The university team has tested its research on mice in a novel trial
A team of scientists from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology has used genetically engineered muscle tissue to cure mice of type 2 diabetes.
Muscle cells are among the main targets of insulin, which is supposed to absorb sugar from the blood. However, in type 2 diabetics, this ability is reduced.
Up until now, restoring the metabolic activity of muscles has just been an unexplored idea. Now, however, the theory has been proven – thanks to Professor Shulamit Levenberg, Dean of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at the Technion and doctoral student Rita Beckerman.
Isolating the muscle cells and engineering them to be metabolically functional before transporting them back into the abdomen of the diabetic mice led to the now-healthy cells absorbing sugar correctly and improved blood sugar levels – both in the abdominal muscles and elsewhere in the body.
The mice remained cured of diabetes for the entire four-month period which they were observed.
Professor Levenberg said: “These cells worked hard and absorbed glucose, and also secreted factors that systematically affected the metabolism of the mice.
“The approach can be used to rescue mice from their diabetic situation, and now we hope to be able to use it in the future as a treatment for humans.”
“It’s such a novel approach that we really didn’t know what to expect, but we were extremely happy with the result”, Beckerman added.
“This could potentially, in the future, give human patients with Type 2 diabetes the possibility of having an implant and then going for a few months without taking any medications.”
The research is published in the peer-reviewed Science Advances journal.
Diabetes currently affects 4.7 million people in the UK, according to Diabetes UK – 90% of which will have type 2. Type 2 diabetes can lead to long-term complications such as heart disease, stroke, kidney failure and blindness.
This Israeli startup finds key ingredients in nature that are also found in breast milk
The ingredients that make mother’s milk the best possible thing for a baby will now be available for grownups.
Israeli food tech startup Maolac uses an algorithm that matches the key proteins in breast milk with alternative sources found in mushrooms, algae, and plants.
Everything that baby benefits from — protection against illness, anti-inflammatory qualities, and nutrition — will be utilized in a superfood for adults, Maya Ashkenazi Otmazgin, and biomedical engineer and the CEO for Maolac, tells NoCamels.
“We created an algorithm that can actually look at all the proteins inside breast milk and mix and match the key proteins responsible for different functionalities and then find them in alternative sources in nature, like mushrooms, algae, and plants,” she says.
Maolac is also said to be the first company in the world to identify and extract functional proteins from bovine colostrum, a nutrient-rich milky fluid that comes from the udder of cows in the first four to five days after giving birth, which is 95 percent equivalent to those found in breast milk, according to the firm.
Bovine colostrum produced by baby calves should not go to waste. Image by Erdenebayar Bayansan from Pixabay
Extra milk from calves– as much as 20 liters per cow — is thrown away after getting a certain amount from each one. “If we look for it, we will see 5 billion liters of bovine colostrum that the dairy industry does not use,” Ashkenazi Otmazgin says.
“The idea of transforming the first, nutrient-rich milk of cows that have just given birth into a source for human protein is a stroke of pure genius. Billions of liters of bovine colostrum are discarded each year. Maolac takes this waste and creates a product of huge potential benefit to millions at a time when the world is desperately searching for new sustainable sources of protein. The company is a perfect example of the circular economy in action,” said Jon Medved, CEO of OurCrowd, which has invested in the company.
Nursing vision
Otmagazin had the idea to create a superfood using nutritional ingredients found in breast milk while experiencing “the magic” of nursing her first child. She realized she wanted to harness the benefits of that breast milk for adults.
“I told myself – this is the ultimate superfood for mammals,” she says in a conversation with NoCamels during a short break between a hectic day of meetings. “There are different functionalities that breast milk can provide for a small human being and I realized we could leverage all the goodness to create something new inspired by a formulation that created the human species and actually brought us to where we are,” she says.
In 2018, Ashkenazi Otmazgin joined forces with Eli Lerner and immunity expert Dr. Ariel Orbach to form a food tech startup. The company just raised a $3.2 million seed funding round led by active crowdfunding platform OurCrowd with participation from The Kitchen FoodTech Hub founded by the Strauss Group, The Food Tech Lab, VentureIsrael, NEOME, and Mediterranean Towers Ventures.
Studies have shown that there are numerous benefits to breastfeeding a baby that both protect against illness and positively impact health and child development. According to the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, breast milk provides abundant and easily absorbed nutritional components, antioxidants, enzymes, immune properties, and live antibodies from the mother that attack germs and protect the baby from illness.
Maolac superfood products. Courtesy.
Maolac’s technology relies on a bio-convergence platform for the discovery of proteins based on machine learning and natural language processing search algorithms. The company identified more than 1,5000 known bio-active proteins in human breast milk and over 400 homolog proteins in bovine colostrum, and have since created thousands of human functional milk protein mixtures using similar ingredients found in plants and mushrooms, and other sources found in nature.
Ashkenazi Otmazgin stresses that the alternative sources must come from nature. “We don’t make them in a lab or genetically modify our mixtures.”
Maolac’s active ingredients work like breast milk to directly target specific body function, traveling through the bloodstream or gut to produce higher overall efficacy at lower dosages, a statement from Maolac said.
One of the ingredients has anti-inflammatory properties and is part of the first Maolac product line for humans. It will target athletes to reduce muscle strain and improve recovery time. The product will also target the elderly to support living and improved mobility. It will form the basis for the next generation of gut health solutions for humans and pets to help prevent severe cases of gut inflammation.
