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.
Jan 05, 2016...
The p53 gene is known as the “guardian of the genome” because it plays a key role in preventing healthy cells from turning cancerous. When p53 is mutated, however, it loses this function. This is significant, as more than 50 percent of all human cancers involve defects, mutations, or other alterations in the p53 gene.
“No other gene is implicated in so many cancers,” says Prof. Moshe Oren of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Molecular Cell Biology. “It makes you want to understand why.”
Apr 11, 2016...
Stop prostate cancer Photo via shutterstock
Tookad Soluble, a novel drug for prostate-cancer therapy delivered via injection and activated by laser light, was approved by Mexico’s health authority for early-stage prostate cancer earlier this year and now is undergoing advanced trials in Israel and Europe.
The revolutionary idea of photodynamic cancer therapy grew out of laboratory experiments at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, by Prof. Yoram Salomon of the biological regulation department and Prof. Avigdor Scherz of the plant and environmental sciences department.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/an-enzyme-could-decide-who-gets-lung-cancer/
Sep 01, 2006...
Lung cancer is one of the deadliest cancers, primarily because it is rarely diagnosed in its early stages. Lung cancer is largely preventable, since 90 percent is caused by smoking. Yet only 10 to 15 percent of heavy smokers develop lung cancer, and these odds give many smokers a false sense of security.
Prof. Zvi Livneh and his team of Weizmann Institute scientists in the Department of Biological Chemistry have pinpointed an enzyme that plays a role in protecting individuals against lung cancer. Genetic differences in the activity of this enzyme may help explain why some get cancer and others don't. The scientists hope the finding will be used to assess a smoker's risk for lung cancer, making it easier to persuade high-risk smokers to kick the habit.
Mar 11, 2016...
Maybe you heard about it on NPR. Or the BBC. Or your local paper or news station. The world paid attention to the news that a novel cancer treatment is sending blood cancer patients into "dramatic remission."
This is just the latest thrilling progress in the treatment, which uses a patient’s own immune system to defeat cancer. The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, which conducted the new trials, reports that "Twenty-seven out of 29 patients with an advanced blood cancer … experienced sustained remissions," and that "some of the patients in the trial, which began in 2013, were originally not expected to survive for more than a few months because their disease had previously relapsed or was resistant to other treatments," but "today, there is no sign of disease."
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/cancer-at-a-breaking-point/
Dec 16, 2012...
Drs. Yotam Drier (left) and Gad Getz at the Broad Institute
Like police detectives using DNA fingerprinting in their effort to eradicate crime, cancer researchers are building a DNA profile of malignancy in an attempt to eradicate cancer. One of their greatest challenges is that they are not dealing with a single criminal: There are at least 200 forms of cancer, and many more subtypes. The goal is to “fingerprint” each one of these subtypes so that, ultimately, people with cancer can be treated with genetically matched personalized therapies.
May 30, 2018...
Cross-section of the inner lining of a human gut adjacent to a cancerous tumor. The enzyme ASL (red-brown), which helps manufacture nitric oxide, has accumulated in unusually high amounts in cells of the lining, probably in an attempt to alleviate the inflammation that commonly occurs in the gut of colon cancer patients
Treating inflammatory diseases of the bowel is extremely challenging: genes, gut microbes, and disrupted immune function all contribute. Weizmann Institute of Science researchers are proposing a way around this complexity. In a study in mice, published in Cell Reports, they have found a way to trigger a natural defense mechanism that prompts the body itself to alleviate intestinal inflammation.
Oct 29, 2014... Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, one of today's most engaging science communicators and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning ""The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer,"" managed to compress the whole history of cancer studies, from primitive to sophisticated, as well a look to the future, into a few comprehensible, enjoyable minutes.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/leukemia-and-lymphoma-research/
Sep 01, 2012...
According to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, over the past 50-plus years survival rates for such cancers "have doubled and tripled, and in some cases quadrupled." Despite these advances, they say, "more than 1 million North Americans are fighting blood cancers, the third leading cause of cancer death." Among children, leukemia alone is responsible for 40 percent of cancer fatalities.
Fortunately, world-renowned researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science are actively investigating cancers of the blood-forming organs. Over half of all life sciences research at the Institute is focused on cancer, and Weizmann's unique multidisciplinary environment means that collaborative teams armed with the most advanced research tools, as well as with a massive body of institutional expertise, are bringing their considerable resources to bear on the unique problems posed by blood-related cancers.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/blood-test-for-smokers/
Sep 30, 2003...
Clockwise from bottom left: Dr. Meir Krupsky, Dalia Elinger, Dr. Edna Schechtman, Dr. Tamar Paz-Elizur, Dr. Sara Blumenstein, and Prof. Zvi Livneh. Calculated risks
Lung cancer is one of the most deadly malignancies, responsible for 30 percent of all cancer deaths. Most sufferers from the disease – about 90 percent – are smokers. Weizmann research has now yielded a new blood test that can detect smokers who are at especially high risk of developing the cancer.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/outwitting-a-brainy-gene/
Apr 30, 2012... The very first in the series of mutations causing colon cancer occurs in the beta-catenin gene; this gene is abnormally activated in about 90 percent of colorectal cancer patients, and in a much smaller percentage of people with almost every other type of cancer. Beta-catenin plays a dual role in the cell: it promotes adhesion, or stickiness, between cells, and regulates the expression of genes in the nucleus.
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