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Home > Prizes > Prize Recipients > Maayan Levy

Maayan Levy

2025 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science

Location

Stanford, CA

Title

Assistant Professor of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine

Area(s) of Research

Immunology, Cancer biology, Metabolism, Microbiology, Pharmacology

Education

Tel Aviv University (BSc, Biology and Biotechnology);
Weizmann Institute of Science (MSc, Life Sciences);
Weizmann Institute of Science (PhD, Immunology)

Country of Birth

Israel

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Links to learn more about Maayan Levy's work

Tags
Arc Institute cancer immunology Israel metabolism metabolites microbiome Perelman School of Medicine Stanford University Tel Aviv University University of Pennsylvania Weizmann Institute
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A portrait of Maayan Levy.

Maayan Levy receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for her interdisciplinary approach combining metabolism, physiology, and immunology. Her work explores the therapeutic applications of metabolites—studying their role in the development and prevention of human diseases.

“The vision of my lab is to understand, develop, and apply the concept of metabotherapy—the usage of metabolites as vehicles and targets to prevent and treat disease,” Levy says. While we know about the roles of metabolites in physiology, many metabolites in the human body remain unidentified. Her research focuses specifically on the metabolite landscape of the gastrointestinal tract. The goal of Levy’s team is not only to identify metabolites for disease treatment, but to help better predict health outcomes in patients. Her research group is now pursuing this strategy in the context of cancer, inflammatory diseases, women’s health, and post-infection syndromes.

Maayan lifting and examining a sample in a petri dish.

Growing up in Israel, Levy was immersed in a culture of immigration and cultural heterogeneity. Through the stories of her family members who had immigrated from Eastern Europe and the Middle East, she learned about the challenges of displacement and cultural adaptation. She witnessed firsthand how immigration can affect integration and equality. She carries this core experience in her practice, and advocates for minority students in the sciences.

Levy brings a unique perspective to her work, not only as an immigrant but as a woman and a mother of young children. Levy emphasizes the importance of fostering a supportive environment for parents in academia. She advocates for policies that enable work-life balance for scientists with young families.

Maayan with thirteen of her lab members in the Levy Lab.
Maayan Levy with her lab members and colleagues.

“For a young immigrant pursuing a career in biomedical science, my advice would be to embrace your unique perspective and resilience as strengths,” Levy says. “Be persistent in your goals, take advantage of every learning opportunity, and remember that your background and life experiences have shaped who you are.”

Awards & Accomplishments

  • Basser Center’s Young Leadership Council (YLC) Young Investigator Award (2023)
  • V Foundation Research Award (2023)
  • Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease Award (2023)
  • Convergent Science Virtual Cancer Center Fellow (2023)
  • W.W. Smith Scholar (2023)
  • Pew Scholar (2022)
  • American Cancer Society Scholar (2022)
  • Mallinckrodt Award (2020)
  • Scialog Fellow, Microbiome, Neurobiology and Disease, Corporation for Science Advancement (2020)
  • Searle Scholar (2019)
  • NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (2019)
  • Rappaport Prize for Excellence in Research (2017)
  • The Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation Award (2016)
  • Keystone Symposia Future of Science Fund Scholarship (2016)
  • Immunology Department Student Award, Weizmann Institute of Science (2015)
  • Systems Biology Student Award, Weizmann Institute of Science (2014)

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Jury Members

2025 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science

K. Heran Darwin

Professor, Department of Microbiology, NYU School of Medicine

Laurie Dempsey

Senior Editor, Nature Immunology

Dan Littman

Professor, Department of Cell Biology, NYU School of Medicine

Luciano Marraffini

Kayden Family Professor and principal investigator of the Laboratory of Bacteriology, The Rockefeller University

Alejandro Sánchez-Alvarado

President and Chief Scientific Officer, Stowers Institute for Medical Research

Mikhail Shapiro

Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering and Medical Engineering, Caltech

Joanna Wysocka

Professor, Department of Developmental Biology, Stanford University

Xiaowei Zhuang

Professor, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University
Tags
Arc Institute cancer immunology Israel metabolism metabolites microbiome Perelman School of Medicine Stanford University Tel Aviv University University of Pennsylvania Weizmann Institute
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Related Prize Recipients

Elham Azizi

Elham Azizi receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for her research engaging machine learning, statistics, genomics, and bioengineering to derive principles of cancer initiation, progression, and response to immunotherapies in cancer patients.
A portrait of Elham Azizi.

Guosong Hong

Guosong Hong receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for the development of novel neuroengineering tools combining materials science and biology that engage ultrasound, light, and radio-frequency-based interfaces to study the nervous system.
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Gerta Hoxhaj

Gerta Hoxhaj receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for her work on mapping the molecular links between signaling pathways and metabolic networks of cancer cells with a focus on identifying vulnerabilities that could be used to develop targeted therapies.
A portrait of Gerta Hoxhaj smiling and wearing a red shirt.

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