The second ingredient will be a part of products creating the next generation of probiotics, according to Otmazgin. It will contribute to a better digestive system to reduce inconvenience due to stress in the gut, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), or other conditions
Maolac will use the seed funding they just raised to build a state-of-the-art facility that will feature small-scale production capabilities. The facility will also be able to create analytics and samples for customers and clinical trials.
The Maolac team. Maya Otmazgin is in the center. Courtesy.
Ashkenazi Otmazgin tells NoCamels that the startup is in advanced discussions on joint development agreements with several leading Israeli companies in the food and supplements markets. It is also in talks with several of the world’s leading dairy protein producers and global dairy, ingredient, and supplement companies.
“We have several contracts on the table with potential global manufacturers that will produce for us. Our intention is to go global,” says Ashkenazi Otmazgin, citing both the US and Europe.
“We want to be the next generation of smart ingredient companies that create precision proteins for the food supplements and cosmetics industries with a portfolio of products with different functionalities,” says Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Otmazgin, “We want to bring active ingredients in small doses that won’t have an influence on taste, texture, or colors of existing food products, so people will love to consume those products.”
Ashkenazi Otmazgin also admits that in the future, the company will go to other markets, like the baby formula market. “Not full formula, but functional ingredients for the industry,” she adds.
For now, though, the focus is breast milk.
“There are so many companies that work in the alternative space and don’t look at breast milk — there is something quite repulsive when you talk about it. But adults can take real advantage of it,” she says.
Two-minute AI profile saves physician from time-consuming trawl of medical records
The average doctor’s appointment lasts about 20 minutes — 30 if you’re lucky. The physician sees dozens of patients, many with complex histories and taking a range of medications. Every detail is important, but there’s no way a doctor can keep track of it all.
Enter Navina (“Together we Understand” in Hebrew), a platform that uses AI to present a doctor, with an entire in-depth medical history that they can read and digest in two minutes.
It presents them with indications of risk factors, illnesses, and treatments of a patient, in an easy-to-read patient profile that can be accessed through a smartphone app. So they no longer need to trawl through a mass of records going back months and years from different hospitals and different specialists.
The company was founded by two former intelligence officers who revolutionized the use of AI during their time in the IDF to present military commanders with the data they needed, when they needed it.
They are now adapting that model to help busy doctors who need to have all relevant data at their fingertips the moment their patient walks into the surgery.
Navina says it turns “chaotic data into actionable patient portraits”. The portrait replaces disorganized patient data with a logical grid that makes it possible for a primary care physician to access a patient’s medical records within seconds.
Navina’s patient portrait provides a one-page summary with critical information from many sources, including images, emails, and faxes that are hard for physicians to find on their own.
The team teaches the machine how to extract the proper data no matter what the source. To do this, Navina developed NLP (natural language processing) models which extract and structure the data through deep learning. with special codes for specific terminology.
Ronen Lavi, co-founder and CEO of Navina, compares the profile to what happens when you do a Google search on a person, where clicking to search will get you a page that is a roundup of the person with a photo, biography, information about life experiences, and articles correlated with the person. Similarly, Navina would present a contextual summary of a patient’s most pertinent medical information so that physicians can understand their health status.
Navina presents the doctor with a two-minute in-depth patient profile. Deposit Photos
“We built algorithms to do two main things. First, you have a lot of unstructured data — a lot of text. In a process called entity extraction, we extract all the right relevant codes out of the text, all the labs, all the meds, all the problems, all the diagnoses, through machine learning (ML) capabilities. Then, we build a knowledge graph that links all the data,” he tells NoCamels.
“For a problem like blood pressure, [the profile] will show you the right medication, the right consult notes, the right lab tests, everything is correlated and explained to the physician. That’s the two main things we’re doing behind the scenes,” he says, noting that it’s about taking all the information, doing a correlation, and then creating a link that gives you a contextual understanding of your subject.
“What we saw was one of the main problems of physicians. They can address one or two problems — maybe three — if they know them in advance,” Lavi adds. “Five minutes before having to leave, the patient remembers – ‘Oh, hey, I have to ask you about this medication. I have to ask you about the new problem I have. I have to ask you about my family — and the physician hates this. The patient also hates it because they get the answer, ‘Sorry, my friend, I can’t deal with this right now. I have to go to the next meeting. And the patient doesn’t get the full attention he needs.”
The Navina app is currently being used by some 1,500 physicians and at leading clinics across the United States. The company is also marketing the product to health providers and risk adjustment teams , that predict future health care expenditures of individuals based on diagnoses and demographics.
Cutting through the clutter of patient data
The healthcare industry has amassed a huge amount of data over time, which has quickly become disorganized and difficult to manage. With so much data to analyze so quickly, health professionals often turn to AI to organize and interpret the data for improved insights.
This isn’t easy, Lavi tells NoCamels. In fact, it’s “complicated technology,” which explains why it hasn’t been done before. But Navina has a number of AI and medical experts on its team, including two co-founders with experience in the elite 8200 unit of the IDF, where they focused on bringing AI from theory into practice.
Lavi spent 24 years in 8200 and at the Prime Minister’s Office, where he established and led the AI Lab of Israel’s Military Intelligence, which collaborates with leading tech companies and academia to develop cross-functional platforms that provide insight into challenging data. Shay Perera, CTO at Navina spent a decade in elite intelligence units, where he was involved in R&D and held leadership positions. He also has a Master of Science in electrical engineering from the Technion with a specialty in machine learning.
Perera says a relative of his was diagnosed very late with cancer due to mistakes by the family doctor and his condition deteriorated as a result. The pair realized GPs were missing out on many critical diagnoses because they couldn’t absorb the volume of patient data they had to deal with.
