About Us
Founded in 1944, the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science develops philanthropic support for the Weizmann Institute in Israel, and advances its mission of science for the benefit of humanity.
Our mental health is always important, but more so than ever during these challenging times. Between the ongoing COVID pandemic, economic insecurity, social turmoil, and the like, rates of anxiety and depression are skyrocketing. How to cope? And why do we experience mental health issues in the first place?
As with the coronavirus, the answers are found in science.
The Weizmann Institute’s renowned neuroscientists do more than study the brain; they investigate how this most mysterious of organs responds to the world, processes our experiences, plays a role in emotional response, consolidates memories, becomes ill, and more. Our scientists also seek to develop effective medications and treatments. As Prof. Alon Chen – a renowned expert in neuropsychiatry and Weizmann Institute president – says, “I strongly believe that when we identify the mechanisms in the brain, we can use them to develop better ways to treat these conditions.”
Just as COVID-19 is still advancing, so is the research of Weizmann Institute scientists as they develop ways to identify, predict, treat, and prevent the illness. One particularly innovative researcher is Prof. Noam Sobel.
A neurobiologist who is a world leader in olfaction research, Prof. Sobel works in the Weizmann tradition of following his curiosity as he harnesses the sense of smell to fight COVID. His previous studies have shown that our olfactory system has powers that many of us would never have imagined; he has used the sense of smell – our most ancient sense – to quantify the smell of fear; shed light on social miscues in autism and diagnose the condition; help locked-in, vegetative patients communicate; reveal subconscious reactions to the opposite sex; and much more.
Even in 2020, with all we know about health and nutrition, heart disease is still the leading cause of death in America, accounting for one in four mortalities. Fortunately, the Weizmann Institute of Science is taking multiple approaches to understanding and treating this too-common killer. February is American Heart Month – and we’d love to share our very latest research with you.
While there are several vital heart-related projects underway at the Institute, the lab of leading researcher Prof. Eldad Tzahor recently made a significant breakthrough: discovering that a non-toxic dye actually helps repair damaged heart tissue, such as the scarring that occurs after a heart attack.
Immunotherapies, which harness the immune system to fight disease, are revolutionizing treatments for many types of cancer. Having made significant breakthroughs in the field, Weizmann Institute of Science researchers are now exploring ways to apply immunotherapy to conditions other than cancer, including neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. Prof. Ido Amit of the Department of Immunology is advancing this research by developing sophisticated tools and technologies to investigate the immune system’s role in neurodegenerative diseases.
Weizmann Institute researchers from across the disciplines are pursuing topics in neuroscience, approaching this crucial field from a number of angles. That’s because understanding our brains – in both health and disease – benefits everyone on this planet.
From Alzheimer’s to autism, Parkinson’s to mental health, memory to aging and beyond, here are just some of the Institute’s neuroscience advances over just the past year:
There is a reason that a puzzle piece is the symbol of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Despite all the research, despite the advances, ASD continues to be an enigma. What causes it? Can it be diagnosed earlier? What are the differences between an autistic and a neurotypical brain?
One field of research – the role of the sense of smell – is producing surprising results that could lead to means of early diagnosis and intervention, as well as shed light on the misreading of social cues that is so common in autism.
Issue 52 of Weizmann Views presents the research of Prof. Michal Schwartz, who pioneered the field of neuroimmunity. She is working on methods for treating Alzheimer’s and other age-related diseases.
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.
We treasure our hearts: we fill them with love, soothe them when they ache, and keep them powerful with diet and exercise. But sometimes, no matter what, our hearts are affected by illness and disease – and that’s where science can help.
It’s American Heart Month, the perfect time to share with you some of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s remarkable research on the heart. After all, this affects all of us: as the Centers for Disease Control says, heart problems are both common and varied, affect people of all ages, and strike equally across gender and economic borders.
©2021 American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science