Technion and top US universities unveil implantable ‘living pancreas’ that senses glucose, produces insulin and evades immune response, paving the way for self-regulating, long-term diabetes treatment without daily injections
A multinational research team led by an Israeli engineer and involving top U.S. universities has unveiled a pioneering implantable device that could someday eliminate the need for daily insulin injections for people with diabetes.
The study, published Jan. 28 in Science Translational Medicine, describes a living, cell‑based implant that functions as an autonomous “artificial pancreas.” Once placed in the body, the device continuously monitors blood glucose levels, produces insulin internally and releases exactly what the body needs — without external pumps, injections or patient intervention.
The breakthrough centers on a novel protective technology researchers call a “crystalline shield”, engineered to prevent the body’s immune system from rejecting the implant — a major hurdle that has stymied cell‑based therapies for decades. The shield allows the implant to operate reliably for years.
Tests in mice showed effective long‑term glucose regulation, and studies in non‑human primates confirmed that the cells inside the implant remain viable and functional, the researchers said. Those results, they added, provide strong support for future clinical testing in humans.
The work was led by Assistant Professor Shady Farah of the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology’s Faculty of Chemical Engineering, in collaboration with scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Massachusetts. The collaboration traces back to Farah’s postdoctoral work beginning in 2018 at MIT and Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, under tissue‑engineering pioneers including Robert Langer, a co‑founder of Moderna.
Assistant Professor Shady Farah
Farah’s co‑first authors on the paper are Matthew Bochenek of MIT and Joshua Doloff of Johns Hopkins. Other contributors include Technion researchers Dr. Merna Shaheen‑Mualim and former master’s students Neta Kutner and Edward Odeh, who also helped adapt the work for publication.
While the initial focus is on diabetes, the team emphasized that the platform could one day be adapted to deliver other biologic therapies continuously, offering a new approach to chronic conditions such as hemophilia and other metabolic or genetic diseases.
If successfully translated into human treatment, experts say the technology could reshape the management of chronic illness by replacing lifelong drug regimens with self‑regulated, living therapeutics working continuously inside the body.
The special collaboration will help advance Israeli innovation, energy security, and civil aviation. After concluding the project feasibility study, Boeing and the Technion announce advancement to the next stage of practical development
January 27, 2026 – Dr. Brendan Nelson, President of Boeing Global, visited the Technion yesterday to mark a milestone in the activities of the Boeing–Technion Innovation Centre for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) and to launch the implementation phase. This strategic partnership, the Boeing–Technion SAF Innovation Centre, was launched in 2023 to develop sustainable fuels for the aviation industry. According to the project partners, aviation’s long-term growth will be enabled by producing SAF from feedstocks including green hydrogen and carbon dioxide, and the joint centre will advance this process to a level that enables commercial production at a competitive cost.
Also participating in the visit on behalf of Boeing were Boeing Israel President Maj. Gen. (res.) Ido Nehushtan and Haggai Mazursky, Head of the SAF project. The Boeing delegation was welcomed at the Technion by Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan; Vice President for Research Prof. Noam Adir; Vice President for Innovation and Industry Relations Prof. Yuval Garini; and Head of the Centre Prof. Gidi Grader of the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering.
Dr. Nelson, a physician by training, previously held senior positions in the Australian government, including Member of the Australian Parliament, Minister of Defence, Minister for Education and Science, and Ambassador to Europe. During his visit to the Technion, Nelson said: “In addition to delivering high-quality fuel-efficient airplanes to our customers, Boeing works globally and regionally to enhance energy security, support the growth of the civil aviation industry, and create new economic opportunities through sustainable aviation fuel and other technologies. We are pleased to partner with Technion and other stakeholders in the SAF Innovation Centre to support Israel’s aerospace industry.”
“This is a historic collaboration of national importance for the State of Israel,” said Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan. “The partnership with the global aviation leader, Boeing, is, for us, a vote of confidence in the Technion, its researchers, and our technological capabilities. Through this collaboration, Technion experts are taking on a tremendous mission: to develop technologies for producing clean fuels through sustainable processes, thereby making a significant contribution to aviation—and no less importantly, to human health and the environment. I do not doubt that we will meet this challenge, just as we have met many others over the past hundred years.”
“Boeing has been active in Israel since before the establishment of the State and serves as an important supplier to El Al and the Israeli Air Force,” said Maj. Gen. (res.) Ido Nehushtan, President of Boeing Israel. “Israeli industries are now key suppliers to Boeing, and many Israeli systems are integrated into the company’s products worldwide. Boeing has continued to deepen its research and development ties with academia and industry in Israel, as well as its investments in the high-tech sector.” The President of Boeing Israel added that the collaboration between the Technion and Boeing will pave the way for the development of Israel’s most advanced technologies and capabilities, which will be integrated into future generations of aerospace systems around the world.
