Israel Active

Leading scientists from academia and industry gathered at the US-Israel Neurotechnology and Neuroscience Conference in Washington to showcase the latest research and cutting edge technologies in the US and Israel for investigating brain function and brain disorders.

BrainGames- Israel monitors a child’s brainwaves whilst they play a computer game or watch a film. If the child’s attention begins to wander, the game or film changes, stops or slows. Focussing the mind continues the action / activity and thus conditions the child’s brain.

(Thanks to Nocamels.) Ladostigil, from Israel’s Avraham Pharmaceuticals, relieves behavioural and psychological symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. In lab animals, the medication also slows the progression of symptoms and prolongs life. Results of human trials are due end 2012.

The organisation Israel Brain Technologies (IBT) is offering a $1 million to anyone who can come up with a breakthrough brain technology, one that will make life better for everyone. It is aptly named the Global B.R.A.I.N. (Breakthrough Research And Innovation in Neurotechnology) Prize.

Placental eXpanded (PLX) cell treatment from Israel’s Pluristem has saved the life of a 45-year-old man who suffered from bone marrow failure after undergoing chemotherapy and a bone-marrow transplant, due to leukemia. There were no side effects and the man has now been discharged from Hadassah medical centre in Jerusalem.

A Hebrew University researcher has uncovered a method of using a synthetic, anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic family of drugs to combat a variety of illnesses, while avoiding detrimental side effects. This is a different story to the anti-allergy discovery published on 28th Aug.

Israeli bio-tech Atox Bio announced that the US Food and Drug Administration has granted fast track designation to its lead product AB103, currently in development for the treatment of Necrotizing Soft Tissue Infections (NSTI). Currently, there are no approved treatments for NSTI, which has a high mortality rate.

Fans of “The Sleeper” will recall that Woody Allen’s character woke up in a future world where it had discovered that “fat is good for you after all”. Well in 2012, Hebrew University researchers have discovered that a carefully scheduled high-fat diet resets metabolism and prevents obesity – in mice!

The British and Israeli governments will jointly fund five major research projects in regenerative medicine – the process of replacing or regenerating human cells, tissues or organs to restore or establish normal function in diseased ones.

Doctors at Schneider Children’s medical centre noticed 10 children and infants from four families in a single Arab village, all with liver abnormalities. The discovery of the mutant gene could lead to a treatment for fatty liver disease and screening for the gene.