News Releases
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Fighting Cancer
Disrupted Nitrogen Metabolism Might Spell Cancer
When the body makes use of nitrogen, it generates from the leftovers a nitrogenous waste substance called urea in a chain of biochemical reactions that take place in the liver, which are known as the urea cycle. As a result of this cycle, urea is expelled into the bloodstream, and is later excreted from the body in the urine. In previous research, Dr. Ayelet Erez of Weizmann’s Department of Biological Regulation showed that one of the enzymes in the urea cycle has been inactivated within many cancerous tumors, thus increasing the availability of nitrogen for the synthesis of an organic substance called pyrimidine which, in turn, supports RNA and DNA synthesis and cancerous growth.
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Advancing Technology
An Algorithm That Rivals Experts’ Ultrasound Skills Could Save Lives
Utrasound equipment has shrunk in both size and price in recent years – so much so that it is now standard in hospitals and clinics all over the world. But today’s ultrasound still requires a highly trained expert to acquire the image and interpret the results, and this has prevented its use in certain settings – for example, in urgent care. In a joint venture they call On-Sight, computer scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science and a cardiologist at the New York University School of Medicine have teamed up to develop an automated system that guides the operator in acquiring the images and then accurately interprets the results for physicians. This venture was recently awarded first place in the third Echovation Challenge of the American Society of Echocardiography.
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Advancing Technology
Freezing Fly Eggs for the Future
The three fresh Weizmann Institute of Science graduates – Drs. Yuval Gilad, Idan Alyagor, and Yoav Politi – named their company FREEZEM. As the name suggests, they are developing a way to cryogenically freeze the fly eggs so that they remain viable. The technology for freezing fly eggs, they say, is different from that used to freeze human ova or bacteria, and they are the first to offer this development.
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David Doneson to Lead American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science
The Board of Directors of the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science has unanimously elected David Doneson to be the organization’s next CEO, effective September 4, 2018. Mr. Doneson will succeed Marshall S. Levin, who has served as CEO since 2008.
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Fighting Cancer
Combined Approach Offers Hope to Lung Cancer Patients Who Become Resistant to Drugs
New-generation lung cancer drugs have been effective in a large number of patients, but within about a year, most tend to develop resistance to the therapy. Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science, in collaboration with physicians, have conducted a study in mice in which they used existing drugs in a new combination to help crush potential treatment resistance. Their findings were published recently in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.
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Exploring the Physical World
A Century-Old Model for the Origin of Life Gets Significant Substantiation
In 1924, Russian biochemist Alexander Oparin claimed that life on Earth developed through gradual chemical changes of organic molecules in the “primordial soup” that likely existed here four billion years ago. In his view, the complex combination of lifeless molecules, joining forces within small oily droplets, could assume life faculties – self-replication, selection, and evolution. These ideas were received with considerable doubt, which remains today.
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Fighting Cancer
Switching Sides: The Betrayal of an Anti-Cancer Gene
It doesn’t often happen that army generals switch sides in the middle of a war, but when cancer is attacking, it may cause even a gene that acts as the body’s master defender to change allegiance. As reported recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have discovered that this gene’s betrayal can occur in more ways than previously appreciated.
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Maggie Howard Appointed Associate Executive Director, Southern California Region
The American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science announced that Maggie Howard has been appointed as Associate Executive Director of its Southern California Region. Ms. Howard will play a critical role in advancing local philanthropic efforts to support the Weizmann Institute, a top-ranking, multidisciplinary research institution located in Rehovot, Israel.
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Enriching Education
The Weizmann Institute of Science is Ninth in the World in Research Quality
The Weizmann Institute of Science has placed ninth in an international ranking of research quality. This is the second time that the Institute has ranked in the top 10 best research institutes in the world. (The Institute placed 10th in the 2015 ranking.) The assessment comes from the annual Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) Leiden Ranking, Leiden University, the Netherlands.
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Exploring the Physical World
XENON1T Team Sets Limits
Dr. Ran Budnik and his team at the Weizmann Institute of Science joined 165 researchers from 27 research institutes around the world working on the XENON1T experiment. This experiment is the most sensitive by far to search for dark matter, and the results they reported this week set a stringent limit on the possible mass of particles that could make up the elusive dark matter. Following these results, based on research that utilized a tank containing over a ton of liquid xenon and on data collected for almost a year, the scientists are planning an even larger, more-sensitive experiment – XENONnT – for 2019.
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Improving Health & Medicine
Body Knows Best: A Natural Healing Mechanism for Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Treating inflammatory diseases of the bowel is extremely challenging: genes, gut microbes, and disrupted immune function all contribute. Weizmann Institute of Science researchers are proposing a way around this complexity. In a study in mice, published in Cell Reports, they have found a way to trigger a natural defense mechanism that prompts the body itself to alleviate intestinal inflammation.
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Enriching Education
Passing it On, Thanks to PERACH
In the course of writing his doctoral thesis, Emanuel (Emil) Eidin, a student in the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Science Teaching, started thinking about the people he would like to thank in the acknowledgements section. He decided that some of the people to whom gratitude was due were the PERACH mentors who had helped him as a child.
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American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science Celebrates Return to Washington, D.C.
The American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science celebrated the return of its Washington, D.C. and Mid-Atlantic Office with a special event at the Embassy of Israel. The evening attracted about 65 local supporters of the Weizmann Institute, one of the world’s leading multidisciplinary research institutions located in Rehovot, Israel. After opening remarks by American Committee CEO Marshall S. Levin, National Chair Ellen Merlo discussed the significance of reestablishing the organization’s Mid-Atlantic Region. Reuven Azar, Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of Israel, then welcomed guests, and illustrated the power of scientific cooperation to build bridges between Israel and other nations.
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Protecting Our Planet
Food Waste: The Biggest Loss Could Be What You Choose to Put in Your Mouth
About a third of the food produced for human consumption is estimated to be lost or wasted globally. But the biggest waste, which is not included in that estimate, may be through dietary choices that result in the squandering of environmental resources. In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science and their colleagues have now found a novel way to define and quantify this second type of wastage. The scientists have called it “opportunity food loss,” a term inspired by the “opportunity cost” concept in economics, which refers to the cost of choosing a particular alternative over better options.
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Exploring the Physical World
Unveiling the Depths of Jupiter’s Winds
Three papers appearing in Nature on March 8 answer a question that scientists have been asking ever since Galileo first observed the famous stripes of Jupiter: Are the colorful bands just a pretty surface phenomenon, or are they a significant stratum of the planet? The Weizmann Institute of Science’s Prof. Yohai Kaspi led this research, in which measurements from NASA’s Juno spacecraft were analyzed to reveal that the stripes – belts of strong winds circling the planet – extend to a depth of about 3,000 km (about 1,900 miles). That is quite a bit deeper than previous estimates, and is revising scientists’ picture of Jupiter’s atmosphere as well as its inner layers.
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Improving Health & Medicine
Genetics or Lifestyle: What Is It That Shapes Our Microbiome?
The question of nature vs. nurture extends to our microbiome – the personal complement of mostly friendly bacteria we carry around with us. Study after study has found that our microbiome affects nearly every aspect of our health, and that the composition of our microbes, which varies from individual to individual, may hold the key to everything from weight gain to mood. Some microbiome researchers had suggested that this variation begins with differences in our genes, but a large-scale study conducted at the Weizmann Institute of Science challenges this idea and provides evidence that the connection between microbiome and health may be even more important than we thought.