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.
Jan 24, 2011...
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—January 24, 2011—Protection against nerve gas attack is a significant component of the defense system of many countries around the world. Nerve gases are used by armies and terrorist organizations, and constitute a threat to both the military and civilian populations, but existing drug solutions against them have limited efficiency.
A multidisciplinary team of scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science succeeded in developing an enzyme that breaks down such organophosphorus nerve agents efficiently before damage to nerves and muscles is caused. Their results were recently published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology. Recent experiments performed in a U.S. military laboratory (the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense, or USAMRICD) have shown that injecting a relatively small amount of this enzyme into animals provides protection against certain types of nerve agents, for which current treatments show limited efficacy.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/networking-with-the-lymphatic-system/
Feb 07, 2018... Running parallel to our blood vessels is another network of vessels: the lymphatic system. This equally lifegiving network serves as a conduit for everything from immune cells to fat molecules to cancer cells. Prof. Karina Yaniv of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Biological Regulation became fascinated with the lymphatic system early in her career, when she realized that this crucial, basic network was surprisingly poorly understood.
Nov 06, 2019...
Computer-enhanced MRI images of the brains of left-handed women identified two that were missing olfactory bulbs
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—November 6, 2019—Is a pair of brain structures called the olfactory bulbs, which are said to encode our sense of smell, necessary? That is, are they essential to the existence of this sense? Weizmann Institute of Science researchers recently showed that some humans can smell just fine, thank you, without said bulbs. Their finding – that around 0.6% of women, and more specifically, up to 4% of left-handed women, have completely intact senses of smell despite having no olfactory bulbs in their brains – calls into question the accepted notion that this structure is absolutely necessary for the act of smelling. The findings of this research, which were published in Neuron, could shake up certain conventional theories that describe the workings of our sense of smell.
Oct 19, 2015... Newswise — WASHINGTON, D.C., October 19, 2015 — Whereas human and many animals use teeth to crush or grind food as an initial part of the digestive process, some species such as birds that lack teeth grind food inside the gizzard – a structure between the mouth and the stomach – with the help of stones. Another interesting adaptation of this approach to digestion has evolved in most of the Cephalaspidean gastropods, a common type of marine mollusks, who use hardened plates that line the gizzard for crushing or grinding.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/bacterial-immune-systems-take-the-stage/
Apr 08, 2018...
Bacteria (illustrative). (photo credit: REUTERS)
Until a decade ago, scientists were not aware that bacteria had complex immune systems that could keep up with the pace of evolution in viruses called phages that infect bacteria. That changed with the discovery of what is now the most famous bacterial immune mechanism: CRISPR. This is a natural gene editor that has revolutionized the world of biological research in thousands of labs around the world. Researchers now understand that most microorganisms have sophisticated immune systems of which CRISPR is just one element; but there has been no good way to identify these systems.
Mar 20, 2019... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—March 20, 2019—A shot of espresso, a piece of chocolate, or a headstand – all of these have been recommended before taking a big test. The best advice, however, could be to take a deep breath. According to research conducted in the lab of Prof. Noam Sobel of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Neurobiology, people who inhaled when presented with a visuospatial task were better at completing it than those who exhaled in the same situation. The results of the study, which were published in Nature Human Behavior, suggest that the olfactory system may have shaped the evolution of brain function far beyond the basic function of smelling.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/gut-reactions/
Jul 28, 2015...
Daniel Segrè, associate professor of bioinformatics, biomedical engineering and biology, uses mathematical modeling to understand the microbiome. Photo by Cydney Scott
Daniel Segrè studies very unusual microbes. They don’t live in petri dishes, guts, or on dirty kitchen countertops. In fact, they don’t live in the real world at all. They live in a simulated world on Segrè’s computer.
Genetically identical to their living counterparts, these digital organisms look like a bunch of red, blue, and green blobs on a computer screen, and they feed on virtual nutrients, grow, excrete waste, and die just as they would in the real world. Segrè also works with living microbes, but the advantage of virtual organisms is that he can monitor how nutrients and energy flow among species – something that’s difficult to do in the real world.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/brain-on-a-chip-reveals-how-the-brain-folds/
Feb 20, 2018...
Fluorescence images show the development of an organoid over days 3-11, in which the emergence of wrinkles is clearly seen
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—February 20, 2018— Being born with a “tabula rasa” – a clean slate – is, in the case of the brain, something of a curse. Our brains are already wrinkled like walnuts by the time we are born. Babies born without these wrinkles – called smooth brain syndrome – suffer from severe developmental deficiencies and their life expectancy is markedly reduced. The gene that causes this syndrome recently helped Weizmann Institute of Science researchers to probe the physical forces that cause the brain’s wrinkles to form. In their findings, reported in Nature Physics, the researchers describe a method they developed for growing tiny “brains on chips” from human cells that enabled them to track the physical and biological mechanisms underlying the wrinkling process.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/divine-secrets-of-the-ant-sisterhood/
Nov 29, 2011... "In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed," wrote Darwin. Ants, a family that has inhabited the earth for about 100 million years, must be one of the most magnificent manifestations of such biological cooperation. Thousands of female ants pull together in a coordinated effort to ensure that all the needs are met for the proper functioning of the entire colony. (The males' only role is to mate with the queen, and once this is completed, they die). While some ants forage, others stay behind to tend the brood, or to build, maintain or defend the colony's living quarters; and there are even those whose task it is to bury the dead. But the thing that makes their behavior so remarkable is that they have no leader — no boss or governing body to allocate and manage their activities. How exactly do ants collaborate and divide the labor among themselves so successfully and altruistically?
Feb 20, 2018...
11 days of brain research at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel.
Israeli researchers have managed to grow tiny model brains in the lab to discover how the brain’s convolutions are created.
A normal brain is as wrinkly as a walnut. And in cases where a person is born with a smooth brain, devoid of folds, he faces severe developmental difficulties.
It has long been known that these folds and wrinkles are meant to enable the brain to be compressed into the space of a skull, and that they develop in embryo. But the question of how they develop, biologically and physically, has preoccupied brain researchers for years, as has the no less important question of what causes problems to arise in this process.
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