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/blog/ebola-is-still-killing-people-can-new-vaccines-help/
Aug 27, 2019...
Warning, again: While not making global headlines like it used to, Ebola rages on. A sign in the Congo warns that Ebola is in the area and to avoid dead animals, which are a vector for the virus.
The massive 2014-16 outbreak of Ebola in Africa was the first time many of us had heard of the virus. The stories and images of horribly sick and dying people, the selfless doctors and nurses in their too-often-insufficient protective gear, the concern that the virus’s spread could not be stopped: for a while, Ebola was in the global consciousness. Then, thanks to efforts on a number of fronts, the outbreak was quashed. Our attention faded accordingly.
Mar 20, 2020...
Dear friends and members of the Weizmann Institute of Science community,
The coronavirus outbreak is a global challenge that forces us all to significantly and rapidly adjust our way of life and change our work routines.
Just a few months ago we might have imagined such an event playing out only in books or movies. But epidemiologists, immunologists, and public health officials have long anticipated the possibility of a pandemic. The theoretical policies developed during these more peaceful days are now being implemented worldwide to address the current crisis.
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.
Mar 04, 2019...
Lymphoid organs in the small intestines. Red: B cells aggregated in the “training centers.” Green: cells with the ability to secrete effective antibodies exiting the centers for the intestinal tissue
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—March 4, 2019—Only a few vaccines – for example, polio and rotavirus – can be given orally. Most must be delivered by injection. Weizmann Institute of Science researchers suggest this may be, in part, because the “training program” of the immune cells in the gut takes place under harsh conditions. Using a novel imaging method that captures all of the immune cells’ niches within a single organ, Dr. Ziv Shulman and research student Adi Biram investigated the training process for the gut-based cells involved in long-term immunity. Their findings, published in Nature Immunology, provide new insights that may, in the future, lead to the design of more effective oral vaccines.
Apr 01, 2020...
JERUSALEM — Teams of epidemiologists and computer scientists on three continents have started mass population surveys to try to get ahead of the coronavirus and ensure that scarce diagnostic tests, and even scarcer ventilators, are sent where they can do the most good.
More than two million people in Britain and 150,000 Israelis have already completed simple questionnaires, and many are updating their answers daily. Analysts of the data — including symptoms of Covid-19 and test results, as well as risk factors and demographics — say they have been able to identify incipient outbreaks days ahead of the authorities.
Mar 25, 2020... Israel is suffering a shortage of coronavirus tests, and the Weizmann Institute – working with the Ministry of Health – has transformed scientific facilities into medical facilities in order to conduct more testing. Institute leadership expects that the labs should be able to run 4,000 tests per day.
Mar 23, 2020... Dr. Nir London of the Weizmann Institute’s Department of Organic Chemistry explains his lab’s approach to fighting the coronavirus: creating a novel antiviral treatment. After identifying candidates for an antibody, he and his team are designing second-generation compounds that will go to colleagues in Germany and the U.K. for testing against the virus. Dr. London emphasizes the fact that this is open science: research that is freely available to all, for the benefit of everyone.
Oct 07, 2019...
A group of Israeli and German scientists has joined forces to defeat Ebola, one of the deadliest contagious diseases of the 21st century.A Weizmann Institute of Science lab recently started to work with a research team in Cologne, Germany, to gain a better understanding of how the vaccination against the virus affects the immune system.
“These vaccines -- made by recombinant methods that attach an Ebola protein to a harmless virus -- are hard to produce, and thus there is not enough of them to vaccinate an entire population,” explained Ron Diskin of Weizmann’s Structural Biology Department.“In addition, the civil strife in some areas where Ebola is rampant today, the facts that it is often needed in villages that are hard to reach and that because of its scarcity, the vaccine tends to be given only to those most closely connected to individuals who are already sick,” he further stated.“Understanding exactly how the immune response is produced following vaccination will not only help refine the vaccine, itself. It can help us understand whether it will work against different strains of the virus or whether the dose given today is the best one,” the scientist added. The Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission.According to the World Health Organization, the Ebola fatality rate is around 50%, but it can vary from 25% to 90% in different outbreaks.
Jul 25, 2019...
BiondVax
A universal flu vaccine is the key to combating the ever-mutating flu virus, but did we ever really stop to think about whether there is a better way?
The flu virus, or influenza, is far more than a week-long inconvenience that pulls us away from our commitments, although that, in and of itself, is pretty annoying. The flu can get deadly fast. According to the World Health Organization, influenza kills up to 650,000 people each year. Read that number again. In the US alone, the flu kills about 12,000 people in mild years, and up to 56,000 people in the more severe years, according to the Center for Disease Control.
Mar 19, 2020... “This is the most important thing I can do,” says the Weizmann Institute’s Prof. Sarel Fleishman. His lab in the Department of Biomolecular Sciences was already studying SARS, which is, like COVID-19, a coronavirus. He is able to quickly apply his knowledge to developing computer models that allow him to design coronavirus antibodies – work that could lead to a vaccine.
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