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.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/could-one-shot-kill-the-flu/
Nov 22, 2021... Renowned Weizmann scientist, Prof. Ruth Arnon, recently spoke to the New Yorker Magazine about a universal flu vaccine. Arnon joined the Institute in 1960 and has devoted her career to pioneering groundbreaking medications and vaccines. As Chair of BiondVax’s Scientific Advisory Board—an Israeli biopharmaceutical company developing a universal flu vaccine—and as the Paul Ehrlich Chair in Immunochemistry at the Weizmann, she is globally recognized as a leading expert in her field. Few scientists working today have the decades of rich experience Arnon still brings to the table.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/2022-breakthroughs-of-the-year/
Dec 08, 2022...
Today, The Atlantic reveals its inaugural 10 Breakthroughs of the Year. The accomplishments span every station of life, from birth to death, and every component, from our cells to the stars. They include a drug that revives the organs of dead animals; an embryo created without sperm or egg; a telescope to see the universe’s first moments; and an AI that conjures award-winning art.
One theme of this year’s list is the principle of “twin ideas”—the tendency for major breakthroughs to have more than one author. The telegraph was invented by Charles Wheatstone and Samuel Morse in the same year, 1837, and patents for the telephone were filed by Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell on the same day in 1876. Accordingly, many of this year’s breakthroughs are group efforts rather than individual awards. We didn’t just get one mind-blowing generative AI app this year; we got several in the span of a few months. We didn’t just get one “unheard-of” cancer breakthrough; we got several in one year. In this golden age of new vaccine technology, many different companies are building off the success of the COVID shots to deliver new antiviral weaponry for humankind.
Nov 10, 2023... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—November 10, 2023—An international crowdsourced campaign to discover an anti-COVID-19 drug has created a blueprint for the accelerated, patent-free development of drugs to treat viral threats to humanity. The campaign, called COVID Moonshot, was co-led by Prof. Nir London of the Weizmann Institute of Science and researchers from the University of Oxford, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and the US-based biotech company PostEra. The results have been published in Science.
Mar 26, 2024...
Jerusalem, March 26, 2024 – The Blavatnik Family Foundation, the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and The New York Academy of Sciences announced today the Laureates of the 2024 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in Israel. This year’s Laureates, who will each receive $100,000, are:
Schraga Schwartz, PhD (Life Sciences) – Weizmann Institute of Science – Recognized for developing groundbreaking analytical methods to locate and quantify chemical changes in RNA. Professor Schwartz’s breakthroughs in understanding RNA modifications hold promise for treating genetic diseases and expanding the role of RNA editing beyond vaccine development.