Israel Active

Israeli startup InnoCan is funding research at Tel Aviv University to develop a cannabinoid-based coronavirus treatment. Together with exosomes (particles derived from stem cell culture) it has been shown to be effective against inflammation in lung cells infected with the coronavirus.

Israel’s Regina Barzilay co-led an MIT team that used artificial intelligence to discover Halicin - the first entirely new antibiotic molecule in 30 years. It kills two of the most dangerous and durable bacteria which (unlike with other antibiotics) were unable to develop resistance to it.

Israeli biotech Redhill has announced that another of its pipeline medicines RHB-107 (upamostat) is to be tested by the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) against SARS-CoV2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Tel Aviv University Professor Jonathan Gershoni has been granted a US patent for technology to develop a vaccine for COVID-19. The vaccine targets the coronavirus’s Achilles’ heel, its Receptor Binding Motif (RBM), which the virus uses to bind to and infect a target cell.

A premature infant at Haifa’s Carmel Medical Center became the first baby to receive donated milk from Magen David Adom's new national milk bank. The baby was unable to digest formula milk and his mother was unable to nurse him. The baby is now doing well and gaining weight.

As the cell’s protein factory, the ribosome is the only natural machine that manufactures its own parts and is key to explaining how life develops. Researchers at Israel’s Weizmann Institute are now able to demonstrate the self-synthesis and assembly of the small subunit of a ribosome on a surface of a chip.

A seriously ill corona patient, 32-week’s pregnant and on ventilation, gave birth to a healthy 5.2lb baby via cesarean section in the isolation ward at Ziv Medical Center in Tzfat (Safed).

A 45-year-old coronavirus patient at Jerusalem’s Wolfson hospital woke up from a 29-day coma. A 22-year-old regained consciousness after a three-week coma. A 94-year-old Jerusalem woman has recovered from Covid-19. And Eli Beer, CEO of United Hatzalah returned home to Israel after his recovery.

Israel’s Hospitech produces the AnapnoGuard (reported previously) which seals the trachea of intubated patients and protects them against Ventilator Associated Pneumonia. It was in use in China before the coronavirus outbreak and is now in use in 5 Israeli hospitals.

Scientists from Israel’s Technion Institute have developed Liquid Foam Therapy (LIFT). It improves the distribution across the lungs of surfactant, the liquid that coats the surface of alveoli in the lungs,. COVID-19 kills the cells that secrete surfactant, making it harder to breathe.