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/news-releases/predicting-immunotherapy-success/
Feb 18, 2020... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—February 18, 2020—One of the frustrations with anti-cancer therapy is that no one drug fits all: Most work well in some people but have little effect in other patients with the same type of cancer. This is as true of the newer immunotherapy treatments as it is of older types of chemotherapy. Weizmann Institute of Science researchers have now identified new markers that can help predict which patients have a better chance for a positive response to immunotherapy treatments. Their findings were reported in Nature Communications.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/you-re-probably-not-mostly-microbes/
Jan 08, 2016... We are, supposedly, outnumbered in our own bodies. We play host to an extraordinary menagerie of bacteria and other microbes – the microbiome – and it’s frequently said that these teeming cells outnumber our own by ten to one. This 10:1 ratio crops up everywhere. It appears in scientific papers, blog posts, magazine stories, TED talks, and popular science books – sometimes, even in the very title. It is undoubtedly one of the most famous statistics about the microbiome.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/will-this-man-discover-a-vaccine-for-hiv/
Feb 18, 2014...
HIV researcher Ron Diskin
The search for a cure or vaccine for HIV hasn’t always inspired optimism—but hopes are buoyed now by recent advances, including a new understanding about how certain rare antibodies can fight the virus.
“There has been a substantial amount of research that has already been done” since scientists isolated some such antibodies in 2009 and 2010, says Ron Diskin, a biomedical researcher at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, who recently visited the U.S. to share some of his findings and participate in a variety of HIV awareness efforts with the Consulate General of Israel in Los Angeles.
May 20, 2015... Prof. Alon Chen studies the biology of conditions such as stress, anxiety, depression, and PTSD. In this video, he explains the mechanism of action behind these conditions and what happens when the system goes awry.
Sep 17, 2014...
Should we drink diet soda or not? The latest study doesn't really clear things up.
The debate over whether diet sodas are good, bad or just OK for us never seems to end.
Some research suggests zero-calorie drinks can help people cut calories and fend off weight gain.
But in recent years, the idea that artificial sweeteners may trick the brain and lead to "metabolic derangements," as one researcher has theorized, has gained traction, too.
Jun 05, 2017... Heart disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide, yet the few available treatments are still mostly unsuccessful once the heart tissue has suffered damage. Mammalian hearts are actually able to regenerate themselves and repair damage – but only up to around the time of birth. Afterward, that ability disappears, seemingly forever. Research at the Weizmann Institute of Science has uncovered a molecule in newborn hearts that appears to control the renewal process. When injected into adult mouse hearts injured by heart attacks, this molecule, called Agrin, seems to “unlock” that renewal process and enable heart muscle repair. These findings, published today in Nature, are already pointing to new directions for research on restoring the function of damaged hearts.
Dec 24, 2014...
An "embryoid" at the start of the appearance of Sox17 positive cells (green cells), which depict the birth of the human germ cell lineage. (Walfred Tang / University of Cambridge)
Scientists say they have discovered a key factor in the lab formation of human primordial germ cells – the precursors to egg and sperm – and that it differs significantly from experiments involving rodent cells.
In a paper published Wednesday in the journal Cell, researchers at the University of Cambridge in England and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel said their discovery raises questions about how much mouse experiments can tell us about early human cell development.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/bacterial-immune-systems-take-the-stage/
Jan 25, 2018...
Bacteria like these have numerous defenses against the phages (dots) that infect them
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—January 25, 2018— Until a decade ago, scientists were not aware that bacteria had complex immune systems – ones that could keep up with the pace of evolution in viruses called phages that infect bacteria. That changed with the discovery of what is now the most famous bacterial immune mechanism: CRISPR. Scientists realized that CRISPR is a natural gene editor, and it has revolutionized the world of biological research in thousands of labs around the world. Researchers now understand that most microorganisms have sophisticated immune systems, of which CRISPR is just one element, but there has been no good way to identify these systems.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/coronavirus-by-the-numbers/
Mar 31, 2020... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—March 31, 2020—Numerical data sometimes reveal facts that are otherwise concealed within an onslaught of information from an overwhelming number of sources. Prof. Ron Milo and research student Yinon Bar-On of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, together with American colleagues Prof. Rob Phillips of Caltech and Dr. Avi Flamholz of the University of California, Berkeley, have now employed an original research method to organize the flood of coronavirus information in an orderly framework.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/birth-of-an-enzyme/
Mar 24, 2008...
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—March 24, 2008—Mankind triumphed in a recent “competition” against nature when scientists succeeded in creating a new type of enzyme for a reaction for which no naturally occurring enzyme has evolved. This achievement opens the door to the development of a variety of potential applications in medicine and industry.
Enzymes are, without a doubt, a valuable model for understanding the intricate works of nature. These molecular machines – which life would not exist without – are responsible for initiating chemical reactions within the body. Millions of years of natural selection have fine-tuned the activity of such enzymes, allowing chemical reactions to take place millions of times faster. In order to create artificial enzymes, a comprehensive understanding of the structure of natural enzymes and their mode of action, as well as advanced protein engineering techniques, is needed. A team of scientists from the University of Washington, Seattle, and the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, have made a crucial breakthrough toward this endeavor. Their findings have recently been published in the scientific journal Nature.