Israel Active

(Thanks to NoCamels.com) Israel’s Elfi Tech monitors your pulse rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, blood flow and much more, non-invasively at any time with the help of a sensor smaller than a dime. It has just been selected as a finalist of the Nokia Sensing XChallenge.

Tel Aviv University scientists have manufactured cardiac tissue from spring-shaped fibers. The elastic tissue mimics the expanding and contracting heart and is more suitable for transplants than tissue made from straight fibers.

Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science has launched The Personalized Nutrition Project. Over the course of ten days, local volunteers will have their glucose intake and absorption monitored. Using the data, scientists profile each individual’s response to foods and tailor a personal nutritionally balanced diet.

AstraZeneca and Hadasit, the commercial arm and technology transfer company of Israel’s Hadassah University Hospitals have agreed to identify, evaluate, and jointly develop new treatments for several diseases, primarily focused on cancer, respiratory diseases, and diabetes.

Doctors can now prescribe cheaper alternatives for heart patients using Adenoscan and sufferers of primary hyperlipidemia and mixed dyslipidemia previously using Niaspan.

Back in June 2011 I reported on BreathID from Israel’s Exalenz, which tests for H. pylori. The bacterium causes peptic ulcers and gastric inflammation, and is associated with stomach cancer. Today, BreathID is used in 220 US centers, producing results in 10 minutes instead of 3 days for blood tests.

The Ramat Gan Wildlife hospital treats over 2000 animals every year, including snakes, weasels, deer, hyenas, crows, pigeons or baby hedgehogs. On one day 170 wild creatures were having treatment. Many injured birds arrive, as Israel is on a major migratory route.

A rap music video produced by Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem has gone “viral”. It features the hospital’s doctors and nurses dancing and singing the virtues of anti-bacterial hand gel. The Hebrew video, uploaded on September 21, has already been seen over 128,000 times.

(Thanks to Israel21c) Weizmann scientists have discovered removing the protein MBD3 from cells reprograms them into stem cells within 8 days instead of the current 4 weeks. Stem cells have the potential to become any cell in the body and are able to regenerate damaged tissue and organs.

Speakers at Jerusalem’s 5th International Stem Cell conference in October include 22 Israeli professors and six Israeli specialist doctors. Oh yes, and there will also be eight international professors speaking.