Israel Active

Innovators at Pele, a tech-innovation program at the Jerusalem-based ALYN Hospital, develop personalized solutions for children with special needs. For 8-year-old Arab boy Yusuf, who cannot bend his joints, it is a structure that allows him to feed himself.

Weizmann scientists have discovered that cells in the immune system cluster together to decide tactics, before being sent out to battle infections. These “helper T-cells” resemble American football and basketball teams that frequently go into a huddle during their games.

Scientists at Israel’s Technion Institute are learning more about the human AIDS virus from discoveries made researching the feline equivalent (FIV). They have uncovered a protein that is resistant to treatment. Breaking this resistance will help fight human AIDS.

Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center is the first hospital in the Middle East to install the state-of-the-art Spine SRS software from Germany’s Brainlab. It allows doctors to give a single dose of higher level radiation to patients suffering from spine cancer without damaging nearby healthy tissue.

22 participants from 16 nations attended the 19th “Developing and Organizing a Trauma System” and Mass Casualty Management Course at Haifa’s Rambam Health Care Campus. To date the center has trained more than 3,000 health care professionals and officials from 61 nations.

Israel’s Medint Medical Intelligence collects and analyzes information from medical websites, social platforms, blogs, and forums to help patients with cancer and chronic illnesses make informed medical decisions. E.g. find doctors treating similar conditions, or relevant clinical trials.

In 2002, 13-year-old Dvir Musai was blown up by a terrorist’s mine. At Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital he was visited by then NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Now employed at Hadassah Herzstein Heritage Center, father-of-two, Dvir received another visit from Mr Giuliani.

Scientists at Israel’s Technion have developed a system for the selective nanoscale transport of the chemotherapeutic Dasatinib in young patients. Polymer micelles enhanced with sugar carry the chemical to cancer cells alone, thus maximizing its efficiency without harming healthy tissues.

Israel’s Beyeonics Surgical (a subsidiary of Elbit) develops Augmented Reality (AR) visualization for surgeons. A head-mounted visor transmits real-time high-resolution imaging of the surgical area, plus patient data, directly before surgeons’ eyes. Beyeonics has just raised $11.5 million of funds.

Israel’s LR Group is launching Biohouse - a $14 million network of biotech hubs, initially in Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center and then at two other Israeli hospitals, plus Boston and New York. The Hadassah hub can host 40-50 medical device and digital health startups and is already 40% full.