The Boeing–Technion partnership was initiated by Boeing and includes partners from across the industry and government in Israel. The Israeli Government has provided measures and financial support to accelerate the Israeli SAF industry, which include Israel’s Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Technology establishing the ISAF research consortium and the Israel Innovation Authority launching SAF-IL which is an incubation program for Israeli start-ups dealing with SAF development.
To lead this groundbreaking vision for the development of SAF, Boeing partnered with Prof. Gidi Grader of the Technion’s Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering to establish the centre, which has now completed its proof-of-concept phase. As part of the partnership, 11 Technion faculty members and dozens of doctoral students from five different faculties are working on various aspects of aviation fuel production, including efficient and competitive manufacturing; theoretical aspects of catalytic reactions and fuel combustion; safety considerations; full life-cycle analysis; and the establishment and operation of an experimental fuel-testing facility at the Technion, which will be only the second of its kind in the world.
The announcement of the Boeing–Technion partnership was originally planned for October 2023. Despite the events of October 7 and the war that followed, the decision was made to continue with the technical work, as Dr. Nelson explained several months later: “We launched this initiative, a project of resilience and innovation in the spirit of the Jewish people and the State of Israel, shortly after the horrific October 7 attack. When I met the Prime Minister a few months earlier, I told him that if there is one country in the world capable of solving civil aviation’s emissions challenge, it is Israel, led by the Technion—the Israeli MIT.”
Now, two years later, following the completion of the initial feasibility phase, senior Boeing executives were presented with the progress achieved to date, and the second phase of the initiative was launched: the development of SAF produced from green hydrogen and carbon dioxide, and the advancement of the process to a level that will enable competitive commercial production.
Prof. Ido Kaminer and Prof. Yehonadav Bekenstein of the Technion have been awarded ERC Proof of Concept (PoC) grants by the European Research Council. The grants are expected to lead to a major leap forward in low-radiation medical imaging and in the precise mapping of biological tissues.
Two young researchers from the Technion have won the prestigious ERC PoC grants from the European Research Council (ERC). Proof of Concept grants are feasibility grants designed to promote the transition from academic research to application and commercialization, including the establishment of a startup company, and are awarded only to researchers who have previously received ERC grants. Grant amount: €150,000 each.
The two recipients are Prof. Ido Kaminer from the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Prof. Yehonadav Bekenstein from the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering. Both joined the Technion faculty in the same year, 2018, and in 2025 inaugurated a joint interfaculty laboratory: the Quantum Microscopy Lab. This innovative lab is equipped with state-of-the-art microscopes capable of detecting quantum phenomena that cannot be studied by other means. The laboratory, which also includes Dr. Michael Krüger from the Faculty of Physics, was established following the Technion’s success in a call issued by the National Authority for Technological Innovation, with support from the Helen Diller Quantum Center at the Technion.
Prof. Yehonadav Bekenstein, a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, joined the Technion faculty after a Rothschild postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley. He is considered a leading scientist in materials discovery, specializing in light-emitting nanomaterials and perovskites the technology at the heart of the new sensor that earned him the grant. His scientific work has been recognized with a series of prestigious awards, including the Krill Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research and the Goldberg Prize from the Technion.
The grant Prof. Bekenstein received will be used to advance MagicLayer a sensor for a new generation of medical imaging with minimal radiation exposure. The scientifc idea of the developed technology is based on nanocrystals and ultrafast quantum light emission.
The Quantum Microscopy Laboratory at the Technion. From left to right: Prof. Yehonadav Bekenstein, Dr. Michael Krüger, Prof. Ido Kaminer, and laboratory director Dr. Kobi Cohen
Sensors used in medical imaging are currently limited by their response speed. This relative slowness leads to the loss of valuable information and forces physicians to increase patients’ exposure to radiation. Standard crystals used in industry have reached the limits of their classical physical capabilities and struggle to deliver the field’s “holy grail,” which is a time resolution of 10 picoseconds. This is where the new sensor comes in; it is based on arrays of nanocrystals developed at the Technion. The light emitted from these arrays is correlated and responds significantly faster than existing technologies. The technology is relevant not only to medicine but also to improving electron microscopes and to real-time monitoring of radioactive gases in nuclear facilities. The research team behind the winning proposal includes Dr. Georgy Dosovitskiy, Dr. Rotem Strassberg, and Shai Levy.
Prof. Ido Kaminer, who completed all of his degrees at the Erna and Andrew Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering, returned as a faculty member after a postdoctoral fellowship at MIT. He is a world-renowned scientist in photonics, electron microscopy, light–matter interactions, quantum information processing, and mathematical discoveries using artificial intelligence. His scientific work has earned him numerous honors, including the Stanisław Lem Prize, the Schmidt Science Polymath Award, the Blavatnik Award, the Krill Prize, and election to the Israeli Young Academy.
