A group from the United Kingdom representing Technion UK have just finished their first trip to Israel in more than two years.
Amongst the many people they met and places they visited, one of the start-ups that they went to was Space Pharma.
Space Pharma Is an Israeli Start Up that is connected to the Technion. Their mission is to leverage their miniaturised microgravity lab technology, enabling unprecedented possibilities to develop new drugs in Space. All this at a fraction of the cost, with higher success rates than experiements conducted with traditional research methods. They are aiming to bring a positive impact on millions of lives here on Earth.
They are currently launching three experiments in Space, one of which is completely connected to the Technion and is aimed at growing meat products from animal cells but outside the body of an animal.
Their space program, Aleph Zero, is part of their mission to produce quality, delicious meat, independent of climate or availability of natural resources. Coping with fast-changing temperatures, limited access to natural resources and zero gravity conditions, drives efficiency in their processes. In space, they can develop closed-loop systems with zero waste and zero emissions. Knowledge from these explorations and technologies developed in space are then implemented in their sustainability and operational practices on Earth.
Now Dr Hodaya Oliel is speaking out about her incredible journey and how the Israel Institute of Technology helped her fulfil her dreams
A Technion alumnus has become the first person in Israel with cerebral palsy to graduate with a medical degree.
Dr Hodaya Oliel, who’s currently a resident in the Pediatrics Bet department at the Shamir Medical Center, “always wanted to be a doctor” and views her countless surgeries as a child and teenager as God’s way of showing her “what it’s like to be a child who is hospitalised.”
Now 27, she was born prematurely at just 27 weeks and spent three months in the NICU. Being diagnosed with cerebral palsy at just six months, she lost some motor function in her legs, but her cognitive function was, fortunately, unaffected.
“It was never easy, but I remember being so curious about everything I saw, even the operating room”, she told the Jerusalem Post. “These experiences are what spurred me to succeed in high school and while I was studying for my psychometric exam. I didn’t make any backup plans for if I didn’t succeed. That was not an option.
“Everyone needs to live with the lot they were given, and not give up on their dreams when the going gets tough. These dreams are worth fighting for. There were so many moments when I felt like giving up, but my dream was too important, so I kept trudging through the hard times. Reaching my goal was what kept me going.”
“I really love the Technion and truly appreciate everyone there, many of whom are good people who helped me overcome all the difficulties I faced. I do not take any of this for granted for even one second.”
She plans to specialise in paediatric neurology so that she can help both children and families struggling with the same condition.
The Israeli Institute of Technology continues to be at the forefront of groundbreaking solutions to help protect our planet – both inside and outside the university
A growing number of impressive Israeli startups – borne out of Technion minds – are making improvements in several different areas of the environment:
SkyX – which develops autonomous aircraft that scan large areas of land to analyse data on infrastructure projects – was co-founded by Technion alumni
Luminescent – which delivers greener solutions to generate heat and electricity – has a Technion lecturer on its team
H2Pro – which generates hydrogen and oxygen in a cheaper and less harmful way – was founded by leading hydrogen experts from the university
Asterra (formerly Utilis) – which uses technology to detect leaks, saving billions of gallons of water – has as its VP yet another Technion alumnus
Most of the team behind Breezometer – which aims to monitor air quality and help improve people’s health – graduated from the Institute
Chakratec – which offers kinetic energy storage technologies to fast-charging stations for electric cars – has as its CEO a Technion alumnus
Meanwhile, another Israeli startup is behind the concept of enabling buildings to create their own energy amid soaring electricity consumption worldwide.
TurboGen – whose President and CEO, Yaron Gilboa, is a Technion alumnus – has introduced small, lightweight, easy-to-use and efficient microturbines that can generate electricity, heat and cooling.
They can replace traditional boilers and air conditioners across residential buildings, hospitals, offices, and hotels using natural gas.
While a standard generator usually reaches 35-40% efficiency, “the prototype we built at our lab in Petah Tikva will reach 90% efficiency”, according to Gilboa.
“The advantages of the system are lowering electricity and heating costs in buildings, providing resistance to power outages and reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from buildings by replacing the boiler,” he is reported to have said.
“This technology can also lower real estate and rental prices of apartments and offices.”
Looking to the future, he hopes to utilise solar dishes to power the turbines, meaning the system “could run 100% on renewable green resources.”
A group of Israeli smart mobility companies – at least a quarter of which have come from Technion – has collaborated with a consortium of other bodies to overhaul road transport
Twenty firms have joined up with government-transport bodies, local authorities, municipalities and universities to form a private-public consortium that will tackle traffic congestion, road accidents, infrastructure and air pollution across Israel, and at least five of them are the products of Technion alumni.
