Israel Active

A new Israeli government program will speed and support the Aliyah process for Jewish health professionals. It will benefit some 3,000 Jews, mainly from the former Soviet Union, the US, Canada, France and Argentina and overcome the shortage evident during the Covid pandemic.

Israel’s Sheba Medical Center has launched a smartphone gaming-based program to help overweight children adopt a healthier lifestyle. They are using the Rumble app from Israel’s UVTAL (see previously), and a smartwatch to monitor sleep, heart rate and physical activity.

Roche has entered an agreement with Israel’s Ibex Medical Analytics to jointly develop an embedded image analysis workflow. It will allow pathologists to check biopsies using Roche's NAVIFY & uPath software while seamlessly accessing Ibex’s AI algorithms, insights, and tools.

Israel’s Quris has launched a “patient on a chip” - the world’s first AI platform for predicting which candidate medicines will work safely in humans. Quris’s leadership team includes Israel’s Nobel Laureate Aaron Ciechanover and Dr. Robert S. Langer, co-founder of Moderna.

Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Merck and Teva have opened AION Labs - a new Israeli innovation lab for startups to develop cutting-edge AI-based technologies for personalized treatments. Startups will use computational biology to discover and develop patient-centric precision medicines.

11 new projects have been granted a total of NIS 32 million in the 4th annual round of the Israel Precision Medicine Partnership (see previously). They include AI for cancer and Crohn’s, discovery of new disease genes, and treatments for rare disorders.

A 3-year study of the digital health app from Israel’s Hello Heart (see previously) shows that over 84% of participants with stage II hypertension achieved a reduction in their systolic blood pressure. It was the largest multi-year efficacy study of a digital therapeutic to control hypertension.

The US FDA has approved Doxorubicin-HCI Liposomal Injection from Israel’s Ayana for the treatment of ovarian cancer, multiple myeloma, and Kaposi’s Sarcoma. The novel chemotherapy was developed by Hebrew University professor Yechezkel Barenholz (see and ).

Less than 6,400 Israelis now have the coronavirus, with just 178 serious cases. Also, an Israeli study shows Vitamin D deficient Covid-19 patients are 14 times more likely to be seriously or critically ill. Finally, Oramed’s oral vaccine has been cleared to begin Phase 1 clinical trials in South Africa.

Scientists at Israel’s Ben Gurion University have found saccharin, aspartame, and sucralose disrupt the mechanism that gut bacteria use to keep us well. Acesulfame potassium (Ace-K), advantame, and neotame did not have this effect. The results have relevance for obesity and diabetes.