His new grant will be used to develop Stork – an innovative module that improves the performance of transmission electron microscopes (TEM). These instruments are widely adopted for biological applications as well as semiconductor metrology and inspection. However, their capabilities across both fields are highly limited owing to low contrast, which hinders resolution and throughput. The Stork technology makes it possible to introduce light directly onto the studied specimen, while also efficiently collecting the light emitted from it, thereby enhancing the TEM imaging capabilities dramatically. This paradigm shift in TEM technology will provide unprecedented information for imaging biological tissues and atomic-scale defects in electronic devices. The research team behind the winning proposal includes Dr. Tal Fishman, Dr. Michael Yannai, and Dr. Raphael Dahan, as well as students Marta Rozhenko and Rotem Elimelech.
Researchers at the Technion Faculty of Biology have discovered that a mechanism responsible for breaking down toxic proteins, and known to be involved in the development of Alzheimer’s disease, may actually spread these proteins to neighboring cells, thereby promoting the progression of the disease in the brain
A research group led by Professor Michael Glickman, dean of the Technion’s Faculty of Biology, has uncovered a key mechanism in the development of Alzheimer’s. The mechanism in question identifies toxic proteins and disposes of them. In most cases, harmful proteins are degraded inside the cell. However, the researchers found that in certain situations, the very system meant to eliminate these proteins simply transfers them outside the cell. This discovery may explain how a disease that begins randomly in individual neurons can spread to large regions of the brain.
The study, published in PNAS, was led by Prof. Glickman and postdoctoral researcher Dr. Ajay Wagh. In their article, they describe how brain cells deal with UBB+1, a defective and toxic variant of the protein ubiquitin.
The ubiquitin system is essential for breaking down damaged and dangerous proteins. Ubiquitin helps the body eliminate such proteins. The problem arises when ubiquitin mutates into UBB+1. Instead of protecting the cell, UBB+1 harms it, forming protein aggregates associated with the development of Alzheimer’s disease. In brain cells, this damage is particularly severe because neurons do not divide or regenerate – once a neuron dies, it cannot be replaced. One of the “gatekeepers” that prevents UBB+1 from poisoning brain cells is the protein p62, which is involved in the cellular self-cleaning process known as autophagy. Acting as a smart receptor, p62 recognizes UBB+1 and encloses it in a vesicle that prevents it from causing harm.
Next, one of two things happens: p62 either directs the vesicle to the lysosome, which is the cell’s recycling centre, or secretes it out of the cell into the intercellular brain fluid. The Technion researchers show that the second option may endanger brain tissue. Once the vesicle is expelled into the brain’s extracellular fluid, fragments of the toxic UBB+1 protein may leak into neighboring neurons, thereby accelerating the spread of Alzheimer’s pathology.
According to Prof. Glickman, “We all want someone to take out the trash, but in this case, the cells are dumping their trash on their neighbors. Although this solves an acute problem for the individual cell, it may cause long-term damage to the entire tissue. We believe that uncovering this mechanism will enable, first, early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease based on analyses of cerebrospinal and other body fluids, and second, the development of precise, personalized treatments.”
The study was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (ISF) and the European Research Council (ERC).
Five companies across the hardware-software stack position Israel among the world’s most dynamic quantum hubs.
Israel’s quantum computing sector is experiencing a breakout year. In 2025 alone, five Israeli quantum companies have raised almost $500 million, an influx of capital that places the country among the most active and diversified quantum hubs in the world. The companies – Quantum Art, Classiq, QuamCore, Qedma, and Quantum Machines – span nearly every layer of the quantum stack, from hardware and scaling architectures to control systems and error-correction software.
Quantum Art: A Hardware Bet With an Aggressive Roadmap
The most recent deal came on Wednesday, when Quantum Art announced a $100 million Series A, bringing its total funding to $124 million. The round was led by Bedford Ridge Capital with participation from Battery Ventures, Destra Investments, Lumir Growth Partners, Disruptive AI, Harel Insurance, and others, alongside continued investment from Amiti Ventures, StageOne Ventures, Vertex Ventures, Entrée Capital, and the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Founded as a spin-off from Prof. Roee Ozeri’s group at the Weizmann Institute, the company is led by Dr. Tal David (CEO), Dr. Amit Ben Kish (CTO), and Ozeri (CSO). It specializes in trapped-ion quantum computing, a field long known for precision but criticized for scalability. Quantum Art argues it has solved key challenges through proprietary techniques in multi-qubit gates, modular architectures, and robust error correction.
In June, the company unveiled an unusually detailed roadmap targeting Quantum Advantage by 2027 and a one-million-qubit system by 2033. The timeline includes a 50-qubit system next year; a 1,000-qubit “Perspective” line in 2027; an ultra-dense 12,000-40,000 qubit “Landscape” platform; and ultimately a fault-tolerant “Mosaic” architecture.
Classiq: Software as the Missing Layer
Quantum computer. (Courtesy)
On the software side, Classiq raised an estimated $30 million in November in an up-round that included AMD Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, IonQ, and major financial institutions such as Mirae Asset Capital, Bank Leumi’s LeumiTech77, and Quantum Eretz. The company has now raised more than $200 million to date, following a $110 million Series C completed just six months earlier and an additional $10 million investment from SoftBank.
