Israel Active

Israeli startup 6over6’s GlassesOn smartphone app helps check your latest lens prescription without having to visit an optometrist. It can also help those buying spectacles on-line and in developing countries. The app won the startup contest at the mHealth Israel Conference in Tel Aviv.

Scientists at Israel’s Technion have discovered how to use proteins to suppress unwanted gene activity. It could lead to a cure for cystic fibrosis and sickle-cell anemia, as well as more common diseases that are caused by gene activity or mutations, such as many forms of cancer.

I previously reported () on the therapy from Israel’s Pluristem for treating patients exposed to lethal radiation doses. Pluristem is to join the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases program designed to protect people from catastrophic incidents.

Another great invention from the students of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s BioDesign Medical Innovation program. Their BendGuide system monitors and detects minute changes in guide-wire trajectory during hip and spinal surgery. Surgeons can correct drilling trajectories, prevent guide-wire breakage and significantly reduce operation time while increasing safety.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University, the Technion and Rambam Medical Center propose testing the blood biomarker ADNP for cognitive aging and Alzheimer’s disease. ADNP is essential for brain formation and cognitive function. I reported another blood test in January .

I reported previously on the neuroAD transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and cognitive training from Israel’s Neuronix . NeuroAD now has CE approval and is commercially available in Israel, Europe and Asia. US FDA approval is subject to results of latest trials.

I reported previously that dancing can treat Parkinson’s. Now Israeli Alex Kerten has developed a mind-body therapy for Parkinson’s called Gyro-Kinetics. It includes breathing exercises, relaxation and dance.

I was suspicious of the BBC’s report on the “innovative” US immunotherapy that cured 27 of 29 “no-hope” leukemia patients. Sure enough, the genetic modification of T-cells was developed by Weizmann Institute Professor Zelig Eshhar, and the US researchers accredited him.

Tel Aviv University Professor Itzhak Fried has completed his study of how memory neurons behave in real time when they are “remembering.” He will present his findings at an upcoming Jerusalem symposium. These have important implications for understanding dementia such as Alzheimer’s.

A US surgeon, confined to a wheelchair following a spinal cord injury, has successfully won his case to be reimbursed by his health plan for a ReWalk exoskeleton. The ruling will help make ReWalk available to all eligible patients.