Proteins that cause allergies
Tel Aviv University Professor Sagi-Eisenberg and PhD student Nurit Pereg-Azouz have identified a group of 30 proteins involved in the trigger process for an allergic reaction. They have isolated two specific proteins that could be targeted by medication without the side effects of steroid treatments.
Cancer – a terrorist in the body
A team of microbiologists, including Professor Eshel Ben-Jacob of Tel Aviv University, has discovered that cancer cells and bacteria behave in the same way as terrorists do in real life. They spy out the body, manipulate genes, enslave normal cells and become dormant to avoid danger.
Using HIV to kill cancer cells
(Thanks to Israel21c) Scientists at the Hebrew University - Hadassah Medical School have discovered a peptide (small protein) derived from the HIV virus that interferes with a cell’s ability to repair itself. The peptide weakens cancer cells, making them more vulnerable to conventional therapies.
Muhamad Ali’s daughter visits Hadassah hospital
Rasheda Ali, daughter of the legendary Muhamad Ali, came to Hadassah Ein Kerem to see Professor Karussis’s stem cell work to treat brain diseases. Ms. Ali is a member of the advisory board of Israeli biotech Brainstorm. Her father suffers from Parkinson's disease.
Three children receive donor organs
Just hours before a man was due to donate a lobe of his liver to his three-year-old nephew, a deceased donor was found and whose organs saved two further children. All three operations were performed at Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petah Tikva.
Bioactive coating for brain instruments
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.
Pluristem saves another bone marrow patient
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.
Good results from initial pulmonary fibrosis trials
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).
Caesarean at 30 weeks saves baby and mother
(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.
Record 30 cornea transplants
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.