Israel Active

Decursin is a substance that promotes hair growth, especially in chemotherapy patients. Decursin is normally extracted from a rare seasonal flower in an expensive process, but students at Israel’s Technion Institute have just won awards by synthesizing it using enzymes from bacteria.

It’s early days, but Tel Aviv University scientists have managed in lab tests to reduce the incidence of breast cancer relapse by 88%. They used two chemotherapies – doxorubicin and cisplatin together, which reduced the spread of cancer cells (metastasis) that occurred using just one therapy.

Israel’s Cuspa Medical is testing the Cusper - a device that takes over the job of a damaged heart valve that can no longer open and close properly to control blood to the heart. The Cusper is inserted using a catheter in a minimally invasive procedure, avoiding major surgery.

For the first time in Israel, surgeons at Baruch Padeh Medical Center, Poriya in Tiberias have performed lymph node transplant surgery. They used lymph nodes from the abdomen of a 34-year-old woman suffering from the lack of a lymphatic system in her leg that caused it to swell hugely.

United Hatzalah volunteers have been busy. In Kiryat Gat they delivered a premature baby in the breech position and then used two-fingered CPR and ventilation to restore her pulse. They also treated the mother who had lost a large amount of blood during the emergency.

Volunteer EMTs from United Hatzalah revived a 3-week-old baby girl who suffered cardiac arrest in a Herzliya shopping mall. The team performed CPR with just two fingers and after 30 minutes the baby’s pulse returned. Later in hospital a heart defect was discovered and treated.

A recent Shanghai expo has revealed two Israeli medical technology start-ups that haven’t previously been reported in this newsletter. They are Vitalerter (biosensor care protection), and RuiLuo Technology, part of Israel’s Neurotech Solutions (ADHD diagnosis and treatment).

Israeli twin sisters Merav and Michal Mor, both PhD graduates, were training for an Ironman triathlon and needed to measure their metabolic rate. No device existed, so they invented their own and founded Israeli startup Lumen (see previously).

Israel’s Ossio (see previously) has reported that orthopedic surgeons have implanted more than 10,000 Ossiofiber implants since their introduction in 2019. Ossio’s biofriendly Ossiofiber, and intelligent bone regeneration technology are designed to solve the shortcomings of conventional metal implants.

Israel’s Ibex Medical has expanded its partnership with France’s Medipath (see previously) to cover cancer analysis of multiple tissue types at more of Medipath’s 30 labs. Medipath provides pathology services to 250+ hospitals and clinics across France.