The Navina team behind the app that turns chaotic data into clear information for doctors. Courtesy
Lavi and Perera were responsible for one of the greatest revolutions that took place in 8200 and later in the IDF – the smart data revolution that is presented to commanders in real-time. The two built the AI / ML-based information systems of the cyber units that processed data and upgraded the capabilities of cyber commanders and won a National Security Award for their efforts in 2018.
After being released from the army, the two used their knowledge and expertise in data, AI, and machine learning to make a difference in people’s lives. For Naviana, founded in 2018, the two replicated the data model they built in the IDF to implement it in health institutions around the world.
“I think the gain for the patient is very obvious,” says Lavi, “They want to get everything to be addressed. And the physician should be with the patient, not with the computer. And that’s what Navina allows them to do because everything’s summarized for you in two or three clicks.”
“Navina is disruptive because it’s one of the first digital health applications that I know of, which the physician is actually willing to use. It’s not a burden. The machine behind the scene does a lot of stuff for them that allows them to understand the patient very easily. And every time I say that, people ask how did nobody think about it before and why hasn’t it been done.”
These Israeli companies use mobile phones to gather and/or transmit health data and keep tabs on chronic conditions.
Social entrepreneur Ariel Beery and optics expert David Levitz had the inspiration to use the built-in camera of a smartphone to screen for cervical cancer — the fourth most common cancer affecting women globally and the second most common cancer for women in low-resource settings.
“More than five billion people around the world have access to mobile phones, but not to a physician,” Beery told ISRAEL21c in 2014, when the prototype was being piloted in five countries.
“We can do what a $100,000 device can do on a mobile phone, with 10 times better magnification than using just the naked eye, raising diagnostic accuracy significantly.”
Today, the EVA point-of-care device from MobileODT is used by primary care providers in 30-plus countries to conduct specialist-level visual screenings for thousands of women.
Ariel Beery, general partner of CoVelocity Health. Photo by Erin Kopelow
“MobileODT was the first company to build an FDA Class 2 medical device — a regulated medical device that replaces an existing medical system — around a mobile phone,” says former MobileODT CEO Beery, now general partner at CoVelocity Health, a strategic commercialization partner for medical technologies.
Since then, many other companies have harnessed the mobile phone – either to help healthcare professionals gather data (as with MobileODT) or to help patients transmit data from home to the practitioner and facilitate communication during a remote exam.
“There are a number of reasons why mobile phones make sense to be the core platform for a medical device,” says Beery.
“The first one is that every single person on the planet knows how to use one. And that is so important, because training and onboarding for a medical device is very difficult. When you have something based on a mobile phone platform, it’s relatively easy for the practitioner to watch a few tutorials and very quickly start using the device. That’s not the case with anything else, and it’s super important because then you can expand into rural areas and low-resource settings efficiently.”
There are other advantages of using smartphones for healthcare.
“From a regulatory perspective, most mobile phones in the market have received both electrical testing and broadcast certificates. Wi-Fi is intermittent around the world, but when you have a SIM card and a device that will be connected or integrated with medical information systems, a mobile phone shortcuts a whole host of regulation and registration — things that are really hard and expensive to do,” Beery adds. “For any [medical] device that requires communication, mobile phones already have all that already baked in.”
Below are descriptions of 13 companies using the smartphone as a basis or adjunct for smart healthcare.
MobileODT
Photo of the EVA system courtesy of MobileODT
Beery and Levitz originally envisioned EVA as a colposcope addon for the healthcare practitioner’s own phone. The current version instead has a dedicated Samsung J530 built in for all-in-one visualization, documentation and teleconsultation.
“We learned that there’s a big difference between things that assist a health worker in decision-making or communication functions, where using their own mobile phone makes sense; and information-gathering or diagnostic functions, in which case a dedicated mobile phone makes sense,” Beery explains.
“Diagnostic functions require your device to touch the patient. That brings up issues of security and sterilization. Also, a dedicated phone doesn’t have the same wear and tear and memory issues that you have with someone’s personal phone and doesn’t conflict with their images and WhatsApp and what have you.”
The EVA product line now includes separate devices for cervical cancer screening, cervical examination and sexual assault forensics. It’s also used to train clinicians in colposcopy; telecolposcopy or remote colposcopy.
Binah.ai
Remotely or onsite, Binah.ai’s video-based solution provides medical-grade vital signs measurements — heart rate, heart rate variability, mental stress level, oxygen saturation, respiration rate and more — within 2 minutes via a video of the patient’s upper cheek taken with a smartphone, tablet or laptop.
The signal processing and AI technology compensates for motion and imperfect lighting, and supports any age, gender and skin color. It can even detect subtle changes that might otherwise go unnoticed. Binah.ai works with healthcare, insurance and wellness industries in several countries.
Binah.ai is headquartered in Ramat Gan with offices in Maryland and Tokyo.
Healthy.io
This Tel Aviv-based startup, founded in 2013, leverages the image-processing capability of any smartphone camera for four at-home Minuteful medical tests – kidney function, wound management, urinary tract infection and urinalysis — whose results are transmitted to the clinician instantly.
Healthy.io’s partners in the US and UK include, among others, the National Kidney Foundation, the National Health Service, Modality and the Boots chain. The company recently acquired its American competitor, Inui Health, for $9 million.
K Health
K Health, billed as “healthcare without the system,” provides 24/7 phone access to board-certified doctors in 48 US states for $29 per month (no insurance necessary), where it has some 6 million users. The entire intake process is done on the smartphone, and users text K Health when they are free for a consult.
