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.
Nov 15, 2016...
Yanna Lee
Yale researchers have partnered with scientists at the Jackson Laboratory, the University of Connecticut and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel to form the Metabolic Research Alliance to study metabolic diseases, such as diabetes and obesity.
Milton Wallack, founder of the Connecticut Stem Cell Research Coalition and the Metabolic Research Alliance, said that once the stem cell initiative began, a committee was formed to peer review grant requests for research projects.
Mar 25, 2019...
Illustration by Kanyanat Wongsa/Shutterstock.com
Far more than your alarm clock, what governs your wake-sleep cycle is the internal circadian clock regulating your whole body. This biological timekeeper also affects hunger, thirst, body temperature, mood, hormone fluctuations and more.
Disturbances to the circadian rhythm, or to the genes that produce the rhythm, can cause problems from low productivity and insomnia to depression and diabetes. Some of the most common disturbances are night-shift work, artificial light and travel across time zones.
Jun 10, 2015...
Bifidobacteria, a type of gut bacterium. Researchers believe that the different types of gut microbes found in individuals has a significant impact on how their bodies respond to food. Photograph: Phototake Inc./Alamy
Scientists have created bespoke diets using a computer algorithm that learns how individual bodies respond to different foods.
Researchers believe the tailored diets could help stem the rising tide of diabetes, heart disease and obesity, by personalising people’s daily meals and so helping them to adopt healthy eating habits.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/obesity-stress-and-science/
Dec 11, 2011... The holiday season may be full of joy, but it is also full of temptation, with abundant food and drink at seemingly every turn, and even full of stress, as family, economic, and other tensions can arise. And at a time when health officials around the world are increasingly concerned about the obesity epidemic and its related conditions, such as diabetes, there is particular reason to be aware of overeating, stress, coping mechanisms, and related issues.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/the-germs-that-love-diet-soda/
Apr 06, 2018...
Credit Julian Glander
There are lots of reasons to avoid processed foods. They’re often packed with sugar, fat and salt, and they tend to lack certain nutrients critical to health, like fiber. And now, new research suggests that some of the additives that extend the shelf life and improve the texture of these foods may have unintended side effects — not on our bodies directly, but on the human microbiome, the trillions of bacteria living in our guts.These substances may selectively feed the more dangerous members of our microbial communities, causing illness and even death.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/the-a-i-diet/
Mar 02, 2019...
Eric Blad
Some months ago, I participated in a two-week experiment that involved using a smartphone app to track every morsel of food I ate, every beverage I drank and every medication I took, as well as how much I slept and exercised. I wore a sensor that monitored my blood-glucose levels, and I sent in a sample of my stool for an assessment of my gut microbiome. All of my data, amassed with similar input from more than a thousand other people, was analyzed by artificial intelligence to create a personalized diet algorithm. The point was to find out what kind of food I should be eating to live a longer and healthier life.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/same-microbe-different-effect/
Mar 27, 2019...
Seemingly identical bacteria may harbor genetic differences that affect the host-microbiome relationship
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—March 27, 2019—Our gut microbiome – the complement of bacteria we carry around in our intestines – has been linked to everything from obesity and diabetes to heart disease and even neurological disorders and cancer. In recent years, researchers have been sorting through the multiple bacterial species that populate the microbiome, asking which of them can be implicated in specific disorders. But a paper recently published in Nature addressed a new question: “What if the same microbe is different in different people?”
Nov 24, 2016... Following a successful diet, many people are dismayed to find their weight rebounding – an all-too-common phenomenon termed “recurrent” or “yo-yo” obesity. Worse still, the vast majority of recurrently obese individuals not only rebound to their pre-dieting weight but also gain more weight with each dieting cycle. During each round of dieting-and-weight-regain, their proportion of body fat increases, and so does the risk of developing the manifestations of metabolic syndrome, including adult-onset diabetes, fatty liver, and other obesity-related diseases.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/it-s-really-hard-to-study-artificial-sweeteners/
Jan 24, 2019...
Winslow Townson / AP
For decades, ads for treats sweetened with substances like Sweet’N Low, NutraSweet, and Splenda have promised what seems like a miracle of modern science: that you can enjoy all the dessert you want, calorie-free. No need to deprive yourself—with artificial sweeteners, you can literally have your cake and eat it, too. But are these substances safe? Don’t they cause cancer in rats and mess up your metabolism? Listen in now for answers to all these questions, plus the tale of a sugar-free gumball marketing blitz, courtesy of none other than Donald Rumsfeld.
Oct 12, 2015... As we age, our biological clocks tend to wind down – but why? A Weizmann Institute of Science research team has now revealed an intriguing new link between a group of metabolites whose levels drop as our cells age and the functioning of our circadian clocks – mechanisms encoded in our genes that keep time to cycles of day and night. Their results, which appeared in Cell Metabolism, suggest that the substance, which is found in many foods, could help keep our internal timekeepers up to speed.
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