Israel Active

Israeli medical device startup Laminate Medical Technologies has developed a blood vessel support device implanted in patients needing dialysis. It prevents blockages and repeat operations to re-insert connections to dialysis machines.  Laminate has just raised $8 million of funds.

Avraham Levi is a self-employed entrepreneur who works full time, has a wife and two children and volunteers as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) with United Hatzalah. This past month in January, Levi broke records when he responded to 236 emergency calls in just one month.

Nazareth-based Venture Capital fund NGT3 is preparing for sale three exciting medical startups featured previously in this newsletter.  Aqueduct helps fast, painless cervical cancer checks, Guide In helps safe intubation and ParaSonic’s ultrasonic comb clears head lice.

Israel’s Lampados International is launching Liteez - a new sweetener delivery system, shaped like a meringue. It’s egg-free, sugar-free, gluten-free, non-GMO, vegan and rich in prebiotic fibers. For sweetening tea and coffee or enjoyed as an ultra-low calorie sweet treat.

Surgeons at Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital can detect and correct abnormalities in the fetus from eight weeks after conception.  Irregular heartbeats, anemia, twins sharing placentas, congenital hernias, repairing spinal cord. Israeli doctors are saving life before it has even begun.

I reported previously that Dr. Sarit Larisch of Haifa University discovered ARTS - a protein missing in tumors that regulates apoptosis (cell death). Israeli biotech ARTSaVIT is developing a treatment based on this research and has just received $6.3 million of funds.

Former British police officer Nicki Donnelly, who was paralyzed in 2009, can now walk again. She received a ReWalk exoskeleton from the Gerald Ronson Family Foundation and the UK Jewish Community Security Trust (CST).  Nicki now wants to visit ReWalk’s Israeli inventor Amit Goffer.

I reported last week about Israel’s Guide In Medical (GIM) and its innovative tube for inflating collapsed lungs.  GIM’s CEO Ariel Shrem has just spoken about the device on ILTV daily.

Dov Maisel had six emergency calls during the 24 hours from Friday afternoon right through Shabbat.  Five people were saved.

A record 504 Israelis were saved thanks to organ transplants in 2016, up from 433 in 2015. The number of live kidney transplants (222) was also a record and included 129 donations from friends or strangers.  887,317 Israelis have now signed organ donor cards.