Israel Active

Technion UK hosted a webinar featuring Professor Yotam Bar-Or of Israel’s Technion, who explained everything you need to know about the vaccines to protect against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. He also gave many excellent answers at the end, to great questions raised by attendees.

Doctors at Israel’s Galilee Medical Center successfully completed the first-ever repair of a fracture in the floor of an eye socket using augmented reality (AR) and 3D technology. A CT-scan of the patient’s eye was used to 3D print the new socket and the surgeon used HoloLens AR glasses to insert it.

Over a million Israelis have now had their first dose of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine. More than 150,000 vaccinations are being administered each day – the highest per capita in the world. The number of vaccinated Israelis is now double the total number that have ever been infected with Covid-19.

Israel’s 2019 Genesis Prize winner, Natan Sharansky, donated his $1 million prize to 10 Israeli startups developing innovations to combat Covid-19. The 10 are , , , , , , , , and .

An opportunity on 5th Jan to attend a Technion UK webinar featuring Professor Yotam Bar-On of Israel’s Technion Institute. Professor Bar-On is a virologist, specializing in COVID- 19 who will speak about immunity, about the virus itself along with its variants and how different vaccines work.

Several years ago, Bar-Ilan University’s Dr. Amos Danielli founded the biotech MagBiosense (reported previously) to commercialize his innovative device to detect an imminent heart attack and also to diagnose the Zika virus. He has now adapted it to diagnose Covid-19 in just 15 minutes.

One in 400 children are born with a genetic mutation that causes hearing loss. Tel Aviv University scientists have developed a harmless synthetic virus that replaces defective genes with healthy genes. It may prevent deafness when injected into the inner ear hair cells soon after birth.

Preliminary data from Phase 2 trials of opaganib from Israel’s Redhill (reported previously) on 40 hospitalized Covid-19 patients showed positive results. Patients receiving opaganib had significantly reduced dependence on ventilators and faster time to discharge.

140,000 Israelis were vaccinated in the first three days of the Pfizer vaccine rollout. (This editor received his first dose of vaccine on the sixth day). In addition, Magen David Adom are deploying unique mobile vaccination caravans, made by Israel’s Caravila.

Israel’s Azura Ophthalmics is tackling Dry Eye Disease (DED) by preventing its root cause – Dysfunction of the Meibomian Gland or MGD. Azura has reported good results during the Phase 2 clinical trials of its AZR-MD-001 ointment, applied to the lower eyelid.