“Stay positive,” we’re told when suffering from an illness. It’s easy to dismiss such comments as platitudes from well-meaning friends. But Technion scientists have demonstrated that activation of the brain’s reward system can boost recovery from a heart attack. Establishing the connection between the two can potentially lead to therapeutic avenues for intervention.
“It’s time that both researchers and clinicians take the link between psychology and physiology seriously,” said Technion Associate Professor Asya Rolls, a psychoneuroimmunologist and pioneer in mind-body interactions.
Scientists have previously shown that the emotional state can influence the course of disease following a heart attack. But until now, the underlying physiological mechanisms were not well understood.
Prof. Rolls worked with renowned cardiac researcher Professor Lior Gepstein and Hedva Haykin, Ph.D. ’23, in the Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine to manipulate the area of the brain responsible for inducing positive emotion and motivation in heart-diseased mice. The stimulation resulted in a favorable immune response that helped heal cardiac scarring, increased blood vessel formation, and improved cardiac performance. Their work, published in Nature Cardiovascular Research, found that these beneficial effects on the heart are mediated in part by the secretion of C3, a protein of the body’s “complement system,” which is the front line of defense for the immune system.
Since there are many non-invasive methods for stimulating the reward system in humans, such as drugs, biofeedback, and focused ultrasound, the team’s discovery could have meaningful future implications for the treatment of heart attacks.
“You can call something psychosomatic, but in the end, it’s somatic,” said Prof. Rolls. “How long can we ignore what is there?”
Prof. Asya Rolls is part of a growing group of scientists who are mapping out the brain’s control over the body’s immune system responses. Her earlier research has made inroads into understanding and treating autoimmune diseases such as Crohn’s disease, and has even shown that triggering the brain’s reward system can stop tumor growth in mice.
Prof. Lior Gepstein is the director of the Cardiology Department at Rambam Health Care Campus and an academic staff member in the Technion’s Faculty of Medicine. His diverse research has explored the generation of heart tissue from human embryonic stem cells, treatment for cardiac arrythmias, and the development of a biological pacemaker.
Dr. Hevda Haykin recently completed her doctoral studies under the supervision of Profs. Rolls and Gepstein, and was awarded the Israel Heart Society’s J.J. Kellerman Young Investigator Award for 2024.
Maayan Kinsbursky, a graduate of the advanced degree program in industrial design at the Technion, has won the international Red Dot Design Award for her master’s project. The award ceremony will take place in Singapore on October 10, and the project will subsequently be exhibited at the Red Dot Design Museum, also in Singapore. The project was supervised by Assistant Professor Yoav Sterman, former innovation manager at Nike, and a faculty member in the industrial design program headed by Prof. Ezri Tarazi, in the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning.
Proteins are important biological compounds that can form amyloid structures, which have been implicated in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, where the accumulation of abnormal amyloid aggregates (plaques) disrupts brain function. Our current research examined whether we should be concerned over the formation of amyloids in processed food, and it reveals positive aspects to this question in the context of their digestive fate.
From L to R: Prof. Meytal Landau, Alon Romano, Gil Rafael
Amyloid structures, it turns out, lead to a slow breakdown of the protein progenitors in the digestive system and promote positive changes in the colon. In fact, these changes resemble those of “regular” dietary fibers found in fruits and whole grains. Moreover, the bacteria in our gut prefer amyloids over “naked” undigested proteins, which may lead to negative effects such as adverse fermentation in the intestines.
Graphical abstract: Left – Amyloid consumption in food, and their journey through the digestive system. Right – Creation of amyloids from eggs and whey protein
Proteins are essential components in body structure and function, and it is now clear that proper protein consumption is important for human health and can even affect various behaviors such as appetite, hunger, and fatigue. Against this background, extensive efforts are being made to develop diverse protein-rich nutritional solutions for those who seek to tone down consumption of animal products. This is the backdrop for the positive findings emerging from the research published in Food Hydrocolloids.
The researchers focused on proteins from eggs and dairy to show case that protein-amyloids formed in processed foods may:
Gradually break down in the upper digestive system, potentially promoting slower and more controlled absorption of proteins into the body.
Assist in preserving the microbial diversity in the intestines; in particular, it was found that they maintain a low ratio between two important bacterial communities (Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes). This ratio indicates the health of the gur microbiota, whereas an unbalanced diet encourages an increase in this ratio which has been correlated with increased risk of disease (obesity, diabetes, and cancer).