Nexar, Moovit, Waycare, NoTraffic, Cognata and Blue White Robotics are all part of the ISMLL consortium (Israel Smart Mobility Living Lab), which hopes to share anonymous data via third-party apps, traffic cameras, drones and road sensors to accelerate transport innovation. The world’s first autonomous traffic management platform also plans to install thermal road cameras that will help with poor vision and Bluetooth sensors that will help monitor public transport usage.
The aggregated data will both process and provide insights to make other changes, such as altering the timing of traffic lights and adding more buses and/or bus routes.
ISMLL – which is backed by a group of 10 government ministries and received a $1 million investment – was co-founded by Eran Shir, the co-founder and CEO of AI road safety company, Nexar – and also a Technion alumnus.
Traffic congestion is a major problem in Israel – both in terms of rate and cost – and was predicted to get much worse in a 2019 OECD report. According to the World Health Organization, road traffic injuries cause an estimated 1.35 million deaths annually – about one person every 25 seconds.
Between cell-grown steaks and cow-free milk, professors and graduates from the Israeli Institute of Technology are cooking up a new way forward
A whole host of innovative food companies changing the way we treat animals are the products of leading Technion minds.
Aleph Farms – the first company to grow steaks directly from the cells of cows – was co-founded by Technion Professor, Shulamit Levenberg, SavorEat, a company that produces 3D-printed burger patties via a robot chef using ingredient cartridges has as its VP a Technion alumnus and Itay Dana, another Technion alumnus, works as Head of Product Innovation at SuperMeat.
A recent investment round of $105 million went to Aleph Farms, which they say will help execute large-scale global commercialization and portfolio expansion into new types of animal protein and product lines.
Cell-based meat involves growing actual meat from cell cultures taken from a live animal and SuperMeat uses the same process to apply to chicken.
Meanwhile, food-tech innovator – Imagindairy – which develops real milk in the lab without harming animals, is making huge strides in a market that wants something better than plant-based milks.
Co-founded by Technion alumnus, Dr. Eyal Afergan, it cultivates milk proteins from animal cells, meaning the nutritional value, taste, smell and texture is the same as cow’s milk but without causing any suffering to the animal. This startup has also raised $1.5 million in funding.
Several Technion professors and graduates are responsible for oncological developments that are on course to transform the way cancer is caught, diagnosed and treated
A startup that has developed a blood test to predict how well cancer patients will react to treatment is planning to collaborate with the NHS in setting up clinical trials, while a technology to help pathologists detect cancer has been given an FDA ‘breakthrough’ nod.
OncoHost – the company behind the blood test that Prof. Yuval Shaked of the Technion Israel Institute of Technology has created – is the result of a decade’s research. The trials will focus on patients diagnosed with advanced stages of melanoma or non-small cell lung cancer and will join the company’s existing trials using diagnostic platform PROphet, which uses AI to predict patient response to immunotherapy. The result is a personalised treatment plan that will help provide clinicians with potential combination strategies to overcome treatment resistance.The Israeli startup also plans to open additional clinical trial sites around the world to expand its research to other cancers.
Changing the way cancer is detected is also being revolutionised, thanks to Ibex Medical Analytics – the maker of an AI-based cancer diagnostic software. Its Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Daphna Laifenfeld, spent time researching personalised medicine during her tenure at the Technion.
The startup has received a breakthrough device designation by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which will help expedite the clinical review and regulatory approval of its technology. In receiving this, its potential to help pathologists both detect and diagnose cancer has been formally acknowledged.
The software is already used in labs worldwide as part of everyday clinical practice, as well as continually demonstrating its positive outcomes in clinical studies.
Meanwhile, Prof. Marcelle Machluf – yet another Technion professor – has made it her life’s work to create a medicine delivery system that can defeat cancer. The co-founder and inventor of NanoGhost – a technology that targets cancer cells with modified adult stem cells loaded with medicine – is also the faculty dean of Biotechnology & Food Engineering at the Technion, and it was here that she started the research that led to NanoGhost in 2010.
NanoGhost – which has already raised $5 million – is showing promising progress, with clinical trials aimed by 2023.
An artificial molecule that could slow down the development of Alzheimer’s disease has been developed
A team of Israeli scientists from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology has paved the way for better treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Professor Galia Maayan, along with doctoral student Anastasia Behar from the Faculty of Chemistry at the university, collaborated with Professor Christelle Hureau of The French National Centre for Scientific Research in discovering a molecule that can break down the build-up of copper in the brain that can cause disease.
