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.
May 25, 2022...
REHOVOT, ISRAEL – May 25 2022 – Our family origins tend to shape our future in many ways. A Weizmann Institute of Science study, published today in Nature, found that the same holds true for blood vessels. The researchers discovered blood vessels forming from unexpected progenitors and went on to show that this unusual origin determines the vessels’ future function.
“We found that blood vessels must derive from the right source in order to function properly – it’s as if they remember where they came from,” says team leader Prof. Karina Yaniv.
May 31, 2022... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—May 31, 2022—Ketamine, a well-known anesthetic used in smaller doses as a party drug, was hailed as a “new hope for depression” in a Time magazine cover story in 2017. Two years later, the arrival of the first ketamine-based antidepressant – the nasal spray esketamine, made by Johnson & Johnson – was applauded as the most exciting development in the treatment of mood disorders in decades. Yet the U.S. Food and Drug Administration still limits the spray’s use. It is mainly given to depressed patients who have not been helped by other therapies – in part, because the new drug’s mechanism of action is insufficiently understood, leading to concerns over its safety.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/neurons-caught-rapidly-switching-gears/
Aug 24, 2022... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—August 24, 2022—Even during such routine tasks as a daily stroll, our brain sometimes needs to shift gears, switching from navigating the city to jumping out of the way of a bike or to crossing the street to greet a friend. These switches pose a challenge: How do the brain’s circuits deal with such dynamic and abrupt changes in behavior? A Weizmann Institute of Science study on bats, published today in Nature, suggests an answer that does not fit the classical thinking about brain function.
Jan 25, 2023...
Researchers have for years tried to discover what determines “resilience to stress,” a term describing the ability to adapt to difficult situations and to overcome adversity. Is it acquired through experience, or is there a tendency to easily recover from stress possibly ingrained in us from a very early age or even from birth?
A new study lead by Prof. Gil Levkowitz of the molecular cell biology and molecular neuroscience departments at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot has revealed an important piece of this puzzle. The study examined zebrafish – small, black-and-white-striped, transparent fish whose natural habitat spans rivers, ponds and rice paddies in Pakistan, Myanmar, Nepal and India.
Jan 24, 2023...
“Seeing eye to eye” is an expression of harmony, but do different people literally see the same things in the external world? “The short answer is – no,” says Dr. Liron Gruber. “Even the same person sees the same thing differently each time they look at it,” adds Prof. Ehud Ahissar.
After Weizmann mathematicians (headed by Prof. Shimon Ullman) established that a computer algorithm was much worse than humans at interpreting image fragments, Gruber and Ahissar built upon these findings. In an earlier study, they were able to show that, contrary to the widely accepted view, the human eye does not work like a camera, taking passive snapshots. In the new study, Gruber and Ahissar teamed up with computer scientist Ullman to put human vision to the test.
May 18, 2023... Dr. Moran Shalev Benami discusses her research on the tiniest details of the human brain: proteins. Using cryo-electron microscope (cryoEM), she works to understand and identify the proteins’ function and how proteins work together.
Aug 02, 2023... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—August 2, 2023—Scientific excellence requires diversity – research conducted by people from different backgrounds and with varied worldviews. The need for diversity extends to scientific experiments themselves, but the vast majority of studies in the life sciences are conducted using male mice only, which could not only bias the findings, but impede our ability to extrapolate from them to humans. A new study by researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science addresses this challenge, revealing in unprecedented detail how the brains of male and female mice respond differently to stress.
©2023 American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science