K Health provides 24/7 access to physicians as well as a free symptom checker. Photo courtesy of K Health
Members can download a free AI-powered symptom-checker app and obtain on-the-go prescriptions and refills. Primary care, urgent care, mental health and pediatric care (as well as Covid-related services) are all included. K Health is based in New York with development offices in Tel Aviv.
Sweetch
Sweetch provides a personalized digital coach for preventing and managing chronic diseases. Image: screenshot
Sweetch is a mobile based digital coach providing personalized recommendations for preventing and managing chronic conditions, generated from analysis of millions of datapoints on the individual’s smartphone and other connected devices.
In addition to the Sweetch app, the technology is available as a white-label app or as an SDK to be integrated within an existing app. Headquartered in Tel Aviv, Sweetch is used in countries across the world.
Montfort
Montfort bridges technology and neurology, turning any standard smartphone into a personalized neurological medical testing device.
Using smartphone sensors and AI, Montfort’s EncephaLog app provides FDA-cleared digital neurological tests for early diagnosis of conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, anxiety, depression, post-Covid-19 neurological symptoms and more.
In the app, patients see the specific tests prescribed with reminders about when to take the tests and instructions in the patient’s preferred language. Montfort is used in more than 10 countries.
The tests measure parameters in three dimensions — motor (such as balance, gait, tremor), cognitive (memory, response time, pattern recognition) and mood indicators. It merges those measures with a fourth dimension of physiological records (genetics, brain scans, data from wearable devices) for a holistic picture.
Nonagon
Nonagon, backed by Phillips and Teva, has FDA and CE approval for its smartphone-based telemedicine device.
Four embedded sensors interface with the user’s smartphone to provide readings of nine common tests required for primary medical care: a stethoscope check (lung, heart and bowel sounds), otoscopy of the ear, oximeter (pulse rate and saturation), thermometer (body temperature), and a throat and skin test that uses the smartphone’s camera.
The device works with patients as young as two years old. The clinical data is sent in real time to the physician, enabling near immediate diagnosis, referral or prescription. Formerly known as MyHomeDoc, Nonagon is based in Caesarea with offices in New York.
TytoCare
This company’s award-winning TytoHome remote exam device ties in with the user’s and physician’s iOS or Android smartphone (or other device) via an app that allows the practitioner to control and guide the entire exam in real time.
For example, the clinician can take control of the stethoscope adapter to listen to lung and heart sounds or use the otoscope adapter to check ears for infection. After confirming a diagnosis, the clinician can send further instructions or a prescription.
OneStep
Photo courtesy of OneStep
OneStep of Tel Aviv developed an app-based physical therapy platform providing comprehensive gait analysis using only smartphone sensors.
The user needs nothing more than a smartphone nearby while doing the prescribed exercises. The app gives a detailed assessment of walking and overall mobility and allows physical therapists to communicate and provide effective treatment to patients 24/7.
Lumen
Lumen’s handheld device allows users to analyze and monitor their metabolism with their smartphone. It reveals the body’s current source of energy — fats or carbs — on a scale of 1 to 5, based on the respiratory exchange ratio.
Image courtesy of Lumen
The score helps users adjust their daily diet and physical activities accordingly: Low-carb days decrease the insulin spike, improving insulin sensitivity and enhancing mitochondrial function, while high-carb days ensure the body’s ability to use carbs for energy and keep hormones in balance.
MindReset
This app built on eye-tracking technology from Jerusalem-based Umoove helps thousands of users “reset” their response to depression, trauma, anxiety, stress and other emotional triggers.
Image courtesy of MindReset
An audio guide takes the user through each daily two-minute session of a 10-day program tailored to specific conditions. The eye tracker on the phone’s camera detects patterns in eye movement that indicate a stress trigger. Users are directed to do certain tasks with their eyes that interrupt the pattern and thus create a therapeutic effect by clearing the triggers.
The unique method behind the app was published last November in the journal Frontiers.
Yitzi Kempinski, founder-CEO of Umoove and CTO of MindReset, says results are so encouraging that the company is researching other ways people can use the app, such as for work burnout or emotional barriers to learning.
Neuralight
Using ocular metric data captured with a standard webcam or smartphone, this Tel Aviv- and Texas-based startup is building an AI-driven platform to accelerate and improve drug development and patient monitoring, as well as introduce precision care for patients with neurological disorders.
A physician records a five-minute video of a patient’s eye movements. Neuralight’s imaging tools clean up the video, then artificial intelligence and machine learning decipher what’s behind the eye movements.
The concept is based on scientific studies over the past 20 years showing correlations between various oculometric measures and the neurological status of patients suffering from a range of neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders.
Cordio Medical
Cordio Medical’s HearO technology can sense fluid accumulation related to congestive heart failure through a patient’s speech and send an alert. This noninvasive monitoring solution is based on true speech signal processing augmented with machine learning.
The user speaks into a smartphone app whose algorithms allow near real-time monitoring and early detection of condition deterioration. The system is patient-tailored, constantly learning the patient’s voice. HearO noninvasively.
The company recently raised $18 million and aims to enter the US market in 2024.
Technion-patented technology enables monitoring and early identification of changes in the condition of respiratory patients at home or in hospital.
The Jerusalem Post has partnered with ExitValley, a digital platform that enables anyone to invest in Israel’s start-up ecosystem and share in its success. In this article, we are pleased to introduce NanoVation-GS, an Israeli company that has developed a first-of-its-kind nanosensor-based technology for monitoring and managing chronic respiratory conditions at home or hospitals while reducing hospitalizations.