From a wider viewpoint, the research demonstrates the inherent potential in food processing to enhance potential to promote health. According to Prof. Lesmes: “Today, we know how to precisely control and formulate foods and to estimate through models developed in my lab, how different food components will be digested in the body of different consumers. Together with innovative research tools, this scientific approach will help us understand the fate of proteins and innovative food components in the bodies of different consumers and may even facilitate development of personalized dietary choices. I believe that this research opens up new avenues for understanding the potential of “smartly” processed food to expand human nutrition sources and improve health.”
The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute at the Technion. The authors also thank the Smoler Proteomics Center at the Technion and Dana Benjamin from the Koren Lab at Bar Ilan University.
Despite advances in technology, providing amputees with prosthetics that mimic real limbs is an ongoing challenge. They may be more aesthetically pleasing than they used to be but are not necessarily practical. For example, a prosthetic hand may help wearers hold a cup and drink from it, but making the coffee, using a computer, or playing the piano involves much more complexity.
“Many people who have lost a hand give up on the prosthesis after a short period because it is heavy, cumbersome, and its effectiveness is very limited,” said Dean Zadok, a Ph.D. student in the Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science. “We are trying to develop lightweight, comfortable, and efficient solutions” that enable precise and sensitive hand actions and finger movements.
Zadok developed a robotic hand that allows the wearer to play the piano and type on a keyboard. His system uses ultrasound that reads muscle movements. It was developed with three Technion faculty members: Professor Alon Wolf, a robotics and biomechanics expert from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Professor Alex Bronstein (computational learning), and Dr. Oren Salzman (robotics), both from the Faculty of Computer Science.
The device attaches to the forearm and interprets the user’s intentions based on muscle movements, including complicated and fine gestures. Most smart prosthetics currently rely on sensor stickers attached to the skin to interpret muscle signals.
According to Zadok, “This technology is very limiting, and what we are proposing is a new approach based on ultrasound, providing real-time dynamic information about relevant muscle movements for hand and finger motions.”
The researchers are currently working on enhancing the hand’s capabilities. They believe this significant leap will substantially advance the field of prosthetics, providing many users with an improved quality of life.
Dean Zadok received both his bachelor’s (’19) and master’s (’22) degrees in computer science from the Technion. He began his work on the ultrasound solution during his graduate studies, where he volunteered in Prof. Wolf’s lab and at Haifa 3D, a nonprofit that provides free 3D-printed prosthetic hands to Israeli children. He also spent the summer of 2023 at the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute as a visiting scholar.
“I always wanted to apply my knowledge for the benefit of human health. Algorithms find their application in a variety of fields, and I am glad I could harness it for the important topic of improving prosthetics for those who have suffered.”
This research is supported by the European Research Council, Israel’s Ministry of Science and Technology, the Israel-U.S. Binational Science Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the Wein Family Foundation.
American non-profit health insurer Highmark has added an Israeli migraine treatment band to the items covered by its insurance policies.
The Nerivio Remote Electrical Neuromodulation (REN) migraine band, developed by Netanya-based Theranica, is placed on the upper arm as soon as a migraine starts (or even used as a preventative measure), and vibrates at an intensity just below the patient’s pain threshold.
It causes nerve fibers in the body to deliver a message to the brain, where it decides that the sensation is harmless and releases neurotransmitters to prevent the sufferer from feeling pain – including in their head. The band can be used on people 12 and older.
The addition by Highmark, which covers around 7 million people in the Pennsylvania area, came after the completion of its own November 2022 study of the band’s clinical benefits, involving more than 384 chronic migraine sufferers.
Most of us recognize the tell-tale signs of ADHD (Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) — the fidgety child who blurts out an answer before the question is completed; the adult who starts new tasks before finishing the old. Still, there is no clear-cut diagnosis, and students have faked symptoms to receive medication that helps them focus and pull all-nighters.
Now technology based on 12 years of research conducted at the Technion appears to accurately detect, measure, and quantify impaired attention by observing eye-blinking patterns to particular sounds. Israeli company MindTension, which narrowly escaped tragedy on October 7, developed a medical device that tests the brainstem’s Moro reflex, or response to startle sounds. Children who retain this involuntary startle response past infancy are hypersensitive to outside stimuli and often demonstrate symptoms commonly linked with ADHD.
