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.
Aug 30, 2017...
Weizmann Institute’s Prof. Zelig Eshhar holds a board that illustrates how the cancer treatment works with mice. Aug. 29, 2017 (Shoshanna Solomon/Times of Israel)
Prof. Zelig Eshhar’s phones haven’t stopped ringing since the news broke two days ago that Israeli-founded Kite Pharma would be bought by US pharma company Gilead Sciences Inc. for a whopping $12 billion.
Eshhar, a researcher at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science, developed the technology which is at the heart of Monday’s acquisition. He is also on Kite’s scientific advisory board, and was one of the first people to get a call from Kite CEO and founder, Israeli-American oncologist Arie Belldegrun, after the deal was signed.
May 27, 2013...
Prof. Yosef Yarden in his Weizmann lab.
Breast cancer can be curable if it’s caught soon enough—unless it is the “triple negative” type more likely to target young, black or Hispanic women.
Israeli researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot are opening a new window of hope for the daughters and granddaughters of women diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer. The cancer carries a strong genetic link and it is also found in people of Jewish Ashkenazi (Eastern European) ancestry.
Oct 11, 2011...
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, bringing critical attention to what is today the most common form of cancer in women, apart from skin cancers. Most breast cancers begin in the cells that line the milk ducts (ductal carcinoma) or in the milk-producing glands (lobular carcinoma). At the Weizmann Institute of Science, researchers are studying genes and hormones that play a role in these cancers and are developing better diagnostic tools and treatments. Some examples of this research are presented below.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/shining-a-light-on-skin-cancer/
May 12, 2015...
May is Melanoma/Skin Cancer Detection and Prevention Month: the perfect opportunity to learn more about the disease – and what the Weizmann Institute of Science is doing to help.
Did you know that skin cancer is the most common cancer in America? And that it’s been on the rise for more than 30 years? Melanoma is one form of skin cancer, and while it’s not the most common type, it is the deadliest. The American Cancer Society currently estimates that more than 135,000 new cases of melanoma are diagnosed each year in the U.S. alone. It’s predicted that, in 2015, about 74,000 of these will be invasive melanomas, with more occurring in men than women.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/video-gallery/best-people-best-science/
Jul 06, 2016... The Weizmann Institute's most important asset is its people. That's why the Institute is committed to recruiting and nurturing some of the world's brightest young researchers. Here, six impressive new scientists – Drs. Ronen Eldan, Ofer Firstenberg, Yifat Merbl, Neta Regev-Rudzki, Nir London, and Efi Efrati – share how the Institute is helping them make breakthroughs in areas ranging from malaria to optics.
Nov 30, 2016...
Combining two inhibitors (right) was much more effective than either alone in preventing cancer growth.
A promising new combination therapy for a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer has been identified by Weizmann Institute scientists, as was recently reported in the journal Cancer Research. The potential dual-acting therapeutic strategy not only inhibits tumor growth and survival but also circumvents the problem of drug-induced resistance.
Jun 03, 2015...
Lung cancer cells (green) cultured together with normal lung cells (red). The triple-antibody combination EGFR, HER2, and HER3 strongly impairs the survival of tumor cells while sparing normal cells. Modified confocal microscopy image: Maicol Mancini, lab of Prof. Yosef Yarden
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide, responsible for some 1.59 million deaths a year. That figure is due, in part, to the fact that lung cancer often returns after what seems at first to be successful treatment. However, the recurring cancer is often resistant to the chemotherapy and other drugs that originally drove it into remission. But now, according to new research by the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Prof. Yosef Yarden, a new strategy involving a three-pronged approach might keep an aggressive form of lung cancer from returning.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/to-stop-cancer-block-its-messages/
Mar 30, 2015... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—March 30, 2015—The average living cell needs communication skills: It must transmit a constant stream of messages quickly and efficiently from its outer walls to the inner nucleus, where most of the day-to-day decisions are made. But this rapid, long-distance communication system leaves itself open to mutations that can give rise to a “spam attack” that promotes cancer. Prof. Rony Seger of the Department of Biological Regulation and his team have now proposed a method of shutting off the overflow of information before it can get to the nucleus. If the initial promising results hold up, the method could be used to treat a number of different cancers – especially several that develop resistance to current treatments – and might possibly induce fewer side effects than those treatments do. These findings appeared on March 30, 2015, in Nature Communications.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/time-to-rethink-chemotherapy/
Jun 14, 2012...
Leukemia cells dividing. Photo courtesy of Public Library of Science
For cancer patients undergoing treatment, the ups and downs can feel like living through one of those B-level movies where the zombies just never seem to die: Victories of remission can quickly end in disappointment as the cancer returns once more.
Why this happens has long puzzled scientists around the globe, but a new multi-center team in Israel whittles the problem down to the roots of where cancer begins.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/mother-nature-to-the-rescue/
Apr 30, 2012... Natural molecules that protect the body against disease are finding their way into the treatment of advanced cancer. Prof. Michel Revel of the Department of Molecular Genetics has played a leading role in the discovery and study of two natural molecules now employed as drugs. In the late 1970s, Prof. Revel isolated the gene for interferon-beta, a human protein that fights viral infection in the body and is used as a drug against a variety of ills, including certain types of cancer—particularly glioma and non-small-cell lung carcinoma.
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