The patented technology was discovered at the Technion and is undergoing clinical trials in Israel and the EU. “The technology enables surveillance and early identification of changes in the patient’s condition. In addition to reducing hospitalizations, it is also expected to reduce their duration”, says the company’s CEO and co-founder, Dr. Gregory Shuster, Ph.D.
NanoVation-GS has developed a unique technology for monitoring patients with chronic lung diseases, with an emphasis on obstructive diseases such as COPD – Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, which enables early detection of worsening of symptoms and helps reduce prolonged and frequent hospitalizations by allowing the patient to receive appropriate early treatment. “The device is designed to measure important respiratory parameters without any discomfort or effort needed by the patient,” says Dr. Shuster.
NanoVation company’s CEO and co-founder, Dr. Gregory Shuster, Ph.D. (Credit: NanoVation)
The development is based on advanced nanosensor technology, which for the first time allows accurate monitoring of changes in respiratory function without any discomfort or effort from the patient, and is particularly sensitive to fluctuations and changes in several critical respiratory parameters. “One of the things we identified was the gap in technologies related to respiratory monitoring. When you look at monitoring in cardiology, for example, there are much broader tools than in respiratory monitoring,” Dr. Shuster explains.
The solution provides the ability to manage chronic respiratory diseases via the cloud, allowing doctors to review data from any location, during hospitalization, and during the follow-up period at home, which also enables the creation of “big data”-bases of all relevant information. “The system is simple to use at home without any need for professional assistance or in a clinical environment. It operates in a non-invasive method, measures normal and effortless breathing, and uses exclusive biomarkers which were identified by the company’s technology,” Dr. Shuster adds.
“The system is simple to use at home without any need for professional assistance or in a clinical environment”.
Dr. Gregory Shuster
NanoVation-GS was founded at the Technion by a leading experienced team, including Dr. Shuster- founder and CEO and senior researcher in nanomaterials and materials engineering, and Prof. Hossam Haick, founder and CSO, a leading researcher and expert in nanotechnology. The company has an exclusive license for its first patent from the Technion and two additional patents owned by the company, which are in the registration phase.
NanoVation-GS has been granted a prestigious development grant by the European Innovation Council (EIC), which only supports start-ups identified as companies with a significant impact and groundbreaking technology. In addition, the company has previously received grants from the Israel Innovation Authority. “Breathing monitoring technologies today can be divided into two groups,” says Dr. Shuster. “One is the technologies that measure normal breathing, which are not invasive or annoying to the patient, but the data collected is limited to the parameter of breathing rate only.
Nanovation Technology (Credit: NanoVation)
“The second group provides a series of respiratory parameters, but it requires the patient to perform certain breathing maneuvers. This is a complicated test for the patient to perform at home. It is bothersome, unpleasant for the patient, and the doctor who receives the data cannot know whether the test was performed properly, because he did not see the patient do it.
“What we do is combine the benefits of these two worlds,” says Dr. Shuster. “On the one hand, our measurement takes a few minutes, during which the patient puts on the sensor and does nothing extra. On the other hand, the data we extract provides a series of respiratory parameters, which are very relevant to changes in the disease condition. All this in one simple test, which can also be done routinely at home. The patient cannot get an incorrect measurement, because all he has to do is breathe naturally.”
The company’s SenseGuard product has been tested so far in successful clinical trials at leading partners in Israel and around the world, including Halle-Saale University Hospital in Germany, Nicosia Lung Center in Cyprus, and in Israel at Ichilov Medical Center, Poriah Hospital, Nazareth Hospital, Rambam and Barzilai Hospitals and the Galilee Medical Center.
NanoVation-GS has completed all procedures needed for obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals for medical devices, including CE certification and international ISO standards. The company will work to update its existing CE certification to the new standard (MDR), while also planning to obtain FDA approval at a later date. NanoVation-GS is ready to start marketing activities in Europe towards entry into the COPD monitoring market, which is its first phase destination market, and later will turn to other territories and examine further commercial and clinical applications.
“Right now, we are focusing on the medical field, looking at chronic respiratory patients, but plans for the future are varied,” Dr. Shuster concludes. “The use of our technology can also be extended to other respiratory and non-respiratory diseases, sleep monitoring and even entering the field of wellness, by measuring and helping to manage the level of stress, assisting with breathing exercises in yoga and more.”
The Technion has received its first human MRI research scanner made by Siemens. The device will operate within the framework of the May-Blum-Dahl Human MRI Research Center in its own 200 square meter facility in the Technion’s Joseph Center for Industrial Research.
The new Center, operated by the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, will be used by researchers, professors, and students to carry out interdisciplinary research in a range of scientific and medical fields, as part of the Technion’s commitment to scientific excellence and the advancement of human health.
MRI is an important technology for structural and functional imaging of tissues and internal organs including the brain, is non-invasive, and avoids exposure to ionizing radiation. According to the Center’s manager, Dr. Dafna Link-Sourani of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, “the MRI study is characterized by being interdisciplinary and involving various engineering faculties (electrical, computers, mechanical, and material) and sciences (physics, chemistry, and biology), and of course medical research.”
According to Prof. Moti Freiman, who is the Center’s academic director, “Many researchers at the Technion have been waiting for the arrival of this essential research tool, and until now have been using other MRI centers for their research. The device will be available to researchers from a wide range of disciplines at the Technion and will also be used by industry researchers who want to deepen their R&D. The uniqueness of the new Center is its location within an engineering faculty, in an institute which is recognized as a global leader in innovative research, with a wide range of engineering fields. This will significantly help to advance innovation at the forefront of research and technology and to develop solutions to important clinical problems. There is no doubt that Siemens is pleased to have brought us the scanner, as we hope that Technion researchers can offer significant improvements in its performance.”