Currently, an ADHD diagnosis is based on questionnaires and other exams that can be vulnerable to bias, backed up only 10% of the time by computerized tests that have proved to be inadequate. MindTension’s device employs a proprietary algorithm that quantifies the patient’s attention levels and deficits objectively and precisely, allowing for more accurate diagnosis and treatment.
“We provide a precise diagnosis in 5 minutes with an EMG-based (electromyography) response to brief auditory stimuli,” said MindTension chief scientist Avi Avital, a Haifa University faculty member who previously headed the Behavioral Neuroscience Lab at the Technion. Avital co-founded the company with CEO and Technion alum Zev Brand, M.E. ’08.
Beyond diagnosing ADHD, MindTension scientists say their device could save lives by detecting attention deficits in pilots, surgeons, and truck drivers due to lack of sleep or long shifts.
Approximately 9.5% of children and 2.6% of adults in the U.S. are diagnosed with ADHD. MindTension’s device is undergoing the process of FDA approval in the U.S. and plans to launch a large clinical trial in Israel and at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York to test and prove the accuracy of its algorithms.
Despite its location in Kibbutz Nir Am near the Gaza border, MindTension offices remained unscathed on October 7. The kibbutz security officer was alerted early that morning, took up armed positions at the gate, and ensured its members sheltered in safe rooms.
A study by GrayMatters Health, which develops digital training therapies to help the brain regulate mental health care, has shown that its FDA-approved Prism device is effective in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The device, now available in selected clinics in the US, shows a patient’s brain activity in the amygdala, the small region of the brain associated with emotions and memory, while interacting with different scenarios.
This can help patients with PTSD control their symptoms by better understanding what triggers that heightened activity in that part of the brain.
The study included 79 male and female patients, including combat veterans with chronic PTSD. It checked each patient’s Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS-5), a diagnostic interview that gives a patient a medical diagnosis and a symptom severity rating.
According to the study, which was published in the Journal of Psychiatry Research, 32 percent of patients achieved remission after three months of using the device.
“Millions of Americans struggling with PTSD must navigate medication side effects, revisit traumatic experiences with psychotherapy or choose not to seek treatment due to societal stigma,” said Oded Kraft, CEO and co-founder of Haifa-based GrayMatters Health.
“These clinical results build on prior research and demonstrate that Prism offers patients living with PTSD an effective and safe pathway toward improved mental health,” he said.
Israel was plunged into war on October 7, when Hamas terrorists from Gaza launched an unprecedented attack on the country’s southern border communities, killing 1,400 people, abducting hundreds and wounding thousands more.
And for the more than 1.5 million people in Israel living with disabilities, it has been a time of quiet suffering, frequently isolated and struggling to ask for the practical and emotional help they need.
Determined to aid this often overlooked community, an organization that supports autistic people has created a new online service to help them get that assistance.
The ESNA Initiative (short for Emergency Special Needs Assistance) acts as a universal portal for disabled people who have a specific need or request, but feel unable to search for it themselves.
A screenshot from the ESNA website. The text in yellow reads: “You are not alone”
The platform brings together specialist organisations, helplines, professionals and volunteers in one place, in order to ease the process of finding the best response to a disabled person’s specific need from a potentially overwhelming maze of resources.
Once the person has completed a simple online form, the volunteers staffing the ESNA platform reach out to help them make contact with the relevant body or professionals.
“Our volunteers make the match, contact an organization, ask them if they can help this specific person, make that connection and ensure that the problem has been solved,” Ilana Mushkin, one of the creators of the initiative, tells NoCamels.
The initiative was born out of Hackautism, an organisation encouraging startups that ease the daily lives of people with autism. Following the events of October 7, Hackautism co-founder Mushkin brought together women connected to that organization to find a way of supporting Israel’s disabled community.
These women included Hackautism spokesperson Karin Tamir and Moria Barak, the founder of StellarAI, a startup to train autistic people in the field of AI data classification.
Hackautism co-founder Rimon Tubin, left, with his son Yuval, who inspired him to create the organization (Courtesy)
There are many resources for people with disabilities, says Mushkin. The problem is that narrowing it down to which hotline or organization is best suited for the individual can be daunting, especially in times of war when people are under extraordinary stress.
“I would guess that there are hundreds if not thousands of organizations and hotlines out there,” she says. “There are so many of them right now, but you have to know how to reach them and make sure your request gets processed.”
