Israel Active

Researchers in Israel and San Francisco have been able to switch off a memory pathway in the brains of rats responsible for alcohol dependency. Tests on humans are expected soon. The results may also lead to the treatment of nicotine craving.

Israel’s RegeneCure has developed an innovative synthetic membrane for those needing dental implants. Alternative animal-tissue-derived collagen membranes risk being contaminated from pathogens. RegeneCure’s membrane also degrades slowly, giving the natural bone more time to regenerate.

(Thanks to Israel21c) Field of Vision, a new series by photographer Vardi Kahana, documents the people touched by Eye from Zion, an Israeli organization that provides free ocular medical treatment to needy populations around the world.

(Thanks to Israel21c) Over the past few weeks I have been reporting only headline stories of wounded Syrians being treated in Israeli hospitals. Here is an amazing in-depth feature about what happens on the front lines (at the border and at the hospital).

One of the exhibits at the Presidential Conference in Jerusalem spotlighted on Israel’s top research into the human brain.

The Hebrew University is to establish a center for pharmaceutical research and treatment of children. Its focus includes incurable genetic diseases, building new models for testing drugs for children and synthesizing new molecules suited for children, despite being unprofitable.

30,000 of Israel’s 3.5 million visitors in 2012 came to get medical treatment at Israel’s top health institutions. Treatments include IVF, brain diseases, laser surgery and heart bypasses. Please read about Dr. Jason Bodzin of West Bloomfield who had stem cell treatment for ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) – the condition also suffered by Professor Stephen Hawking, who boycotted Israel’s Presidents’ Conference.

IceSense3 cryoablation cancer treatment is to be covered by US medical insurance giant HCSC. Vast numbers of US patients will now be able to have breast tumors removed by the minimally invasive ultrasound-targeted freezing process developed by Israel’s IceCure Medical.

An international research team, including Hebrew University Professor Raphael D. Levine, has discovered that brain tumors switch their signaling network to evade growth inhibitor medication. New treatments can now be developed that take advantage of this knowledge.

Researchers at the Rabin Medical Center in Petach Tikva have proved scientifically that the thickness of the layer of fat enveloping the heart can predict heart disease. It is not the weight (BMI) of an individual that matters, but whether the tissue supporting the heart muscle grows too large.