Israel Active

Israel’s Pluristem (reported previously) and the Abu Dhabi Stem Cells Center (ADSCC) have unveiled their first joint projects. One - a potential Covid-19 treatment - is the first time Pluristem’s PLX cells will have been administered via a nebulizer.

Israel’s DreaMed Diabetes has partnered a number of US health clinics. Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford; Billings Clinic Montana; Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital, NYU Langone and UF Health will provide diabetes patients with DreaMed’s personalized solutions. .

Israel’s CartiHeal (reported previously) has received US FDA breakthrough device designation for its Agili-C implant. Agili-C has been implanted in over 500 study patients with knee, ankle and big toe cartilage lesions in trials at leading centers in Europe and Israel.

Israel’s Navina is an AI platform for primary care physicians to get an intelligent view of patient data. It assembles an intuitive Patient Portrait - a logical grid that results in faster assessment (less risk of Covid-19 transmission), reduced missed diagnoses and better treatment.

Israeli-founded, US-based Visby Medical has shipped to Israel hundreds of its 30-minute Covid-19 PCR tests. Israel’s Minister of Science and Technology, Israel is trying to persuade Visby to manufacture the kits locally.

Doctors and nurses save lives of many Covid-19 patients in Northern Israel’s Poriya hospital. But it is the “Dream Doctors” therapeutic clowns that save their sanity. Some patients deteriorate due to their emotional state, even though their vitals seem fine. They are much better after a Dream Doctor’s visit.

There are some 2,000 cases (80% fatal) of Acute Liver Failure (ALF) in the US each year. Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have managed to control the severity of ALF in the lab by blocking signals from the gut microbiome to the MYC protein in the liver.

Israeli and Scottish scientists have found that the brain can be protected from metastatic leukemia by blocking the production of the fatty acid stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD). The discovery is particularly important for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in children.

A follow-up to the article reported previously about the new Women’s Health Innovation Center at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center. The pioneering femtech (female technology) center, was originally set up to promote patient and doctor safety during COVID-19.

Israel’s MeMed (reported previously) has received clearance in Israel, Europe and Switzerland for its MeMed BV and MeMed Key infection analyzers. They measure 3 biomarker proteins and use AI algorithms to determine if an infection is viral or bacterial and whether to use antibiotics.