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.
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.
Jan 05, 2016...
The p53 gene is known as the “guardian of the genome” because it plays a key role in preventing healthy cells from turning cancerous. When p53 is mutated, however, it loses this function. This is significant, as more than 50 percent of all human cancers involve defects, mutations, or other alterations in the p53 gene.
“No other gene is implicated in so many cancers,” says Prof. Moshe Oren of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Molecular Cell Biology. “It makes you want to understand why.”
Apr 11, 2016...
Stop prostate cancer Photo via shutterstock
Tookad Soluble, a novel drug for prostate-cancer therapy delivered via injection and activated by laser light, was approved by Mexico’s health authority for early-stage prostate cancer earlier this year and now is undergoing advanced trials in Israel and Europe.
The revolutionary idea of photodynamic cancer therapy grew out of laboratory experiments at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, by Prof. Yoram Salomon of the biological regulation department and Prof. Avigdor Scherz of the plant and environmental sciences department.
Mar 11, 2016...
Maybe you heard about it on NPR. Or the BBC. Or your local paper or news station. The world paid attention to the news that a novel cancer treatment is sending blood cancer patients into "dramatic remission."
This is just the latest thrilling progress in the treatment, which uses a patient’s own immune system to defeat cancer. The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, which conducted the new trials, reports that "Twenty-seven out of 29 patients with an advanced blood cancer … experienced sustained remissions," and that "some of the patients in the trial, which began in 2013, were originally not expected to survive for more than a few months because their disease had previously relapsed or was resistant to other treatments," but "today, there is no sign of disease."
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/coaxing-the-immune-system-to-fight-cancer/
May 08, 2018...
Image via Lightspring/Shutterstock.com
Immunotherapy was once the black sheep of cancer research. Originally conceived over a century ago, it aims to stimulate a patient’s own immune system to fight cancer. That’s a very different approach than chemotherapy, which essentially poisons tumors.
Early trials of immunotherapy in the 1900s and a second round of experiments in the 1980s caused toxic side effects. That led oncologists to dismiss this approach– until 2011, when a new immunotherapy treatment gave patients with metastatic melanoma years of tumor-free extra life.
Feb 16, 2011...
When Prof. Nava Dekel of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Biological Regulation began studying a protein that plays a role in implanting fertilized eggs in the uterus, she had no idea it would lead to a discovery that is now helping couples struggling with infertility to have children.
For many years, Prof. Dekel focused her investigations on the mechanisms responsible for ovum (egg) development and embryo implantation. “But in science,” she says, “you can never decide ‘this is what I’m going to study for the rest of my life.’ You follow a path, and somewhere along the way you say, ‘Wow – there’s something interesting!’”
May 03, 2012...
Do you know that skin cancer is the most common form of cancer? And that it’s on the rise, with increased incidence over the last 30 years? In fact, the American Cancer Society estimates that, in 2013, almost 77,000 new melanomas will be diagnosed in the U.S. alone, and over 9,000 people will die of the disease.
While prevention and early screening are critical, fighting skin cancer once it develops is still a challenge. That’s why researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science are attacking skin cancer and melanoma from a number of angles, including:
Mar 24, 2019...
Trial-In CEO Nir Erez. (photo credit: Courtesy)
Working in the field of oncology was a case of love at first sight for Weizmann Institute of Science graduate Nir Erez.
In 2003, after completing his Master’s degree, Erez joined pharma giant Roche Pharmaceuticals (Israel), which specializes in the development and marketing of cancer drugs. There, he worked alongside leading oncologists, learned of breakthrough cancer treatments and the development and types of the disease.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/ema-approves-steba-s-prostate-cancer-drug/
Sep 25, 2017...
Raphael and Fabrice Harari
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has recommended by a majority of 29-2 the approval for marketing of the Tookad drug for treatment of prostate cancer developed by Israeli company Steba Biotech. Tookad is a complex treatment, in which the patient takes a drug, but the drug is activated only in the area of the tumor, through the skin. The product, developed by Professor Avigdor Scherz and Dr. Yoram Salomon of the Weizmann Institute of Science, has already been approved for marketing and sale in Israel and Mexico.
Jul 26, 2018...
The Bladder EpiCheck diagnostic kit developed by Nucleix Ltd. (Courtesy)
Israeli startup Nucleix Ltd., a cancer detection screening company, has developed a urine test that it says can detect with high levels of accuracy the recurrence of bladder cancer in patients.
The company’s diagnostic kit studies a patient’s urine for changes in the DNA of the cells that could signal the repeated onset of cancer. “Ours is a noninvasive, very sensitive and cost effective liquid biopsy test,” said Dr. Opher Shapira, the CEO of Nucleix, in a phone interview.
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