Israel Active

Researchers at Hadassah University Hospital have identified that protein receptor blocker BKT140 kills cancer cells and reduces tumour growth by about 50 percent. BKT140 was developed by Biokine Therapeutics of Rehovot, originally to increase bone marrow cell production.

Read Israel’s greatest medical breakthroughs – Rewalk’s exoskeleton, BrainGate’s robotic arm, artificial fingers, artificial pancreas for diabetic children and sound that gives sight to the blind.

The BBC did an excellent feature about UK trials of Microsoft’s Kinect gaming device being used for touch-less surgery. Pity they didn’t mention (surprise, surprise) that it is Israeli technology.

Israeli researchers at the Technion and Rambam hospital in Haifa are the first scientists to reprogram healthy stem cells from the skin of heart patients and turn them into healthy heart cells. In the next decade, the scientists predict that they will be able to repair damaged hearts.

In the Benvenisty laboratory at the Hebrew University, scientists have identified a chemical compound that restored normal gene expression to mutated neuronal cells of patients with Fragile X syndrome – i.e. severe mental retardation.

The US Food and Drugs Administration has approved a special device for treating gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). The SRS endoscope already had Europe’s CE Mark certification and can now be used on patients with GERD – at least 5% of the world’s population.

A joint Israeli-South Korean scientific team has been able to analyse the evolution and spread of the Hepatitus B virus from studying a recently discovered 16th Century mummified Korean child. Hebrew University researchers compared ancient and modern DNA sequences.

Scientists were baffled as to the purpose of non-coding RNA. Labelled as “junk DNA”, Dr Noam Shomron of Tel Aviv University has discovered that when infected with a virus, ncRNA gives off biological signals that indicate the presence of an infectious agent, known as a pathogen. This provides scientists with a new avenue for fighting off infections.

Ben Gurion University of the Negev is collaborating with the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center to create medical devices for children. Current paediatric devices are inadequate miniaturised adult devices. Israeli skills will develop devices that are tailor-made for children.

Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek hospital specialises in pre-screening the eggs of IVF patients for genetic diseases. Since its first PGD-IVF birth in 2005, the hospital has helped deliver 200 healthy babies to “at risk” Jewish and Arab mothers.