פרופ' דוד סומפולינסקי

Medical Microbiology

DVM, School of Veterinary Medicine, Copenhagen, 1946

Ph.D. Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1962

Senior Research Fellow, Veterinary Serum Institute, Copenhagen, 1946-1950

Joined Bar-Ilan University 1957 and acted till 1970 as Head of the Department of Microbiology, which was subsequently merged with other units to be later known as the Department of Life Sciences

Head, National Reference Laboratory for Staphylococcus Typing, 1957-1986

Head, National Reference Laboratory for Mycoplasma and Chlamydia, 1971-1986

Head, Reference Unit for allergy of the outer eye, 1980-1986

Member, Army Medical Mission for Humanitarian Aid to Kinshasa, Congo, 1960

Professor Emeritus since 1989

Efraim Rapoport Chair in Medical Microbiology, 1976-1989

Guest Professor, Sackler Medical School, Tel-Aviv University, 1985-1989

Guest Researcher, Dept. of Microbiology, Medical School, Copenhagen, 1986-1987

Director, Laboratory of Microbiology, Mayenei Hayeshua Hospital, Bnei Brak, Israel, 1991-present

More than 200 publications, inclusive descriptions of two new important microbial pathogens

Supervised over 50 students for M.Sc. and Ph.D

Research Interests

Microbial systematic; virulence factors; mechanisms of resistance to antibiotics; infection control

Fields of Research

The first period in Israel was dedicated to the organization of a credible microbial laboratory service in an area crowded with immigrants in encampments and temporary settlements with a low standard of sanitation. These conditions led the direction of the "new" Bar-Ilan University to urge the academic education of learned staff for Medical Science. I was trusted with the organization of education in Microbiology, in cooperation with many well-known competent scientists. These activities have provided our nation a considerable proportion of prominent personalities in Medical Science - once students (B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D.) of Bar-Ilan University, today serving in prominent positions of the Ministry of Health and all medical institutions of the country. The cooperation with these students enabled a series of studies in different fields of medical microbiology. Several hundred publications were the result of this cooperation.

Selected Publications

Sompolinsky, D. 1953. De l'impetigo contagiosa suis et du Micrococcus hyicus n. sp. Schweiz. Arch. TierheilkD.  95:302-309

Sompolinsky, D., Ernest-Geller, Z., Segal, S. 1967. Metabolic disorders in thiamineless dwarf strains of Staphylococcus aureus. J. Gen. Microbiol. 48:205-213

Sompolinsky, D., Neujahr, H.Y. 1971. Studies on thiamine uptake in growing cultures and in cell fragments of Lactobacillus fermenti. Acta Chem. Scand. 25:3054-3066

Boldur, I., Sompolinsky, D. 1974. Antigen specific for bacteria resistant to tetracycline. Antimicrob. Ag. Chemother. 6:117-120

Sompolinsky, D., Lagziel, A., Naveh, D., Yankilevitz, T. 1978. Mycobacterium haemophilum sp. nov., a new pathogen of humans. Int. J. System. Bacteriol. 28:67-76

Sompolinsky, D., Lagziel, A., Rosenberg, I. 1979. Further studies of a new pathogenic mycobacterium (M. haemophilum sp. nov.). Can. J. Microbiol. 25:217-226

Sompolinsky, D., Samra, Z., Karakawa, W.W., Vann, W.F., Schneerson, R., Malik, Z. 1985. Encapsulation and capsular types in isolates of Staphylococcus aureus from different sources and relationship to phage types. J. Clin. Microbiol. 22:828-834

Lundberg, L., Bertelsen, C., Zavaro, A., Samra, Z., Sompolinsky, D. 1987. Experimental allergic conjunctivitis in inbred guinea pig strains with high respectively low bronchial allergic reactivity. Allergy 42:262-271

Sompolinsky, D., Katzenstein, T., Lundberg, L.  1992. Circulatory basophilia in guinea pigs with delayed-type hypersensitivity. Topical antigenic provocation induces circulatory basophilia. Allergy 47:303-308

Avrech, O.M., Samra, Z., Lazarovich, Z., Caspi, E., Jacobovich, A., Sompolinsky, D.  1994. Efficacy of the placental barrier for immunoglobulins: correlations between maternal, paternal and fetal immunoglobulin levels. Int. Arch. Allergy Immunol. 103:160-165

Nitzan, Y., Boldur, I., Afgin, Y., Barishak, Y.R., Malik, Z., Sompolinsky, D. (1996) The dynamics of inflammation of the anterior eye in a novel experimental model for hypersensitivity. Cytobios 88: 105-117

Sompolinsky, D., Nitzan, Y., Tetry, S., Wolk, M., Vulikh, I., Kerrn, M.B., Sandvang, D., Hershckovitz, G., Katcoff, D.J. (2005). Integron-mediated ESBL resistance in rare serotypes of Escherichia coli causing infections in an elderly population of Israel. J. Antimicrob. Chemother. 55: 119-122