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/new-stem-cells-go-back-further/
Oct 31, 2013... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—October 31, 2013—One of the obstacles to employing human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) for medical use lies in their very promise: They are born to rapidly differentiate into other cell types. Until now, scientists have not been able to efficiently keep ESCs in their pristine stem state. The alternative that has been proposed to ESCs — reprogrammed adult cells called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) — have similar limitations. Though these can differentiate into many different cell types, they retain signs of “priming” — commitment to specific cell lineages. A team at the Weizmann Institute of Science has now taken a large step toward removing that obstacle: They have created iPSCs that are completely “reset” to the earliest possible state, and have maintained them in that state. Among other things, this research may, in the future, pave the way toward the ability to grow transplant organs to order.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/science-tips-march-2007/
Mar 26, 2007... Breaking down bone is a tough job. Yet, our bones undergo remodeling every day of our lives, as old material is cleared away so that new bone can form. In diseases such as osteoporosis, an imbalance in this process is responsible for the characteristic bone loss. New research at the Weizmann Institute of Science, which recently appeared in the on-line journal PLoS ONE, has revealed, in unprecedented detail, how the roving cells whose job is to digest bone seal off their work area as they get down to business.
Nov 01, 2007...
Prof. Naama Barkai will receive the Helen and Martin Kimmel Award for Innovative Investigation on Monday, Nov. 5 at the Weizmann Institute. The award is accompanied by a research grant of a million dollars over five years.
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—November 1, 2007—Taking a chance on an experiment — this is one of the impulses that drive evolution. Living cells are, from this angle, great subjects for experimentation: Changes in one molecule can have all sorts of interesting consequences for many other molecules in the cell. Such experiments on genes and proteins have led the cell, and indeed all life, on a long and fascinating evolutionary journey.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/the-secret-social-lives-of-viruses/
Jun 18, 2019...
Illustration by Karol Banach
Geneticist Rotem Sorek could see that his bacteria were sick — so far, so good. He had deliberately infected them with a virus to test whether each ailing microbe soldiered on alone or communicated with its allies to fight the attack.
But when he and his team at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, looked into the contents of their flasks, they saw something completely unexpected: the bacteria were silent, and it was the viruses that were chattering away, passing notes to each other in a molecular language only they could understand. They were deciding together when to lie low in the host cell and when to replicate and burst out, in search of new victims.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/science-tips-june-2012/
Jun 12, 2012... Financial loss can lead to irrational behavior. Now, research by Weizmann Institute scientists reveals that the effects of loss go even deeper: loss can compromise our early perception and interfere with our grasp of the true situation. The findings, which recently appeared in the Journal of Neuroscience, may also have implications for our understanding of the neurological mechanisms underlying post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/science-tips-february-2012/
Feb 24, 2012...
The Weizmann Institute is One of Seven “Instruct” Core Centres
Major transformations in biomedical science are on the horizon with the establishment of the world-class Integrated Structural Biology Infrastructure (Instruct) in support of European biomedical research.
The European Strategy Forum of Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) is involved in establishing about 40 such infrastructures, seven of them in biomedical sciences. Instruct is one such biomedical project, whose aim is to provide pan-European user access to state-of-the-art equipment, technologies, and manpower in cellular structural biology. This will allow Europe to maintain a competitive edge and play a leading role in this vital research area.
Aug 27, 2019...
Xray of a patient with active pulmonary tuberculosis. Image by Shutterstock
Just as first impressions set the stage for the entire course of a relationship, first impressions set the stage for how the cells of our immune system react when meeting a new microbe, according to Israeli researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science.
This new insight led the researchers to develop an algorithm that may predict the onset of such diseases as tuberculosis. Their findings were published July 22 in Nature Communications.
Jun 17, 2009... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—June 17, 2009—Bacteria can anticipate a future event and prepare for it, according to new research at the Weizmann Institute of Science. In a paper that appeared in the June 17, 2009 issue of Nature, Prof. Yitzhak Pilpel, doctoral student Amir Mitchell, and research associate Dr. Orna Dahan of the Institute’s Department of Molecular Genetics, together with Prof. Martin Kupiec and Gal Romano of Tel Aviv University, examined microorganisms living in environments that change in predictable ways. Their findings show that these microorganisms’ genetic networks are hard-wired to “foresee” what comes next in the sequence of events and begin responding to the new state of affairs before its onset.
May 04, 2011...
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—May 4, 2011—Weizmann Institutescientists have added another piece to the obesity puzzle, showing howand why a certain protein that is active in a small part of the braincontributes to weight gain. This research appeared today in Cell Metabolism.
Prof. Ari Elson and his team in the Institute’s Molecular GeneticsDepartment made the discovery when working with female mice that weregenetically engineered to lack this protein, called protein tyrosinephosphatase epsilon (PTPe, for short). The scientists had originallyintended to investigate osteoporosis, and thus, they also removed theovaries of these mice. Taking out ovaries typically causes mice to gainweight to the point of obesity – so the scientists were surprised tofind that the weight of the genetically-engineered mice remained stable.Working with Dr. Alon Chen and his group in the Neurobiology Departmentand Prof. Hilla Knobler, Head of the Unit of Metabolic Disease andDiabetes of Kaplan Medical Center, the researchers fed these mice ahigh-fat diet, yet the PTPe-deficient mice maintained their sveltefigures; they burned more energy and had more stable glucose levels aswell.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/science-tips-february-2013/
Feb 07, 2013... Before they go all-out supernova, certain large stars undergo a sort of “mini-explosion,” throwing a good-sized chunk of their material off into space. Though several models predict this behavior and evidence from supernovae points in this direction, actual observations of such pre-explosion outbursts have been rare. In new research led by Dr. Eran Ofek of the Weizmann Institute of Science, scientists found such an outburst taking place a short time — just one month — before a massive star underwent a supernova explosion.
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