Israel Active

Israel’s RadiAction Medical has developed an innovative shielding device to protect surgeons from radiation. Its technology will help increase in the number of image guided procedures performed annually. RadiAction has just raised $5.7 million of funding.

Every year nearly 3 million seniors suffer life-changing hip fractures from falls. Israel’s Hip-Hope is a smart waist-belt that senses an impending collision with a ground surface and deploys two large airbags instantly from each side of the belt to cushion the hips.

I reported previously that Israel’s Teva had launched a generic version of the cancer treatment Gleevec (imatinib mesylate). What I didn’t realize that Gleevec itself had Israeli origins, being based on work by Weizmann researcher Eli Canaani.  In 2003 Gleevec saved the life of Jewish hockey player and leukemia sufferer Sam Field.

Israel’s NeuroSense Therapeutics is developing a treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. It is based on a discovery by Weizmann Institute Professor Eran Hornstein of a micro-RNA molecule lacking in the muscles of ALS patients.

Israel’s NovellusDx has received a $900,000 BIRD Foundation award to identify and design personalized cancer therapies for the Delaware-based Gene Editing Institute. NovellusDx also won 1st prize in the international Quality Innovation Award competition.

Israel’s NeuroDerm has released positive preliminary results for the final Phase II trial of its ND0612H treatment on 38 patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease.  NeuroDerm will now proceed with Phase III trials on 240 patients prior to requesting CE (European) Certification.

The MRI-focused ultrasound brain treatment from Israel’s Insightec is used at Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center to cure patients of tremors. One of the patients was afraid of being enclosed in the MRI machine. He underwent hypnosis therapy, had the treatment and now he’s cured!

Researchers at Israel’s Technion Institute have discovered unique amyloid fibrils used by the deadly antibiotic resistant MRSA bacteria to attack the immune system. It means treatments that inhibit the amyloid formation will neutralize MRSA.

I reported previously about Yehia – the first Afghan child to receive life-saving surgery from Israel’s Save A Child’s Heart.  Now a second toddler, Yakub, has been saved by SACH doctors after arriving from his remote Afghan village via Kabul and Istanbul.

Ofra Grady saw thousands of births, including 11 of her grandchildren, while cleaning the delivery rooms at Israel’s Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot. But she never expected to deliver another grandchild in the family car while her husband was driving them to the hospital.