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 benefit 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.
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/in-the-news/coaxing-the-immune-system-to-fight-cancer/
May 08, 2018...
Image via Lightspring/Shutterstock.com
Immunotherapy was once the black sheep of cancer research. Originally conceived over a century ago, it aims to stimulate a patient’s own immune system to fight cancer. That’s a very different approach than chemotherapy, which essentially poisons tumors.
Early trials of immunotherapy in the 1900s and a second round of experiments in the 1980s caused toxic side effects. That led oncologists to dismiss this approach– until 2011, when a new immunotherapy treatment gave patients with metastatic melanoma years of tumor-free extra life.
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/the-president-s-report-2004/
Sep 01, 2005...
Dear Members of the Weizmann Institute Family,
When friends of the Weizmann Institute—and of Israel—ask me for some good news from our region, I have no difficulty in responding. The irrepressible energy and boundless ingenuity of Israeli inventors and entrepreneurs are there for all to see, but to none are they more evident than to those of us immersed in science and research.
Israel is home today to about 500 communications technology companies, 200 in medical instrumentation, 100 in fabless circuit design plus a number of circuit production giants, and 50 in digital printing and imaging. It has become a veritable superpower in data security, with some major companies in the field and about 80 start-ups. There are hundreds of companies developing an impressive range of programming applications—for trading in foreign currency options, for Internet applications, and a great deal more. In my own field of plant science, the long tradition of Israeli innovation is being carried forward by a growing number of biotechnology companies devoted to advanced crop improvement and the production of plant-derived products. In drug design and development, Teva Pharmaceuticals leads as a major player in the world arena and is Israel's largest and most successful commercial company ever. All this, and more, in a country of less than 6 million people!
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.
May 15, 2019... May is Melanoma/Skin Cancer Detection and Prevention Month – the perfect time, as we head into summer, to think about protecting our skin. The American Cancer Society predicts that in 2019, almost 100,000 American adults will be diagnosed with invasive melanoma, and while that number may not be massive, it’s important, as melanoma is the deadliest of the skin cancers. Treatments are often ineffective; thus, early intervention is crucial.
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