Classiq founders. (Photo: Eyal Toueg)
Classiq builds an operating system and development environment that translates high-level goals into quantum circuits, allowing organizations to build applications without deep knowledge of quantum physics. Its partnerships with NVIDIA, Microsoft, and AWS, and customers including BMW Group, Comcast, Rolls-Royce, Citi, Toshiba, and SoftBank, suggest that enterprises increasingly see value in preparing for quantum computing years before the hardware matures.
Founded in 2020 by CEO Nir Minerbi, CPO Amir Naveh, and CTO Dr. Yehuda Naveh, the company employs 100 people, three-quarters of whom are based in Israel.
QuamCore: The Race to a Million Qubits
In August, QuamCore raised $26 million in a Series A that brought its total funding to $35 million, including a $4 million grant from the Israel Innovation Authority. The round was led by Sentinel Global, with participation from Arkin Capital and returning investors Viola Ventures, Earth & Beyond Ventures, Surround Ventures, Rhodium, and Qbeat.
QuamCore founders. (Photo: QuamCore)
QuamCore claims to have developed a fully designed and simulated architecture for scaling superconducting quantum systems to one million qubits in a single cryostat, far beyond the ~5,000-qubit per-module limit achieved by Google and IBM. If validated, the approach would fundamentally rewrite assumptions about the physical limits of superconducting systems.
The company is led by CEO Alon Cohen, formerly of Mobileye’s EyeC Radar Group, and CTO Prof. Shay Hacohen-Gourgy and Chief Scientist Prof. Serge Rosenblum, both leading figures in superconducting quantum research at the Technion and the Weizmann Institute. Their combined academic work has appeared in Science, Nature, and other top journals.
Qedma: Fixing Quantum Computing’s Biggest Problem
Error rates remain the defining barrier to practical quantum computing, and Israeli startup Qedma has positioned itself squarely at this chokepoint. The company raised $26 million in July in a Series A led by Glilot+ with participation from IBM, Korean Investment Partners, and others.
Qedma team. (Photo: Eyal Toueg)
Qedma develops software that identifies and learns the noise profile of each quantum device and adjusts algorithms to suppress and mitigate errors. The company claims its methods can enable quantum calculations up to 1,000 times larger than today’s hardware alone can support. That would dramatically reduce the overhead required for quantum error correction, which typically consumes up to 1,000 physical qubits for every single logical qubit.
The company traces its origins to a 2020 conversation between Prof. Netanel Lindner and Dr. Asif Sinay, later joined by Prof. Dorit Aharonov, a pioneer of the fault-tolerance theorem that proved large-scale quantum computing was theoretically possible. Their weekly discussions evolved into a startup aiming to build the “operating layer” that quantum machines currently lack.
Quantum Machines: Control Systems Become Strategic
The year’s largest raise came in February, when Quantum Machines closed a $170 million Series C, bringing its total investment to $280 million and valuing the company at an estimated $700 million. PSG Equity led the round with participation from Red Dot Capital Partners, Intel Capital, TLV Partners, Battery Ventures, and entrepreneur Avigdor Willenz.
Quantum Machines team. (Photo: Ilya Melnikov)
Quantum Machines builds hybrid control systems used across nearly every type of quantum hardware. Its technology has seen broad global adoption, including through a strategic collaboration with NVIDIA on DGX Quantum, which integrates real-time quantum control with high-speed classical computing.
The company was founded in 2018 by Dr. Itamar Sivan (CEO), Dr. Yonatan Cohen (CTO), and Dr. Nissim Ofek (VP R&D), all alumni of the Weizmann Institute’s Submicron Center.
At 15, when a neurological condition took Tobias Weinberg’s ability to speak, aspects of his personality became more difficult to express.
Typing to communicate, he struggled to keep up in conversations, especially to make the jokes or sarcastic comments that had been his norm. And his first text-to-voice device was monotone, with Mexican or Spanish accents but not his native Argentinian.
“The monotone voices, the timing of interjections and conveying my personality through this new way of communication was definitely frustrating,” wrote Weinberg, now a doctoral student and Siegel PiTech Fellow at Cornell Tech. As part of the Matter of Tech Lab, he is exploring how artificial intelligence (AI) can enhance the technologies that he and more than two million Americans with speech disabilities use to communicate.
Through a standing partnership between Cornell Tech and YAI—a nonprofit that supports more than 20,000 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in New York, New Jersey and California—Weinberg spent a year working with a group of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) users who live in group homes in Tarrytown, New York to better understand needs and behaviors and to improve prototypes.
The resulting research and lines of inquiry, which incorporate Weinberg’s own experience, could transform assistive technology design.
The field is taking notice. Weinberg’s first paper—”Why so serious?”—won best paper honorable mention and jury best demo awards at the prestigious Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). Those are highly coveted commendations according to his advisor, Thijs Roumen, assistant professor at Cornell Tech.
