Prof. Benjamin Dekel Awarded the 2026 Kadar–Sheba Prize for Excellence in Research

Prof. Benjamin (Benny) Dekel has been awarded the 2026 Kadar–Sheba Prize for Excellence in Research, recognizing physician-scientists in Israel who combine exceptional scientific achievement with meaningful impact on medicine.

Prof. Dekel received the award for his pioneering contributions to kidney development, regenerative nephrology, and organoid biology.

Prof. Dekel is a Full Professor of Pediatrics at the Gray School of Medicine and former Vice Dean for Research Innovation and Development at the Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. He is Chief of Pediatric Nephrology at the Edmond and Lily Safra Children's Hospital at Sheba Medical Center, heads the Sagol Center for Regenerative Medicine at Tel Aviv University, and holds the Pearl and Dr. Yechezkiel Klayman Chair of Urology.

\For more than two decades, Prof. Dekel has developed a research continuum connecting kidney development, congenital diseases, pediatric cancer, and regeneration. His studies demonstrated that embryonic kidney tissue can engraft and generate mature renal tissue. His laboratory also isolated human nephron progenitor cells and demonstrated their potential for tissue repair.

His research contributed to a new understanding of kidney repair, demonstrating that regeneration relies on lineage-restricted epithelial populations. His work also redefined Wilms tumor as a disease of arrested nephron progenitor cells and identified associated pathways and potential therapeutic targets.

Prof. Dekel's laboratory has developed spheroids, renovascular units, and human organoids, and more recently developed KOSEC, a kidney-specific regenerative secretome derived from organospheres generated from cells obtained from urine.

The Prize Committee highlighted both his scientific contributions and his commitment to training future physician-scientists, describing Prof. Dekel as “an outstanding role model of a translational physician.”