Israel Active

Tel Aviv University researchers have found that the weeks before and after cancer surgery are critical for the prevention of metastases development. Patients require immune-therapeutic treatment as well as treatment to reduce inflammation and physical and psychological stress.

Currently after cancer surgery biopsies are taken, but testing takes weeks. Now a new experimental tool developed by Tel Aviv University researchers tests a sample taken during surgery. An hour later and the surgeon knows if an immediate return to the operating theater is needed.

Scientists at Israel’s Sheba Medical Centre are trialing a new cancer treatment called immunopheresis. It involves filtering a patient’s blood to remove proteins produced by malignant cells from the bloodstream. These proteins suppress the immune system’s cancer-killing T-cells.

Israel’s NanoVation (reported previously) has been awarded a €2.5 million EU Horizon 2020 grant to develop SenseGuard. The device’s nano-sensor technology detects respiratory problems (e.g. COPD). (Sniff phone inventor) is Chief Scientific Officer.

Contrary to several media reports, the current Covid-19 situation in Israel is not “out of control”. Listen to this 45-min presentation by Professor Yonatan HaLevy of Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center. The elderly are protected and treatments are working.

This video shows some of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s latest medical research into the novel coronavirus. They include the overactive immune response; locating the virus during the incubation period; analysis of virus receptors; and boosting the oxygen needed by immunity T-cells,

Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at Mount Sinai in New York, have prevented Covid-19 from reproducing. In lab tests, the virus was destroyed in 5 days on lung tissue that had been exposed to the anti-cholesterol treatment Fenofibrate (Tricor).

Tel Aviv University’s Dr Shai Efrati used hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) to improve the cognitive function and brain tissue of dozens of over-65-year-old volunteers. They received a 60-day course of 2-hours in a pressurized chamber 5 times a week, breathing pure oxygen for some of the time.

Great article featuring many of the tasks and procedures performed by hi-tech robots at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center, that would have previously been impossible. These include spine surgery, 3D imaging during operations and automated blood tests.

Israel’s Accellix supports vital medical research into cell therapy with its automated flow cytometry devices. Now laboratories can get accurate analyses of their cell samples in minutes without complicated procedures and training or having to send the samples to a central lab.