Israel Active

Israel’s Brainstorm has announced positive final results from its phase 2a clinical trial of NurOwn cells in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients used on 14 subjects at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem.  Nearly all subjects experienced clinical benefit.

Dr Waldemar Haffkine, a Russian-Jewish microbiologist, developed the cholera vaccine in 1892.  Jerusalem’s Tower of David Museum is now exhibiting one of the original ampoules of vaccine.  Dr Haffkine also developed a vaccine for plague and was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1897.  Sir Waldemar donated his extensive personal archive to the National Library of Israel.

A delegation of senior British scientists and companies is in Israel, to work with Israel on dementia. They are following up on December’s joint meeting of the British Neuroscience Association and the Israel Society for Neuroscience in Eilat.

(Thanks to Israel21c) Professor Elizabeth Fireman of Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center has developed a highly accurate bio-monitoring technique to detect dangerous particles inhaled by firefighters, factory workers, dental technicians and kids with asthma.

If Israelis are exceptional people, then Maya Fishman is amazing.  Only 16-years old, she has already started med school at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.  She is on course to become the youngest doctor in the history of the State of Israel.

(Thanks to Atid-EDI) Israel’s NLT-Spine has won a 2014 Spine Technology Award from US Magazine Orthopedics This Week, for its ARC Pedicle Screw System.  The company also was included (for the second year running) in the list of Red Herring Global 100 winners.

(Thanks to Atid-EDI) Israel’s GI View has just received US FDA approval for its Aer-O-Scope colonoscope, for advanced detection of polyps that frequently develop into colon cancer. GI View is expected to start selling the product in the U.S. in early 2016.

(Thanks to NoCamels.com) Julian Levy, CFO of Israel’s Vaxil Biotherapeutics speaks to NoCamels about Vaxil’s cancer vaccine, ImMucin, that boosts the immune system and prevents cancer returning.  ImMucin triggers a response in about 90 percent of all types of cancer.

(Thanks to Michelle) New York City’s NYU Langone Medical Center has praised MarginProbe from Israel’s Dune Medical, used by surgeons to identify and help them remove cancer cells on the margins of removed tumors.  MarginProbe avoids the need for follow-up surgery.

Israeli biotech Compugen has enlisted John Hopkins University to help assess Compugen’s cancer immunotherapy candidates.  These new treatments aim to counter the ability of tumors to highjack “immune checkpoints”, thereby blocking the immune system’s ability to destroy the tumor.