“Tobi really is a trailblazer,” said Roumen, who has a joint appointment in the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science. “He’s been developing technology while also using the technology, which changes the way it’s shaped and the way we reflect on it. In the process, he’s hitting on a richness that is going to make the future of AAC technology much much better, and he’s also inspiring a whole generation of researchers.”
Judith Bailey-Hung, supervisor of the YAI Center for Innovation and Engagement, said he’s also inspiring the AAC users involved in his studies.
“For the people we support, it was very powerful to see that this person’s working on their Ph.D., they’re interested in improving how you communicate, and they want to involve you in that process,” said Bailey-Hung, who has supervised three Cornell Tech interns as part of a larger partnership. “It gives them a voice and a way to advocate for themselves.”
Humor, backchanneling and AI villains
Heather Klippel, who has cerebral palsy and lives in a YAI group home, has similar frustrations with AAC devices to Weinberg’s—she gets overwhelmed when too many people are speaking and struggles to convey tone and humor.
“Those things are very hard to express as a nonverbal person,” Klippel wrote.
In the first of two studies, Weinberg interviewed Klippel and six others and designed an interface that could help users write jokes or humorous comments they can then interject in real time.
“There is an inherent tradeoff between agency and efficiency when designing AI tools that support communication,” Weinberg wrote. “While an AI auto-complete will enable making humorous comments faster, there is a risk that it diminishes the user’s sense of agency by making jokes for users instead of with the user.”
Weinberg designed interfaces that explored this tradeoff—in one, users selected keywords they wanted the AI to use in crafting a joke; in another, they were able to edit and modify AI-written jokes; and in another, they could simply choose a joke that the AI provided.
“What we found is in time-pressured scenarios, like making a humorous comment, AAC users were willing to give up some agency to deliver the comment faster,” Weinberg wrote. “This challenged the existing research that said AAC users care most about maximum agency, which is true in general but not always.”
At 15, Weinberg lost the ability to speak and found it harder to communicate certain aspects of his personality, like humor. Now, he’s working to make assistive communication technologies more expressive. Credit: Alexandra Bayer/Cornell University
That led Weinberg and his collaborators to think about the purpose of humor. Often, he said, the joke itself is less important than participation and engagement in the conversation. The team started to consider other types of “backchanneling,” or ways we communicate engagement, alongside the primary conversation, like saying “uh-huh” or nodding.
In a second study with the AAC users—resulting in a paper, “One does not simply ‘Mm-hmm'” presented at the ASSETS’ Conference on Computers and Accessibility in October—Weinberg and his team found that the participants formed their own micro-culture of bachkchanneling, such as tapping their armrests to indicate agreement or raising eyebrows. The interviews and observations led him and his team to recommend a design approach that amplifies and incorporates what users are already doing, rather than imposing mainstream behaviours.
“There can be this tendency to just want to build an app and solve a problem,” Roumen said. “But by asking ourselves these fundamental questions and driving the curiosity that Tobi brings as a researcher to really understand what’s happening, we can now start to understand how we can be really impactful in this space.”
Those fundamental questions are often also ethical ones. For a third paper currently in submission, Weinberg developed an app that collected everything he’d typed over a period of seven months and used the text to train a large language model that could help facilitate and speed his communication.
While the resulting “AI-twin” captured a verbal identity, incorporating characteristic phrases and Argentinian slang, it failed in practice to suggest or provide that language in appropriate contexts and risked exposing private information at the wrong times. Weinberg also felt the app dampened control over his own self-presentation.
“AI is a very wonderful but dangerous technology, especially if it mediates everything we say as AAC users,” Weinberg wrote. “So, my work serves both sides, providing design guidelines for future developers and also playing the villain, warning of the socio-technical implications of AI in the lives of AAC users like myself.”
Building community, inspiring others
Weinberg disassembled his first computer at age 2 and at age 7 told his parents he wanted to invent things that would help people. But when he arrived at Cornell Tech for a summer internship in 2022, he didn’t know what a Ph.D. was and did not see it in his future.
Wendy Ju, associate professor at Cornell Tech, encouraged Weinberg to apply for the doctoral program after completing his bachelor’s in mechanical engineering at the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology. In 2023, he joined Roumen’s lab, intending to work on digital fabrication. But Roumen encouraged Weinberg, as he does all students, to find a project he really cared about.
“I told Thijs, there was this other thing I really care about, but neither of us has any experience with it,” Weinberg wrote. “He was on board to give it a try, and here we are.”
Weinberg and Roumen teamed with Stephanie Valencia at the University of Maryland, who specializes in AI and agency in AAC use. After overcoming steep learning curves—embarking on what Roumen calls “a journey” for them both—Weinberg is now inspiring others.
“It amazes me that somebody with an AAC device was going for his doctorate,” Klippel wrote. “I know that people with disabilities can achieve such high degrees in education, but it was quite an honor to actually meet somebody like this.”
