Edgar Pick

Edgar Pick (Hebrew: אדגר פיק) is an Israeli immunologist who is Professor Emeritus of Immunology in the Department of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology at the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at Tel Aviv University in Israel.

Early life and education

Pick was born in 1938 in Lugoj, Romania. After receiving his baccalaureate at the Coriolan Brediceanu High School in Lugoj, he enrolled at the Victor Babeș University of Medicine and Pharmacy. He completed his medical studies at the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem, graduating with an M.D. in 1965. He was a postdoctoral fellow in experimental pathology at the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in La Jolla, California, from 1965 to 1967, where he trained with Joseph D. Feldman. In 1967 he joined the laboratory of John L.Turk, the world leader of cell-mediated immunity studies. He received a Ph.D. from the University of London in 1970. While in London, Pick focused on the study of soluble products made by antigen-stimulated T lymphocytes—known as lymphokines, and later as a form of cytokines—characterizing molecules known as "skin reactive factor" and "migration inhibitory factor". With Turk, he published one of the first reviews on lymphokines.

Career and research

In October 1970, Pick was appointed Senior Lecturer of Immunology in the Department of Human Microbiology (now Clinical Microbiology and Immunology) at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, and rose to professorship in 1979. His research centered on the role of T cell-derived lymphokines in enhancing innate immunity by augmenting the capacity of phagocytes to produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) in response to pathogenic microorganisms. He co-edited the first book on lymphokines, and edited the 15 volumes of the series Lymphokines.

Pick is best known for his fundamental studies on the enzyme complex responsible for the generation of the primary ROS, superoxide, by phagocytes, known as the NADPH oxidase. With Yael Bromberg, he described a novel method of activating the NADPH oxidase derived from resting phagocytes by unsaturated fatty acids and anionic amphiphiles, known as the "cell-free system". This approach was a major paradigm shift, leading to the discovery that phagocytes contain, in addition to the membrane component directly responsible for superoxide production (known as gp91phox or Nox2), cytosolic components, responsible for the formation of the active NADPH oxidase complex. It also led to the identification of previously unknown causes for an inherited disease, characterized by the inability of phagocytes to produce ROS, known as Chronic Granulomatous Disease, resulting in repeated infections. Pick (with D. Sha'ag and T. Kroizman) also had a leading role in the identification and characterization of the "cytosolic components" of the NADPH oxidase, and is best known for the finding (with A. Abo and A.W. Segal) that the small GTPase Rac is an essential participant in the activation of the NADPH oxidase.

Pick's other major contribution (with G. Joseph and I. Dahan) was introducing "peptide walking" as a method to identify functionally important regions in individual NADPH oxidase components and as a path to the discovery of peptide-based drugs for the treatment of diseases caused by excessive generation of ROS.

Pick is also known for the pioneering design (with Y. Berdichevsky and A. Mizrahi) of the tripartite chimeras ("trimeras"), where functionally important segments of the NADPH oxidase activating cytosolic components are fused in a single molecule; and for studies (with E. Bechor and A. Zahavi) on the mechanism of interaction of p67phox with Nox2.

A description of Pick's contributions to NADPH oxidase research in a form accessible to the lay readership was recently published. Pick has edited the book "NADPH Oxidases Revisited: From Function to Structure", to which he has contributed the introductory chapter, which is a history of research on Nox2 and its cytosolic regulators.

Pick was the Incumbent of the Roberts-Guthman Chair in Immunopharmacology (1988–2008), Director of the J. F. Cohnheim – Minerva Center for Cellular and Molecular Phagocyte Research (1994–2008), Head of Sackler Institute of Molecular Medicine (1997–1998), and Head of Kodesz Institute of Host Defense against Infectious Diseases (1999–2008).

He is a lifetime member of the Society for Leukocyte Biology and a member of the Israel Immunological Society.

Pick was a member of the Editorial Boards of "International Archives of Allergy and Applied Immunology" (1974–1990), "Immunology" (1979–1986), "Cellular Immunology" (1984–1992), "Immunobiology" (1981–2003), "International Journal of Immunopharmacology" (1984–2000), "Journal of Leukocyte Biology" (1996–2001; Section Editor), and "FASEB Journal" (2006–2018). He was a member of the advisory board of "Antioxidants" (2020).

Pick's research has been supported by grants from institutions including the Israel Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and The David Roberts Fund. He served as a speaker and discussion leader at several Gordon Research Conferences.

Publications

Pick published 113 peer-reviewed papers, 10 book chapters, and 19 papers published in Conference Proceedings., and has edited several books, including the 15-volume Academic Press "Lymphokines" series and Springer's "NADPH Oxidases Revisited.". He has recently published a scientific autobiography as a chapter in a book that he edited for Springer "Advances in NADPH Oxidases Research: From Molecules to Diseases" [38].

