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.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/cancer-at-a-breaking-point/
Dec 16, 2012...
Drs. Yotam Drier (left) and Gad Getz at the Broad Institute
Like police detectives using DNA fingerprinting in their effort to eradicate crime, cancer researchers are building a DNA profile of malignancy in an attempt to eradicate cancer. One of their greatest challenges is that they are not dealing with a single criminal: There are at least 200 forms of cancer, and many more subtypes. The goal is to “fingerprint” each one of these subtypes so that, ultimately, people with cancer can be treated with genetically matched personalized therapies.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/eran-segal-computing-expression/
Feb 01, 2008... This article can be viewed by downloading this PDF.
Nov 04, 2019... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—November 4, 2019—We might refer to someone’s personality as “mousy,” but in truth, mice have a range of personalities nearly as great as our own. Prof. Alon Chen and members of two groups he heads – one in the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Neurobiology and one in the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, Germany – decided to explore personality specifically in mice. This would enable the scientists to develop a set of objective measurements for this highly slippery concept. A quantitative understanding of the traits that make each animal an individual might help answer some of the open questions in science concerning the connections between genes and behavior. The findings of this research were published in Nature Neuroscience.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/same-microbe-different-effect/
Mar 27, 2019...
Seemingly identical bacteria may harbor genetic differences that affect the host-microbiome relationship
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—March 27, 2019—Our gut microbiome – the complement of bacteria we carry around in our intestines – has been linked to everything from obesity and diabetes to heart disease and even neurological disorders and cancer. In recent years, researchers have been sorting through the multiple bacterial species that populate the microbiome, asking which of them can be implicated in specific disorders. But a paper recently published in Nature addressed a new question: “What if the same microbe is different in different people?”
Jul 26, 2006...
Researchers believe they have found a second code in DNA in addition to the genetic code.
The genetic code specifies all the proteins that a cell makes. The second code, superimposed on the first, sets the placement of the nucleosomes, miniature protein spools around which the DNA is looped. The spools both protect and control access to the DNA itself.
The discovery, if confirmed, could open new insights into the higher order control of the genes, like the critical but still mysterious process by which each type of human cell is allowed to activate the genes it needs but cannot access the genes used by other types of cell.
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.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/shipping-and-packing-proteins/
Dec 08, 2010... The billions of cells in our bodies have to work together and be in constant communication in order to sense and react to changes in their environment. They receive signals from other cells that tell them, for example, how much they need to grow, when to divide, and when to produce the proteins that carry out many of the tasks in the cell. “For all this to work, you need a specialized compartment in the cell where you can control the quality of every single protein the cell produces, package it correctly, and then send it on to its destination outside of the cell,” says Dr. Maya Schuldiner of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Molecular Genetics. She studies this specialized compartment, which is a structure known as the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). “I call it the cell’s shipping and packing department,” she says.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/scientists-map-mouse-personality/
Nov 07, 2019...
Some mice are curious and explore every new hiding place. Others are more anxious and prefer to stay in their nest. ©MPI f. Molecular Genetics
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, Germany, together with colleagues at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have developed a computational method to objectively measure the personality of mice living in a semi-natural, group environment.
Sep 09, 2015...
At 29, Eran Hodis has achieved what many scientists dream of accomplishing in a lifetime: He discovered two of the most common genetic mutations in all of cancer. His work has global implications and could, in the future, lead to more effective cancer therapies. This year, in recognition of his scientific achievements, Hodis was named to Forbes’s prestigious “30 under 30” list.
“Without a doubt, my Weizmann training made that possible,” said Hodis, who earned his master’s in bioinformatics at Weizmann’s Feinberg Graduate School.
May 04, 2011...
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—May 4, 2011—Weizmann Institutescientists have added another piece to the obesity puzzle, showing howand why a certain protein that is active in a small part of the braincontributes to weight gain. This research appeared today in Cell Metabolism.
Prof. Ari Elson and his team in the Institute’s Molecular GeneticsDepartment made the discovery when working with female mice that weregenetically engineered to lack this protein, called protein tyrosinephosphatase epsilon (PTPe, for short). The scientists had originallyintended to investigate osteoporosis, and thus, they also removed theovaries of these mice. Taking out ovaries typically causes mice to gainweight to the point of obesity – so the scientists were surprised tofind that the weight of the genetically-engineered mice remained stable.Working with Dr. Alon Chen and his group in the Neurobiology Departmentand Prof. Hilla Knobler, Head of the Unit of Metabolic Disease andDiabetes of Kaplan Medical Center, the researchers fed these mice ahigh-fat diet, yet the PTPe-deficient mice maintained their sveltefigures; they burned more energy and had more stable glucose levels aswell.
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