Israel Active

United Hatzalah has inaugurated 76 new ambucycles (emergency motorcycles) – one for each of modern Israel’s 76 years. The vehicles were paid for in a matching partnership with philanthropist Dr. Miriam Adelson and will be deployed all over Israel. Several were dedicated to the memory of fallen medics.

Rachel Teitelbaum moved to Israel from the USA in 2003 and founded Hervana Bio in 2008. It has developed a safe contraceptive tablet containing the bacteria lactobacilli found in yoghurt but enhanced to produce antibodies that bind to sperm, removing them from the fertilization process.

Doctors at Netanya’s Laniado Medical Center have for the first time in Israel used an AURYON laser device from Eximo Medical (see previously) to remove an arterial blockage in a patient’s leg and avoid amputation. Israel’s Eximo was acquired by US-based AngioDynamics in 2019.

Dr. Amir Orlev, director of the cardiology department at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center, was on the way to work when he noticed a man lying on the side of the road. He diagnosed that he was suffering from a massive blood clot in the lung, catheterized him, and saved his life.

Researchers at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to illuminate previously undetectable pancreatic tumors. They injected deuterium-enriched glucose into the bloodstream. The tumors eat the glucose and excrete lactate that MRIs can reveal.

Doron (31) was only 25 years-old when he received a Ph.D. in mathematics from the Technion in 2018. Today he is a fourth-year Technion medical student and intends to combine his expertise in mathematics with medicine to help people with mental illness. As a child, Doron “operated” on his toy animals.

Israeli Ronit and a kidney transplant recipient in Czechia (Czech Republic) underwent a kidney exchange thanks to Israel’s National Transplant Center. Ronit’s friend Yair donated his kidney to the Czech recipient, whose wife donated her kidney to Ronit.

After giving birth to her second child in Israel, Nofer’s vital signs plummeted. Her midwife alerted emergency teams who found multiple blood clots and a heart defect. A cardiologist then used advanced ultrasound technology and minimally invasive surgery to save Nofer’s life.

Israel’s Biond Biologics (see previously) has begun multi-center trials of BND-35. It is already trialing BND-22. Both are immunotherapy treatments for solid tumors.

Israel’s Zero Candida has developed a device to treat candidiasis – an infection that affects hundreds of millions of women per year worldwide. It uses high-energy blue light to destroy the fungus quickly and without side effects. The device has been patented in South Africa!