His papers were cited 12,772 times (as of October 4, 2026), his h-index is 51, and his i10-index is 110 (Edgar Pick, Google Scholar; https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Z98lHqcAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao)

References

  1. ↑ "Prof. Edgar Pick". en-med.tau.ac.il.
  2. ↑ ""Victor Babes" University of Medicine and Pharmacy Timisoara". Study medicine in Europe.
  3. ↑ "Hadassah Schools of Medicine and Health". www.hadassah-med.com. Archived from the original on 2019-10-02. Retrieved 2020-08-07.
  4. ↑ Cochrane, C. G.; Weigle, W. O. (15 December 1995). "In Memoriam: Joseph Feldman 1916-1995" (PDF). The Journal of Immunology. 155 (12): 5487. doi:10.4049/jimmunol.155.12.5487. S2CID 82963221.
  5. ↑ Turk, Jeremy; Lehner, Tom (1 September 2006). "Obituary: John Leslie Turk MD, DSc, MB, BS (HONS), FRCP, FRCPath, FRCS". Clinical and Experimental Immunology. 145 (3): 571–572. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2249.2006.03176.x. ISSN 0009-9104. PMC 1809706.
  6. ↑ Pick, E.; Krejci, J.; Cech, K.; Turk, J. L. (November 1969). "Interaction between 'sensitized lymphocytes' and antigen in vitro. I. The release of a skin reactive factor". Immunology. 17 (5): 741–767. ISSN 0019-2805. PMC 1455920. PMID 4187522.
  7. ↑ Pick, E.; Brostoff, J.; Krejci, J.; Turk, J. L. (1 May 1970). "Interaction between "sensitized lymphocytes" and antigen in vitro: II. Mitogen-induced release of skin reactive and macrophage migration inhibitory factors". Cellular Immunology. 1 (1): 92–109. doi:10.1016/0008-8749(70)90063-8. ISSN 0008-8749. PMID 5523577.
  8. ↑ Pick, E.; Turk, J. L. (January 1972). "The biological activities of soluble lymphocyte products". Clinical and Experimental Immunology. 10 (1): 1–23. ISSN 0009-9104. PMC 1713087. PMID 4552817.
  9. ↑ Freund, M.; Pick, E. (January 1985). "The mechanism of action of lymphokines. VIII. Lymphokine-enhanced spontaneous hydrogen peroxide production by macrophages". Immunology. 54 (1): 35–45. ISSN 0019-2805. PMC 1454866. PMID 2982731.
  10. ↑ Cohen, Stanley; Pick, Edgar; Oppenheim, Joost J. (2013). Biology of the Lymphokines. Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-4832-7142-2.
  11. ↑ Pick, Edgar (1987). "Lymphokines". ScienceDirect. ISBN 978-0-12-432014-7.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: periodical has ISBN (link)
  12. ↑ Bromberg, Yael; Pick, Edgar (1 October 1984). "Unsaturated fatty acids stimulate NADPH-dependent superoxide production by cell-free system derived from macrophages". Cellular Immunology. 88 (1): 213–221. doi:10.1016/0008-8749(84)90066-2. PMID 6090027.
  13. ↑ Bromberg, Y., and Pick, E. Activation of NADPH-dependent superoxide production in a cell-free system by sodium dodecyl sulfate. J. Biol. Chem. 260: 13539-13545, 1985. EID: 2-s2.0-0022340824
  14. ↑ Pick, Edgar (2020). "Cell-Free NADPH Oxidase Activation Assays: A Triumph of Reductionism". Neutrophil. Methods in Molecular Biology. Vol. 2087. pp. 325–411. doi:10.1007/978-1-0716-0154-9_23. ISBN 978-1-0716-0153-2. PMID 31729001. S2CID 208035618. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
  15. ↑ Pick, E.; Kroizman, T.; Abo, A. (15 December 1989). "Activation of the superoxide-forming NADPH oxidase of macrophages requires two cytosolic components--one of them is also present in certain nonphagocytic cells". The Journal of Immunology. 143 (12): 4180–4187. doi:10.4049/jimmunol.143.12.4180. ISSN 0022-1767. PMID 2556480. S2CID 43848962.
  16. ↑ Sha'ag, Doron; Pick, Edgar (1 March 1990). "Nucleotide binding properties of cytosolic components required for expression of activity of the superoxide generating NADPH oxidase". Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Protein Structure and Molecular Enzymology. 1037 (3): 405–412. doi:10.1016/0167-4838(90)90044-G. PMID 2155658.
  17. ↑ Abo, A., and Pick, E. Purification and characterization of a third cytosolic component of the superoxide-generating NADPH oxidase of macrophages. J. Biol. Chem. 266: 23577-23585, 1991. EID: 2-s2.0-0026325723
  18. ↑ Abo, Arie; Pick, Edgar; Hall, Alan; Totty, Nicholas; Teahan, Carmel G.; Segal, Anthony W. (October 1991). "Activation of the NADPH oxidase involves the small GTP-binding protein p21 rac1". Nature. 353 (6345): 668–670. Bibcode:1991Natur.353..668A. doi:10.1038/353668a0. PMID 1922386. S2CID 4332284.
