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 future of humanity.
Jun 19, 2014...
According the World Health Organization, mood disorders such as depression affect some 10% of the world’s population and are associated with a heavy burden of disease. That is why numerous scientists around the world have invested a great deal of effort in understanding these diseases. Yet the molecular and cellular mechanisms that underlie these problems are still only partly understood.
The existing antidepressants are not good enough: Some 60-70% of patients get no relief from them. For the other 30-40%, that relief is often incomplete, and they must take the drugs for a long period before feeling any effects. In addition, there are many side effects associated with the drugs. New and better drugs are clearly needed, an undertaking that requires, first and foremost, a better understanding of the processes and causes underlying the disorders.
May 30, 2018...
Cross-section of the inner lining of a human gut adjacent to a cancerous tumor. The enzyme ASL (red-brown), which helps manufacture nitric oxide, has accumulated in unusually high amounts in cells of the lining, probably in an attempt to alleviate the inflammation that commonly occurs in the gut of colon cancer patients
Treating inflammatory diseases of the bowel is extremely challenging: genes, gut microbes, and disrupted immune function all contribute. Weizmann Institute of Science researchers are proposing a way around this complexity. In a study in mice, published in Cell Reports, they have found a way to trigger a natural defense mechanism that prompts the body itself to alleviate intestinal inflammation.
Feb 07, 2016...
Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who accepted the recommendation of the Israel Prize jury, headed by Prof. Itamar Willner. Credit: Alex Kolomoisky
The Israel Prize laureates in chemistry and physics for 2016 are Prof. Meir Lahav and Prof. Leslie Leiserowitz of the Weizmann Institute of Science. The announcement was made last Thursday by Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who accepted the recommendation of the prize jury, headed by Prof. Itamar Willner.
Mar 25, 2019...
Illustration by Kanyanat Wongsa/Shutterstock.com
Far more than your alarm clock, what governs your wake-sleep cycle is the internal circadian clock regulating your whole body. This biological timekeeper also affects hunger, thirst, body temperature, mood, hormone fluctuations and more.
Disturbances to the circadian rhythm, or to the genes that produce the rhythm, can cause problems from low productivity and insomnia to depression and diabetes. Some of the most common disturbances are night-shift work, artificial light and travel across time zones.
Aug 24, 2016...
Credit: Thomas Fuchs
Compared with other bodily excretions, tears are vastly understudied. Collecting the salty drops is tedious – weepy donors are rare, men hardly ever sign up and tears must be “fresh” for their makeup to be properly analyzed. As a result, researchers lack a consensus about the purpose of a basic human behavior. Is crying a primal way to communicate that many species share, as some chemists hypothesize? Or is it, as psychologists have put forth, a uniquely human key to social bonding? Israeli neurobiologist Noam Sobel has a plan to advance the field: he has perfected a way to flash-freeze tears and is now working to create a “tear bank” for researchers around the world.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/science-tips-may-2009/
May 05, 2009...
One can have a dream, two can make that dream so real, goes a popular song. Now a Weizmann Institute study has revealed that it takes two to perform an essential form of DNA repair.
Prof. Zvi Livneh of the Weizmann Institute’s Biological Chemistry Department has been studying DNA repair for some two decades: “Considering that the DNA of each cell is damaged about 20,000 times a day by radiation, pollutants, and harmful chemicals produced within the body, it’s obvious that without effective DNA repair, life as we know it could not exist. Most types of damage result in individual mutations – genetic ‘spelling mistakes’ – that are corrected by precise, error-free repair enzymes. Sometimes, however, damage results in more than a mere spelling mistake; it can cause gaps in the DNA, which prevent the DNA molecule from being copied when the cell divides, much like an ink blot or a hole on a book page interferes with reading. So dangerous are these gaps that the cell resorts to a sloppy but efficient repair technique to avoid them: it fills in the missing DNA in an inaccurate fashion. Such repair can save the cell from dying, but it comes at a price: this error-prone mechanism, discovered at the Weizmann Institute and elsewhere about a decade ago, is a major source of mutations.”
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/using-science-to-save-our-oceans/
Jul 18, 2019...
It’s the height of summer – time to hit the beach, whether for an afternoon or a week or two. People love the ocean and have always been drawn to it, but as much as it affects us, we affect it, too.
The ocean's health is crucial to the planet’s health – and ours. That’s why the devastating impacts from climate change are so concerning: as the temperatures warm, glaciers melt, and seawater becomes more acidic, as fish and mammals are overfished, the oceans are dying.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/science-tips-october-2012/
Oct 22, 2012... Not long ago, some unassuming bacteria found themselves at the center of a scientific controversy: a group claimed that these microorganisms, which live in an environment that is rich in the arsenic-based compound arsenate, could take up that arsenate and use it — instead of the phosphate on which all known life on Earth depends. The claim, since disproved, raised another question: How do organisms living with arsenate pick and choose the right substance?
Oct 12, 2015... As we age, our biological clocks tend to wind down – but why? A Weizmann Institute of Science research team has now revealed an intriguing new link between a group of metabolites whose levels drop as our cells age and the functioning of our circadian clocks – mechanisms encoded in our genes that keep time to cycles of day and night. Their results, which appeared in Cell Metabolism, suggest that the substance, which is found in many foods, could help keep our internal timekeepers up to speed.
Jun 09, 2017...
Image via Shutterstock
It’s the ultimate health-conscious grocer’s dilemma: Is wheat bread really healthier than white?
While people have been told for years that wheat bread is hands-down the healthier choice, new research proves otherwise.
A team of Israeli scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science conducted a small study in which 20 participants consumed either processed white bread or artisanal whole wheat sourdough.
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