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.
Mar 27, 2017...
Medical treatment must take into account each patient’s individuality. Image via Shutterstock.com
Why is a certain type of cancer more often fatal in obese patients, and another type more fatal in the elderly? Why does a serious eye disease develop in many Bedouin children?
Doctors and researchers in Israel search for answers to medical mysteries like these at the Nancy & Stephen Grand Israel National Center for Personalized Medicine (G-INCPM) at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/the-a-i-diet/
Mar 02, 2019...
Eric Blad
Some months ago, I participated in a two-week experiment that involved using a smartphone app to track every morsel of food I ate, every beverage I drank and every medication I took, as well as how much I slept and exercised. I wore a sensor that monitored my blood-glucose levels, and I sent in a sample of my stool for an assessment of my gut microbiome. All of my data, amassed with similar input from more than a thousand other people, was analyzed by artificial intelligence to create a personalized diet algorithm. The point was to find out what kind of food I should be eating to live a longer and healthier life.
Oct 19, 2016...
An Israeli startup is taking aim at a mega global health crisis: overuse of antibiotic drugs.
Haifa-based MeMed, founded in 2009, has won tens of millions in investments and prizes to advance two initial products: ImmunoXpert, now used by hospitals in the EU, Switzerland and Israel to determine rapidly whether an infection is bacterial or viral; and ImmunoPoC, a point-of-care version not yet on the market.
Jan 28, 2013...
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—January 28, 2013—The European Commission has officially announced the selection of the Human Brain Project (HBP) as one of its two Future Emerging Technologies (FET) Flagship projects. The new project will federate European efforts to address one of the greatest challenges of modern science: understanding the human brain.
The goal of the Human Brain Project: Pull together all our existing knowledge about the human brain and reconstruct the brain, piece by piece, in supercomputer-based models and simulations. Such models offer the prospect of a new understanding of the human brain and the diseases that affect it, as well as advancing completely new computing and robotic technologies. The European Commission supported this vision, announcing that it has selected the HBP as one of two projects to be funded through the new FET Flagship Program, which supports highly innovative technology.
Apr 15, 2010... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—April 15, 2010—Weizmann Institute scientists have "trained" an electronic system to be able to predict the pleasantness of novel odors, just like a human would perceive them—turning on its head the popular notion that smell is completely personal. In research published in PLoS Computational Biology, the scientists argue that the perception of an odor's pleasantness is innately hard-wired to its molecular structure, and it is only within specific contexts that individual or cultural differences are made apparent.
Oct 30, 2019...
Pairs of face images that elicited similar (left column) and different (right column) neuronal activation patterns. Each bar shows the response of one electrode to the face in the photo; the higher the bar and the lighter the red, the stronger the response
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—October 30, 2019—Our brains are so primed to recognize faces – or to tell people apart – that we rarely even stop to think about it, but what happens in the brain when it engages in such recognition is still far from understood. In a new study published in Nature Communications, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have shed new light on this issue. They found a striking similarity between the way in which faces are encoded in the brain and successfully performing artificial intelligence (AI) systems known as deep neural networks.
Nov 16, 2016...
In the age of convenience, on-demand car services such as Uber and Lyft have become so popular that city dwellers across America wonder how they survived without them. It’s easy to forget that just a few years ago, using a smartphone app to hail a ride was a novel idea. And one of the first to recognize its potential was Weizmann Institute alumnus Dr. Oren Shoval.
Shoval is a co-founder of Via, a New York City-based startup that is taking the transportation space by storm. Since its inception in 2012, the company has provided more than seven million rides and raised an impressive $137 million from investors. What makes Via stand out from its competition? Rather than providing door-to-door rides, the service offers ride shares for passengers traveling in the same direction and drops them off within a couple blocks of their destination. In this way, the company keeps the number of vehicles to a minimum—and guarantees low flat fares. For New Yorkers, it means being able to travel from lower Manhattan to Harlem for $5, “the price of a latte,” as Via’s website points out.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/neural-activity-in-bats-measured-in-flight/
Apr 18, 2013... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—April 18, 2013—Animals navigate and orient themselves to survive — to find food and shelter or avoid predators, for example. Research conducted by Dr. Nachum Ulanovsky and research student Michael Yartsev of the Weizmann Institute's Department of Neurobiology, published today in Science, reveals for the first time how three-dimensional (3D) volumetric space is perceived in mammalian brains. The research was conducted using a unique miniaturized neural-telemetry system developed especially for this task, which enabled the measurement of single brain cells during flight.
Oct 24, 2019... Evogene Ltd. (Nasdaq: EVGN; TASE:EVGN) biopharmaceutical unit Biomica, which is developing innovative microbiome-based therapeutics, has announced a collaboration with the Weizmann Institute of Science to develop a selective treatment against antibiotic resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus infection. This microbiome focused approach aims to target a specific microbe while maintaining the microbiome of the patients’ gut. The company has in-licensed Prof. Ada Yonath’s, Nobel Prize laureate, work and discoveries in high-resolution crystal structure of the large ribosomal subunit of the pathogenic Staphylococcus aureus. The crystal structure originates from pathogenic species, allowing a high degree of specificity, and together with Biomica’s unique computational technology, will enable the design and development of new types of selective, narrow spectrum antibiotics agents. Prof. Yonath’s group will scientifically support Biomica in the development of the technology.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/science-tips-may-2009/
May 05, 2009...
One can have a dream, two can make that dream so real, goes a popular song. Now a Weizmann Institute study has revealed that it takes two to perform an essential form of DNA repair.
Prof. Zvi Livneh of the Weizmann Institute’s Biological Chemistry Department has been studying DNA repair for some two decades: “Considering that the DNA of each cell is damaged about 20,000 times a day by radiation, pollutants, and harmful chemicals produced within the body, it’s obvious that without effective DNA repair, life as we know it could not exist. Most types of damage result in individual mutations – genetic ‘spelling mistakes’ – that are corrected by precise, error-free repair enzymes. Sometimes, however, damage results in more than a mere spelling mistake; it can cause gaps in the DNA, which prevent the DNA molecule from being copied when the cell divides, much like an ink blot or a hole on a book page interferes with reading. So dangerous are these gaps that the cell resorts to a sloppy but efficient repair technique to avoid them: it fills in the missing DNA in an inaccurate fashion. Such repair can save the cell from dying, but it comes at a price: this error-prone mechanism, discovered at the Weizmann Institute and elsewhere about a decade ago, is a major source of mutations.”
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