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In 2000, Shoham approached the Technion’s incubator and started a company, today known as Mazor Robotics.

By Avi Jorisch, published in JPost on 28 September, 2018

 

 

Medtronic, an Irish-American medical device company, announced last Friday that it was purchasing Israel’s Mazor Robotics for a hefty $1.64 billion, the biggest exit ever for an Israeli biotech company. Mazor’s signature piece of technology, a robotic-assisted procedure, represents the future gold standard of spine surgery, which is now poised to be implemented globally. Israeli innovations are improving the lives of millions of Americans and other people around the world, and this technology’s proven track record should encourage more American hospitals to adopt it.

Until about 15 years ago, spinal surgery was a lot like grasping in the dark. In order to even understand what procedure was necessary, doctors had to open up the spine. But a leading Israeli robotics professor, in conjunction with the Cleveland Clinic, developed a procedure that uses advanced artificial intelligence to help doctors perform previously unthinkable surgeries.

Prof. Moshe Shoham teaches at the Technion, the so-called MIT of Israel. In the late 1990s, Shoham began studying the spine because of its critical role in human mechanics, with the idea that the latest robotic technology could help doctors in the operating room. One of the first things he learned about spinal surgery is that it can be a nerve-racking experience not only for patients, but also for doctors, who often place large screws into small slots in the vertebrae by hand. If the doctor is slightly off, there is a high risk that the patient will be paralyzed for life. These types of procedures often require extensive tissue dissection and can result in blood loss and infection.

But Shoham believed that if a more accurate procedure could be developed, the probability of swift recovery would increase. While researching the issue, he was shocked to discover that during about two to three percent of spinal surgeries patients suffered nerve damage, which can result in weakness, muscle atrophy, twitching and paralysis. To his mind, that was unacceptably high.

In 2000, Shoham approached the Technion’s incubator – whose mission is to provide startups with operational support, management training and office space – and started a company, today known as Mazor Robotics. After four years of research and development, he began testing a robot capable of assisting surgeons in the operating room. He started with cadavers at the Sheba Medical Center in Israel and the Cleveland Clinic in the United States. Shoham and his team set out to prove that their invention could reduce operating-room time, minimize invasive surgeries, reduce the risk of infection and blood loss, and expedite recovery. The system wasn’t meant to replace surgeons, but to help them achieve better results.

By the end of 2004, not only did Mazor have a fully working product called SpineAssist, but it had been approved for sale by health authorities in Europe and the United States. “I was really astonished,” says Sho – ham. “We got it quite early.”

SHOHAM AND HIS PARTNERS created a unique imaging system. Prior to surgery, the patient undergoes a CT scan of the spine. On the day of the procedure, doctors take another two X-rays of the spinal column, one from the back and another from the side. A technician then merges the two sets of images using SpineAssist’s algorithms to create a three-dimensional blueprint. This allows surgeons to accurately see the spine in a way that was never possible before. After examining and approving the system’s recommendations, the doctor implants the screws using Shoham’s robot, which can accurately insert a spinal implant and reduce the danger of damaging nerves and vital organs. Finally, the system directs surgeons to the exact spot where they need to operate.

The holes for the screws can be placed within one millimeter of the desired location – about one-fifth the width of a human hair. This accuracy enables surgeons to reduce the chances of damage to the spinal cord and blood vessels during the operation. “With the robot we can be very precise,” says Dr. Andrew Cannestra, a neurosurgeon at Baptist Health in Jacksonville, Florida, who specializes in minimally invasive procedures. “It’s difficult to get the screws into the bone because there’s just not that much real estate… The robot allows us to put the largest screw possible into the smallest space.”

The system also has the added benefit of lowering radiation exposure during surgery for both patients and surgical teams. According to Mazor, use of the robot means that surgeons can now carry out procedures they would previously never have attempted – from spinal fusion to biopsies for suspected tumors. Medical procedures will never be the same.

Mazor has continued to win over doctors and patients, one procedure at a time. More than a decade after it received permission to sell its product in the United States and Europe, surgeons around the world are performing over a hundred operations a week using its technology. And not one patient who has undergone a procedure with Mazor’s robot has been crippled or experienced any kind of nerve damage.

There are currently just under 100 US hospitals utilizing Mazor’s artificial intelligence. The robot’s success speaks for itself, and every major medical center that performs spine surgery would be wise to integrate the technology as quickly as possible.

