Israel Active

Tel Aviv Professor Tal Dvir has unveiled his remote-controlled, bionic heart patch, which researchers say could become a revolutionary alternative to heart transplants for patients whose hearts have been damaged by heart attacks or cardiac disease. 

At the 13th International Dead Sea Symposium on Innovations in Technology, Treatment & Prevention of Cardiac Arrhythmias, Israel’s Itamar Medical announced that 60 international hospitals have now adopted Itamar’s Total Sleep Solution. 

Israel’s Rainbow Medical is working with with Medos International Sarl (part of Johnson & Johnson) to develop a minimally invasive implant to treat spinal degenerative disc disease - which has no current cure and leads to acute chronic back pain.

One of the Grand Challenge Israel winners is Israeli startup BioFeed.  It will use the 500,000-shekel prize money to advance its solution in the fight against the Aedes aegypti mosquito, carrier of the Zika virus. Biofeed uses odor to attract insects to poison that eliminates the pest without spraying crops.

Israeli scientists have helped isolate a deadly virus that is killing both wild and farmed tilapia fish - an important global food source.  Tilapia eat algae and are essential for freshwater quality. The tilapia lake virus is related to the influenza virus and the research will help the development of a vaccine.

The focused ultrasound brain surgery of Israel’s Insightec has been used 500 times around the world.  In its first procedure in Israel, surgeons at Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center successfully cured an Israeli woman of her uncontrollable shaking.

Another innovation from Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s BioDesign students.  They developed ThoraXS - a one-handed thoracic portal opener that shortens the procedure time of chest-tube insertion from minutes to less than 30 seconds.  It is timely for saving victims of terror stabbings.

Gallium is a bio-metal currently used to stop bone loss in cancer patients. Moshe Rogosnitzky, a researcher at Israel’s Ariel University, has discovered that Gallium in liquid form (known as gallium nitrate) can rapidly halt bleeding from deep wounds, without causing blood clots.

Latest reports of Phase II trials of BL-8040 from Israel’s Bioline Rx show that 38% of patients with acute myeloid leukemia, went into complete remission after just two cycles of the treatment.  All these patients had previously failed to recover from other leukemia treatments.

A joint team of scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and from the Netherlands have discovered that the common E. coli bacteria plays “hide and seek” to avoid detection from the predatory B. bacteriovorus bacteria. It extends research into combating antibiotic resistant bacteria.