Israel Active

Scientists at Israel’s Technion Institute have developed a method of removing copper ions that cause the toxic buildup of amyloid plaque in Alzheimer’s patients. Professor Galia Maayan and PhD student Anastasia Behar have patented the groundbreaking “chelation” (extraction) process.

Israel’s Genoox (see previously) has developed Franklin – a repository of genetic biopsy information relating to cancer mutations. Doctors in more than 1700 healthcare organizations in over 44 countries use Franklin to personalize cancer treatments to the patient’s genetic makeup.

United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Noemie was asleep after finishing a late shift in the pediatric ward of Sheba Hospital. She was suddenly alerted to go to the aid of a 92-year-old unconscious woman but had no time to get dressed. She saved her patient, performing CPR in her pajamas!

Israeli charity Save a Child’s Heart (SACH – see previously) is bringing its first group of Congolese children to the Jewish state for life-saving heart surgery at the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon.

Bar-Ilan University is creating a program to transform diabetes care. The Social Precision-medicine Health Equity Research Endeavour (SPHERE). is supported by a $20 million grant from the Russell Berrie Foundation and will identify genetic mutations that cause diabetes.

Comprehensive article describing the innovative device from Israel’s Votis (see previously) that can identify peripheral artery disease (PAD) in its very early stages.

The Britain-Israel Research and Academic Exchange (BIRAX) partnership has launched a new £1.6 million grant program to fund joint research between Israeli and UK scientists in the field of ageing. (see for 2018 initiative)

Researchers at Israel’s Technion (a team of Jews and Arabs) have discovered that the brain can induce a psychosomatic response not only to cause illness, but also to heal it. Inflammation in mice activated specific neurons which later could be manipulated to re-create or control the inflammation.

Israel’s Salignostics has developed Salistick, the world’s first and only saliva-based rapid pregnancy test kit. It detects the pregnancy hormone β-hCG and delivers a test result in 10 minutes. Another of Salignostics kits, SaliCov, detects Covid-19 from saliva in just 15 minutes.

In its latest Phase 2 trial at three major Israeli hospitals, MesenCure from Israel’s Bonus BioGroup (see previously) reduced Covid-19 deaths to 6.7% compared to 23.3% of the control group. It is now aiming for emergency use authorization in US, EU, and Israel.