The commencement of the new center’s activity, expected later this year, is the result of ongoing fundraising led by Technion management, together with several Technion researchers: Professor Shulamit Levenberg, former dean of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering; Dr. Moti Freiman, and Dr. Firas Mawase of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering; Professor Tzipi Horowitz-Krauss of the Faculty of Science and Technology Education, and Dr. Yoad Kenett of the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management.
This Center will be the first human research MRI center of its kind in the north of the country and is also set-up to explore children’s development. To that end, it includes a mock scanner, making it possible to acclimate children and infants to the imaging process prior to entering the actual device.
Israeli medical device company SoniVie, announced on Sunday that it received Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for its REDUCED1 (Renal Denervation using Ultrasonic Catheter EmitteD energy) pilot study to treat resistant hypertension patients with renal artery denervation using its proprietary therapeutic intra-vascular ultra-sound system, or TIVUS.
Renal denervation with TIVUS is a minimally invasive procedure that uses high-frequency non-focused ultra-sound energy to burn away nerves in the renal artery. The TIVUS catheter is inserted into the pulmonary artery and selectively damages nerves afflicted by the disease without touching vessel walls or damaging adjacent tissues. This causes a reduction in the nerve activity, which decreases blood pressure and is meant for patients who suffer from resistant hypertension.
Resistant hypertension is defined as blood pressure that remains higher than 140/90 mmHg despite the use of three hierarchical classes of antihypertensive medications at their most appropriate tolerated doses. The condition affects millions of people around the world, increasing the risk of heart attack, stroke, and kidney failure.
Founded in 2014, SoniVie has developed a first-of-its-kind ultra-sound denervation platform with active programs establishing nuanced therapeutic solutions for pulmonary hypertension denervation, renal artery denervation for resistant hypertension, and lung denervation for obstructive pulmonary disease with chronic bronchitis.
“We are very pleased that the FDA has approved the REDUCED1 study,” said Christian Spaulding, chief marketing officer of SoniVie. “Sites initiation has started, and many clinical teams have responded very favorably about participating in the study.
“There is a significant number of patients that may benefit from our technology and we are genuinely happy for this important step towards the introduction of TIVUS in the US,” he added. “There is a lack of effective therapeutic solutions for patients suffering from resistant hypertension, and physicians are looking forward to a safe, effective and easy to use device treatment.”
“This is a significant US regulatory milestone for SoniVie, starting the feasibility study using the ultra-sound ablation platform in the US for the renal denervation indication,” said Tomaso Zambelli, CEO of SoniVie. “This is a major step and priority in the company’s history.”
On this World Blood Donor Day, let’s explore some Israeli tech that is making a difference to one of our most vital components: our blood
Hematological awareness is important as body vitality is exclusively dependent on blood flow. Blood is our natural producer of oxygen and carbon dioxide, and it is also a key mechanism for medical identification. For decades, doctors have prioritized blood analytics and testing as these results present in-depth information regarding diagnostics, treatment methods, and one’s overall physical state. Blood is as much the cure as it is the cause– blood donations are organized worldwide to act as a remedy for the shortage of blood and blood products that can single-handedly save hundreds of lives. Here in Israel, MedTech’s innovative efforts have always been advanced, yet amidst the effects of COVID-19 and how it continues to modify all spheres of society, Israeli MedTech innovations are at an all-time high. With the focus strictly on blood analytics, Israel’s start-up environment has pushed forth incentives and actions that have seemingly revolutionized how blood can be analyzed, detected, and measured. Here are some Israeli startups that play a role in hematology solutions.
PixCell
Blood diagnostic information, in most cases, does not do enough to create an effective impact on immediate health solutions and products. The devices and technologies that have been used thus far do not provide doctors and patients with substantial information when it matters most. Moreover, real-time blood testing is not accessible to everyone which presents numerous implications when patients are in emergencies. These obstacles have disrupted medical efforts for decades as there is a pressing need for in-depth, easily accessible blood diagnostic tools. In an accidental discovery made by a team of researchers at the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology), Viscoelastic Focusing (VEF) has been recognized as the saving grace toward efficient cell analytics. The Israeli startup PixCell has created the HemoScreen that uses advanced technology making use of VEF potential. This product uses a disposable cartridge with specific reagents to elicit a Complete Blood Count test. HemoScreen does not require maintenance or calibration and is versatile to fit the precise needs of its user.
PixCell was founded in 2008 with a keen focus on simplifying and regularizing real-time blood testing worldwide. Their research and entrepreneurial staff have surpassed company expectations with the discovery of Viscoelastic Focusing (VEF), paving a way for pivotal advancements in hematological efforts. Their team consists of Avishay Bransky (CEO, Co-Founder), Prof. Max Herzberg (Co-Founder), Armin Schon (CCO), Hanan Ben-Asher (COO, BD Manager), Mark Erez (CFO), Yaara Ben-Yosef (Director of RA and Clinical Affairs), and Eitan Hod (Director of QA and RA). PixCell has raised over $7 million in grant funding from the European Commission, the International Health-Tech Pilot Program, and the Israel Innovation Authority. In 2021 PixCell was acquired by Soulbrain Holdings.
