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.
Jul 16, 2008...
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—July 16, 2008—In two complementary studies, Weizmann Institute scientists have developed a new method for reconstructing a cell’s “family tree,” and have applied this technique to trace the history of the development of cancer.
The quest to understand a cell’s path of descent, called a cell lineage tree, is shared by many branches of biology and medicine as gleaning such knowledge is key to answering many fundamental questions, such as whether neurons in our brain can regenerate, or whether new eggs are created in adult females.
Oct 19, 2017...
A researcher works with stem cells in a laboratory. (photo credit: Reuters)
Tel Aviv University and Weizmann Institute of Science researchers have shown it is possible to turn mature cells from the heart, brain and other organs in mice models into skin cells.
Their findings, just published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications, proves for the first time that it is possible to repurpose the function of different mature cells across the body and harvest new tissue and organs from these cells.
Oct 03, 2019...
A researcher working in the lab of Kadimastem in Ness Ziona (Hagit Stavinsky)
Kadimastem Ltd., a biotechnology firm that develops cell therapies, said it has received “promising interim results” from a first group of patients treated with its new therapy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, a fatal neurodegenerative condition that causes the loss of muscle control.
Dec 07, 2009... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—December 7, 2009—Although bone marrow transplants have long been standard for acute leukemia, current treatments still rely on exact matches between donor and patient. Now, scientists at the University of Perugia, Italy, and the Weizmann Institute of Science have improved on a method of transplanting bone marrow-based stem cells from a mismatched donor, making it safer for use when no exact match exists. They were invited to present their findings at the recent annual American Society of Hematology conference in New Orleans.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/unraveling-the-mysteries-of-science-and-disease/
Feb 23, 2014...
PROF. MICHEL REVEL. Photo: JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
Six months after his 75th birthday, after teaching generations of young graduate and post-doctoral students at the Weizmann Institute of Science and with a wife, four children and 12 grandchildren, one could expect Prof. Michel Revel to sit back and enjoy life. Yet, the Frenchborn, internationally acclaimed molecular geneticist, who invented a major drug to treat multiple sclerosis used around the world and received the Israel Prize, EMET Prize and other major awards, has his eyes fixed on the future.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/networking-with-the-lymphatic-system/
Feb 07, 2018... Running parallel to our blood vessels is another network of vessels: the lymphatic system. This equally lifegiving network serves as a conduit for everything from immune cells to fat molecules to cancer cells. Prof. Karina Yaniv of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Biological Regulation became fascinated with the lymphatic system early in her career, when she realized that this crucial, basic network was surprisingly poorly understood.
Aug 30, 2016...
Image via GeebShot/Shutterstock.com
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of blindness in people over age 60. About 90 percent of those with AMD have the “dry” form for which there is no approved therapy.
And so the race is on to find a cure. The potential is huge, as products for treating the much smaller population of those with wet AMD ring up about $5 billion in annual sales.
Dec 02, 2015...
Dr. Karina Yaniv with zebrafish. Credit: Tomer Appelbaum
Talking to: Dr. Karina Yaniv, 45, chemist and biologist from the Department of Biological Regulation at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, about her groundbreaking research in embryonic development. Where: Tel Aviv café. When: Thursday, 4 P.M.
You are studying the formation and development of embryos. When exactly is an embryo formed?
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/mini-brains-may-wrinkle-and-fold-just-like-ours/
Dec 12, 2017...
ANOTHER WRINKLE The outer layer of the human brain has distinctive folds. Work with brains growing in lab dishes is showing how the structures may form. Daniel Heighton/Shutterstock
PHILADELPHIA — Flat brains growing on microscope slides may have revealed a new wrinkle in the story of how the brain folds.
Cells inside the brains contract, while cells on the outside grow and push outward, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, discovered from working with the lab-grown brains, or organoids. This push and pull results in folds in the organoids similar to those found in full-size brains. Orly Reiner reported the results December 5 at the joint meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology and the European Molecular Biology Organization.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/brain-on-a-chip-reveals-how-the-brain-folds/
Feb 20, 2018...
Fluorescence images show the development of an organoid over days 3-11, in which the emergence of wrinkles is clearly seen
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—February 20, 2018— Being born with a “tabula rasa” – a clean slate – is, in the case of the brain, something of a curse. Our brains are already wrinkled like walnuts by the time we are born. Babies born without these wrinkles – called smooth brain syndrome – suffer from severe developmental deficiencies and their life expectancy is markedly reduced. The gene that causes this syndrome recently helped Weizmann Institute of Science researchers to probe the physical forces that cause the brain’s wrinkles to form. In their findings, reported in Nature Physics, the researchers describe a method they developed for growing tiny “brains on chips” from human cells that enabled them to track the physical and biological mechanisms underlying the wrinkling process.
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