An accumulation of copper has long been known to cause degenerative illnesses, like Alzheimer’s, due to its ability in preventing toxic proteins from leaving the brain.
The molecule – named P3 – that they have created works to bind the copper ions together and extract them. Vitally, it manages to do this without simultaneously binding zinc ions, which are needed for normal brain functioning.
Despite early promising results, the team have made it clear that they plan to take “the base” and ‘further develop’ it into something even better.
Their findings were published in the weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal, Andewandte Chemie.
The innovative breakthrough coincided with Breast Cancer Awareness Month and is the result of years of research
A groundbreaking treatment for breast cancer has been developed by researchers at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology.
The study – led by Professor Avi Schroeder and Maya Kaduri, a PhD student at the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering – is based on the finding that cancer cells recruit the nerve cells around them to both stimulate and spread the disease. As a result, they have developed a treatment that targets the tumour through the nerve cells by injecting anaesthetic into the bloodstream to paralyse the communication between the nerve and cancer cells.
Early results – tested on mice – have proven a significant inhibition of tumour development and mastitis to the lungs, brain and bone marrow, and the researchers believe it could have real-world implications for the treatment of breast cancer in humans.
Prof. Schroeder has years of experience developing innovative cancer treatments, using technologies that transport drugs to tumours without damaging healthy tissue.
“We know how to create the exact size of particles needed, and that is critical because it’s the key to penetrating the tumour,” Kaduri said. “The anesthetising particles we developed move through the bloodstream without penetrating healthy tissue.”
Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in women, with approximately 11,500 women and 85 men in the UK dying from the disease each year.
Put together Israel’s vast agricultural and technological knowhow, and you’ve got breakthroughs on a global scale.
What is the recipe for meat and dairy without cows? Snacks and sauces with less sugar and salt? Long-lasting fresh produce and compostable food wrappers?
A fast-growing, climate-threatened world is hungry for such recipes. Appropriately enough, the search began in the kitchen — or rather, The Kitchen.
The world’s first food-tech hub was launched in 2015 by The Strauss Group, one of Israel’s largest food producers, as part of the Israeli Innovation Authority’s Technological Incubators Program.
“This doesn’t exist elsewhere,” said The Kitchen’s vice president of business development, Amir Zaidman, in 2016.
Today, The Kitchen has 22 portfolio companies cooking up innovations to feed the world more efficiently, sustainably and securely.
But The Kitchen is no longer alone: Governmental, corporate and academic food-tech labs and incubators are opening across Israel. The number of food-tech startups has risen to approximately 400.
Food-tech (increasingly referred to as agri-food-tech) combines two of Israel’s best assets, says Nisan Zeevi, head of business development at Margalit Startup City #Galilee.
“Our agricultural knowhow, which is one of the wonders of the world, and our technological knowhow that we have built in the past 40 to 50 years. Put them together and you’ve got breakthroughs on a global scale.”
Success is sticky
The Israeli Economy and Industry Ministry reports that food-tech investment nearly doubled between 2013 ($52 million) and 2018 ($100 million) with input from multinationals including Coca-Cola, Mars, Tyson Foods, Nestle, Danone, AB inBev, Starbucks, PepsiCo, McDonalds, Heineken and Unilever.
Tel Aviv research firm IVC found food-tech garnered $432 million in investments in 2020, less than sectors such as cyber and fintech, but growing fast.
Amir Zaidman, VP bus dev for The Kitchen food-tech hub. Photo by Tal Shahar
“Success stories attract more entrepreneurs into the field,” says The Kitchen’s Zaidman, who was scheduled to speak at the Food Biotech CongressNovember 8-11 and at the first global virtual food trade show, November 21-24.
“Israel is a very entrepreneurial country and both new and serial entrepreneurs are always thinking about the next big thing. They see food-tech is an impact area on environment and health,” says Zaidman.
“Maybe they were hesitant before when looking at the money going into sectors like cyber, but now they see they can get capital investment in food-tech that can be game-changing.”
Zaidman predicts major financing rounds for Israeli food-tech in 2022.
“Startups like [cultivated steak pioneer] Aleph Farms don’t even have products in the market yet. But what they are doing is so amazing they get a lot of attention.”
Indeed, Aleph Farms got a recent investment from Leonardo DiCaprio, while Ashton Kutcher put money into MeaTech.
Breakthroughs on a global scale
One of the Israeli companies already making inroads in the global market is InnovoPro. Its proprietary process transforms chickpeas – the humble nourishing basis of hummus — into a neutral-tasting protein concentrate for foods and beverages.
