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Fighting Cancer
Triple Treatment Keeps Cancer from Coming Back
Lung cancer, the world's deadliest cancer, can be apparently successfully treated, only to return. And when it does so, it's often resistant to the drugs that worked the first time. Fortunately, Prof. Yosef Yarden has devised a novel three-pronged strategy that, in mice, kept lung cancer cells from developing resistance in the first place.
June 03, 2015
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Improving Health & Medicine
Resolving a Lymphatic Riddle
For more than a century, scientists have debated how the lymphatic system arises. Now that question has been answered, as Weizmann's Dr. Karina Yaniv has revealed how the system develops in the embryo, and – in a world's first – grown lymphatic cells in the lab. Besides solving this long-standing puzzle, her work can provide important insights into disease.
May 20, 2015
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Improving Health & Medicine
How a Bacterial Cell Recognizes Its Own DNA
Our immune systems fight bacteria – but did you know that bacteria have immune systems, too? And how does the bacterial immune system distinguish between its own DNA and that of foreign invaders, so that it knows what to fight? The answer, revealed by a Weizmann Institute and Tel Aviv University team, involves a complex, multi-stage process.
April 13, 2015
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Improving Health & Medicine
Heart Cells Regenerated in Mice
In a heart research breakthrough, Weizmann's Prof. Eldad Tzahor and a team of researchers have induced heart cells in mice to revert to an earlier state when they can be renewed; typically, the heart is unable to heal itself. This important work could lead to powerful new treatments for heart disease.
April 13, 2015
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Weizmann Institute is Number One in ERC Grants
The European Research Council (ERC) awards highly competitive grants to the top European research institutes and universities. Recent analysis of the success rates for all grants awarded from 2007 – 2013 puts Weizmann in first place, with an astonishing 35% of its proposals approved. In comparison, the average success rate is around 10%.
April 02, 2015
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Fighting Cancer
To Stop Cancer, Block Its Messages
Cells send a constant stream of messages to their nuclei for making day-to-day decisions. But this rapid, long-distance communication system is vulnerable to mutations that can lead to unstopped, repeated messages – a ""spam attack"" – that promotes cancer. Now, Prof. Rony Seger and his team have identified a molecule that stops cancer cells from getting their ""mail.""
March 30, 2015
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Exploring the Physical World
The Scent of a Handshake
Why do we shake hands? Why do animals smell each other? These two actions apparently serve the same evolutionary purpose. A new study by Prof. Noam Sobel's lab shows that after shaking someone's hand, we sniff our own hands twice as much – and the hand we sniff depends on the shakee's gender. Such subliminal sniffing seems to help convey social information.
March 03, 2015
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Exploring the Physical World
Science Tips, March 2015
Four updates from Weizmann: an ancient skull may provide clues to human-Neanderthal mating; Weizmann and SpaceIL are holding an online trivia game about the moon for kids 6-18; working with Penn, scientists find that each heartbeat is a careful synchronization; the popular award for Israeli women postdocs is accepting applications.
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Enriching Education
Science Tips, January 2015
Three updates from the the Weizmann Institute: Japan and Israel combine forces to advance brain research; new findings show that autistic brains are nonconformist; Peruvian schools adopt Weizmann's Blue Planet science education curriculum.
January 21, 2015