The ESNA initiative began as a WhatsApp group, which was almost instantly flooded with requests for help.
“We realized that if we wanted to be able to really give help on a large scale, we needed a system that was much more sustainable,” says Mushkin.
Using technology donated by monday.com, a NASDAQ-listed project management software company based in Tel Aviv, ESNA was able to create a bespoke platform that handles both incoming requests and its many points of contact for assistance.
ESNA began as a WhatsApp group, which was almost instantly flooded with requests for help (Courtesy Porapak Apichodilok/Pexels)
“The system lets us receive a large number of requests for help and deal with them very efficiently,” she explains.
Volunteers use a triage system, categorizing each request in order of urgency and dealing with the most time-sensitive issues first.
And for the people in need of assistance, says Mushkin, the site is as simple as it can be.
The webpage includes just five links. The first four links are: for individuals seeking help, which leads to the simple request form; for urgent cases, which leads to a WhatsApp chat with an ESNA volunteer; for would-be volunteers; and for organizations and operation centers wishing to participate in the initiative.
The final link leads to a Zoom meeting room, which is open every day from 8am to 10pm and is also staffed by ESNA volunteers.
“It’s for the people that need to talk to somebody,” says Mushkin of the Zoom feature.
“Maybe they can’t fill out a form, maybe they’re too frazzled to even wrap their heads around it.
“They can go into our Zoom room where someone will talk to them, help them fill out the form, and connect them to an expert in the field in real-time if need be.”
Illustrative: For individuals who feel to frazzled to fill out a form, there is an ESNA Zoom room that is open from 8am to 10pm (Courtesy Anna Shvets/Pexels)
The hundreds of people who have already used the platform have sought assistance with a wide range of issues.
One case, shares Mushkin, was of a mother with two children on the autism spectrum who came under fire from Hamas terrorists while evacuating their community in the south of the country. Israeli soldiers saved them at the very last minute, and the family managed to reach the safety of Even Yehuda, a town in central Israel.
ESNA was able to quickly find volunteers from the same city to bring them food and provide them with psychological support.
Another case was of a blind woman who was evacuated from Nahariya on the Lebanese border, and had been forced to leave her home without her cane. She found refuge at a hotel in Tel Aviv, but was unable to replace her cane unaided.
ESNA volunteers helped buy and deliver a replacement cane for a blind woman who was evacuated from northern Israel (Courtesy Eren Li/Pexels)
ESNA was able to contact a center for the blind to open their shop for one of the organization’s volunteers to buy a replacement cane and deliver it to her.
“No bot, no AI, nothing like that could have answered these kinds of cases,” says Mushkin.
ESNA is not the only initiative offering services to disabled people in need. Other initiatives include Shavvim (Hebrew for equals), an online media outlet for people with disabilities, which has collaborated with former member of Knesset and deaf activist Shirly Pinto to open a 24/7 situation room.
This project also aids individuals who need help with essential requests such as finding psychological assistance, refilling prescriptions and buying groceries.
ESNA’s partners include the National Israeli Society for Children and Adults with Autism (ALUT), which provides a range of services for people with autism of all ages nationwide; Access Israel, whose main mission is to promote accessibility and inclusion among all sectors; and Brothers in Arms, an organisation of IDF reservists who provide full-time aid and relief to those in need.
A Hackautism volunteer (Courtesy)
The platform also has 15 other initiatives created through Hackautism that are available to assist with specific requests. “We are proud to offer innovative solutions to the challenges we now face,” says Rimon Tubin, co-founder of Hackautism.
The entire ESNA platform is managed by a team of around two dozen volunteers and ESNA is actively seeking more help to address the growing number of daily requests.
“People can volunteer in an impactful way from their home or from their office,” says Mushkin.
“All it takes is to go into our system and connect these people with the organizations that could best help them,” she explains. “It’s very gratifying.”
Kfar Aza resident Neta Portal woke up to the sound of warning sirens in her apartment with her partner Santiago on the morning of October 7. Despite hiding out in their safe room, terrorists penetrated the door with bullets before throwing a grenade that forced Neta and Santiago to flee from the apartment through a window. While escaping, Neta retained seven gunshot wounds to her legs while Santiago suffered from a gunshot to his back. The couple was ultimately rescued and treated in the hospital, but both still have a long way to go to heal.
