Israel Active

Israel’s Nasvax will receive a NIS 3.5 million grant to help finance development of its vaccines to prevent graft rejection after transplantation, and to treat Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Alzheimer’s disease.

Israeli researcher Avi Domb's kit, sent aboard the space station Atlantis, shows how a polymer can cut into bacteria and neutralize it.

5 month-old Hilai from Ashdod was going blind because of an infection from a rare strain of bacteria. Doctors at Kaplan medical centre in Rehovot injected surgically infused antibiotics directly into the eye socket. His mother said, “Angels in white saved my baby.”

The Centre for the Advancement of the Blind is the only residential rehab program in all of Israel for those who are newly blind and/or going blind. It has 16 teachers to serve the 1,400 plus people who were newly certified as visually impaired in 2010. Please donate if at all possible.

Magen David Adom’s new Israel Southern Emergency Lifesaving helicopter – Lahak 2 – came in to full service on 8th January. The helicopter was launched from Kibbutz Dvira, Northern Negev and will fly every day from 07:00 until sundown, covering a vast area all the way up to Jerusalem

Israel’s Thrombotech is shortly to begin trials of its peptide, THR-18, which allows current thrombolytic stroke medication to easily dissolve blood clots, diminishing life-threatening side effects and improving its efficacy.

Herzliya-based ElMindA has trademarked their non-invasive BNA (brain network activation) device that maps network activation points in the brain. It produces a three-dimensional image of nerve cell connectivity and synchronization and can potentially pinpoint the stage of many diseases and predict which patients will respond to which drugs.

A research team from Rabin medical centre has uncovered vitamin D’s ability to attack Hepatitis C. Separately, a Sourasky medical centre has discovered that vitamin D is vital in countering cirrhosis of the liver.

Israeli therapists are successfully treating children traumatised by the Japanese tsunami using a stuffed sad-eyed toy puppy called Hibuki (Japanese for “huggy”). Traumatized children identify more with a sad animal because it's easier for them to project their own sadness onto it.

A team of scientists from the Weizmann Institute has revealed the exact structure of the neurohypophysis - a crucial brain area in which biochemical commands are passed from the brain cells to the bloodstream, and from there to the body.