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.
Feb 28, 2018...
ISTOCK, CHRISCHRISW
Environment plays a much greater role than host genetics in determining the composition of the human gut microbiome, according to a study published today (February 28) in Nature. And including microbiome characteristics when predicting people’s traits, such as cholesterol levels or obesity, makes those estimates more accurate than only personal history, such as diet, age, gender, and quality of life, the study finds.
Feb 28, 2018... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—February 28, 2018— The question of nature vs. nurture extends to our microbiome – the personal complement of mostly friendly bacteria we carry around with us. Study after study has found that our microbiome affects nearly every aspect of our health, and that the composition of our microbes, which varies from individual to individual, may hold the key to everything from weight gain to mood. Some microbiome researchers had suggested that this variation begins with differences in our genes, but a large-scale study conducted at the Weizmann Institute of Science challenges this idea and provides evidence that the connection between microbiome and health may be even more important than we thought.
Jan 01, 2018...
Acropora coral less than 2 meters under sea-level at One Tree Reef, One Tree Island in the southern Great Barrier Reef. (Photo: University of Sydney)
A recent report said that hurricanes devastated coral reefs in the Caribbean and scientists studied their recovery ability from natural disaster. As scientists understand the importance of coral reefs to an ocean ecosystem, conservation efforts have been gathering steam. According to a UNESCO study in June 2017, World Heritage coral reefs could become extinct by 2100 unless CO2 emissions are reduced.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/the-immune-system-s-fountain-of-youth/
Dec 31, 2018...
Drug treatment eliminates senescent cells from tissues of old mice. The blue staining shows senescent cells in lung and liver tissue. The amount of the staining is significantly reduced following the drug treatment
If only we could keep our bodies young, healthy, and energetic, even as we attain the wisdom of our years. New research at the Weizmann Institute of Science suggests this dream could be at least partly obtainable in the future. The results of this research, led by Prof. Valery Krizhanovsky and Dr. Yossi Ovadya in the Department of Molecular Cell Biology, were recently published in Nature Communications.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/science-tips-july-2014/
Jul 28, 2014... Using the body’s natural virus killers to prevent and treat HIV infection has been problematic until now because of the strong inflammatory response these molecules can stimulate as they get rid of the invaders. Now, collaborative research conducted by scientists at the Weizmann Institute and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have demonstrated how suppressing the activity of these molecules – interferons – around the time of infection could have long-term implications for the course of the disease. Their research appeared in Nature.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/rare-genetic-defect-may-lead-to-cancer-drug/
May 18, 2017...
Dr. Ayelet Erez says that rare genetic diseases provide a lens on cancer
The path to understanding what goes wrong in cancer could benefit from a detour through studies of rare childhood diseases. Dr. Ayelet Erez explains that cancer generally involves dozens – if not hundreds – of mutations, and sorting out the various functions and malfunctions of each may be nearly impossible. Rare childhood diseases, in contrast, generally involve mutations to a single gene.
Nov 16, 2017...
Pancreatic cancer cells. Anne Weston/Wellcome Images
Pancreatic cancer is deadly: It’s difficult to detect and bedeviling to treat. Just 20 percent of patients survive a year after diagnosis. Less than 10 percent make it to the five-year mark.
But recent discoveries — both in the lab and in patients — are raising hope. They’re still early stage. Yet they offer new insight into the causes and progression of the disease — and they may ultimately help doctors better detect, and treat, this difficult cancer.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/rare-disorder-found-to-have-a-common-form/
Jun 17, 2015... A hereditary autoimmune disease that was thought to be exceedingly rare may have a less severe form that affects one in 1,000 people or even more, according to new research conducted at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and the University of Bergen in Norway. The results of this research, which appeared June 15 in Immunity, suggest that a number of different autoimmune diseases and syndromes may be tied to mutations in a single gene. Among other things, these findings, combined with other research in the Weizmann lab, may help provide new means of diagnosing and treating autoimmune disorders.
Oct 29, 2014... Speaking at the Partners in Scientific Advancement session, the entertaining Prof. Eytan Domany provides an overview of modern genomic research, which began with the deciphering of the human genome in 2001 – a monumental feat that immediately led to big excitement, big data, and big hope for medicine, and led him to leave physics, his longtime field of research.
Jul 16, 2020... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—July 16, 2020—Choosing the right drug for each cancer patient is key to successful treatment, but physicians currently have few reliable pointers to guide them in designing treatment protocols. Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have now developed a new method for selecting the best drug therapy for a given tumor, based on assigning scores to the cells’ internal messaging activities. In addition to helping physicians choose from a list of existing treatments, the method can help identify new molecular targets for the development of future drugs. In fact, the researchers have already used it to single out a gene that can be targeted for effectively treating breast cancers with a BRCA mutation. The study was recently published in Nature Communications.
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