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.
Sep 01, 2020...
Israeli and German researchers have successfully tested a new treatment for heart repair in pigs, the Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS) in Israel said on Tuesday.
In a study, published in the journal Circulation, WIS researchers, in collaboration with the Technical University of Munich, found that a human protein called Agrin could limit scarring in the heart muscle.
This means that Agrin might serve as an effective therapy after heart attacks, promoting heart repair and helping to prevent chronic heart failure, it said.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/profiling-the-covid-19-coronavirus/
Sep 09, 2020... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—September 9, 2020—“Contact tracing” inside infected cells is providing new clues into the workings of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. A research team at the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Israel Institute for Biological Research, in Ness Ziona, Israel, used the contacts between the virus’s genetic material and the cells’ protein-producing machinery to bring to light details of the viral protein-coding segments and the new – and potentially important – proteins they create. The findings of this research, published in Nature, could lead to better diagnostics or new treatments, and help to explain what makes this virus so skilled in the process of infection.
Sep 18, 2020... CIEQSFTTLFACQTAAEIWRAFGYTVKIMVDNGNCRLHVC: these forty letters are a set of instructions for building a sophisticated medical device designed to recognize the flu virus in your body. The device latches onto the virus and deactivates the part of it that breaks into your cells. It is impossibly tiny—smaller than the virus on which it operates—and it can be manufactured, in tremendous quantities, by your own cells. It’s a protein.
Sep 15, 2020...
Israeli researchers say they have taken a stride forward in efforts to “understand the enemy” in the hope of subduing it, after identifying four previously unknown proteins that people produce as a result of coronavirus infection.
They have also identified 19 peptides, short chains of amino acids, that had not previously been identified in the bodies of infected people.
“We now know the enemy better,” Noam Stern-Ginossar, a scientist behind the peer-reviewed study just published in Nature, told The Times of Israel.
Dec 22, 2021... In this presentation, Emmanuel Levy explains how disease can result from damaged protein, and how protein self-organization can be exploited to produce novel biomaterials. Levy combines experimental data with a database of protein structural information that helps him to predict, browse, and curate the structural features within a protein that govern the formation of quaternary structures to reveal new methods by which proteins operate within cells.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/building-better-enzymes-by-breaking-them-down/
Jan 13, 2023... REHOVOT, ISRAEL— January 12, 2023—Enzymes have the potential to transform the chemical industry by providing green alternatives to a slew of processes. These proteins act as biological catalysts, and with the help of molecular engineering, they can make naturally occurring reactions shift into turbo mode. Tailor-made enzymes could, for example, lead to nonpolluting drug manufacture; they could also safely break down pollutants, sewage and agricultural waste, and then turn them into biofuel or animal feed.
May 18, 2023... Dr. Moran Shalev Benami discusses her research on the tiniest details of the human brain: proteins. Using cryo-electron microscope (cryoEM), she works to understand and identify the proteins’ function and how proteins work together.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/surviving-on-an-empty-battery/
Aug 17, 2023... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—August 17, 2023—Every time we make a call, send a text message, or watch a video, some of the energy stored in the cell phone battery is depleted. Living cells also store energy in “currencies” they can cash in when needed to fuel life processes. The main energy currency used by all life on Earth is a molecule known as ATP. But even though charging cells with ATP molecules is of vital importance, discharging them could be equally crucial – and potentially lifesaving.
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