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.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/science-tips-november-2013/
Nov 25, 2013... Chromosomes — the 46 tightly wrapped packages of genetic material in our cells — are iconically depicted as X-shaped formations. However, those neat X’s only appear when a cell is about to divide and the entire contents of its genome duplicated. Until now, researchers have not been able to get a good picture of the way that our DNA — some two meters of strands, all told — is neatly bundled into the nucleus while enabling day-to-day (non-dividing) gene activity. A combination of new techniques for sequencing DNA in individual chromosomes and analyzing data from thousands of measurements has given us a new picture of the three-dimensional (3D) structures of chromosomes. This method, reported recently in Nature, is the result of an international collaboration that promises to help researchers understand the basic processes by which gene expression is regulated and genome stability is maintained.
Oct 29, 2014... This unique collaboration at the Weizmann Institute of Science's 2014 Global Gathering reveals complementary sides to the human brain. Israel's Vertigo Dance Company worked with Institute neuroscientists to create this performance, presented at New York's Lincoln Center. Weizmann's Prof. Yadin Dudai and the company's Noa Wertheim open the event.
Jul 19, 2016...
Stress-coping molecule Urocortin-3 (green) and its receptor, CRFR2 (red), expressed in the mouse brain region responsible for social behavior. Viewed under a confocal microscope
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—July 19, 2016—Meeting new people can be both stressful and rewarding. Research at the Weizmann Institute of Science, reported yesterday in Nature Neuroscience, suggests that a molecule involved in regulating stress in the brain may help determine how willing we are to leave the safety of our social group and strike up new relationships.
Jul 23, 2019...
Gut bacteria may play a role in motor neurone disease ALS by speeding up progression, early studies reveal. The cruel condition that killed Professor Stephen Hawking, pictured
Gut bacteria could play a role in the development of motor neurone disease - also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, early studies suggest.
Tests on mice showed a change in their gut microbe levels before symptoms of the crippling disorder appeared.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/learning-a-new-sense/
Nov 05, 2012... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—November 5, 2012—Rats use a sense that humans don’t: “whisking.” They move their facial whiskers back and forth about eight times a second to locate objects in their environment. Could humans acquire this sense? And if so, what could understanding the process of adapting to new sensory input tell us about how humans normally sense? At the Weizmann Institute of Science, researchers explored these questions by attaching plastic “whiskers” to the fingers of blindfolded volunteers and asking them to carry out a location task. The findings, which recently appeared in the Journal of Neuroscience, have yielded new insight into the process of sensing, and they may point to new avenues in developing aids for the blind.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/lighting-up-the-mechanisms-of-brain-disease/
Mar 28, 2017...
It was late 2005, and Dr. Ofer Yizhar was busily conducting neurobiology research at Tel Aviv University for his doctorate, unaware that his life plans were about to change, when a fellow doctoral student burst into the lab, a scientific paper in hand.
“You won’t believe what they did in this paper,” he told Dr. Yizhar, who was surprised to read that scientists were able to genetically modify a neuron – a brain cell – to make it sensitive to light.
Sep 02, 2007...
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT
Date: September 02, 2007
Time: 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Station: Fox News Channel
Location: Network
Program: Weekend Live
STEVE CENTANNI, co-anchor: How many times have you been told that cell phones are not bad for your health? Probably a lot. But hold on a second, there's a new study out this week that challenges that notion. Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have found evidence cell phone radiation does react with your brain cells and that could lead to cancer.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/how-to-learn-in-your-sleep/
Aug 26, 2012...
Anat Arzi of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, and her colleagues used a simple form of learning called classical conditioning to teach 55 healthy participants to associate odours with sounds as they slept.
Associations learned while asleep can be retained after waking up. TIPS/PHOTOSHOT
They repeatedly exposed the sleeping participants to pleasant odours, such as deodorant and shampoo, and unpleasant odours such as rotting fish and meat, and played a specific sound to accompany each scent.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/the-truth-about-pheromones/
Mar 01, 2012...
After playing a sad movie scene for a group of women, researchers collected their tears and placed the unidentified fluid under men's noses. The result was a reduced sexual arousal and testosterone levels.
The sight of someone in tears might make you feel concerned. But the smell of tears, researchers say, has a different effect.
"You might think—we did—that [smelling] tears might create empathy," says Noam Sobel, a neurobiologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. He and his colleagues had women watch a sad movie scene, collected their tears and placed samples of the unidentified fluid under men's noses. The tears did not elicit empathy in a standard lab test, but they did reduce the men's sexual arousal and testosterone levels. Apparently the tears sent a message that romance was off the table.
Jun 14, 2018...
What would we be without our brains? They hold our memories, our sense of humor, our ability to do math in our heads or dance or cook, to know all the world’s capitols or cite Shakespeare – they make us us.
As the number of older people in the world continues to rise, so do brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s – and no one wants to lose the essence of who they are.
Fortunately, Weizmann Institute scientists have been working to strengthen the mechanisms that promote healthy aging and find new and better ways of treating disease once it occurs.
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