Israel Active

Israel’s LifeSeal, the no-leak sealant solution for patients who have undergone gastrointestinal (GI) surgery , has received CE approval for use in the European Union.  LifeSeal has also been fast-tracked for approval by the US FDA through its Expedited Access Pathway (EAP)

Social work students from Yeshiva University’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work are in Israel to attend an intensive course on trauma, emergency response and recovery.  It features workshops on trauma intervention, and real-time emergency response simulation.

Israel’s Technion and New York University’s Langone Medical Center have begun a research project, targeting metastatic melanoma and mesothelioma.  They will test the ability of a nanotechnology based on so-called “nanoghosts” using stem cells to home in on cancer cells.

The DNA diagnostic breakthrough from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has been funded.  Priority is now for a diagnostic tool for neurodegenerative, cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases plus a blood test for the early detection of multiple diseases at their asymptomatic stage.

The US medical organization Mayo Clinic is launching the Mayo Clinic Israeli Startups Initiative. It will encourage collaboration among Israeli health care startup companies and Mayo Clinic and fund joint R&D to accelerate availability of medical innovations to the public.

The SightDX Parasight Malaria Detection Platform from Israel’s Sight Diagnostics is to be introduced into India.  Approximately 880,000 cases of malaria were reported in India in 2013.

Israeli biotech Oramed has reported success in the Phase IIb study of its insulin capsule.  Oramed highlighted that it was the first time an oral solution showed a significant drop in blood sugar at night.  Oral insulin will replace injected delayed-release insulin.

GE Healthcare’s Israeli R&D center has developed the Discovery NM/CT 670 CZT system to perform faster, more accurate, safer and less intrusive SPECT/CT scans of the body.  It uses 50% less radioactive tracers and captures all the required data on multiple organs in a single pass.

The borderline between genius and madness is well known.  Now Ben Gurion University and Weizmann researchers have shown that learning processes can make the brain operate at peak performance in processing incoming sensory information. However, it may also risk causing hallucinations.

Israel’s ReWalk has teamed with Harvard University’s Wyss Institute to develop ‘soft suit’ exoskeleton systems enabling people to walk following stroke, lower limb disabilities, MS etc. Millions need some structural support but not a rigid exoskeleton such as ReWalk.