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.
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.
August 2018
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.
July 2018
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.
July 2018
Mountain climbers and endurance athletes are not the only ones to benefit from altitude training – that is, learning to perform well under low-oxygen conditions. It turns out that cancer-fighting cells of the immune system can also improve their performance through a cellular version of such a regimen. In a study published in Cell Reports, Weizmann Institute of Science researchers have shown that the immune system’s killer T cells destroy cancerous tumors much more effectively after being starved for oxygen.
September 2017
To the list of reasons that chemotherapy sometimes does not work, we can now add one more: bacteria. In a study just published in Science, researchers describe their findings showing that certain bacteria can be found inside human pancreatic tumors. The findings further revealed that some of these bacteria contain an enzyme that inactivates a common drug used to treat various cancers, including pancreatic cancer. Working with mouse models of cancer, the scientists demonstrated how treatment with antibiotics on top of chemotherapy may be significantly superior to treatment with chemotherapy alone.
September 14, 2017
The path to understanding what goes wrong in cancer could benefit from a detour through studies of rare childhood diseases. Dr. Ayelet Erez explains that cancer generally involves dozens – if not hundreds – of mutations, and sorting out the various functions and malfunctions of each may be nearly impossible. Rare childhood diseases, in contrast, generally involve mutations to a single gene.
May 18, 2017
The fine art of mixing drug cocktails - such as for cancer treatment - is incredibly complicated, especially once you get into three or more ingredients. The numbers of possible interactions and side effects are virtually infinite. Now, a new model from the lab of Prof. Uri Alon lets scientists compare combinations of drugs to determine which work well together, and with the fewest side effects. This is a major step forward in personalized medicine.
December 07, 2016
Triple-negative breast cancer is particularly hard to treat because, as its name suggests, it lacks three receptors that usually serve as targets for anti-cancer drugs. Now, Prof. Sima Lev has identified a promising new combination therapy that not only inhibits tumor growth and survival, but gets around the problem of drug-induced resistance.
Many years ago, Prof. Michael Sela and colleagues found that antibodies inhibiting EGFR, a receptor that plays a role in cancer, have a synergistic anti-cancer effect when used with chemotherapy. That discovery has now led to three cancer-treating drugs: Erbitux®, Vectibix®, and, most recently, Portrazza™, just FDA approved for a form of lung cancer.
March 16, 2016
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