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.
Jul 20, 2017...
Manufacture of microscopic silk-protein capsules on a polymer chip; viewed with an ultra-fast Phantom camera taking 700,000 pictures per second. ©2017 Knowles Group
Scientists have managed to design microscopic silk capsules that mimic, on a very small scale, the structure of silkworm cocoons. The capsules can serve as a protective environment for the transport of sensitive “cargo” such as natural silk proteins, antibodies, or other delicate molecules. The collaborative research – which was 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 – may lead to a host of applications in the cosmetics, food, and pharmaceutical industries, particularly in the delivery of drugs within the body. The findings were reported in Nature Communications.
Mar 25, 2020... In just one week, Profs. Ido Amit and Eran Elinav, both of the Department of Immunology, have built one of the highest-tech labs in the world. They developed a new type of PCR testing that is tremendously fast: if current capabilities test one patient at a time, the new method can test all of Israel simultaneously. The scientists intend to make their method available to anyone who needs it.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/rare-genetic-defect-may-lead-to-cancer-drug/
May 18, 2017...
Dr. Ayelet Erez says that rare genetic diseases provide a lens on cancer
The path to understanding what goes wrong in cancer could benefit from a detour through studies of rare childhood diseases. Dr. Ayelet Erez explains that cancer generally involves dozens – if not hundreds – of mutations, and sorting out the various functions and malfunctions of each may be nearly impossible. Rare childhood diseases, in contrast, generally involve mutations to a single gene.
Mar 19, 2020... Dr. Noam Stern-Ginossar of the Weizmann Institute’s Department of Molecular Genetics provides an overview – complete with helpful cartoons – of basic questions: what is a virus? Why is coronavirus worse than the flu? (One reason – it’s new and so we have no immunity.) What are the issues related to developing a vaccine? (Mostly it’s time; otherwise, we know what to do, she reassures us.)
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/how-malaria-tricks-the-immune-system/
Dec 07, 2017... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—December 7, 2017— Global efforts to eradicate malaria are crucially dependent on scientists’ ability to outsmart the malaria parasite. And Plasmodium falciparum is notoriously clever: it is quick to develop resistance against medications and has such a complex life cycle that blocking it effectively with a vaccine has thus far proved elusive. In a new study reported in Nature Communications, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science, together with collaborators in Ireland and Australia, have shown that P. falciparum is even more devious than previously thought: not only does it hide from the body’s immune defenses, it employs an active strategy to deceive the immune system.
May 01, 2007...
New techniques developed by Weizmann Institute scientists in Rehovot, Israel, to study molecules in action may hold the key to cures for cancer and Alzheimer's disease. In fact, the first steps have already been taken to minimize the uncontrolled proliferation and spread of cancer cells.
At first glance, cancer and Alzheimer's disease appear to have little in common. Cancer is a group of over a hundred diseases in which cells grow out of control and spread throughout the body. Alzheimer's is a progressive neurodegenerative disease caused by the abnormal buildup of protein in the brain. The common link between the diseases is the role played by enzymes called proteases, which cut long strands of protein into fragments. Cancer cells secrete proteases that dissolve collagen, creating holes in the surrounding cell matrix that enable the cancer cells to bulldoze their way through tissue and into other cells. In Alzheimer's disease, insoluble fragments of a protein snipped from a larger protein by proteases accumulate in the brain, interfering with cognitive function and memory.
Jan 28, 2010...
Alone they may be ineffective, but used together two common antibiotics could fight off deadly antibiotic-resistant superbugs, according to a team of Israeli and American researchers.
Two pills are better than one: Israeli Prof. Ada Yonath and her researchers have discovered that a combination of two antibiotics can fight antibiotic resistant diseases.
Researchers from Israel and the US have discovered that two marginally useful antibiotics working together could be more effective in fighting off today’s deadly antibiotic-resistant superbugs than either drug working alone.
Oct 04, 2012...
A bacterium that some scientists thought could use arsenic in place of phosphorus in its DNA actually goes to extreme lengths to grab any traces of phosphorus it can find.
The finding clears up a lingering question sparked by a controversial study, published in Science in 2010, which claimed that the GFAJ-1 microbe could thrive in the high-arsenic conditions of Mono Lake in California without metabolizing phosphorus — an element that is essential for all forms of life.
Apr 18, 2017...
Ahead of World Malaria Day on April 25, ISRAEL21c reports on a new approach that could lead to a non-refrigerated vaccine against parasitic diseases.
A malaria vaccine based on stabilized proteins could be used in tropical places where there is no refrigeration.
Despite decades of malaria research, the disease still afflicts hundreds of millions and kills around half a million people each year – most of them children in tropical regions.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/decoy-molecule-neutralizes-a-range-of-viruses/
Jan 07, 2020... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—January 7, 2020—A host of disease-causing viruses called arenaviruses lurk in animal populations in various parts of the world, sometimes crossing over into humans. When they do cross over, they can be lethal, and only very few treatments exist. Researchers led by scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science have now devised a clever decoy for these viruses that may keep them from spreading in the body.
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