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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.
May 26, 2020...
Israeli researchers say they have found that autoimmune diseases, such as diabetes or thyroid dysfunctions, are generated by immune cells that become overzealous in their protective mission and end up causing harm — and they created a mathematical model that demonstrates this.
In a study published in Immunity, scientists at Rehovot’s Weizmann Institute of Science, decided to find out why some organs are susceptible to autoimmune diseases while others are not. For example, the thyroid gland is often attacked by the autoimmune disease thyroiditis — an inflammation of the thyroid gland that can cause fatigue, weight gain, confusion and depression — while other organs, like the parathyroid gland, in charge of regulating the amount of calcium in the blood and bones, are almost never hit by autoimmune diseases.