The studies have also built community. Klippel said she became closer to another AAC user during the course of the studies and continued the friendship.
For Weinberg, seeing that connection form was one of the most rewarding parts of the research. “It didn’t feel like a workshop, it felt like a couple of friends hanging out and sharing anecdotes about our AAC hurdles and use, not only for me but also for them,” he wrote.
The other reward was seeing the participants use the systems to express themselves in new ways. Weinberg often replays a video from the humor study, of an AAC user working with the platform to write a joke and bursting into laughter at what she had created.
“That made all the hard work worth it,” he wrote.
Looking ahead, Weinberg hopes to reframe AAC—not as a workaround for missing speech but as a medium of expression. “This vision represents a step toward the broader goal of enabling AAC users to fully participate in spoken communication and to flourish in society,” he wrote.
A pioneering technology for coating plants with a thin wax layer is expected to dramatically reduce the agricultural use of pesticides
According to UN reports, plant diseases destroy about one-third of the world’s agricultural yield, causing an estimated annual economic loss exceeding CAD $95 billion. Findings recently published in Small present SafeWax – a new technology developed at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Funded by an EU EIC Pathfinder grant, SafeWax could reduce crop disease impact and lower pesticide use by more than 50%. Coordinated by Prof. Boaz Pokroy from the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, the SafeWax project collaborated with another Technion laboratory led by Prof. Ester Segal from the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, along with four international partner organizations – BASF (Germany), the University of Bologna (Italy), the French Wine and Vine Institute (France), and Eurofins (France).
Traditional methods of combating plant diseases rely heavily on chemical pesticides, which seep into the soil and endanger both the environment and human health. Moreover, many pesticides have lost their effectiveness due to bacterial resistance. The SafeWax technology offers a promising, sustainable alternative to pesticide use. Through a simple spray application, it creates a thin, uniform, biodegradable layer on the plant surface of superhydrophobic (water-repellent) material that passively prevents fungal spores from germinating, thereby inhibiting disease development. The inspiration for this innovative technology is the cuticle – a natural waxy layer that covers plants such as lotus leaves and broccoli, enabling them to self-clean by repelling bacteria and other contaminants.
In the experiments described in the article published in Small, first authored by Dr. Iryna Polishchuk from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, the new technology was tested on tomatoes, peppers, grapevines, and bamboo plants, and proved both feasible and effective in protecting these plants without affecting essential physiological processes such as photosynthesis. Furthermore, the unique coating filters intense UV radiation that damages crops, shielding the plant from heat and UV exposure while slowing dehydration. Moreover, the coating is transparent to visible light necessary for photosynthesis. The coating material is based on biodegradable fatty acids that can be derived from food waste, thus also helping to reduce global food waste.
The researchers estimate that the SafeWax technology could reduce the use of chemical pesticides by at least 50%. According to Prof. Pokroy, “This is an ecological, efficient, and multifunctional alternative for crop protection, especially in view of challenges that climate change poses to modern agriculture. Beyond providing passive defense against diseases, it enhances the environmental resilience of plants and reduces the ecological footprint of crop cultivation.”
Israeli research team develops brick made from recycled salt; this could be solution to dependence on polluting cement
Over the past decade, there has been a growing understanding that we need to rethink not just how we build the structures of the future, but from what materials we build them. The main reason is that the construction industry is one of the world’s leading sources of environmental pollution. Cement production—the most widely used building material—alone accounts for roughly 8% of global carbon emissions.
In response, science and technology are advancing to develop alternative, sustainable building materials with lower carbon footprints, often based on recycled resources while preserving strength and quality. As part of a joint initiative by researchers and students from the Hebrew University and the Technion, a new innovative building material has recently been developed with exceptional environmental potential—made entirely from recycled salt. Could we one day build entire structures from salt?
Construction site (Photo: Shutterstock)
Working with what we have Today, construction is a major environmental burden. According to data from the UK Green Building Council, the industry uses more than 400 million tons of raw materials annually, many of which are tied to ecosystem damage, pollution and high energy consumption. A 2017 United Nations Environment Program study also found that construction accounts for 23% of global air pollution, uses about 36% of all energy produced, and contributes roughly 39% of carbon dioxide emissions.
Construction clearly demands vast energy. In Israel, apart from natural gas, traditional natural resources like oil are scarce. One notable resource is the Dead Sea, one of the world’s largest sources of potassium and salt, where mineral extraction has become a distinctive national asset.
Each year in the southern Dead Sea, millions of tons of excess salt are deposited as a byproduct of decades of industrial production. Over time, enormous quantities have accumulated in evaporation ponds with no practical use. This buildup presents an environmental and logistical challenge, raising the lakebed and shifting shorelines. For years, this surplus salt was viewed as worthless waste.
Since 2015, Professor Danny Mendler of the Chemistry Department at Hebrew University has led research aimed at turning the accumulating Dead Sea salt from waste into a usable raw material. The guiding principle is simple but far‑reaching: treat the salt not as a nuisance to remove, but as a resource that can be refined and used.