RedC Biotech
The global supply of red blood cells has seeped far under worldwide medical demands. This shortage has served as a detriment to medical interventions such as trauma, childbirth, operations, chronic illness, cancer, and the list goes on. Red blood cells are the oxygen-carrying capacity of the body which is why 120 million blood units are donated each year, yet there is still a concerning decrease in these donations. Blood drives and donation sites, although they function as a temporary solution, are still not enough to compensate for the urgency in transfusion methods, productions, and resources. The Israeli startup RedC Biotech has initiated a “one blood type fits all” method with RedC Universal Red Blood Cell Transfusions. This product is suitable for almost every patient and provides a uniform potency. It is pathogen-free and donor free and also eliminates undesirable blood components as well as additional hospital testing.
Credit: RedC Biotech
RedC was founded in Haifa in 2015 by Dr. Ari Gargir. Over the past couple of years, the company has received $1.4 million in pre-seed and seed funding from PipelBiz. Their revolutionary technology addresses issues associated with industrial red blood cell production, and cost reductions. From the lab to global production, Red C Biotech is eager to scale the count of red blood cells to save lives worldwide. RedC has a small employee base but is growing in accordance with its production timeline.
Improdia
Current diagnostic tests cannot distinguish between acute and chronic inflammation, as well as monitoring immune functions that are pivotal for personalized treatment methods. With Improdia’s array of Unique BioMarkers, the innovative diagnostic company has developed a simple way to supervise inflammation levels for patients suffering from autoimmune and cancer diseases. ImproDdia’s technology department has made substantial discoveries enabling pharma companies a kickstart in their drug development processes as well as suggesting personalized treatment methods. Improdia’s Diagnostic Kit includes three easy-to-use, unique biomarkers with three distinct functions: the IMPC (for chronic inflammation), IMPI (for immunotherapy), and IMPD (for diabetes complications. IMPC evaluates the immune status and inflammatory pain levels of those with niche medical implications. It aids physicians in selecting the type and timing of specific treatments as well as monitoring the efficacy of such treatments. IMPI is a prognostic test for the efficiency of immunotherapy. It monitors the immune status of cancer patients before immunotherapy or chemotherapy. IMPD is a prognostic test for diabetes complications as it predicts the occurrence of these complications before they are medically obvious.
Improdia’s team consists of Miriam Lerner (Founder, Co-CEO, CTO), Gil Pogozelich (Chairman), Dr. Roy Eldor (Medical Director), Prof. Michal Baniyash (Inventor), and Prof. Ido Wolf (Member of the Scientific Advisory Board). The company has been based in Herzliya since 2012 and continues to aid doctors and patients in the diagnostic and management endeavours of those with chronic immune-mediated diseases.
Sight Diagnostics
Sight’s technology represents breakthrough innovations in diagnostic methodology. Their latest blood analyzer, Sight OLO, performs a Complete Blood Count, the most ordered blood test, in minutes. It’s compact and designed to be used in a variety of settings. OLO creates a digital version of a blood sample by capturing more than 1,000 highly detailed images from just two drops of blood obtained from a finger prick or venous sample. These images are then interpreted by proprietary and fully automated AI algorithms, and the results are available within minutes.
Sight OLO provides 5-part differential complete blood count (CBC) results with 19 parameters and sophisticated flagging capabilities, for on-site testing. It is the first CBC analyzer that is FDA 510(k) cleared for blood taken directly from either a finger prick or a venous sample. Sight OLO has been validated for use in patients 3 months and above, in a variety of CLIA-certified (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments) moderately complex clinical settings such as hospitals, emergency departments, oncology clinics, pediatric practices, and urgent care locations. The sample preparation process can be completed in under one minute, with the full results ready in minutes on a touchscreen interface, printout, email, or via LIS (Latent Semantic Indexing)/middleware. Sight OLO comes factory calibrated for a quick setup with internal Failsafe systems and requires no maintenance. Its minimal training and step-by-step on-screen guidance are designed to be used by operators with any level of experience. OLO also has an Operator Management feature that allows for complete control over who can access the device, including traceability of operator activities.
Sight OLO was founded in 2011 by Yossi Pollack (CEO) and Daniel Levner (Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board). The company is based in Tel Aviv, London, and Brooklyn with 300 employees. With investments from Koch Disruptive Technologies, OurCrowd, and Longliv, Sight Diagnostics has raised over $120 million to date. Sight has gained worldwide traction with partners eager to use and expand the company’s advanced technology. Among them are Boston Children’s Hospital, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami.
EFA
Handheld blood test diagnostic tools are not affordable for the average patient and consumer. Most of these tools require laboratory conditions and specific preparations which fail to account for real-time informed decisions an individual may have to make. Israeli startup EFA developed RevDx™, a revolutionary, European Commission-approved, mobile, and fully automated diagnostic system to be used for different care, including primary care physicians, home care, emergency care, and remote care. RevDx™ is easy-to-use; from a finger prick, you get results within minutes. The application provides a Complete Blood Count test, the most requested hematology test worldwide which provides indications for broad clinical conditions such as infections, disease, fever, immune system, and anemia.
Founded in 2016 by Yoel Ezra (CEO), an engineer and a physicist who served in a technological-operation unit in the IDF for over 23 years, EFA is acting to develop the RevDx solution as a platform that will enable the creation of more diagnostic applications over time. Among the company’s investors are Maccabi Healthcare Services, eHealth Ventures, Merchavia, and Medison. The company currently employs 12 people.
