Israel Active

Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed a molecule known as NT157 which targets metastatic human melanoma and colon cancer. The molecule has been licensed to Israeli startup TyrNovo for medical trials.

The childbirth rate of Israeli women is the highest among the 34 OECD countries, while its rate of cesarean sections is the lowest. The Israeli birth rate of 3.0 compares to the OECD average of 1.7. The Israeli cesarean rate is 154.3 per 1,000 births whilst the OECD figure is 258.7.

The Israel-US Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation has granted $12 million over the next 3 years to Israeli-American projects that develop advanced technologies for first responders. The “NextGen” collaboration is expected to produce many lifesaving solutions.

A team of students from Israel’s Technion have developed a treatment for hair loss, without side-effects. It won them “Best New Application” at the 2015 international iGEM synthetic biology competition in Massachusetts.

Three students from Israel’s Technion, won the $10,000 first prize at the BizTEC Entrepreneurship Competition held at Microsoft’s Herzliya R&D center. Their product solves the major problem of collecting urine samples from millions of babies each year.

A clinical study by Professor Asya Rolls of Israel’s Technion has shown that the donor needs to sleep well in the four hours prior to donating their stem cells. If not, the success of the transplant decreases by 50%.

Israel’s Oramed has signed a deal worth $50 million that gives China’s Hefei Life Science & Technology (HLST) the rights to Oramed’s oral insulin capsule ORMD-0801 in China, Hong Kong and Macau. ORMD-0801 will help treat the large and growing numbers of diabetics in China.

Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have published a study showing the danger to health from eating foods that cause the blood sugar level to rise quickly. These foods vary for each individual and Weizmann wants more Israelis to join its Personalized Nutrition Project.

Israel’s Novotalk is the only app that includes a therapy aspect for stuttering intervention. Novotalk’s fluency shaping therapy has a 90% success rate. Approximately 1% of the world’s adult population stutters – approximately 70 million people.

Israeli biotech Kitov has announced that its KIT-302 treatment for osteoarthritis successfully reduced arthritic pain in UK trials on 152 patients, without risk of heart problems. In fact KIT-302 is the only treatment for both osteoarthritis and hypertension (high blood pressure).