Avi Jorisch is the author of Thou Shalt Innovate: How Israeli Ingenuity Repairs the World (Gefen Publishing). He is also a Senior Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council and the Israel Project.

New method will shorten the wait for novel drugs, and can lead to development of drugs that would not have been generated by existing methods.

 

Article by Brian Bloom, published on 20 September 2018 on Israel21c

Developing a new drug can cost billions of dollars and take a dozen or more years to bring to market. Two Israeli researchers have applied artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning to shave time and money off the drug-discovery process.

Instead of searching for the appropriate molecules to use in a new medicine, as is done today, they enabled a computer to make smart predictions without human guidance.

Shahar Harel and Kira Radinsky at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology fed into their computer system hundreds of thousands of known molecules as well as the chemical composition of all FDA-approved drugs up until 1950.

Aided by AI, the computer came up with new potential molecules by making sometimes unexpected correlations from within this massive sample.

“We are essentially presenting here an algorithm which addresses the creative stage of drug development – the molecule discovery stage,” Harel explains.

There are between10²³  and 10⁶⁰ molecules that show therapeutic potential. (By comparison, there are an estimated 10²²  stars in the galaxy.) The typical drug-development process is shortened by focusing only on those molecules that feature the desired properties. That still leaves an enormous number.

When Radinsky and Harel instructed the system to propose 1,000 drugs based upon old drugs, they were surprised to discover that 35 of the suggestions generated by the system were in fact drugs approved by the FDA after 1950. That proved the system capable of learning to find promising drug candidates.

“What we’ve presented here is not only a means of streamlining existing methods, but also of entirely new drug development and scientific practice paradigms,” said Radinsky, who is an acknowledged data-scientist superstar.

 

Kira Radinsky, visiting professor at the Technion and chief scientist at eBay Israel. Photo courtesy of Technion

 

Radinsky received her PhD in computer science from the Technion in 2013 and created a software tool with Microsoft Research head Eric Horovitz that can predict disasters such as the cholera outbreak in Angola. She subsequently founded SalesPredict. (The startup was acquired by eBay in 2016 and Radinsky became eBay Israel’s chief scientist.

Radinsky is also a visiting professor at the Technion. It was through this gig that she developed the system with Harel.

“This new development will accelerate and reduce costs of development of new and effective drugs, thereby shortening the time patients will have to wait for the drugs,” Radinsky said. “In addition, this breakthrough is expected to lead to development of drugs that would not have been generated with the conventional pharmacological paradigm.”

Traditionally, Haredi men have not joined the labour force. That is starting to change.

 

 

Medical student Yehuda Sabiner in class: ‘In the end 99% of people were encouraging me.’ Photograph: Rami Shlush

From the age of three, Yehuda Sabiner harboured a secret ambition to become a doctor. But it seemed unlikely to be fulfilled: he was raised in one of the strictest ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Israel.

His education was limited to religious study, first at a private school that barely taught mainstream subjects and later at a yeshiva, a religious school, where he spent 14 hours a day studying Jewish texts. Sabiner, a bright boy and an outstanding student, was earmarked to become a leading rabbi.

But he never forgot his dream. When he was 21 he confessed his ambition to his new wife. She was horrified: she had married him on the understanding that he would be a rabbinical leader. Also, he had no knowledge of science. But Sabiner’s yearning would not go away.

Now 28, Sabiner is embarking on the final year of his medical degree. He will be the first person born and raised in a Haredi community in Israel to become a mainstream doctor, and he plans to specialise in internal medicine.

Sabiner has benefited from a pioneering scheme at the Technion university in Haifa to draw young ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, Jews from largely closed communities into mainstream education and then into the workforce.

The numbers are still tiny – about 60 out of a total student population of 10,000. “But the idea is to bring the number to 200 within five years, and to 400 within 10 years,” said Prof Boaz Golani, a vice-president of the university. “Engaging the Haredi community is important for Israel. Having a civil society where entire segments live in their own world and with little interaction with others is not healthy. It’s a recipe for tension and animosity.”

In 2017 the number of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel rose above one million for the first time, accounting for 12% of the population. By 2065 they are expected to make up a third of Israel’s population.

Traditionally, Haredi men are not economically active. Many spend their time in religious study, relying on state benefits to support their large families, which average almost seven children. But in recent years the Israeli government and educational institutions have taken steps to integrate the Haredi population into colleges and workforces.

