Israel Active

Thanks to an urgent request on Israel’s favorite group information board, a kidney donor was found for a desperately ill mother of five in Ashdod. Doctors at Israel’s Beilinson Medical Center performed the transplant in January.

Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have identified how the HIV virus suppresses the T-cell immune response. It has helped them develop a peptide (small protein) that reduces the severity of Multiple Sclerosis - a disease characterized by an undesirable autoimmune T-cell response.

While most of the world was bringing in the civil New Year, doctors at Schneider Children’s Medical Center were giving new life to 4 children. 10-year-old Miran received a new heart and lungs; a four-year-old was given a new liver and two girls (5 and 11) received a kidney each.

Researchers at Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center have discovered why most patients with estrogen receptor–positive metastatic breast cancer, who initially respond to endocrine treatments like tamoxifen, will eventually develop resistance to them. The finding can help develop new treatments.

Scientists at Israel’s Technion Institute have used ultrasound to generate electric charges in the cell membranes of the brain and stimulate nerve activity. It has tremendous potential, from treatments for epilepsy, to giving sight to the blind.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is the 13th biggest killer in the West, with over 200,000 new cases diagnosed in the US each year. Drs. Gertz and Gavish of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have discovered that low-level laser (LLL) reduces AAA inflammation and promotes wound healing.

Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have found a pathway to a possible cure for the two currently untreatable forms of Gaucher’s disease. The removal of protein RIP3 can extend the life of sufferers.

High blood sugar levels in diabetics produce more enzymes called MAPK kinases, leading to early brain cell death. Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers have developed a peptide TXM-CB3 that in laboratory tests prevents the MAPK kinases from activating.

Weizmann scientist Dr Ofer Yizhar explains optogenetics – a neuroscience that examines light-specific activation or suppression of neurons in the brain. It could help us understand memory problems, schizophrenia and autism.

Israeli bio-tech Oramed has announced that its Phase 2a clinical trial for its ORMD-0801 oral insulin capsule for the treatment of type 2 diabetes met all primary and secondary endpoints. The Phase 2b study will be carried out later this year, and Oramed plans a Phase 2a study for Type 1 diabetes.