Israel Active

Professor Mark Eidelman of Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center led a unique 4-day training course in Addis Ababa. 50 doctors from Ethiopia and neighboring countries learned how to fix pediatric orthopedic deformities.

Researchers at Tel Aviv University have developed the first fully personalized tissue implant, made from of a patient’s own fat cells. It means that eventually there will be no risk of an immune response to any organ implant, whether heart tissue, brain tissue or spinal cord.

Scientists in the labs of Israel’s Technion and in the US have stopped the growth of mesothelioma - a cancer of the mesothelium membrane protecting the internal organs of the chest and abdomen. They found heparanase inhibitors PG545 and defibrotide slowed tumor growth.

The US FDA has just given Orphan status to the ALS treatment being developed by Israel’s Kadimastem . The designation qualifies the company for various development incentives and less rigorous bureaucracy. Kadimastem expects results of its Israeli clinical trials in mid-2019.

Israel’s Kadimastem is partnering with France’s Defymed to develop a stem cell-based bio-artificial pancreas for the treatment of type 1 diabetes. They received NIS 5.4 million from the European Commission and the intergovernmental research organization EUREKA.

Israeli biotech 89Bio has just raised $60 million to advance its pipeline of biologic and small molecule treatments for liver and metabolic disorders. 89Bio’s BIO89-100 is in a phase 1 clinical trial for treating nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a type of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

Since 1999 surgeons from Israel’s Save a Child’s Heart have saved the lives of over 750 children from Tanzania.  SACH doctors recently flew again to Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Hospital in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to conduct life-saving heart surgeries.

Israel’s Zion Medical has just conducted successful human trials of its “Gammora” AIDS / cancer treatment. Gammora eliminates HIV virus-infected cells - not the virus – preventing development of resistance.  

Hebrew University of Jerusalem scientists have developed a molecule to treat glioblastoma, a very aggressive type of brain cancer. The molecule blocks the ability of the MKNK2 gene to produce Mnk2b – a cancer-causing protein but increases the levels of Mnk2a – an inhibitor protein.

I reported previously on Israel’s Alpha Tau’s radiation emitters starting trials in the USA.  Trials have also been launched at two centers in Rome, Italy. But I should have mentioned that 70% of patients in earlier Israeli and Italian studies saw their tumors disappear in just a few weeks.