Israel Active

Modern medicine is advancing so fast. Brain diseases are being treated using electrodes placed in the brain itself. Because the body reacts against invasive materials, Tel Aviv University scientists have developed a protein coating for the electrodes that fools the body’s immune system.

PLX stem cell therapy by Israel’s Pluristem Therapeutics saved a 54-year old Israeli woman with lymphoma cancer and terminal bone marrow failure at Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital. The patient failed to respond to chemotherapy or bone marrow transplants. She has now been discharged from the hospital. In May, Pluristem saved a 7-year-old girl with an aplastic bone marrow.

Pluristem Therapeutics positive results in pre-clinical test of its PLacental eXpanded (PLX) stem cells for the treatment of pulmonary fibrosis. It reduced pulmonary fibrosis (scarring of the lung tissue) and improved lung function in interstitial lung disease (ILD).

(Thanks to Israel21c) A routine ultrasound scan discovered that an unborn baby had a blockage in its breathing passage. Surgeons at Israel’s Sheba medical centre performed a rare operation on the baby while it was still attached to its mother by its umbilical cord.

Normally surgeons at the Rabin Medical Centre – Beilinson campus perform 10 transplants a month. But in July, they tripled the number of operations to restore the sight of patients. This is another positive result of the new ADI organ donor cards that more and more Israelis have signed up to.

Professor Itzak Fried of Sourasky Medical Center implanted electrodes deep inside the brain of a patient with intractable epilepsy (does not respond to medication). So far, the treatment has been a complete success. There are some 20,000 Israelis with intractable epilepsy.

Scientists at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem have identified the processes that turn human embryonic stem cells into any type of body cell. It could eventually lead to their use to implant healthy new cells into humans suffering from degenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and diabetes.

A team led by scientists at the Weizmann Institute have discovered a link between cancer and changes external to the genetic code. Known as epigenetics, this little explored area of study could answer questions about how the body works, grows, gets sick, and cures itself.

Israel is investing $11 million to develop nanometer-sized drug delivery systems for the treatment of a wide range of diseases. Eleven labs at several universities will try and create an "inter-body robot" – nano-sized particles that can direct medicine and imaging systems to any part of the body.

12-year-old Kyril suffered from brachial plexus palsy, a rare congenital defect making his right hand useless. Dr. Eidelman, of Rambam hospital in Haifa, rotated the boy’s wrist 65 degrees, moved his shoulder bone and applied an innovative locking plate. (See also next article.)