Israel Active

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.

Israeli startup Zebra Medical Vision is building a database of medical images (X-rays, CT scans and MRI scans) of real patients but without names or IDs. The database provides research data, previously unavailable due to privacy laws.

27-year-old Ran Azulai, who was born with a serious congenital defect, received a heart and two lungs in a rare, lifesaving operation. Ran had 3 previous heart operations and only a few weeks to live. The donor’s organs also saved 3 other transplant patients.

Israeli biotech SynVaccine is developing safe synthetic vaccines from the recipient’s own tissue cells, which the body’s immune system can easily recognize and build protection. In addition, SynVaccine’s computer-engineered vaccines cannot release the original virus.

Tel Aviv University and Schneider Medical Center researchers have discovered a genetic mutation responsible for Primary Ovarian Insufficiency (POI) that affects one percent of all women worldwide. The study began after DNA testing two affected Israeli-Arab girls.

For the past 10 years, the Murray Fromson American Associates, Ben-Gurion University Media Mission has brought US reporters and editors to see cutting-edge Israeli research at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. This year’s themes included neuroscience, stem cells and medical robotics. =

A higher percentage of Israelis were seriously or critically injured in last summer’s Operation Protective Edge than in the 2006 Lebanon War. Yet recovery times were faster and treatment much more effective this time, thanks to faster evacuation to hospital and technology to stop bleeding.

Israel’s is funding $1million prizes for research and treatment for ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). At Tel Aviv’s BrainTech 2015 conference, every delegate stood up to applaud Prize4Life’s CEO and ALS sufferer Shay Rishoni, who demonstrated a device that translates eye movements into computerized voice.