsecond triggering of integrin avidity by endothelial chemokines results in impaired leukocyte arrest on vascular endothelium under shear flow. Blood 101:4437-4445.

  9. Dwir, O., Solomon, A., Mangan, S., Kansas, G.S., Schwarz, U.S. and Alon, R. (2003). Avidity enhancement of L-selectin bonds by flow: shear-promoted rotation of leukocytes turn labile bonds into functional tethers. J. Cell. Biol. 163, 649-659.

  10. Feigelson, S., Grabovsky, V., Shamri, R., Levy, S. and Alon, R. (2003). The CD81 tetraspanin facilitates instantaneous VLA-4 rearrangements promoting leukocyte adhesion to VCAM-1 under shear flow. J. Biol. Chem. 278, 51203-51212.

  11. Schwartz, U.S., and Alon, R. (2004). L-selectin-mediated leukocyte tethering in shear flow is controlled by multiple contacts and cytoskeletal anchorage facilitating fast rebinding events. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 101, 6940-6945.

  12. Cinamon, G., Shinder, V., Shamri, R. and Alon, R. (2004). Chemoattractant signals and β2 integrin occupancy at apical endothelial contacts combine with shear stress signals to promote transendothelial neutrophil migration. J. Immunol. 173, 7282-7291.

  13. Shamri, R., Grabovsky, V., Gauguet, J.M., Feigelson, S., Manevich, E., Kolanus, W., Robinson, M.K., Staunton, D.E., von-Andrian, U.H. and Alon, R. (2005). Lymphocyte arrest on endothelial ICAM-1 requires a subsecond induction of an extended LFA-1 conformation by an endothelial-bound chemokine signal. Nature Immunology 6: 497-506.

  14. Alon, R., Feigelson, S., Manevich, E., Rose, D.M., Schmitz, J., Overby. D.R., Winter, E., Grabovsky, V., Shinder, V., Matthews, B.D., Sokolovsky-Eisenberg, M., Ingber, D.E., Benoit, M., and Ginsberg, M.H. (2005). α4β1-dependent adhesion strengthening under mechanical strain is regulated by paxillin association with the α4 cytoplasmic domain. J. Cell. Biol. 171:1073-1084.

  15. Shulman, Z. Pasvolsky, R., Woolf, E., Grabovsky, V. Feigelson, S.W., Erez, N., Fukui, Y., and Alon, R. (2006) DOCK2 regulates chemokine-triggered lateral lymphocyte motility but not transendothelial migration. Blood 108, 2150-2158.

  16. Pasvolsky, R., Feigelson, S.W., Kilic, S.S., Simon, A.J., Tal-Lapidot, G., Grabovsky, V., Crittenden, J.R., Amariglio, N., Safran, M., Graybiel, A.M., Rechavi, G., Ben-Dor, S., Etzioni, A., and Alon, R. (2007) A LAD-III syndrome is associated with defective expression of the Rap-1 activator CalDAG-GEFI in lymphocytes, neutrophils, and platelets. J. Exp. Med. 204, 1571-1582.

  17. Woolf, E., Grigorova, I., Sagiv, A., Grabovsky, V., Feigelson, S.W., Shulman, Z., Hartmann, T., Sixt, M., Cyster, J.C., and Alon, R. (2007) Immobilized lymph node chemokines promote sustained T lymphocyte motility but fail to trigger stable integrin adhesiveness in the absence of shear forces. Nature Immunology 8, 1076-1085.

  18. Manevich, E., Grabovsky V., Feigelson, S.W., and Alon, R. (2007) Talin1 and paxillin facilitate distinct steps in rapid VLA-4-mediated adhesion strengthening to VCAM-1. J. Biol. Chem. 282, 25338-25348.

  19. Pasvolsky, R., Grabovsky, V., Giagulli, C., Shulman, Z. Shamri, R., Feigelson, S.W. Laudanna, C. and Alon, R. (2008) RhoA is involved in LFA-1 extension triggered by CXCL12 but not in a novel outside-in LFA-1 activation facilitated by CXCL9. J. Immunol. 180, 2815-2823.

  20. Shulman, Z., Shinder, V., Klein, E., Grabovsky, V., Yeger, X., Geron, E., Montresor, A.,Bolomini-Vittoi, M., Feigelson, S.W., Kirchhausen, T., Laudanna, C., Shakhar, G. Alon, R. (2009) Lymphocyte crawling on and through activated endothelium is mediated by millipede-like contacts generated by chemokine triggered high affinity LFA-1 primed by shear forces. Immunity 30, 384-396.

  21. Hartmann, T.N, Grabovsky, V., Wang, W., Desch, P., Wollner, S., Binsky, I., Vallon-Eberhard, A., Sapoznikow, A, Haran, M., Shachar, I., Burger, M., Honczarenko, M., Greil, R., Alon, R. (2009) Circulating B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells display impaired migration to lymph nodes and bone marrow. Cancer Res. 69, 3121-3130.

  22. Manevich-Mendelson, E., Feigelson, S.W., Pasvolsky, R, Aker, M., Grabovsky V., Shulman, Z., Kilic, S.S, Rosenthal-Allieri, M.A., Ben-Dor, S., Mory, A., Bernard, A., Moser, M., Etzioni, A., and Alon, R. (2009) Loss of Kindlin-3 in LAD-III eliminates LFA-1 but not VLA-4 adhesiveness developed under shear flow conditions. Blood, 114, 2344-2353.

