Israel Active

Israeli biologist Ido Bachalet is part of the Harvard team that designed a microscopic machine of DNA nano-robots that can carry anti-bodies direct to tumours. First they make a basket-shaped truck, then add the payload which is released when the truck meets the key of the tumour.

This video begins with the latest Israeli developments in focussed ultrasound surgery. It then moves on to describe the Technion’s goal of using technology to eliminate many of the hundreds of thousands of medical mistakes made around the world by overstretched human doctors and nurses.

Doctors and nurses at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek are piloting an innovative digital bracelet that prompts use of an anti-bacterial hand-wash following contact with a patient. It then repeats the reminder if the solution hasn’t been applied or if insufficient time was spent rubbing it into the hands.

Israel’s Teva has signed an agreement with Galena Biopharma to take its NeuVax early stage breast cancer treatment through its last stage trials and through to sales. Israel will be the location of at least four clinical trial sites for the NeuVax Phase III trials.

Doctors at Rehovot’s Kaplan Medical Center have saved the arm of a man wounded in the Grad missile attack in Kiryat Malachi by Gaza terrorists. Boris Chomeh’s arm had been severed in the explosion in which three Israelis were killed and a baby seriously injured.

The annual Innovations in Cardiovascular Interventions conference in Tel Aviv brought together 1100 participants from 40 countries to hear about the latest in ground breaking medical technology. Israeli companies produce 50% of the innovations that address the most vital organ in the human body.

In the past week, eight patients received organs from people aged 70 to 80. Israel Transplant reported that since January, eight elderly Israelis, some of whom are over 75 and nearing 80, were the source of life-saving organs. With improved lifestyles and hi-tech scanners, fewer organs are rejected.

(Thanks to NoCamels) Ben Gurion University researchers have discovered that the leaves and roots of the yellow water-lily (nuphar lutea) have an inhibitory effect on a protein that causes inflammation. This could lead to Inflammatory Bowel Disease medication and cancer prevention.

During trials by Israel’s Can-Fite BioPharma of its anti-inflammatory CF101 medication, the company discovered that the active ingredient is suitable for treating impotence. Can-Fite only found this out when they noticed that patients were not returning all the drugs at the end of the trial.

The US Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) is funding five Israeli researchers up to $130,000 per year each for up to three years toward investigations into Type 1 diabetes (T1D), which affects an estimated three million individuals in the United States alone.