InnovoPro has factories in Canada and Germany, and a new subsidiary in Chicago as it launches a chickpea TVP (texturized vegetable protein) for plant-based burgers, nuggets and meatballs. Migros, Switzerland’s largest retailer and supermarket chain, uses InnovoPro’s product in a dairy-free yogurt.
“Hummus is a Middle East product. You take the technology and combine it with Israeli knowhow and – boom — you’ve got a successful food-tech company,” says Zeevi.
Hoping to create similar successes, Jerusalem-based Margalit Startup City inaugurated its Galilee branch in September.
The Kiryat Shmona campus encompasses a food-tech accelerator, institute, executive park and Fresh Start early-stage incubator supported by food giants Tnuva and Tempo along with Finistere Ventures and OurCrowd.
“Five years ago we came to the Galilee and wrote a plan to transform this area into a food-tech and ag-tech center with the involvement of municipalities, service providers, investors, academies and research institutes across the Galilee. The government gave it a budget of 500 million shekels,” says Zeevi.
Margalit Startup City #Galilee has attracted satellite offices of Jerusalem Venture Partners, Cisco, Tel Hai College and the Migal Galilee Research Institute of the Israeli Science and Technology Ministry.
One portfolio company, DynaFresh, was established by Migal post-harvest experts to optimize the shelf life of fresh produce.
“Margalit Startup City is where everything converges at a physical hub and meets the international and business sector,” says Zeevi.
Unlike cyber and fintech, a food-tech company not only needs skilled scientists and technicians but also, after scaleup, factory workers.
This makes food-tech a promising equal-opportunity employment driver for Israel’s northern and southern periphery, says Zeevi.
Hearty investments
Yossi Halevy, VP bus dev for Millennium Food-Tech. Photo courtesy of Millennium
Not only existing VCs are investing in food-tech. Israel also has Millennium Food-Tech, an R&D partnership started in June 2020 and traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
“There was no specialized vehicle in Israel for the post-seed food-tech startup with proven technology waiting to be piloted and commercialized,” VP Business Development Yossi Halevy tells ISRAEL21c.
“So we built a VC dedicated to food-tech. This is a sector that is untouched.”
Among Millennium’s portfolio companies are SavorEat(alternative protein), Tipa (compostable packaging), TripleW(lactic acid and other upcycled products from food waste), Aleph Farms, and Phytolon (natural food colors).
Halevy, a certified public accountant formerly with E&Y in Tel Aviv, became interested in venture creation in food and agriculture four years ago, when “the ecosystem was in diapers,” he says.
So he jumped at the chance to join his old friend, former Fresh Start director Chanan Schneider, in Millennium Food-Tech.
‘We work with Nestlé and other major food companies,” Halevy tells ISRAEL21c. “It’s a triangle relationship: We use their knowledge for our due diligence, and they use ours for investment and proof of concept.”
Halevy sees ingredient development as one of Israel’s strongest capabilities because it maximizes the country’s well-honed, well-connected multidisciplinary talents.
“Israel is unique from many aspects, but most significant is that everyone knows everyone,” he points out.
“That’s very helpful in food-tech because it has so many disciplines that need to be combined — innovation, entrepreneurship, biotech, physics, chemistry, robotics, computer vision, artificial intelligence. You can easily assemble a team and cross-mine ideas and development.”
Corporations get in onfood-tech
The food-tech scene in Israel is expanding like a yeasty bread dough into many sectors, from corporate to academic to nonprofit, with governmental participation sprinkled in.
International Flavors & Fragrances, a US-based multinational with operations in Migdal HaEmek in northern Israel, runs the FoodNxt incubator in partnership with the Israel Innovation Authority.
IFF shares its knowledge about industry processes and technologies, international regulations and general food science expertise. The incubator also provides funding and helps portfolio startups build business plans, develop patent strategies and test products.
Rakefet Rosenblatt, R&D technologist and application manager at Salt of the Earth. Photo courtesy of Salt of the Earth
Salt of The Earth, a global Israeli company in the North founded in 1922, has teamed up with Tel-Hai College for multiple projects, such as testing ingredients at the college’s analytical lab.
Tel-Hai students recently were challenged to create innovations emphasizing sodium reduction and flavor enhancement. They were guided by Salt of The Earth R&D technologist and application manager Rakefet Rosenblatt, a food science graduate of Tel-Hai.
“We always think about what we can make better,” she tells ISRAEL21c. “Salt is a known product; how can we help the industry use it in a smarter way? Students have great ideas and it’s good to invest in them.”