  23. Manevich-Mendelson, E., Grabovsky, V., Feigelson, S.W., Cinamon, G., Gore, Y., Goverse, G., Monkley, S,J., Margalit, R., Melamed, D., Mebius, R.E., Critchley, D.R., Shachar, I., Alon, R. (2010) Talin1 is required for integrin-dependent B lymphocyte homing to lymph nodes and the bone marrow but not for follicular B cell maturation in the spleen. Blood, 116, 5907-5918.

  24. Feigelson, S.W., Pasvolsky, R., Cemerski, S., Shulman, Z., Grabovsky, V., Ilani, T., Sagiv, A., Lemaitre, F., Laudanna, C., Shaw, A.S., Alon, R. (2010) Occupancy of lymphocyte LFA-1 by surface-immobilized ICAM-1 is critical for TCR- but not for chemokine-triggered LFA-1 conversion to an open headpiece high-affinity state. J. Immunol., 185, 7394-7404.
 Invited Reviews
  1. Cinamon, G., Grabovsky, V., Winter, E., Franitza, S., Feigelson, S., Shamri, R., Dwir O. and Alon, R. (2001). Novel functions of apically-displayed endothelial chemokines in lymphocyte adhesion and migration through vascular endothelium under shear flow. J. Leuk. Biol. 69, 860-866.

  2. Alon, R. and Feigelson, S. (2002). From rolling to arrest on blood vessels: leukocyte tap dancing on endothelial integrin ligands and chemokines at sub-second contacts. Semin. Immun. 14, 93-104.

  3. Cinamon, G. and Alon, R. (2003). A real time in-vitro assay for studying leukocyte transendothelial migration under physiological flow conditions. J. Immun. Meth. 273, 53-62.

  4. Alon, R., Grabovsky, V and Feigelson, S. (2003) Chemokine Induction of Integrin Avidity on Rolling Leukocytes: Local Signaling or Global Stepwise Activation? Microcirculation 10, 297-311.

  5. Alon, R. and Etzioni, A. (2003). LAD-III, a novel group of leukocyte integrin activation deficiencies. Trend. Immunol. 24, 561-565.

  6. Cinamon, G., and Alon, R. (2004). A real time in vitro assay for studying chemoattractant-triggered leukocyte transendothelial migration under physiological flow conditions. Methods Mol. Biol. 239, 233:242.

  7. Etzioni, A. and Alon, R. (2004) Leukocyte adhesion deficiency III: a group of interin activation defects in hematopoietic lineage cells. Curr. Opin. Allergy Clin. Immunol. 4, 485-490.

  8. Luster, A.D., Alon, R. and von-Andrian, U.H. (2005). Immune cell migration in inflammation: Present and future therapeutic targets. Nature Immunol. 6, 1182-1190.

  9. Laudanna, C. and Alon, R. (2006.) Right on the Spot: chemokine triggering of integrin–mediated arrest of rolling leukocytes. Thrombosis and Haemostasis 95, 5-11.

  10. Alon, R. and Dustin, M.L. (2007) Force as a facilitator of integrin conformational changes during leukocyte arrest on blood vessels and antigen-presenting cells. Immunity 26, 17-27.

  11. Rose, D., Alon, R. and Ginsberg, M. H. (2007) Integrin modulation and signaling in leukocyte adhesion and migration. Immunological Reviews 218, 126-134.

  12. Alon, R. and Feigelson, S. (2009) Chemokine signaling to lymphocyte integrins under shear flow. Microcirculation, 16, 3-16.

  13. Alon, R. and Ley, K. (2008) Cells on the run: shear regulated integrin activation in leukocyte rolling and arrest on endothelial cells. Curr. Opin. Cell Biol., 20, 525-532.

  14. Alon, R. (2010) Chemokine arrest signals to leukocyte integrins trigger bi-directional- occupancy of individual heterodimers by extracellular and cytoplasmic ligands. Cell Adh. Migr. 4, 211-214.
 Book Chapters
  1. Alon, R., Dwir, O., and Grabovsky, V. (2003). Selectin avidity modulation by chemokines at subsecond endothelial contacts: a novel regulatory level of leukocyte trafficking, in: "Leukocyte Trafficking: Role of Fucosyltransferases and Selectins", Ernst Schering Research Foundation Workshop, (Arndt Schottelius, ed.), Springer-Verlag Berlin-Heidelberg.

  2. Cinamon, G., and Alon, R. (2004). A real time in vitro assay for studying chemoattractant-triggered leukocyte transendothelial migration under physiological flow conditions, in: "Cell Migration in Inflammation and Immunity", D’Ambrosio, D., and Sinigaglia, F., editors. Humana Press, NJ., 233-42.

  3. Alon, R., Cinamon, G. and Luscinsks, F.W. (2005) Real time in vitro assays for studying leukocyte transendothelial migration under physiological flow conditions, in "Leukocyte Trafficking" Hamann, A. and Engelhardt, B, editors Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co., 437-454.

  4. Alon, R, Shamri, R. and Feigelson, S. (2007) Selectin and integrin recognition of ligands under shear flow: affinity and beyond, in “Glycobiology”, Sansom, C. and Markman, O., editors. Scion Publishing Ltd, 190-200.

  5. Shulman, Z. and Alon, R. (2009) Real-time in vitro assays for studying the role of chemokines in lymphocyte transendothelial migration under physiologic flow conditions, in "Methods of Enzymology" Hamel, D.J. and Handel, T.M., editors. Elsevier Inc. 461:311-332.