Asya Rolls

Early life and education Rolls was born in Russia, USSR, upon repatriation to Israel, Rolls graduated from the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa, Israel in 1993. She completed her undergraduate degree in Life Sciences at the Technion within the Israel Institute of Technology. After she obtained a Bachelors of Science, Rolls stayed in the department of Life sciences at the Israel Institute of Technology for her Master's. Rolls pursued research in neuroimmunology under the mentorship Michal Schwartz within the Department of Neuroscience and Ofer Lider in the Department of immunology. Rolls explored the role of Toll-like Receptors in neurogenesis and found that TLR2 and TLR4 play opposing roles in the proliferation of new hippocampal neurons. TLR2 seemed to promote neurogenesis and TLR4 seemed to impair neurogenesis, all through MyD88 signalling. By activating orexin neurons optogenetically, Rolls was able to fragment sleep after learning and found that this impacted memory the following day. She found that specifically preventing protein synthesis during sleep caused decreases in fear memory formation highlighting the role of sleep in memory consolidation. They found that sleep deprivation significantly decreased the expression of suppressor of cytokine signalling gene which impaired the migration and homing of HSCs. Her interest in this connection came from the placebo effect. Since regulation of immune function is important in approaching potential treatments for cancer, Rolls explored how the brain's reward circuitry was capable of modulating tumor immunity. She and her team recently characterized previously unknown populations of T, B, Dendritic, and NK Cells in the brain using this method and found that CD44 is a common marker of infiltrating immune cells. Moreover, she showed that inhibition of the insular cortex was sufficient to alleviate signs of colon inflammation. These findings lay the foundation for a mechanistic explanation to psychosomatic disorders, as well as novel therapeutic avenues to treat auto-inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Rolls later-on conceptualized a framework for neuro-immune interactions, coining the term “immunoception”, as the brain's bidirectional monitoring and control of immunity. In addition, she proposed that the physiological trace storing immune-related information, the ‘‘immunengram’’, is distributed between the brain and memory cells residing in peripheral tissues.

Awards and honors

2017 Howard Hughes Medical Investigator-Wellcome International Research Scholar 2017 Krill Prize - Wolf Foundation 2015-2019 FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence 2010 NARSAD Young Investigator Award 2009 Rothschild Postdoctoral Fellowship 2009 Clore Foundation's Women in Science Award 2008 Fulbright Scholar

Selected media

2019 TEDx Technion - Understanding the Brain's Role in Immunity 2013 Scientific American Mind Article - Faulty Sleep Mechanisms Might Cause Trauma to Linger 2012 Nature News Article “To Sleep, Perchance to Forget Fears” 2011 Los Angeles Times “ Fragmented Sleep May Impair Memory, Learning”

Selected publications Lubianiker N., Koren T., Djerasi M., Sirotkin M., Singer N., Jalon I., Lerner A., Sar-el R., Sharon H., Shahar M., Azulay-Debby H., Rolls A. & Hendler T. (2026) Upregulation of reward mesolimbic activity and immune response to vaccination: a randomized controlled trial. Nature Medicine Koren T., Yifa R., Amer M., Krot M., Boshnak N., Ben-Shaanan TL., Azulay-Debby H., Zalayat I., Avishai E., Hajjo H, Schiller M., Haykin H., Korin B., Farfara D., Hakim F., Kobiler O., Rosenblum K., and Rolls A.(2021) Insular Cortex Neurons Encode and Retrieve Specific Immune Responses. Cell. Schiller M., Azulay-Debby H., Bushnak N., Ben Shannan T., Korin B., Koren T., Krot M., Elyahu Y., Hakim F., Rolls A.(2021) Optogenetic activation of local sympathetic innervations to the colon attenuates DSS-induced colitis. Immunity. Ben-Shaanan TL, Schiller M, Azulay-Debby H, Korin B, Boshnak N, Koren T, Krot M, Shakya J, Rahat MA, Hakim F & Rolls A. (2018) Modulation of anti-tumor immunity by the brain's reward system. Nature Communications Korin B, Dubovik T, Rolls A. (2018) Mass cytometry analysis of immune cells in the brain. Nature Protocols Korin B, Ben-Shaanan TL, Schiller M, Dubovik T, Azulay-Debby H, Boshnak NT, Koren T, Rolls A. (2017). High-dimensional, single-cell characterization of the brain's immune compartment. Nature Neuroscience. Ben-Shaanan T.L, Azulay-Debby H., Dubovik T., Starosvetsky E., Korin., Schiller M., Green NL, Admon Y., Hakim F., Shen-Orr S*., Rolls A*. (2016) Activation of the reward system boosts innate and adaptive immunity. Nature Medicine Rolls A., Fang W*., Ibarra i*., Bonovien P., Colas D., Heller HC. Weissman I., de Lecea L. (2015) Sleep Regulates Hematopoietic Stem Cell Trafficking. Nature Communications (*equal) Rolls A., Makam M*., Kroeger D., Colas D., de Lecea L., Heller HC. (2013) Sleep to forget: context independent interference with fear during sleep. Molecular Psychiatry (*equal) Rolls A., Colas D, Adamantidis A, Carter M, Lanre-Amos T., Heller HC. de Lecea L. (2011) Optogenetic Disruption of Sleep Continuity Impairs Memory Consolidation. PNAS. Shechter R, Baruch K, Schwartz M*, Rolls A. (2010) Touch gives new life: mechanosensation modulates spinal cord adult neurogenesis. Molecular Psychiatry Rolls A., Shechter R.*, London A., Segev Y., Jacob-Hirsch J., Amariglio N., Rechavi G. & Schwartz M. (2008) A dual role for chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan in spinal cord repair PLoS Medicine Rolls A., Schori H., London A. and Schwartz M. (2008) Decrease in hippocampal neurongenesis during pregnancy. Molecular Psychiatry Rolls A., Shechter R.*, London A., Ziv Y., Ronen A., Levy R. and Schwartz M. (2007) Toll-like receptors modulate adult hippocampal neurogenesis. Nature Cell Biology