Now, Neta is back on her feet – literally – thanks to Assistant Professor Dana Solav of the Technion Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Dr. Amir Haim, director of the Biomechanical Rehabilitation Unit and senior physician at the Loewenstein Rehabilitation Center. The two created a unique orthotic device tailored specifically for Neta based on 3D scans of her leg to aid her in walking while her injured ankle is unable to bear weight. They developed the technology under the guidance of Professor Alon Wolf during their studies at the Technion and have maintained a rewarding professional relationship since.
The device’s purpose is to enable the recovery of mobility while practicing natural and symmetrical walking under the requirement that the ankle is entirely or partially offloaded. It effectively transfers weight to the healthy part of the leg above the injury, allowing walking without causing pain. It features an adjustment mechanism that allows for a gradual and measured increase of weight-bearing of the affected part of the leg, according to the level permitted by the clinical condition.
According to Prof. Solav, the device allows the knee and hip joints to move and function normally, which helps prevent muscle atrophy and bone density reduction – especially in long-term rehabilitation processes. The 3D scanning technology eliminates the need for a traditional plaster cast, and the computational design process facilitates the fabrication process, which combines a lightweight aluminum frame and 3D-printed parts.
Along with her research team of students and engineers, Prof. Solav is continuing to develop and improve the device for other uses, such as assisting diabetic patients who cannot walk due to pressure ulcers on their feet. The team is also planning to conduct clinical trials in collaboration with Loewenstein Rehabilitation Center and hopes to see how the orthosis can aid in walking rehabilitation.
In an interview with Ynet, Neta shared her gratitude and optimism: “Before the operation, thanks to the Technion’s device, I already managed to take several steps and jump on my right leg. It’s important for me to say that the work carried out by the team is amazing, and it has become an integral part of my rehab. They were very attentive and responsive. I was in a wheelchair for almost three months, and thanks to them, I went back to walking on my feet, even if not completely. They don’t know yet whether I will fully recover, but I hope so.”
Researchers at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa have developed a new tool to determine whether a cancer patient is predisposed to an advanced kind of treatment called immunotherapy.
The immune system contains “checkpoints” to prevent it from attacking cancer cells too strongly, as this would also potentially damage nearby healthy cells.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) suppress this action and allow the immune system to attack the cancer cells, but they are only effective in less than 40 percent of patients and tools currently being used to predict the drug’s efficacy are not completely accurate.
Now, according to Prof. Keren Yizhak and Ofir Shorer, how well a patient responds to ICI therapy can be predicted by the metabolic activity in their immune system cells, as they battle any cancer cells in their environment for nutrients and other resources.
The two are members of the Technion’s Bruce and Ruth Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and the Rappaport Family Institute for Research in the Medical Sciences.
To make sure of the accuracy of the tool, Yizhak and Shorer analyzed some 1,700 metabolic genes taken from over one million immune cells of cancer patients receiving ICI.
The study was recently published under the title “Metabolic predictors of response to immune checkpoint blockade therapy” by the US National Center for Biotechnology Information.
An Israeli startup that uses artificial intelligence to diagnose cancer has unveiled a new solution that will help pathologists detect the specific treatments that will benefit breast cancer patients most.
Ibex Medical Analytics’ Galen Breast HER2 platform can accurately determine the expression in cancer slides of the protein HER2, which is responsible for the proliferation of breast cancer cells.
The platform uses AI to analyze the slides, identify the tumor cells and rapidly calculate the HER2 score of the tissue. The results are highlighted for the pathologist, who can review them and make a final decision as to what cancer treatment is best for each patient.
Traditionally, pathologists evaluate HER2 in tumor samples visually, which may result in varied interpretations. The Galen Breast HER2 scoring system quantifies the sample’s expression of the protein into four standard categories to help the pathologist make a more accurate decision.
The technology was developed and validated by Ibex in collaboration with AstraZeneca, the British-Swedish multinational biotechnology company, and Daiichi Sankyo, a Japanese pharma company.
“We are committed to providing pathologists with the most comprehensive AI platform as they implement digital pathology,” said Issar Yazbin, VP Product Management at Ibex Medical Analytics.
“In addition to HER2, we are now able to support full review of breast biopsies and excisions, distinguish between multiple types of invasive and non-invasive cancer, detect more than 50 malignant and non-malignant morphological features, and provide the underlying technology for automated quantification of additional prognostic and predictive breast biomarkers such as Ki-67, ER and PR.”