  19. ↑ Pick, Edgar (1 January 2014). "Role of the Rho GTPase Rac in the activation of the phagocyte NADPH oxidase". Small GTPases. 5 (1) e27952. doi:10.4161/sgtp.27952. PMC 4114928. PMID 24598074.
  20. ↑ Joseph, Gili; Pick, Edgar (8 December 1995). "'Peptide Walking' Is a Novel Method for Mapping Functional Domains in Proteins Its Application to the Rac1-Dependent Activation or NADPH Oxidase". Journal of Biological Chemistry. 270 (49): 29079–29082. doi:10.1074/jbc.270.49.29079. PMID 7493930.
  21. ↑ Pick, Edgar (2019). "Using Synthetic Peptides for Exploring Protein-Protein Interactions in the Assembly of the NADPH Oxidase Complex". NADPH Oxidases. Methods in Molecular Biology. Vol. 1982. Springer. pp. 377–415. doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-9424-3_23. ISBN 978-1-4939-9423-6. PMID 31172485. S2CID 174816036. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
  22. ↑ Dahan, Iris; Pick, Edgar (1 July 2012). "Strategies for identifying synthetic peptides to act as inhibitors of NADPH oxidases, or 'All that you did and did not want to know about Nox inhibitory peptides'". Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences. 69 (14): 2283–2305. doi:10.1007/s00018-012-1007-4. PMC 11114551. PMID 22562603. S2CID 54486167.
  23. ↑ Berdichevsky, Yevgeny; Mizrahi, Ariel; Ugolev, Yelena; Molshanski-Mor, Shahar; Pick, Edgar (27 July 2007). "Tripartite Chimeras Comprising Functional Domains Derived from the Cytosolic NADPH Oxidase Components p47phox, p67phox, and Rac1 Elicit Activator-independent Superoxide Production by Phagocyte Membranes an Essential Role for Anionic Membrane Phospholipids". Journal of Biological Chemistry. 282 (30): 22122–22139. doi:10.1074/jbc.m701497200. PMID 17548354.
  24. ↑ Mizrahi, Ariel; Berdichevsky, Yevgeny; Casey, Patrick J.; Pick, Edgar (13 August 2010). "A Prenylated p47phox-p67phox-Rac1 Chimera Is a Quintessential NADPH Oxidase Activator Membrane Association and Functional Capacity". Journal of Biological Chemistry. 285 (33): 25485–25499. doi:10.1074/jbc.m110.113779. PMC 2919112. PMID 20529851.
  25. ↑ Bechor, Edna; Zahavi, Anat; Amichay, Maya; Fradin, Tanya; Federman, Aya; Berdichevsky, Yevgeny; Pick, Edgar (2020). "p67phox binds to a newly identified site in Nox2 following the disengagement of an intramolecular bond—Canaan sighted?". Journal of Leukocyte Biology. 107 (3): 509–528. doi:10.1002/JLB.4A1219-607R. PMID 31965617. S2CID 210870098.
  26. ↑ "Reactive oxygen species are at the heart of innate immunity". Research Outreach. 2 October 2020. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  27. ↑ Pick, Edgar, ed. (2023). NADPH Oxidases Revisited: From Function to Structure. Cham: Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-23752-2. ISBN 978-3-031-23751-5.
  28. ↑ Julius Friedrich Cohnheim Minerva Center for Cellular and Molecular Phagocyte Research
  29. ↑ "Professor Edgar Pick chosen as Honorary Life Member in Society for Leukocyte Biology". en-medicine.tau.ac.il. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  30. ↑ "Member PI List". welcome. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  31. ↑ Pick, Edgar. "TheFASEBJournal www.fasebj.org". Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  32. ↑ "Antioxidants". www.mdpi.com. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  33. 1 2 3 "Prof. Edgar Pick | Faculty of Medicine". en-med.tau.ac.il. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  34. ↑ "2016 NOX Family NADPH Oxidases Conference GRC". www.grc.org. Retrieved 2026-10-04.
  35. ↑ Edgar Pick publications on Publons.com
  36. ↑ Lymphokines. 2013-09-17. ISBN 978-0-12-432014-7.
  37. ↑ Pick, Edgar, ed. (2023). NADPH Oxidases Revisited: From Function to Structure. Cham: Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-23752-2. ISBN 978-3-031-23751-5.

38. Pick, E. (2026). Falling in Love with Nox2: My Journey to Ithaka (A Scientific Autobiography). In: Pick, E. (eds) Advances in NADPH Oxidases Research: From Molecules to Diseases. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-21135-4_1