Israel Active

Technion scientists have discovered that when the HIV virus encounters resistance, it looks for detours. It then mutates and replicates itself, like a Trojan horse, exploiting redundancy in the DNA of host cells.

Further to a previous newsletter, scientists from Israel’s Technion are the only team working for European research consortium BeyondSeq on early diagnosis of cancer. They are using tiny silicon “nanopore” scanners to detect molecular DNA biomarkers in cancer cells.

Israel’s Micromedic Technologies, has identified several new genetic markers for predicting BRONJ (necrosis of the jawbone). BRONJ is a side effect of intravenous treatments in cancer and osteoporosis patients.

Israel’s NanoPass Technologies is supplying its MicronJet600 microneedle system to US-based Immune Design who will use the system to deliver vaccines to cancer immunotherapy patients.

The World Health Organization (WHO) ranks Israel 6th in the world, with the average Israeli living without a terminal illness to age 71.5. Israeli men have the world’s fourth longest total life expectancy of 80.2 years. For women, Israel is ranked tenth with a total life expectancy of 84 years.

More about the app developed by IBM Haifa to diagnose ADHD sufferers . It won top prize at the Brain Inspired Technology for Education (BITE) Hackathon at Israel’s Technion Institute. Also describes IBM Haifa’s dementia early-detection app .

Israel’s Novocure was featured recently on ABC 10 News, which showed Novocure’s TTFields helmet being used to keep a San Diego brain cancer sufferer alive. Novocure is soon to trial TTFields on other solid cancers and has just filed for an IPO to raise up to $300 million.

I featured the “liver-on-a-chip” testing device invented by Hebrew University of Jerusalem scientists in a previous newsletter. The device has now shown that acetaminophen (a readily-available pain relief) can be toxic at far lower doses than previously thought.

The US FDA has approved the application by Israel’s Teva for its SD-809 (deutetrabenazine) treatment for Huntington’s disease. SD-809 was part of Teva’s May acquisition of Auspex and has completed two Phase-III studies.

Israel’s BioLight has announced the first sale of XLVision Sciences’ IOPtiMate to a medical center in Peru. The innovative CO2 laser system has previously been purchased by hospitals in Hong Kong, Poland, Hungary and Romania.