“There was a concentrated effort launched a few years ago by the ministry of transport, which needed more engineers,” said Golani. If the Technion could get Haredi students on to its courses, jobs could be guaranteed.

“We knocked on the doors on yeshivas in Bnei Brak [an overwhelmingly ultra-Orthodox town near Tel Aviv]. We found a few rabbis ready to talk to us. The idea was to take young men who had the brain and intellect to meet the scientific admission criteria, and who were not perceived as chief rabbis of the future.

“We said we would not try to force any change of lifestyle of students, such as [strict] dress codes or praying. We kept a low profile.”

The Technion team identified 37 young men for a pre-university programme run from an anonymous rented warehouse in Bnei Brak. Over the course of 18 months, teachers tried to close a 12-year education gap to bring the Haredi men up to the standard of high school graduates.

They studied from 8am to 10pm. “It was like a bootcamp, very intensive,” said Golani. “But they brought from the yeshivas an ability to study hard, to focus, to apply logic, so we built on these skills.” At the end of the programme, about half were admitted to the Technion; they graduated this summer.

Bringing the students up to the required educational standard was not the only challenge. Gender segregation, a norm in Haredi communities, was a big issue, Golani said. “We told them upfront that we would not allow gender segregation on campus, no way. We suggested they arrive at class 10 minutes early and sit together, and they accepted that. We also told them that we have female professors, and we will not tell them they can’t teach certain students. They accepted that too.”

Another key issue was use of the internet. “So each [Haredi student] carries two phones: a kosher phone, with no apps, and a regular smartphone. On that there is an app which tracks the history of all addresses browsed and sends a report of every website visited to a designated person in their community.”

Some students have been ostracised by their communities. “One girl was boycotted by her friends. Someone else told me he was hiding for years, lying to his wife and family, telling them he was studying at another yeshiva when he was at the Technion.”

The university also runs programmes aimed at encouraging Arab students to enrol. “That tends to be easier because their communities are eager to see them gain top-quality education and so the community resistance is much lower,” said Golani.

It was essential to integrate “untapped resources” – meaning Arab-Israelis and ultra-Orthodox Jews – into the economy, he added. “The economy of Israel is largely based on the hi-tech sector. It’s the locomotive that carries the entire train of the Israeli economy. But we just don’t have enough people. Israel is a small country; we’re not India or China.”

Sabiner is now in the final year of his medical degree. Photograph: Rami Shlush.

When Sabiner embarked on the challenge of becoming a doctor, initially he faced scepticism. “I was told it was impossible for me to catch up [academically] and to be accepted, that I would never make it as a doctor,” he said. But staff at the Technion “believed in me when no one else did”.

 

Article by Harriet Sherwood, published in The Guardian, 10 September 2018.

Under the auspices of the Helen Diller Center for Quantum Science, Matter and Engineering at the Technion, an interdisciplinary team of scientists has collaborated on groundbreaking research leading to the development of a new and innovative scientific field: Quantum Metamaterials. The findings are presented in a new joint paper published by the prestigious journal Science.

Haifa, Israel September 13^th, 2018 – Two teams of scientists from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have collaborated to conduct groundbreaking research leading to the development of a new and innovative scientific field: Quantum Metamaterials. The findings are presented in a new joint paper published by the prestigious journal Science.

The study was jointly conducted by Distinguished Professor Mordechai Segev, of the Technion’s Physics Department and Solid State Institute and his team Tomer Stav and Dikla Oren, in collaboration with Prof. Erez Hasman of the Technion’s Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and his team Arkady Faerman, Elhanan Maguid, and Dr. Vladimir Kleiner. The two groups are affiliated with both the Helen Diller Center for Quantum Science, Matter and Engineering; and the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute.

Seated (L-R): Prof. Erez Hasman and Dist. Prof. Mordechai Segev. Standing (L-R): Dr. Vladimir Kleiner, Elhanan Maguid, Arkady Faerman, Dikla Oren and Tomer Stav

The researchers demonstrated for the first time that it is possible to apply metamaterials to the field of quantum information and computing, thereby paving the way for numerous practical applications including, among others, the development of unbreakable encryptions, as well as opening the door to new possibilities for quantum information systems on a chip.

Metamaterials are artificially fabricated materials, made up of numerous artificial nanoscale structures designed to respond to light in different ways. Metasurfaces are the 2-dimensional version of metamaterials: extremely thin surfaces made up of numerous subwavelength optical nanoantennas, each designed to serve a specific function upon the interaction with light.