Salt deposits on the edges of the Dead Sea(Photo: Shutterstock)
Mendler developed a chemical process that compresses and processes the salt into solid bricks with strength nearly equivalent to concrete. “About 5% additional materials are added to the salt, compressed under high pressure, and you get strong bricks that can be shaped in various forms and sizes,” he explains. “If we can replace even a small portion of cement with salt, the environmental impact would be dramatic. It could significantly reduce the industry’s carbon emissions.”
From lab to architectural studio
This year saw the first collaboration between Mendler and a group of Technion architecture students. As part of the Studio 1:1 program in the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, under Michal Bleicher and Dan Price, the students applied architectural thinking to the technology. They translated the new material into a practical building system—defining the brick’s dimensions, understanding its strength requirements and examining its potential for use in the Israeli construction industry.
“What’s interesting here is the connection between chemistry and architecture,” Bleicher says. “The students designed an example structure called the ‘Mediterranean Igloo’ and studied the qualities of salt—translucency, mass, strength. From there we developed the structure and derived the brick itself in proportions of 8 cm x 8 cm x 24 cm. That 1:3 ratio allows flexibility in compositions and building forms.”
The studio, which annually explores alternative materials and develops real‑scale projects, served as an experimental platform linking research, design, and implementation. Based on Mendler’s patent, the students developed the first building brick made entirely from Dead Sea salt, suited to contemporary construction needs and opening the door to reusing a material once deemed worthless. The final product is uniform, producible in series, and adaptable to various shapes, thicknesses and textures. Beyond recycling an existing resource, this material is less polluting and more sustainable compared with conventional building materials.
A direct flight to the Biennale
The initiative was presented in October at Change: The Shape of Transformation, part of the Venice Architecture Biennale—one of the most important global architecture events. The project was selected from 55 academic institutions, with only 10 groups invited to present—a distinction that places the local academic work alongside leading worldwide programs.
Will we soon see salt bricks on construction sites in Israel?(Photo: Shutterstock)
At the Biennale, the students showcased their research, development and material model. Bleicher says their participation represents international recognition of the importance of material research and the potential to turn this waste into a future building resource. “We took bricks with us to Venice and presented the project, and it created incredible buzz,” she says. “This material is both natural and engineered. Our intention, together with Professor Mendler next semester, is to build a real structure in Israel using these bricks. We believe in this technology; it can solve a significant environmental problem and turn waste into something valuable. There is a real breakthrough here for the future of construction and the environment.” The challenges ahead Despite progress in sustainable building solutions, researchers emphasize that improvements are not keeping pace with accelerated construction and rising energy demands. The implications are clear: without new, more environmentally friendly materials and building processes, construction will remain a key driver of the climate crisis. So, will we soon see salt bricks on Israeli construction sites? The answer for now is complex. The path from the Technion lab to widespread industry use is long—especially in construction, an industry known for conservatism. “Introducing a new material into construction takes time and resources,” Bleicher notes. “Every material must undergo prolonged standardization, strength and durability testing—and that takes many years and significant investment. Moreover, there is a lack of regulation and legislative support that complicates the development of new solutions.” Yet the salt that has accumulated for decades as a problematic surplus may yet become a cornerstone of cleaner, more thoughtful architecture—one that views crisis not just as a threat, but as an opportunity for innovation.
10% of the companies on the global “AI Disruptors” list were founded by Technion alumni
Greenfield Partners has released its 2025 AI Disruptors List highlighting the most important new companies in the field of artificial intelligence. Six of the companies on the list were founded by Technion graduates.
Out of the 60 companies on the list from around the world, 16 are Israeli, and among them, the following six were founded by Technion alumni:
Dustphotonics (ultra-fast communication in data centers)
Emerix (AI platform for supply chain, procurement, and inventory management)
Exodigo (subsurface mapping platform without excavation)
Decart (real-time interactive video generation)
PhaseV (optimization, acceleration, and improvement of clinical trials)
Qodo (automated code review and testing)
Itamar Friedman, CEO of Qodo, says that several members of the founding team had previously worked at Alibaba under Prof. Lehi Zelnik-Manor, now the Technion’s Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development. The company is developing an AI-based platform that automates and improves code quality throughout the development lifecycle. The goal: to help developers understand, refine, and maintain the standards they set for themselves – at a time when much of today’s code is generated by AI tools.
Itamar Friedman, CEO of Qodo
Friedman grew up in Karmi Yosef. “Even as a teenager, I started learning software development – specifically website building. I started a company in the field with several friends, and we reached 40 clients before I enlisted in the army. Technology has always fascinated me, and during my military service, I was exposed to the world of robotics, which drew me to the intersection between software and the physical world, and from there to electrical and computer engineering at the Technion. Already in my first year, I began to realize that almost every problem in the physical world boils down to an optimization problem. That fascinated me and pushed me to learn more and more about learning systems.”