OrSense
Diverse clinical settings have not found easy nor accurate methods to measure blood parameters as current testing devices and tools are not appropriately equipped for such conditions. The key to medical testing is to establish a comfortable environment for any and all patients; with invasive monitoring, though, this element is rather ignored. Israeli startup OrSense works to transform patient health through non-invasive monitoring as they develop and commercialize innovative monitoring technologies focused primarily on donor and patient comfort. Using their revolutionary SpectOLight ™ Occlusion Spectroscopy Technology, OrSense has developed the NBM 200 Device that detects blood hemoglobin (Hb), oxygen saturation levels and pulse rate (PR) values. Patients place their fingers on a ring-sensor probe where the portable desktop attached to the monitor device calculates and displays the figured measurements. To make matters even easier and more efficient, OrSense has developed a software application attached to the device that allows for Tablet or Smartphone use.
Since 1996 OrSense has been working worldwide to overcome key obstacles that do not account for comfortable, accessible, and efficient blood parameter testing. For over 20 years, OrSense has made substantial adjustments toward non-invasive monitoring technologies: the intellectual property portfolio at OrSense consists of 51 granted patents and over 20 additional applications. So far, OrSense has raised over $44.4 million in seed and grant funding from Israel HealthCare Ventures, Star Ventures, Saints Capital, The Lewis Trust Group, and Shimon Eckhouse. Their team consists of Yoav Resiman (Founder and CEO), Aharon Weinstein (VP of Research). Asher Zysman (CFO), and Chip Neff (President). OrSense is located both in Tel Aviv, and Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.
PatenSee
Patients who suffer from renal failure are required to be connected to a hemodialysis machine for a few hours, 2-3 times a week, via a fistula on the patient’s arm. The fistula is the point of connection between the hemodialysis machine and the patient for the treatment. One of the most dreaded complications for hemodialysis patients is fistula loss due to stenosis (blood clogging of the fistula) resulting in an inability to perform routine dialysis – a major risk to patient life. PatenSee is a medical device company (currently in the clinical stage) that has developed a contactless, machine vision-based, surveillance system for the early detection of vascular stenosis and/or a clogged fistula. The technology is designed to provide a very simple way to improve the quality of patient care and to support the nursing staff in the hemodialysis center without adding any burden on the patient or the clinic. The system can also be adapted to home use adding a critical diagnostic feature to home dialysis.
PatenSee was founded in 2019 as a portfolio company of MEDX Xelerator, a MedTech incubator working under a license from the Israel Innovation Authority. Hagay Drori and Oz Seadia founded PatenSee based on an unmet need presented to the MEDX Xelerator by a major strategic player in the dialysis field. Dr. Gal Goshen, PatenSee’s CEO, led it from its early concept through its first-in-human 60-patient clinical study, conducted less than two years after the company’s founding. PatenSee is currently raising a Series A round and is preparing for a multi-center, international, clinical trial of its second-generation imaging system.
The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and Rambam Health Care Campus together with philanthropists Andi and Larry Wolfe, announced the establishment of the Wolfe Center for Translational Medicine and Engineering
The Technion is one of the few academic institutions in the world in which the Faculty of Medicine operates alongside engineering and scientific faculties. The university conducts extensive teaching and research activities in the fields of medicine as well as biomedical engineering, computing, design, and architecture.
The Rambam Health Care Campus is heavily active in the research and innovation fields through its partnerships with its Division of Research, technology transfer company Rambam MedTech, and the MindUp incubator in cooperation with IBM, Medtronic, and Pitango VC.
The Wolfe Center will elevate the partnership between Rambam and the Technion and will serve as a platform for comprehensive clinical applied research to advance human health technologies that address unmet clinical needs. Interdisciplinary teams will collaborate to solve human health issues, translate research insights into innovative therapeutic tools, and train the next generation of doctors and engineers.
The Center will be located within the Rambam campus inside the Helmsley Health Discovery Tower and serves as the first joint project of its kind between Rambam, academia, and the biomedical high-tech industry. The Tower will also host centers of excellence, clinical institutes, innovation centers, and several start-up companies, alongside an exhibition and visitor center.
“Research and innovation are critical components in the success of the healthcare system in the 21st century. The tremendous contribution of the Wolfe family will enable us to increase our capabilities. Research is now a necessity for keeping Israeli doctors relevant in a competitive and constantly evolving field. The new center will allow us to convince doctors who are engaged in the difficult, demanding clinical field to continue to work in a large medical center, by providing opportunities for advanced research,” said MikI Halberthal, professor and general director of Rambam Health Care Campus.
“Human health is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity in the 21st century and coping with this challenge requires a combination of capabilities from different worlds of content, from the patient’s bed and the doctors around it, to scientists and engineers from a variety of disciplines,” said Technion President Professor Uri Sivan. “Today, the Technion is creating a revolution aimed at connecting all those disciplines to deal with major challenges in human health, and the Wolfe Center will express the combination of the capabilities of one of Israel’s leading hospitals with a world-renowned scientific-technological university.”
The Israel Institute of Technology (TECHNION) has announced the establishment of the country’s first Artificial Intelligence (AI) research institute for medical technology solutions.
The Technion’s Zimin Institute for AI Solutions in Healthcare, which was jointly launched and operated with the Russian charity Zimin Foundation on Sunday, will focus on multidisciplinary research and technological development in human health and medicine using big data and computational learning, according to a statement from Technion.
Zimin Institute for AI Solutions intends to improve human healthcare on all levels, including hospitals, clinics, drug development, home therapy, and medical wearables. “This new centre is a crucial component of Technion President Uri Sivan’s goal of collaboration and connectivity between research, engineering, and medicine,” said Technion President Uri Sivan.
“It will support applied research that will speed the creation of new and important technologies with real-world applications,” he added.
The Israeli Institute of Technology continues to be at the forefront of groundbreaking solutions to help protect our planet.
