Israel Active

Professor Dimitrios Karussis, Principal Investigator of BrainStorm’s clinical trials of its ALS stem cell treatment at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center, will present at the Joint Congress of European Neurology, May 31-June 3 in Istanbul, Turkey.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that men in Israel live until the average age of 80.2 and are ranked fourth in the world. Only men in Iceland (81.2), Switzerland and Australia live longer. Israeli women (84) are tenth in the world, compared to Europe (76) and the rest of the Middle East (68).

It is 57 years since the thalidomide tragedy that resulted in thousands of deaths and babies born with severe limb deformities. Now Tel Aviv University scientists have pinpointed the genetic regulator “switch” responsible p53 and its downstream target gene, MicroRNA34.

The US FDA has approved the Duet scanning system, developed by Israeli biotech BioView, for the detection of mutations in lung cancer.

Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center is to increase in size from 42 acres to 82 acres, allowing it to triple its scope. In the near term, three new buildings have been approved for medical research, emergency services and staffing needs. The hospital has the highest growth rate in Israel.

Dr Anat Achiron of the Israel’s Sheba Medical Center in Tel-Hashomer has reported that in controlled trials, a synthetic analog of vitamin D significantly reduced fatigue, which is common in patients with multiple sclerosis. The compound is 1a-hydroxyvitamin D3 (alfacalcidol).

Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have discovered that the protein Erbin is an important brake that helps prevent cardiac hypertrophy – the stage before heart failure when the heart grows in an attempt to increase its output.

Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have demonstrated the molecular basis of Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) - perhaps the most studied among the class of diseases that involves defects in parental imprinting. PWS is due to a defective gene on chromosome 15.

Miami-based Eventus Diagnostics (EventusDx) has its Research & Development laboratories in Moshav Ora, near Jerusalem. They have developed blood tests to measure cancer-specific antibodies produced by the immune system in response to the growth of tumors.

(Thanks to Israel21c) The US FDA has just approved ForeseeHome, developed by Israel’s Notal Vision, which allows patients suffering age-related macular degeneration (AMD) to monitor the progression of the condition in their own homes. It is vital to identify immediately when “dry” AMD changes to “wet” AMD at which point they can be treated.