He completed his B.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering with highest honors (specializing in learning systems and optimization) and an M.Sc. in machine learning and computer vision under the supervision of Prof. Zelnik-Manor. Today, with 25 years of experience in development – 20 of which involve algorithms and machine learning – he heads Qodo. “I really love sailing – the combination of calm and storm. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened much since founding Qodo,” he laughed. “Last August I moved to New York with three kids, two cats, and one wife – and I’m trying to keep that exact ratio: no more, no less.”
The AI Disruptors list was presented at the TechCrunch Disrupt conferencein San Francisco. The total valuation of the 60 companies on the list is approximately $3 billion. The publication of this “AI Breakthroughs” list adds to other recognitions of the Technion’s excellence: CSRankings ranks the Technion second in Europe in AI research, and PitchBook ranks the Technion among the top ten universities worldwide for entrepreneurial success of undergraduate alumni (not only in AI). Together, these achievements highlight the Technion’s brilliance – clearly reflected in its global alumni community of about 100,000 graduates.
The Technion held a festive reception for 32 new faculty members who joined the university this year
Thirty-two new faculty members one third of them women, joined the Technion in the current academic year. The research fields represented by the new faculty are wide-ranging, and their diverse specializations reflect the future of science and technology at the global forefront. Among them are experts in quantum communication, AI and deep learning, mathematics and data science, among other fields. They include theorists and experimentalists, inventors, engineers, and, of course, many physicians.
In recent years, the Technion has emphasized incorporating arts and humanities into its curriculum, as well as expanding research in the Department of Humanities and Arts. As a result, the new faculty members include scholars whose work focuses on the history of science, the intersection between the philosophy of science and contemporary science, and even musical communication.
Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan welcomed the new faculty members and said: “To understand the importance of the Technion in the development of the State of Israel, one must ask what the country would look like without the Technion, which was founded a quarter of a century before the state itself. I have no doubt that Israel would have looked completely different. Here at the Technion, the Start-Up Nation was born, but not just that – also many other important industries in the food, aeronautics, chemistry, defense, and other sectors were established here. From my broad perspective as President of the Technion, I am constantly exposed to the institution’s glorious legacy, a legacy that began in the early 20th century, when the idea of establishing a technological university in the Land of Israel was first conceived. Today, you are joining a long tradition of teaching and research, and I am already curious to see the mark you will leave on the world.”
“You are the future of the Technion as the world moves forward and new opportunities for research and education emerge – opportunities we cannot even imagine,” said Prof. Oded Rabinovitch, Vice President for Academic Affairs, to the new faculty members. “You are the future of the Technion when, amid all the technological bustle in the research laboratory and in the classroom, the human factor rises and continues to serve as the leading axis. You are the future of the Technion when challenges arrive at our doorstep that cannot be anticipated. You are the future of the Technion as it continues to lead science, industry, and society in the State of Israel and beyond, past the visible horizon. The future, yours and ours, is a shared future. Your part in this shared future is to succeed, simply to succeed. Our part is to provide you with the environment needed for success: a physical and research environment, and a sharp, open, inclusive, and respectful intellectual environment befitting a supportive academic community. An environment that will enable you to research and teach in your own way. An independent environment, free of external interference and foreign considerations, and one in which the values of our ethical code – pursuit of truth, integrity, responsibility, and freedom of research and expression – are realized without compromise. I am glad that we chose you to be part of our shared future, and I am especially glad that you chose us. I promise that we will do everything to be worthy of that choice.”
The new faculty members are
Schulich Faculty of Chemistry: Dr. Ron Tenne
Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering: Dr. Arad Lang, Dr. Arava Zohar
Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dr. Huaquan Ying, Dr. Nachman Malkiel, Dr. Rui Yao
Faculty of Data and Decision Sciences: Dr. Nadav Merlis, Dr. Yael Travis-Lumer, Dr. Or Sharir, Dr. Assaf Shocher
Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Dr. Aviv Karnieli, Dr. Nicolas Wainstein, Dr. Eran Lustig
Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science: Dr. Oded Stein
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering: Dr. Majdi Gzal
Faculty of Biomedical Engineering: Dr. Eddy Solomon, Dr. Shira Landau
Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning: Dr. Tamara Kerzhner, Assoc. Prof. Yael Alef, Dr. Ofer Berman, Dr. Hatzav Yaffe
Faculty of Mathematics: Dr. Yatir Benari Halevi, Dr. Alan Lew
Faculty of Physics: Prof. Julien Fuchs
Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine: Dr. Daria Pavlov Amiad, Dr. Michal Meir
TCE – Technion Computer Engineering Center: Dr. Yaniv David
Department of Humanities and Arts: Prof. Eitan Globerson, Dr. Assaf Weksler-Fleshner, Dr. Matityahu Yosef Boker, Associate Professor of Creative Arts Orit Wolf, Dr. Topaz Halperin