While to date, experimentation with metamaterials has widely been limited to manipulations using classical light, the Technion researchers have for the first time shown it is experimentally feasible to use metamaterials as the building blocks for quantum optics and quantum information. More specifically, the researchers have demonstrated the use of metamaterials to generate and manipulate entanglement – which is the most crucial feature of any quantum information scheme.

“What we did in this experiment is to bring the field of metamaterials to the realm of quantum information,” says Dist. Prof. Moti Segev, one of the founders of the Helen Diller Quantum Science, Matter and Engineering Center at the Technion. “With today’s technology, one can design and fabricate materials with electromagnetic properties that are almost arbitrary. For example, one can design and fabricate an invisibility cloak that can conceal little things from radar, or one can create a medium where the light bends backward. But so far all of this was done with classical light. What we show here is how to harness the superb abilities of artificial nano-designed materials to generate and control quantum light.”

“The key component here is a dielectric metasurface,” says Prof. Erez Hasman, “which acts in a different way to left- and right-handed polarized light, imposing on them opposite phase fronts that look like screws or vortices, one clockwise and one counterclockwise. The metasurface had to be nano-fabricated from transparent materials, otherwise – had we included metals, as in most experiments with metamaterials – the quantum properties would be destroyed.”

“This project started off in the mind of two talented students – Tomer Stav and Arkady Faerman,” say Profs. Segev and Hasman, “who came to us with a groundbreaking idea. The project leads to many new directions that raise fundamental questions as well as new possibilities for applications, for example, making quantum information systems on a chip and controlling the quantum properties on design.”

In their research, the scientists conducted two sets of experiments to generate entanglement between the spin and orbital angular momentum of photons. Photons are the elementary particles that make up light: they have zero mass, travel at the speed of light, and normally do not interact with each other.

In the experiments, the researchers first shone a laser beam through a non-linear crystal to create single photon pairs, each characterized by zero orbital momentum and each with linear polarization. A photon in linear polarization means that it is a superposition of right-handed and left-handed circular polarization, which correspond to positive and negative spin.

In the first experiment, the scientists proceeded to split the photon pairs – directing one through a unique fabricated metasurface and the other to a detector to signal the arrival of the other photon. They then measured the single photon that passed through the metasurface to find that it had acquired orbital angular momentum (OAM) and that the OAM has become entangled with the spin.

In the second experiment, the single photon pairs were passed through the metasurface and measured using two detectors to show that they had become entangled: the spin of one photon had become correlated with the orbital angular momentum of the other photon, and vice versa.

Entanglement basically means that the actions performed on one photon simultaneously affect the other, even when spread across great distances.  In quantum mechanics, photons are believed to exist in both positive and negative spin states, but once measured adopt only one state.

This is perhaps best explained through a simple analogy: Take two boxes each with two balls inside – a red and a blue ball.  If the boxes are not entangled then you can reach into the box and pull out either a red or a blue ball. However, if the boxes were to become entangled, then the ball inside the box could either be red or blue but will only be determined at the moment the ball in one box is observed, simultaneously determining the color of the ball in the second box as well. This story was initially related by the famous Nobel Laureate Erwin Schroedinger, presenting the scenario of a cat in a box, where the cat is both alive and dead until the box is opened.

Distinguished Prof. Mordechai Segev is the incumbent of the Robert J. Shillman Distinguished Research Chair; Prof. Erez Hasman is the incumbent of the Schlesinger Chair.

Click here for the paper in Science

Article published here.

Technion alumni star among the “Israeli Hottest Start-ups of 2018” list published in The Marker.

In July, The Marker published a list of Israel’s hottest start-ups of 2018 – 20 innovative companies which are expected to shape the future.  Technion alumni fill senior positions in about 50% of the selected companies.

Tom Livneh, a Technion International-MBA program graduate, is the CEO and founder of VerbIT AI, a company that developed low-cost and rapid automatic transcription services.  The VerbIT platform combines original algorithms, a speech-identification engine and thousands of human transcribers, who improve algorithm performance.

Asaf Yigal, a Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering graduate, is one of the founders of Logz.io, which developed a technology that enables collection of large amounts of data, then used to perform complex analyses, presented in graphical and user-friendly formats.

