Israel Active

Israel’s Can-Fite BioPharma announced positive interim results of its Phase II/III clinical trial of CF101 for the treatment of psoriasis, and is continuing to enrol patients in the study.

Sgt Theresa Hannigan (retired) became a paraplegic whilst serving in the US Army. Today she walks again thanks to her ReWalk exoskeleton from Israel’s Argo Medical. Argo announced at the AdvaMed 2012 conference in Boston that they are setting up their US HQ in Marlboro Massachusetts.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has stated in a preliminary report that Israel’s healthcare system is one of the best in the world. One of the highlights is the early diagnosis of chronic diseases, which reduces complications and prevents hospitalisation.

Dr Warren Selman overheard a discussion on flight simulation between two Israeli pilots and then invented the Selman Surgical Rehearsal Platform (SRP). IDF support means it is already used to educate surgeons and once FDA approved it will be used with real patients.

Read last week’s newsletter to see the connection between Israel and the Japanese scientist who just won the Nobel Prize for his experiment that turned mature adult cells into stem cells.

In honour of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Israel21c has put together a list of the top 10 latest Israeli advances in breast cancer treatment. They include IceSense3 (freezing tumours), RUTH (alternative to mammograms), Marginprobe from Dune Medical and several treatments currently in trials.

The most dangerous form of metastasis (secondary cancer) is when it infects the brain. A team of Tel Aviv researchers has identified proteins secreted by brain cells that attract melanoma cells. Inoculating mice with non-metastatic cells prevents the secondary cancer developing.

Patients suffering from acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) are now routinely given all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA). This causes the cancer cells to return to their normal function – a therapy known as differentiation and helps cure 70% of all APL sufferers. Differentiation was discovered by Professor Leo Sachs of Israel’s Weizmann Institute.

Israel’s NasVax has announced success in the Phase IIa clinical trial of its oral anti-CD3 antibody for treating hepatitis C, a chronic disease, which disrupts the functioning of the immune system. The treatment also worked on patients who don’t respond to interferon – the current medication.

The latest research from Dr. Nurit Gronau, of Israel’s Open University, sheds new light on how our brains filter information, prioritize what we see and hear, and digest our surroundings. To avoid being flooded with stimuli, our brains process within a limited visual field, called the "field of attention."