Artificial sweeteners have long been promoted as diet and health aids – but Weizmann scientists have discovered that such products may be causing our gut bacteria to trigger harmful metabolic changes. In other words, the sweeteners may be leading to the very diseases – such as obesity – they were supposed to help prevent.
September 30, 2014
Astrophysicist Dr. Ron Budnik, recently recruited to the Weizmann Institute, is part of an international team of scientists that is creating new instruments in the hope of recording the first confirmed interactions between dark matter and normal matter. Dark matter is one of the biggest unsolved mysteries in physics.
Stem cell research is one of the fastest-moving fields of science today, with new findings coming one after another. In just the past several months alone, Weizmann scientists have discovered important new information about how stem cells grow, choose their fates, and can be reprogrammed. These mighty cells have the potential to change medicine as we know it.
August 27, 2014
The National Postdoctoral Program for Advancing Women in Science – the runaway success that provides funding for talented Israeli female scientists to pursue postdoctoral research abroad – is now seven years old, and the numbers are coming in. 27 women have now completed the program – and 22 of them, or more than 80%, now hold faculty positions in Israel.
This issue of Weizmann Views features Dr. Jacob Hanna, an MD/PhD who is one of the world's leaders in stem cell research. His methods for quickly, efficiently producing induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells and for ""resetting"" iPS cells to their earliest possible state could change the face of medicine, including growing organs on demand.
The Weizmann Institute's stellar astrophysics team is developing a small, light satellite that will be equipped with a telescope searching in the ultraviolet range for events such as supernovas and black holes. The team is collaborating with Caltech and NASA, among others, on the satellite, which is a first for Weizmann – and for Israel.
At the Weizmann Institute, scientists from a range of disciplines are investigating the causes and nature of Alzheimer's disease, as well as looking for ways to slow or stop its progress, and for new and better treatments.
According to the American Heart Association, more than 80 million Americans have one or more forms of cardiovascular disease. Weizmann researchers are not only searching for solutions to this health epidemic, but are also investigating the very earliest causes, such as problems during embryonic formation.
Like police detectives using DNA fingerprinting, Weizmann cancer researchers are building a DNA profile of malignancy in an attempt to eradicate cancer.
