Israel Active

Israel’s Gordian Surgical received CE clearance for its TroClose1200™, an innovative system for inserting surgical instruments into the abdomen and for the stitching of abdominal wall incisions during keyhole surgical procedures.

Columbia University’s 2016 Horwitz Prize goes to Howard Cedar and Aharon Razin of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and America’s Gary Felsenfeld for their work on how molecules can regulate the structure, behavior, and activity of DNA. Their research formed the epigenetics field of biology.

Israel’s DiaCardio and South Carolina’s VidiStar have won a South Carolina-Israel research and development award. They will jointly develop a fully-automated echocardiogram (echo) examination and reporting system.  

Researchers at Ben-Gurion University have discovered that autism genes have the distinct characteristic of being exceptionally long. The study provides a tool to help identify additional autism genes, and from there hopefully to be able to diagnose autism earlier.

US nonprofit medical practice and research center Mayo Clinic is joining forces with the IDC Herzliya to develop new medical technologies. The one-year full-time IDCBeyond graduate program includes studies in technology, biomedicine, globalization and sustainability.

Researchers from Ben-Gurion University have discovered the gene MIF that stops the protein superoxide dismutase (SOD1) from misfolding and then killing motor neurons, leading to ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

I reported previously about hCDR1 from Israeli biotech XTL for treating Lupus (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus – SLE). Trials have found many cases where low dosages of hCDR1 are more effective than high ones. XTL have filed new US and European patents.

Israel’s Collplant has reported positive results of trials of its Vergenix STR treatment for inflammation of the elbow tendon - commonly referred to as tennis elbow.  Most of the 40 patients reported less pain and disability - far better than those just on steroids.

Israel’s Teva is to work with Intel Corp. to develop a wearable device combined with a machine learning platform to try and improve treatment for Huntington’s disease.  A smartwatch and smartphone will continuously measure the severity of the motoric symptoms.

I reported previously on Israel’s Zebra Medical Vision which can identify patients at early risk of osteoporosis, cardiac disease, liver disease etc. Zebra has just announced its development of two new software algorithms that predict cardiovascular events.