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/how-a-bacterial-cell-recognizes-its-own-dna/
Apr 13, 2015...
Image of a phage, an invasive virus that attacks bacteria.
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—April 13, 2015—It may come as a bit of a surprise to learn that bacteria have an immune system – in their case, to fight off invasive viruses called phages. And like any immune system – from single-celled to human – the first challenge of the bacterial immune system is to detect the difference between “foreign” and “self.” This is far from simple, as viruses and bacteria – in fact, all living things – are made of DNA and proteins. A group of researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science and Tel Aviv University has now revealed exactly how bacteria do this. Their results were published online in Nature on April 13.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/could-this-be-the-fountain-of-youth/
Jan 01, 2019...
There are certain proteins in the body that can fuel ageing cells, allowing them to thrive. A team in Israel gave mice a drug that blocked that protein, and left them more youthful
A drug that helps the immune system clear away old cells could restore youthfulness, according to a new study.
The research suggests it may be possible to reverse the ageing process and could potentially pave the way for anti-ageing treatments that actually work.
Mar 14, 2019...
View of a research chip through a microscope: a high concentration of antifreeze proteins ensures that the drops freeze at temperatures that are less cold than usual. The frozen drops are dark. Photo: Bielefeld University
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—March 14, 2019—Antifreeze is life’s means of surviving in cold winters: natural antifreeze proteins help fish, insects, plants, and even bacteria live through low temperatures that should turn their liquid parts into deadly shards of ice. Strangely enough, in very cold conditions, the same proteins can also promote the growth of ice crystals. This was the finding of experiments carried out in Israel and Germany using proteins taken from fish and beetles. The results of this study, recently published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, could have implications for understanding the basic processes of ice formation.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/stopping-disease-with-smarter-vaccines/
Aug 13, 2018...
The Weizmann Institute of Science pursues a host of health and medicine research, finding ways to understand and treat diseases large and small. But what if, instead of fighting an illness after it strikes, we could prevent it in the first place?
Several of Weizmann’s creative, innovative scientists are aiming to do just that by developing vaccines that target conditions from the flu to the aging brain:
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/executive-suite-leemor-joshua-tor/
Mar 30, 2014...
Leemor Joshua-Tor in her Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory facility on March 18, 2014. She is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. Credit: Newsday / Audrey C. Tiernan
Leemor Joshua-Tor caught the scientific world's attention in 2004 when her gene-silencing discoveries contributed an important clue in the fight against viruses and diseases such as macular degeneration and cancer. As a principal investigator, she defines research projects and then must figure out how to fund them.
Nov 30, 2014...
Graduate students Eyal Karzbrun and Alexandra Tayar with Prof. Roy Bar-Ziv. Photo courtesy of Weizmann Institute
Years of intense lab work in Israel have led to the world’s first artificial cell-on-a-chip, an exciting development with many potential applications.
“The idea to mimic a living cell is a longstanding dream shared by many,” Weizmann Institute of Science Prof. Roy Bar-Ziv tells ISRAEL21c. “If we can build a primitive model of something so complex, we can possibly understand the dynamics of protein synthesis better.”
Oct 02, 2019...
The lungs of a mouse with untreated Ewing sarcoma (left) contain numerous tumor cells (shown by luminescent colors) that have spread from the bone; the lungs of a mouse treated with a drug reducing the synthesis of glucocorticoids are almost free from the sarcoma (right)
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—October 2, 2019—Ewing sarcoma is a bone cancer that appears mainly in teenagers. Caused by a single defective gene, once it spreads to distant organs it is hard to treat. Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have now discovered molecular interactions underlying Ewing sarcomas and proposed a potential treatment that has shown promise in a study in mice. These findings were published in Cell Reports.
Feb 21, 2012...
The students in Allison Granberry’s class at Hostos-Lincoln Academy, a South Bronx public school serving children in grades 6 to 12, are as excited about proteins and other biological macromolecules as most kids their age are about playing basketball or updating their Facebook status.
The passion of these newly minted scientists is due to the enthusiasm of Ms. Granberry, as well as Prof. Joel L. Sussman of the Department of Structural Biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. In a Rockefeller University after–school outreach program called SMART (Students Modeling A Research Topic) Team—a nationwide project conceived by Dr. Timothy Herman, Director of the Center for Biomolecular Modeling at the Milwaukee School of Engineering—Ms. Granberry and her students work with Prof. Sussman’s website Proteopedia (proteopedia.org).
Dec 05, 2017...
Image of silkworm cocoons via Shutterstock.com
Scientists from Israel and abroad have designed microscopic silk capsules that can serve as a protective environment for the transport of fragile protein “cargo” for cosmetic, food and pharmaceutical applications — particularly the delivery of drugs within the body.
The collaborative research, performed by an international team of academics from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel; the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Sheffield in the UK; and the ETH in Switzerland, was reported in Nature Communications on July 19.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/ebola-antibodies-at-work/
Oct 07, 2019... In the recurring, deadly Ebola outbreaks in parts of Africa, today’s health workers now have at least some tools to fight the disease: vaccines. Vaccines against Ebola have been administered to over 100,000 people to date, but they are barely out of the experimental stage. It is not known how well these vaccines will provide long-term protection across a broad population. Furthermore, on the basic scientific level, the effects of vaccination on the immune system and how the immune response of vaccinated individuals compares with that of individuals who have survived Ebola infections was not known. A Weizmann Institute of Science lab recently joined forces with a research team in Cologne, Germany, to uncover the details of the molecular response that occurs in the immune system after vaccination against Ebola. Their findings may help health organizations devise better strategies for containing and preventing the disease.
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