The Midwest Region’s annual Gala Dinner took place at The Geraghty in Chicago with over 600 guests in attendance. Local civic and community leaders came together to honor Michael Polsky, Founder and CEO of Invenergy. A dedicated philanthropist and energy industry pioneer, Mr. Polsky received the Weizmann Leadership Award. The evening’s program, emceed by ABC 7 reporter Janet Davies, also consisted of presentations by University of Chicago President Robert Zimmer and Prof. Avigdor Scherz, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, who discussed his cutting-edge cancer research. Chaired by Janet and Steven Anixter and JoAnn Anixter Silva, the highly successful gala raised over $1.3 million in support of the Weizmann Institute.
A shot of espresso, a piece of chocolate, or a headstand – all of these have been recommended before taking a big test. The best advice, however, could be to take a deep breath. According to research conducted in the lab of Prof. Noam Sobel of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Neurobiology, people who inhaled when presented with a visuospatial task were better at completing it than those who exhaled in the same situation. The results of the study, which were published in Nature Human Behavior, suggest that the olfactory system may have shaped the evolution of brain function far beyond the basic function of smelling.
March 20, 2019
We humans are overrunning our planet and its limited resources, with no end in sight: the UN says that “roughly 83 million people” are born each year, adding another billion in just the next 20 years. Our current population of 7.6 billion alone is already putting a tremendous strain on Earth’s limited water, energy, land, and other resources.
And now, for the third year in a row, there has been a rise in world hunger. The U.N. says that “821 million people – one in nine – still go to bed on an empty stomach each night. Even more – one in three – suffer from some form of malnutrition.” These statistics are concerning for reasons beyond the human suffering; for example, malnourished children often have lifelong health problems and difficulty learning.
Two South Korean concerns have committed to investing a total of $12 million in spinout companies incorporated by Yeda Research and Development Co. Ltd., the technology transfer arm of the Weizmann Institute of Science. The first investment – $2 million by Yozma Group Asia – is in On-Sight Medical Inc., jointly owned by Yeda, New York University (NYU), and related parties. For the second, the Korean group BioLeaders Corporation – in which Yozma Group Asia is an investor – has committed to investing $10 million in a new spinout firm that will develop an anti-cancer therapy developed by Weizmann Institute scientists.
March 19, 2019
The main scientific instrument on board the Israeli Beresheet spacecraft, the SpaceIL Magnetometer (SILMAG), has now been successfully turned on in space and data returned to Earth. After its successful launch, Beresheet is circling Earth on its journey to the Moon. Prof. Oded Aharonson of the Weizmann Institute of Science is heading the team that is currently analyzing the SILMAG information to evaluate the health and accuracy of the instrument in space, as well as recording the magnetic signature of the spacecraft itself, which will then be subtracted from the measurements made on the Moon.
March 17, 2019
Antifreeze is life’s means of surviving in cold winters: natural antifreeze proteins help fish, insects, plants, and even bacteria live through low temperatures that should turn their liquid parts into deadly shards of ice. Strangely enough, in very cold conditions, the same proteins can also promote the growth of ice crystals. This was the finding of experiments carried out in Israel and Germany using proteins taken from fish and beetles. The results of this study, recently published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, could have implications for understanding the basic processes of ice formation.
March 14, 2019
Lymphoid organs in the small intestines. Red: B cells aggregated in the “training centers.” Green: cells with the ability to secrete effective antibodies exiting the centers for the intestinal tissue
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—March 4, 2019—Only a few vaccines – for example, polio and rotavirus – can be given orally. Most must be delivered by injection. Weizmann Institute of Science researchers suggest this may be, in part, because the “training program” of the immune cells in the gut takes place under harsh conditions. Using a novel imaging method that captures all of the immune cells’ niches within a single organ, Dr. Ziv Shulman and research student Adi Biram investigated the training process for the gut-based cells involved in long-term immunity. Their findings, published in Nature Immunology, provide new insights that may, in the future, lead to the design of more effective oral vaccines.
March 04, 2019
The New York Times Sunday Review’s cover story was about Profs. Eran Elinav and Eran Segal and their algorithm-based method of analyzing the gut microbiome to create a custom diet. Author and cardiologist Eric Topol, who was tested by the scientists, discusses what AI means for nutrition.
March 02, 2019
In the second episode of Weizmann in Focus, CEO Dave Doneson discusses how the Institute’s plant scientists are tackling the challenge of global food security. These innovative researchers are figuring out how plants can better resist drought, provide higher-quality nutrition, and more. Dave spotlights a breakthrough by Prof. Jonathan Gressel, who discovered a method of killing a parasitic weed that was destroying corn crops in sub-Saharan Africa.
©2019 American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science
