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.
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.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/a-pioneer-in-the-stem-cell-frontier/
Jun 19, 2015...
Our bone marrow contains stem cells with a special power: they can turn into any other type of blood cells. Transplants of these blood (or “hematopoietic”) stem cells are used to treat patients with cancers such as leukemia and other disorders of the blood and immune system.
“They are sophisticated cells that can go in the direction we need them to,” says Prof. Yair Reisner, head of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Immunology. “If we lose red blood cells, these stem cells will rapidly replenish the red cells, and if we need white cells, they will switch to replenish those.”
Feb 20, 2018...
11 days of brain research at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel.
Israeli researchers have managed to grow tiny model brains in the lab to discover how the brain’s convolutions are created.
A normal brain is as wrinkly as a walnut. And in cases where a person is born with a smooth brain, devoid of folds, he faces severe developmental difficulties.
It has long been known that these folds and wrinkles are meant to enable the brain to be compressed into the space of a skull, and that they develop in embryo. But the question of how they develop, biologically and physically, has preoccupied brain researchers for years, as has the no less important question of what causes problems to arise in this process.
Apr 11, 2007... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—April 11, 2007—Muscle fibers are large cells that contain many nuclei. They begin, like all animal cells, as naive embryonic cells. These cells differentiate, producing intermediate cells called myoblasts that are now destined to become muscle. New myoblasts then seek out other myoblasts, and when they find each other, they stick together like best friends. In the final stage of muscle fiber development, the cell membranes of attached myoblasts open up and fuse together, forming one large, unified cell.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/stem-cell-reprogramming-made-easier/
Sep 18, 2013... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—September 18, 2013—Embryonic stem cells have the enormous potential to treat and cure many medical problems. That is why the discovery that induced embryonic-like stem cells can be created from skin cells was rewarded with a Nobel Prize in 2012. But the process of creating such cells has remained frustratingly slow and inefficient, and the resulting stem cells are not yet ready for medical use. Research in the lab of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Dr. Jacob (Yaqub) Hanna, which appears September 18 in Nature, dramatically changes that: He and his group have identified the “brake” that holds back the production of stem cells, and found that releasing this brake can both synchronize the process and increase its efficiency from around one percent or less today to 100 percent. These findings may help facilitate the production of stem cells for medical use, as well as advancing our understanding of the mysterious process by which adult cells can revert back into their original, embryonic state.
Feb 24, 2019...
Embryonic stem cells. (Credit: Giovanni Cancemi via shutterstock.com)
Modern medicine sometimes really is a miracle, with many illnesses and conditions that in the past spelled sure death now treatable and curable. Not only is medicine effective, but in recent years it’s becoming more convenient, futuristic and innovative.
So why is it that many people still need to inject themselves every day to stay alive?
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/science-tips-july-2012/
Jul 27, 2012... As sulfur cycles through Earth’s atmosphere, oceans and land, it undergoes chemical changes that are often coupled to changes in other such elements as carbon and oxygen. Although this affects the concentration of free oxygen, sulfur has traditionally been portrayed as a secondary factor in regulating atmospheric oxygen, with most of the heavy lifting done by carbon. However, new findings that appeared this week in Science suggest that sulfur’s role may have been underestimated.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/stem-cells-might-heal-damaged-lungs/
Jul 15, 2015...
Can embryonic lung stem cells alleviate chronic respiratory diseases? (image by Shutterstock.com)
A new Israeli study shows how it might be possible to use embryonic stem cells to repair damaged lung tissue and help alleviate chronic respiratory disease weaknesses.
Weizmann Institute scientists began their research knowing that certain stem cells that normally reside in the lungs are similar to those in the bone marrow. In each organ, the stem cells are concentrated in special compartments that contain all the provisions that stem cells need.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/stem-cells-might-heal-damaged-lungs/
Jul 14, 2015...
In this image from a photon-2 microscope, new lung cells are continuously created to replace the damaged ones: (left) lung tissue 6 weeks after stem cell transplantation and (right) 16 weeks after transplantation. Cells that originated in the transplanted stem cells are green, as opposed to the uncolored host lung cells.
Collectively, diseases of the airways such as emphysema, bronchitis, asthma, and cystic fibrosis are the second leading cause of death worldwide. More than 35 million Americans alone suffer from chronic respiratory disease. Weizmann Institute of Science researchers have now proposed a new direction that could, in the future, lead to the development of a method for alleviating some of the suffering of these patients. The study’s findings, which recently appeared in Nature Medicine, show how it might be possible to use embryonic stem cells to repair damaged lung tissue.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/resolving-a-lymphatic-riddle/
May 20, 2015...
Zebrafish embryos with fluorescent “glow in the dark” blood vessels helped solve the mystery of the origin of the lymphatic system
For more than a century, scientists have debated the origins of the lymphatic system – a parallel system to blood vessels, and which serves as a conduit for everything from immune cells to fat molecules to cancer cells. This issue has now been resolved by Dr. Karina Yaniv of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Biological Regulation. In a study reported in Nature, she and her team revealed how the lymphatic system develops in the embryo and – in a world’s first – managed to grow lymphatic cells in the lab.
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