Elram Goren, a graduate of the Faculties of Physics and Electrical Engineering at the Technion, is the CEO and founder of CommonSense Robotics, a company that develops programs and mini-robots for smart storage room management. This technology enables retailers to provide quick and effective deliveries to the client, without high manpower demands.

Eilon Reshef, a Faculty of Computer Science Technion alumnus who participated in the Technion’s Rothschild program for outstanding students, is the co-founder of Gong.io and manages the company’s technology. Gong developed a technology to improve the performance of sales people and organizations.  The technology performs a computerized analysis of sales conversations and provides organizations with essential information from these calls – whether the product was presented properly, what the client was hesitant about, etc.

Eli Cohen, a Technion Industrial Engineering and Management Faculty alumnus, is a co-founder and VP of Donde Search – a company that develops search technologies that will enable fashion companies to identify trends, understand customer desires and provide them with personalized and focused recommendations.

Ido Priel, who earned an MSc in Systems Engineering at the Technion, is the co-founder and chief product manager at Space Pharma, a company that developed a platform for performing experiments in outer space. The mini-lab is launched to outer space and experiments can be remotely controlled. To date, the company has launched two such labs.

Dr. Yaniv Altshuler, who earned all of his advanced degrees at the Faculty of Computer Science at the Technion, is the co-founder and CEO of Endor, a platform which enables decision-makers to predict consumer behavior using an automatic prediction engine.

Several Technion alumni are in the Jacada corporate management team: directorate member Haim Shani, a Davidson Industrial Engineering and Management alumnus, Yoel Goldenberg, an Industrial Engineering and Management alumnus, and Jacques Tchenio, VP of Sales, who earned his MSc at the Faculty of Mathematics.

Yosef Bert, of blessed memory, was a Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering alumnus, is the founder of Silentium, a company that is currently managed to Yoel Naor, developed an innovative noise-reduction technology for offices, bedrooms, and others. Currently, it is primarily used in the context of reduction of noises in the car.

The late Rami Feig, a Technion alumnus, was the founder of Hailo, which develops dedicated chips for artificial intelligence and big-data applications. The processor that the company is developing, will run artificial intelligence applications in connected computers, in drones, smart homes, and others. The late Avi Baum, the cofounder and chief technology manager at the company, is a Technion graduate, as is the serial entrepreneur Zohar Zisapel. Feig, Baum and Zisapel are Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering graduates.

Article originally published here.

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects dopamine-producing neurons in a specific area of the brain called substantia nigra. Parkinson’s symptoms include tremor, loss of smell and neuropsychiatric problems. However, many people aren’t diagnosed until their disease is well-advanced. Now, a team of scientists at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology has tested a device to detect early-stage Parkinson’s disease from the breath of patients.

Early diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease is important because it affects the choice of therapy and is subject to a relatively high degree of error. Image credit: Finberg et al, doi: 10.1021/acschemneuro.8b00245.

About 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with the movement disorder each year. But by the time most people experience symptoms, they have already lost many of the dopamine-producing neurons affected by the disease.

Diagnosing Parkinson’s at an earlier stage could help these patients begin neuroprotective therapy sooner.

To this end, Technion researcher John Finberg and co-authors previously developed a device with an array of 40 sensors based on gold nanoparticles or single-walled carbon nanotubes.

Each sensor had a different chemical attached that could bind certain volatile molecules in the breath, and this binding changed the electrical resistance of the sensor.

The device detected differences in the exhaled breath of people already being treated for Parkinson’s disease and healthy controls.

Now, the team wanted to see if the device could detect differences in the breath of patients with early-stage, not-yet-treated Parkinson’s disease.

The scientists tested the device on the exhaled breath of 29 newly diagnosed patients who had not yet begun taking medication for their illness.

When comparing the sensor output to that of 19 control subjects of similar age, they found that the array detected early Parkinson’s disease with 79% sensitivity, 84% specificity and 81% accuracy, which was better than a diagnostic smell test and almost as good as an ultrasound scan of the brain.

“Although the device needs to be improved and validated by larger studies, it has potential as a small, portable system to screen at-risk individuals without the need for highly-trained specialists,” the researchers said.

The team’s results appear in the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience.

CBD Oil for Parkinson’s Disease

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John P.M. Finberg et al. Sensor Array for Detection of Early Stage Parkinson’s Disease before Medication. ACS Chem. Neurosci, published online July 10, 2018; doi: 10.1021/acschemneuro.8b00245

 

Article published on July 27, 2018 here.

