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.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/blog/learning-is-powered-by-inspiration-but-not-the-kind-you-think/
Mar 27, 2019...
Get inspired! Breathing in helps us solve problems more quickly, says Prof. Noam Sobel and his team. The group also found that our olfactory system can help us learn (including to quit smoking) while sleeping, and even shaped the evolution of our other senses.
It doesn’t matter if we’re in school, from pre-K to postdoc; working; or pursuing hobbies after retiring, we are always learning – and of course we want to learn smarter.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/blog/night-owls-are-wired-that-way/
Jun 18, 2019...
Working when your brain does: Dr. Matthew Walker says that night owls, about 30% of the population, “are bound to a delayed schedule by unavoidable DNA hardwiring. It is not their conscious fault, but rather their genetic fate.” Prof. Gad Asher shines a light on why.
Our culture celebrates early risers, valuing them as harder workers more worthy of success. But scientists like Gad Asher are now proving that night owls don’t choose their fates; it’s in their genes. Will research help owls gain respect?
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/blog/medications-good-for-you-bad-for-the-rest-of-the-world/
Feb 25, 2019...
Everything is connected: pharmaceuticals can be found throughout the environment. Fish seem particularly susceptible. Plus, we eat them – and, thus, consume whatever drugs are in their bodies.
Billions of us take medications on a regular basis, and while they help manage common conditions like viruses, depression, pain, menopause, thyroid disease, and the like, they are not so good for the environment.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/firework-memories/
Aug 15, 2019... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—August 15, 2019—Extraterrestrial scientists landing in a football stadium would be struck by the sight of the crowd suddenly standing up and shouting in unison. In a similar manner, since the 1990s, researchers have observed a special pattern of neuronal activity in rodents: tens of thousands of nerve cells firing in unison in a part of the brain called the hippocampus. But, like alien scientists, the researchers have not been able to understand the “language” of the rodents’ minds when these mysterious synchronous bursts occurred. Recently, however, Weizmann Institute of Science researchers succeeded in recording these rapid bursts of activity – called “hippocampal ripples” – in the human brain, and were able to demonstrate their importance as a neuronal mechanism underlying the engraving of new memories and their subsequent recall. These findings appeared in Science.
Mar 20, 2020...
Dear friends and members of the Weizmann Institute of Science community,
The coronavirus outbreak is a global challenge that forces us all to significantly and rapidly adjust our way of life and change our work routines.
Just a few months ago we might have imagined such an event playing out only in books or movies. But epidemiologists, immunologists, and public health officials have long anticipated the possibility of a pandemic. The theoretical policies developed during these more peaceful days are now being implemented worldwide to address the current crisis.
Jan 21, 2020...
A new computer algorithm developed by researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot can predict which women are at a high risk of gestational diabetes in the early stages of pregnancy or even before it has occurred, the institute said in a press release Monday afternoon.
The study analyzed data on nearly 600,000 pregnancies available from Israel's largest health insurance provider, Clalit Health Services, the Weizmann Institute of Science said. According to the institute, the algorithm may help prevent gestational diabetes using nutritional and lifestyle changes.
Mar 20, 2019...
Professor Adi Kimchi in her lab at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rechovot. (YouTube screenshot)
Education Minister Naftali Bennett announced Wednesday that Professor Adi Kimchi of the Weizmann Institute of Science is this year’s winner of the Israel Prize for research in life sciences.
Kimchi heads a lab that studies the complex processes of programmed death in living cells.
The prize selection committee noted Kimchi’s pioneering work in isolating genes involved in cells’ self-destruction, a process that, among other things, helps the body suppress cancer development.
Mar 14, 2019...
View of a research chip through a microscope: a high concentration of antifreeze proteins ensures that the drops freeze at temperatures that are less cold than usual. The frozen drops are dark. Photo: Bielefeld University
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—March 14, 2019—Antifreeze is life’s means of surviving in cold winters: natural antifreeze proteins help fish, insects, plants, and even bacteria live through low temperatures that should turn their liquid parts into deadly shards of ice. Strangely enough, in very cold conditions, the same proteins can also promote the growth of ice crystals. This was the finding of experiments carried out in Israel and Germany using proteins taken from fish and beetles. The results of this study, recently published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, could have implications for understanding the basic processes of ice formation.
Sep 12, 2019...
Prof. Yardena Samuels
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—September 12, 2019—Diversity – at least among cancer cells – is not a good thing. Now, research from the Weizmann Institute of Science shows that in melanoma, tumors with cells that have differentiated into more diverse subtypes are less likely to be affected by the immune system, thus reducing the chance that immunotherapy will be effective. The findings of this research, which were published in Cell, may provide better tools for designing personalized protocols for cancer patients, as well as pointing toward new avenues of research into anti-cancer vaccines.
Oct 02, 2019...
The lungs of a mouse with untreated Ewing sarcoma (left) contain numerous tumor cells (shown by luminescent colors) that have spread from the bone; the lungs of a mouse treated with a drug reducing the synthesis of glucocorticoids are almost free from the sarcoma (right)
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—October 2, 2019—Ewing sarcoma is a bone cancer that appears mainly in teenagers. Caused by a single defective gene, once it spreads to distant organs it is hard to treat. Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have now discovered molecular interactions underlying Ewing sarcomas and proposed a potential treatment that has shown promise in a study in mice. These findings were published in Cell Reports.
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