Israel Active

Motivation, physiotherapy from Sheba medical center and use of a Wii console were key to Captain Shir Klevner’s speedy return to his unit, where he completed intensive training only 8 months after his leg was shattered by a sniper’s bullet in Gaza.

Scientists working in the Technion laboratory of Israeli Nobel Prize winner Professor Aaron Ciechanover have discovered that high concentrations of the chemical KPC1 and protein p50 suppress malignant growth and protect healthy cells.

Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have identified that cancer can be triggered by an overload of specific messages from the cell membrane to its nucleus. They have also found a molecule that can filter these messages, similar to the way spam emails are blocked.

Researchers at Israel’s Technion and Haifa’s Rambam hospital have discovered that combining pomegranate juice and dates (with their pits) provides maximum protection against the buildup of plaque on the endothelium of the arteries, and prevents heart attack or stroke.   

Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute working with Australian scientists have used the hormone neuregulin to re-grow heart tissue damaged by a heart attack or heart disease. See this rare positive report in the normally anti-Israel UK Guardian. Also published in Nature Cell Biology.   

FDA approval has been given to the iPhone / iPad app TraumaCad by Israeli health-tech firm Voyant, which helps doctors plan hip replacement on mobile devices. It allows doctors to import digital implant images from secure hospital networks and visualize the operation.

Israel’s Teva has received FDA approval for ProAir RespiClick - the first and only breath-actuated, dry-powder rescue inhaler to be approved by the FDA for the treatment of acute asthma symptoms. ProAir RespiClick eliminates the need for hand-breath coordination during inhalation.

Professor Yehuda Shoenfeld of the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer has founded the field of auto-immunology and connected 81 different diseases through the immune system. The latest is narcolepsy from which sufferers fall asleep due to an autoimmune reaction.

Good video showing how successful the remedial shoes of Israel’s AposTherapy have become in the US. Its new CEO stopped building clinics and now trains physiotherapists to use AposTherapy shoes on patients suffering back and ligament pain. (Stop the video after the Apos feature.)

Israeli medical tech firm DreaMed Diabetes has struck a deal with Medtronic, the world’s biggest medical device company, to use its MD-Logic Artificial Pancreas algorithm in Medtronic’s insulin pumps. The algorithm regulates the insulin released to the diabetic individual.