Israel Active

Scientists at Israel Technion have fused resin and gold particles to make a sensor that can detect pressure (touch), temperature and humidity. The sensor could be integrated with the current electronic skins applied to a prosthetic limb to give the wearer more life-like sensations.

Dr Leslie Lobel of Ben Gurion University has identified antibody clones from patients who have recovered from Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infections. BGU has now entered into an agreement with San Diego-based Sorrento Therapeutics to develop the clones into anti-HCV therapeutics

Israel’s Allium Medical produces stents that avoids the need for those with blocked urinary tracts to go through invasive surgery. Allium has just won a NIS 58-million distribution deal with a Chinese health company. In March Allium won a similar deal to distribute the stents in Brazil.

Surgeons at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center successfully carried out the first ever transplant between two living HIV carriers. A woman donated a kidney to her husband, who has since returned to work. The main problem was to prevent rejection by the man’s compromised immune system.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Pillcam SB 3 – Given Imaging’s latest internal intestine camera – for monitoring sufferers of Crohn’s disease and other intestinal problems. Its use has already changed the treatment of 62 percent of Crohn’s patients.

(Thanks to Atid-EDI) The revolutionary Ventritek105 device from Tel Aviv’s Biosan Medical treats Intra Ventricular Hemorrhage (IVH), which has a 50% average death rate. More than 90% of the study patients treated with Ventritek105 were alive and well at the 30-day follow-up.

Another article on Weizmann Institute’s use of two diverse antibodies to target aggressive hereditary breast cancer.

Several subscribers have sent me this link to Eli Beer who started United Hatzalah and its lifesaving ambu-cycles. The paramedics on two-wheels get to emergencies in 3 minutes, saving lives before an ambulance can fight through traffic. Watch this inspiring story of Chutzpah and co-existence.

Dr Cyril Sherer is still treating patients in Jerusalem 70 years after graduating in London. He and his wife spent 13 years in New Zealand and made Aliya to Israel in 1961. His story reads like a history of modern medicine.

(Thanks to Israel21c) Bar-Ilan Professor Zeev Zalevsky has invented a bionic contact lens that receives electrical signals and transmits the encoded image to the wearer’s cornea. The image gets translated into a tactile sensation that can be interpreted visually.