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/science-tips-june-2008/
Jun 02, 2008...
Scientists in the Weizmann Institute’s Faculty of Chemistry, together with colleagues in Germany, have made a startling prediction: Simply “taking the temperature” of certain quantum systems at frequent intervals might cause them to disobey a hard and fast rule of thermodynamics.
Thermodynamics tell us that the interaction between a large heat source (a heat bath) and an ensemble of much smaller systems must bring them – at least on average – progressively closer to thermal equilibrium. Now Prof. Gershon Kurizki, Dr. Noam Erez, and doctoral student Goren Gordon of the Chemical Physics Department, in collaboration with Dr. Mathias Nest of Potsdam University, Germany, have shown that ensembles of quantum systems in thermal contact with a heat bath could present a drastic departure from this allegedly universal trend, a prediction they recently reported in Nature.
Sep 12, 2019...
Prof. Yardena Samuels
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—September 12, 2019—Diversity – at least among cancer cells – is not a good thing. Now, research from the Weizmann Institute of Science shows that in melanoma, tumors with cells that have differentiated into more diverse subtypes are less likely to be affected by the immune system, thus reducing the chance that immunotherapy will be effective. The findings of this research, which were published in Cell, may provide better tools for designing personalized protocols for cancer patients, as well as pointing toward new avenues of research into anti-cancer vaccines.
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.
Dec 26, 2011... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—December 26, 2011—A team of Weizmann Institute of Science researchers has turned the tables on an autoimmune disease. In such diseases, including Crohn’s and rheumatoid arthritis, the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s tissues. But the scientists managed to trick the immune systems of mice into targeting one of the body’s players in autoimmune processes, an enzyme known as MMP9. The results of their research appear in Nature Medicine.
Feb 10, 2014...
Schwartz’s research questions assumptions about the central nervous system.
Imagine being able to inhibit or reverse a universal affliction – brain degeneration – and specific diseases or physical injuries that cause its sudden onset. This is precisely what Prof. Michal Schwartz has spent the last two decades studying, with revolutionary results.
Schwartz is far from the stereotypical “mad scientist.” Pretty and petite, with a cascade of curls, she rushes down the hallway of her office and adjacent laboratory more like a student late for a class than an international award-winning powerhouse whose research has turned pre-existing dogma about the central nervous system on its head.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/hiv-could-fight-immune-diseases/
Aug 26, 2005...
The mechanism that HIV uses to gag the immune system could be turned against some very different foes: autoimmune diseases such as diabetes, multiple sclerosis and rehumatoid arthritis.
HIV is a master of attack silencing the T-cells that usually alert the immune system at the moment of invasion. But until now, little was known about how it did this.
Irun Cohen and his colleagues at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, and Harvard University reasoned that the mechanism for binding the virus to its target might also disable the T-cell's alarm call. If so, it could be used to inhibit the overactive immune response seen in autoimmune diseases.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/an-immune-system-trained-to-kill-cancer/
Sep 13, 2011...
CLOSE-UP Dr. Carl June examined re-engineered T-cells last week in his Philadelphia lab. Jessica Kourkounis for The New York Times
PHILADELPHIA — A year ago, when chemotherapy stopped working against his leukemia, William Ludwig signed up to be the first patient treated in a bold experiment at the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Ludwig, then 65, a retired corrections officer from Bridgeton, N.J., felt his life draining away and thought he had nothing to lose.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/ultra-personalized-therapy-for-melanoma/
Sep 24, 2018...
Illustrative photo by Africa Studio/Shutterstock.com
A highly personalized approach could help the body’s immune cells better recognize melanoma (the most dangerous type of skin cancer) and kill it, according to an Israeli study published in Cancer Discovery.
Today’s immunotherapies involve administering antibodies to unlock the natural immune T cells that recognize and kill cancer cells; or growing and reactivating these T cells outside the body and returning them in a “weaponized” form.
Jul 16, 2019... Summer is here! But more fun in the sun also increases our risk for skin cancer, including its deadliest form, melanoma. In the seventh episode of Weizmann in Focus, CEO Dave Doneson highlights a melanoma research breakthrough by Prof. Yardena Samuels, which could lead to “the ultimate personalized cancer therapy.”
Oct 23, 2017...
Israeli-American oncologist Arie Belldegrun, founder of Kite Pharma. (YouTube screenshot)
The US Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved Kite Pharma’s drug for a type of lymphoma based on a technology developed in Israel, in which the patient’s own immune cells fight the cancer.
Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, the Kite biopharmaceutical company was acquired by Gilead Sciences Inc. in August for about $12 billion in an all-cash deal. Kite was founded in 2009 by Israeli-American oncologist Arie Belldegrun, who studied at the Hebrew University and Weizmann Institute of Science. The chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy (Car-T) technology that is at the heart of the medication was developed at the Weizmann Institute of Science.
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