One group proposed a salt product enhanced with mineral-rich seaweed, using a special process to neutralize the seaweed’s strong flavor and color. Another group developed a savory vegan snack based on chickpea flour and Salt of the Earth’s Mediterranean Umami Bold flavor enhancer.
Tel-Hai students with their Chick Chips. Photo courtesy of Tel-Hai College
At the opposite end of Israel, down south in the Negev town of Rahat, seven major companies with a regional presence, such as SodaStream, Netafim and Dolav Plastic Products, joined with academic and VC partners in the IIA’s InNegev incubator for food-tech, ag-tech, clean-tech and Industry 4.0.
“This is our first year of operation. We’re mostly doing venture creation now, utilizing the capabilities of our partners in the Negev,” says Amir Tzach, InNegev’s VP Business Development & Investments.
Among food-tech innovations under consideration at InNegev are post-harvest sensors – one that detects bacteria and another that detects soft rot in potatoes early enough so that the bad potato(es) can be removed before the rot spreads.
In the hot field of alternative protein, InNegev is looking at companies in the South engaged in algae production, and may assist local meat-processing facilities in converting space for alt-protein production.
InNegev’s board of directors and team. Top from left: Yuval Lazi, Dror Karavani, Lilach Shushan, Zeev Miller, Dror Green, Ophir Golan, Noa Isralowitz; bottom: Assaf Yerushalmi, Kobi Liberman, Udi Arev, Amir Tzach. Photo by Anat Levi Tzvi
Academic and nonprofit food-tech
Going back up north, the Carasso FoodTech Innovation Center was inaugurated in September at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa.
The center will house R&D for industrial production, a startup hub, packaging laboratory, industrial kitchen, tasting and evaluation units, and an educational visitor area.
Prof. Marcelle Machluf, dean of the Technion Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, said that the Covid-19 pandemic “has only emphasized the importance of food and biotechnology in maintaining our existence and meeting future existential challenges. To address the many challenges in this field, including access to healthy, affordable food and innovative medical treatments, we need advanced infrastructure that will enable the integration of new engineering and scientific tools.”
Yoel Carasso, chairman of Carasso Motors and Prof. Marcelle Machluf, dean of the Technion Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering. Photo by Rami Sheloush/Technion Spokesperson’s Office
In Tel Aviv, the Israeli not-for-profit Start-Up Nation Central joined forces with global entrepreneur network TiE to advance Israeli and Indian food- and ag-tech solutions for novel foods, post-harvest storage, alternative protein, food safety and packaging.
Israeli startups selected for the mentorship program so far include multiple award-winning grasshopper protein company Hargol, automated cooking manufacturer Kitchen Robotics, vision-based robotic controller Deep Learning Robotics and produce storage humidity control solution UmiGo.
Fighting food scarcity for the future
Start-Up Nation Central CEO Avi Hasson noted that farmers face increasingly harsher weather conditions, environmental pollutants and soil depletion.
Start-Up Nation Central CEO Avi Hasson. Photo by Vered Farkash
Coupled with population growth and increased product demand, these issues increase global concerns about food security.
“Technologies that have the potential to either improve crop yields or transform, preserve, and tailor foods with improved functional and nutritional values will ensure a stable supply of food in the future,” said Hasson.
The Kitchen’s Zaidman predicts that as the sector matures, we’ll see more segmentation.
“For example, Aleph Farms started working on cultivated meat before there was any existing technology. A lot of the innovation we’ll see in the next two to three years will be much more specialized in certain aspects that support this industry,” he explains.
“In terms of global trends, alternative proteins will continue as a strong trend because we’re just scratching the surface of consumer interest. There’s a lot of potential in alternative dairy, seafood and eggs.”
Salt enhanced with mineral-rich seaweed is an innovation created at Tel-Hai College. Photo courtesy of Salt of the Earth
Aviv Oren, business engagement and innovation director of the Israeli branch of the Good Food Institute, says Israel hosts about 100 alt-protein startups and 28 alt-protein research labs in academic institutions.
One of the newest ones, Alfred’s, offers an innovative platform for producing plant-based whole cuts for the meat, poultry, meat analog and cultivated meat industry.
“Israel now ranks second in the world behind the United States in its total number of fermentation and cultivated meat companies,” Oren notes.
GFI Israel Managing Director Nir Goldstein sees Israel’s role as potentially monumental.
“With governmental support in this industry, Israel, which currently exports only five percent of the food it produces, could become a global supplier of raw materials and advanced production technologies for alternative proteins,” he says.