Researchers in the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology Faculty of Biology have unearthed a new role of the caspase-3 protein in organ size determination. Their discovery could pave the way for novel therapeutic approaches in regenerative medicine and tumor therapy. This research was published as a cover story in Molecular Cell.

HAIFA, ISRAEL (July 27, 2018) – Scientists have long known that organ size is shaped by many factors, including the size of each cell, proliferation, cell differentiation, death, and, of course, the total number of cells. However, the molecular mechanisms directly regulating organ size had until now remained elusive, setting the stage for the current research directed by Assistant Professor Yaron Fuchs and led by Dr. Yahav Yosefzon.

The Technion researchers discovered a previously unknown molecular mechanism that regulates the size of sebaceous glands in the skin. The skin is the largest organ in the human body, weighing approximately 9 kg (almost 20 lbs.) in adults and with an overall area of approximately 2 m² (21.5 square feet). It is composed of an epidermis (the outer layer) and the dermis (the lower layer). The sebaceous glands are located in the epidermis, where they produce and secrete an oily substance (sebum) that protects the skin and the hairs covering it. Since sebaceous gland abnormalities can lead to acne and cancer development, there is a great need to understand the mechanisms responsible for their normal development and size.

Assistant Professor Yaron Fuchs and led by Dr. Yahav Yosefzon.

The present study focused on the caspase-3 protein. Caspase-3 is considered a key player in apoptosis, a form of programmed cell death where dysfunctional cells “commit suicide,” which is essential for preventing the emergence of cancer and ensuring organismal survival. Caspase-3 functions by cleaving other vital proteins to execute cell destruction.

The Technion researchers found that, in contrast to the accepted dogma, caspase-3 does not induce apoptosis, but rather, leads to cell proliferation and thereby influences sebaceous gland size. Therefore they sought to elucidate the molecular mechanism by which Caspase-3 regulates cell expansion and organ size.

One major protein that governs these processes is the YAP protein. YAP is a transcription factor, which drives cell proliferation when it gains access to the cell nucleus. It is therefore very tightly regulated, in order to avoid uncontrolled cell division, which can lead to the development of cancer. To prevent it from entering the nucleus, YAP is anchored to the cell membrane by the a-catenin protein. The present work discovered that caspase-3 can cleave a-catenin, thereby liberating YAP from the membrane, enabling it to translocate to the cell nucleus and promote cell division.

This discovery is particularly important as it sheds light on the common cancer treatments, including radiation and chemotherapy, which intentionally accelerate caspase-3 activity to execute tumor cell apoptosis. “Our discovery has various potential applications, including in hindering cancer and promoting wound healing by manipulating caspase-3. Now that we have uncovered this novel non-apoptotic role of caspase-3, it should and must be taken into consideration in treatment strategies. Our lab’s preliminary and promising results indicate that inhibition of caspase-3 may be a highly efficacious means of treating advanced cancerous tumors,” said Assistant Professor Fuchs.

Assistant Professor Fuchs heads the Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the Faculty of Biology and is a researcher at the Lorry Lokey Interdisciplinary Center for Life Sciences and Engineering. His lab focuses on researching stem cells, which are responsible for tissue regeneration in our bodies. Within this framework, the lab isolates new stem cell populations, studies the mechanisms underlying stem cell apoptosis and promotes novel techniques for regenerative medicine and cancer therapy.

The study was supported by the Office of the Chief Scientist (KAMIN), RCDA, ICRF and GIF grants.

Original article can be found here.

“From Jaffa to Java” Technion celebrates over 70 years of innovation.

You can read Technion President, Peretz Lavie’s annual report for 2018, here.

 

Wearable health monitoring devices are among the most exciting scientific developments. Technology capable of tracking vital signs, activity, fitness, and sleep quality such as in the Apple Watch and Fitbit already have the potential to encourage healthier lifestyles and even save lives.  Over the past several years, these devices have been instrumental in alerting a number of users of abnormal heart rates, driving them to seek immediate medical attention, and ultimately saving them from life-threatening conditions. In at least one case, unusual Fitbit data eventually led to the discovery of an early pregnancy.

Pushing the boundary in this field are recent Israeli developments in self-charging, self-repairing disease detectors incorporated into everyday clothing.

