Israel Active

Israel’s BrainWatch Tech is developing a device that will continuously check a coma patient’s pupils for their reactions to light stimulus. Over a million patients suffer severe brain injury each year. Reaction to light signifies brain stem activity. No response suggests urgent medication or surgery.

An 18-month study by researchers at Israel’s Ben Gurion University found that a Green Mediterranean (MED) diet reduced hepatic fat by 39%. This compared to 20% for the traditional MED diet and 12% for a regular healthy diet. The diet can prevent fatty liver disease, diabetes and heart disease.

Israel’s Nutritional Growth Solutions (reported previously) is expanding globally. Independent Medical Co-op (IMCO) will distribute NGS’ Healthy Height product to the US market. NGS is also selling to the Chinese market via Alibaba’s online Tmall; and NGS has just acquired the KidzShake brand.

Israel’s Matricelf (reported previously) has extended its 3D-printing platform for tissues and organs to producing spinal cord implants. The patient’s own cells are re-engineered into stem cells and eventually into a spinal tissue implant that isn’t rejected. Human trials are planned to begin 2023.

Israel’s Inovytec (reported previously) is to provide 1,500 of its advanced portable Ventway Sparrow turbine mobile ventilators to Californian hospitals. The ventilators are lightweight, durable, affordable, low maintenance and enable invasive and non-invasive ventilation for adults and children.

Two Israeli experts explain about the latest coronavirus vaccines and the pandemic. First, Professor Jonatan HaLevy, President of Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. Second, Professor Manfeld Green, now Head of the National Public Health program at the University of Haifa.

Israel’s Zebra Medical (reported previously) has previously adapted its AI imaging analysis platform to detect Covid-19 infection in the lungs. Now it can chart Covid-19 as it progresses in the lungs, to help decide if the patient needs ICU, ventilator, or can be discharged.

Surgeons at Rambam Medical Center conducted the first implant of a synthetic cornea from Israel’s CorNeat (reported previously). 78-year-old Israeli Arab Jamal from Haifa was able to see clearly immediately after the transplant, for the first time in 10 years.

Instead of open-heart surgery, doctors at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center performed the world’s first catheterizations to unblock heart valves, including of a 96-year-old woman. They used the “ShortCut” - a tiny knife inside a catheter, developed together with Israeli startup .

This article describes the work of 3 Israeli scientists who received grants from the Israel Cancer Research Fund to research pancreatic cancer therapies. They include cell profiling to find early-stage markers; how glucose affects resistance; and cancer spreading along nerve fibers.