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.
Jun 13, 2017...
Thanks to advances in healthcare, sanitation, safety, and nutrition, people today are living longer than ever; in fact, in the West, the fastest-growing demographic is age 85 and up.
Fortunately, Weizmann Institute of Science researchers from across the disciplines have long made it a priority to investigate neurodegenerative and neurological disorders, including those that tend to strike older people; just some of these areas of research include Parkinson’s, glaucoma and advanced macular degeneration (AMD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease), nerve degeneration as a result of trauma or stroke – and, especially, Alzheimer’s disease.
Jul 11, 2018...
Nachum Ulanovsky with one of his research bats. Credit: David Vaaknin for Nature
On a sun-parched patch of land in Rehovot, Israel, two neuroscientists peer into the darkness of a 200-metre-long tunnel of their own design. The fabric panels of the snaking structure shimmer in the heat, while, inside, a study subject is navigating its dim length. Finally, out of the blackness bursts a bat, which executes a mid-air backflip to land upside down, hanging at the tunnel’s entrance.
Feb 20, 2019...
An ant has the navigation skills to cover hundreds of metres in a single day and still find its way home. Melophorus Bagoti ant. Credit: Antoine Wystrach
As a child, you almost certainly at one stage spent hours watching ants move about from their nest. Maybe you dropped a piece of food and watched as a group of ants came and picked it up, carrying it home in an impressive display of cooperation.
Jan 28, 2020... Immunotherapies, which harness the immune system to fight disease, are revolutionizing treatments for many types of cancer. Having made significant breakthroughs in the field, Weizmann Institute of Science researchers are now exploring ways to apply immunotherapy to conditions other than cancer, including neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. Prof. Ido Amit of the Department of Immunology is advancing this research by developing sophisticated tools and technologies to investigate the immune system’s role in neurodegenerative diseases.
Dec 10, 2015...
Prof. Michal Schwartz
CHARLESTON, S.C., Dec. 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — NeuroQuest Development Center, Inc., today announced they have entered into a service agreement with the University of California, San Diego for collection and processing of blood samples for their U.S. clinical validation trials.
The South Carolina-based biotech company is developing a blood test for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD).
Jul 27, 2010...
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—July 27, 2010—A unique device based on sniffing—inhaling and exhaling through the nose—might enable numerous disabled people to navigate wheelchairs or communicate with their loved ones. Sniffing technology might even be used in the future to create a sort of "third hand" to assist healthy surgeons or pilots.
Developed by Prof. Noam Sobel, electronics engineers Dr. Anton Plotkin and Aharon Weissbrod, and research student Lee Sela in the Weizmann Institute of Science's Department of Neurobiology, the new system identifies changes in air pressure inside the nostrils and translates these into electrical signals. The device was tested on healthy volunteers as well as quadriplegics, and the results showed that the method is easily mastered. Users were able to navigate a wheelchair around a complex path or play a computer game with nearly the speed and accuracy of a mouse or joystick.
Oct 16, 2013...
Bruriya Ben Zee Photo: Courtesy Sheba Medical Center
Mutations in genes responsible for two serious neurological disorders in infants and children of Iranian and Bukharan origin that had not been described until now have been identified by researchers at Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot and Duke University in North Carolina.
Their work has just been published in the prestigious journals Neuron and the American Journal of Human Genetics.
Nov 05, 2019...
Photo via Shutterstock.com
Stinky cars — everyone knows them. We’ve all stepped inside vehicles with a lingering scent of cigarette smoke, a forgotten banana peel or other olfactory nastiness.
Car dealers and rental agencies typically spray perfume or air freshener to mask offending smells. But about 30% of people don’t like the smell of perfume. Many others are allergic to various scents.
Jan 27, 2020...
When Weizmann Institute of Science Prof. Rivka Dikstein set out to study a gene regulating inflammation, she had no idea she’d find a promising route to developing a drug for Huntington’s disease.
Dikstein’s biomolecular sciences team focused on a gene called Spt5, which regulates how DNA is copied for manufacturing proteins. The scientists discovered that Spt5 plays a key role in inflammation.
Nov 12, 2013...
Image of a neuronal spine from Prof. Menahem Segal’s lab, which uses time-lapse photography to view living, cultured neurons in a confocal laser scanning microscope.
One in 10 Americans over the age of 65 has Alzheimer’s disease, a debilitating neurological disorder that slowly destroys memory and cognitive function and for which there is no cure. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), because the risk of developing the disease increases with age and more people are living longer, the number of people suffering from Alzheimer’s is likely to grow dramatically.
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