Spearheaded by Professor Hossam Haick of the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and postdoctoral researcher Weiwei Wu, these devices include electrodes and sensors applied onto wearable nylon textiles and permeable skin-mimicking bandages that constantly monitor breath rate, skin odor and chemical biomarkers (saliva, sweat). Specific irregularities in these parameters will indicate the presence of a disease, according to the research results published in Advanced Materials earlier this year.

Though certain technologies already possess these capabilities, Haick’s devices set themselves apart through self-sustainability. In particular, the gadget hopes to use cutting-edge materials that heal themselves and take advantage of the body’s wasted energy. Its components harvest the energy of body heat and movement, and they use synthetics that regenerate its properties upon damage. These advances alleviate risks such as leaving a device uncharged, torn or scratched. This technology will increasingly improve the quality of life through becoming a remote nurse that constantly accompanies an individual, according to the researchers.

Due to the constant monitoring of an individual’s vitals, these sensors provide a diagnosis of diseases in early stages. This prevents diseases from progressing, which Haick cites as a motivation for his research. “The results are very encouraging,” Haick tells NoCamels via e-mail, pointing to recent testing done on tuberculosis screening using sensors integrated into bandages. Among the standard “healthy” ranges set for the devices are 60 to 100 heartbeats and seven to eight breaths per minute.

However, the product is only in its preliminary stages. According to Haick, though the discrete devices exist, the sensor and energy units are yet to be integrated into one product. Currently, the research team awaits a patent on a breathable self-healing platform imitating skin. Haick also cites energy generation, flexibility and accuracy as challenges for the device. Although his research team waits for further results, Haick states he is already seeking investors for what he calls a “promising and prospective technology.”

The wearable health device sector has tremendous potential. Experts predict this market will reach nearly $20 billion by 2021. Not only do these technologies monitor a patient’s vitals, they also facilitate communication between patients and healthcare professionals around the clock and reduce the cost of human labor associated with constantly checking patients. Furthermore, they also have the potential to assist doctors, where technologies such as Google Glass help surgeons visualize CT and X-Ray scans while performing surgery consecutively, saving vital time and increasing accuracy.

The new system is one in a long list of achievements for the award-winning scientist. In 2014, alongside Professor Nir Peled of Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Haick developed NaNose, a microchip incorporated into a breathalyzer capable of diagnosing various diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s and cancer. The device uses the presence of specific volatile organic compounds, which are unique fingerprints for various forms of disease and cancer.

Haick says the NaNose is able to differentiate between malignant and benign tumors, as well as their source, with 90 percent accuracy. The European Commission awarded him $6.8 million for further development of the technology. Alongside this grant, Haick has received the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Award and been named on “World’s 35 leading young scientists” on MIT Technology Review for his research in non-invasive disease detection methods. He currently serves as faculty and F.M.W. Academic Chair in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.

Haick’s research group is currently working on other related projects. Notably, the team is developing self-repairing multipurpose health monitors that resemble tattoos imprinted on skin. This device will make use of a field-effect transistor (FET), which can modify its behavior through a varying electric field. The group is also improving existing self-generating power sources for wearable device platforms.

 

This article was written by Ben Huang, published on no camels Israel Innovation News on June 12, 2018.

Former Chief Rabbi praises ‘science and religion as “the great partnership our world needs’, as he accepts gong from the Israeli tech university

June 11, 2018

Former Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks has praised science and religion as “the great partnership our world needs” as he was awarded an honourary doctorate by Israeli technology university Technion.

Sacks was praised for his “profound dedication to the State of Israel and the Jewish people” and a “lifetime contribution to enriching Jewish identity,” as he was described by the university as “one of the world’s foremost Jewish thinkers and philosophers”.

Previous honourary doctors at Technion have included Margaret Thatcher, Albert Einstein and Elie Wiesel.

In his speech, Sacks said: “The relationship between science and religion is one of the most important connections in the world today. Often portrayed as a conflict, they are radically different disciplines. Science takes things apart to see how they work. Religion puts things together to see what they mean. Both are vital.”

He added: “In a world of remarkable scientific discoveries, so many of them in Israel, we must remember that ethics and morality have a significant part to play in this development.

“The Jewish people and the Jewish state have always simultaneously sought to be a creative and a moral force. Nowhere in the world is better placed to maintain this balance than here in Israel, and the Technion is one of the key institutions at the cutting edge of this work.”

See original article on The Jewish News, Times of Israel here.