Other Israeli institutions included in the top 100 were Hebrew University of Jerusalem (30), Reichman University (47), Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (52), and Bar-Ilan University (90).

By Pesach Benson, TPS

Tel Aviv University and the Technion placed in the top 10 in the ranking of leading universities for entrepreneurs in the Pitchbook 2025 index released on Wednesday.

The U.S. was the only other country with more than one university in the top ten of the prestigious rankings.

Tel Aviv University ranked alongside Stanford and MIT, with its graduates founding 736 startups that raised $30 billion.

Among them are Next Insurance, sold this year for $2.5 billion, and Lendbuzz, which has filed for an IPO after topping $1 billion in funding.

“The fact that PitchBook ranks us at the top year after year is the best proof of our academic excellence and leadership in creating a generation of entrepreneurs,” said Prof. Moshe Zviran, the university’s entrepreneurship chief.

The Technion, based in Haifa, made its debut in the global top ten, credited with more than 1,300 alumni launching over 1,000 ventures and attracting $43 billion in capital.

“Technion alumni are the main economic engine of the State of Israel,” said university president Prof. Uri Sivan, noting new initiatives such as its innovation hub and commercialization arm.

Other Israeli institutions included in the top 100 were Hebrew University of Jerusalem (30), Reichman University (47), Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (52), and Bar-Ilan University (90).

The University of California, Berkeley, was PitchBook’s top-ranked institution.

PitchBook Data provides research and technology on private capital markets, including venture capital, private equity, and M\&A. The rankings were based on an analysis of more than 173,000 VC-backed founders and PitchBook data.

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The Weizmann Institute, Technion, and Hebrew University are ranked in global list of top 100 higher education institutions.

By World Israel News Staff

Israel’s outsized impact on the academic world was confirmed on Thursday, after three Israeli schools were included among the ranks of the 100 best universities in the world.

The Weizmann Institute of Science, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa were all named in the 2024 Shanghai Ranking, which is widely viewed as an authority in determining the quality of academic institutions.

The Weizmann Institute was ranked in 69th place, Hebrew University in 81st place, and the Technion in 85th place. Notably, the Technion is ranked 11th within the Shanghai Ranking’s list of technologically-focused universities.

“The presence of three Israeli universities in the list of the top 100 universities globally is an exceptional achievement in such a challenging and complex year. The Hebrew University’s rise to 81st place in the world’s most prestigious academic ranking is a testament to the groundbreaking research and commitment to excellence that we uphold as a way of life,” said Hebrew University President Prof. Asher Cohen in a media statement.

“We remain steadfast in our role as the preeminent civilian institution for Jerusalem, a cornerstone for the State of Israel, and a source of international pride.”

“Our consistent standing in the Shanghai Ranking reaffirms the Technion’s position among the world’s finest technological universities. The Technion, like its Israeli counterparts, competes on the global stage with universities that are often older, larger, and better-funded,” said Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan in a press release.

“Three Israeli academic institutions are included in the list of the top 100 universities worldwide, which is a testament to the excellence of Israeli science and academia and a source of pride for us all.”

The top three spots in the Shanghai Ranking are all taken by American institutions: Harvard University, Stanford University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

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Having your cake and eating it too? Students from Israel’s Technion create quick meals aimed at being healthier than conventional fast food.

By World Israel News Staff

Israeli students took first and second place at an international event highlighting food innovation.

The event, held in Brussels and funded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, brought together competing teams from Israel, Italy, Finland, and Spain, with the goal of creating new, healthier processed foods which offer a long shelf life and ease of preparation without the harmful effects typical of highly processed food.

Two separate teams from Israel’s Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa competed in the event, taking home the gold and silver medals respectively.

The winning recipe, created by the “omeletofu” team, used freeze-dried tofu to create a dehydrated vegan omelet, which can be prepared just by adding water, with no heating needed.

The omeletofu dish was offered in two flavors: mushroom, and shakshuka, a North African egg dish with tomato sauce popular in Israel.

A second Technion team took home the silver with their “Proteinchick,” a protein-rich snack made out of cashews, chickpeas, and lentils.

The vegan, gluten-free snack uses the water the chickpeas are cooked in to bring the other ingredients together via co-extrusion, resulting in a fluffy, yet crunchy texture.

“This competition offers students a unique learning experience,” said Uri Lesmes, a member of the Technion’s Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering.

“They get a taste of the challenges the food sector faces today. They develop a product, lay down a business plan, scheme its manufacturing and present their ‘company’ to a team of experienced judges. So the whole process is very similar to founding a real start-up.”

The Technion has won multiple medals in Food Solutions competitions over the past five years, including with recipes for soy yogurt, reduced sugar chocolate cake, spirulina falafel, and oat-based labaneh.

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A Technion team has found a radically new solution to the conventional mask dilemma by creating an invisible “air-screen” in front of the wearer’s face.

By World Israel News Staff

Researchers at Haifa’s Technion – Israel Institute of Technology have developed a revolutionary invisible facemask to protect wearers against the transmission of COVID, MERS, influenza, and other respiratory viruses, the university announced Sunday.

Although conventional facemasks help protect against disease transmission, recent scientific literature shows that they also present adverse psychological and physiological effects. They reduce facial identification and emotion recognition, adversely affect oral communication, and can cause headaches and skin problems.

Wearing masks throughout the workday also results in a lack of focus, as well as reduced attention and patience in a wide range of professions.

As a result of these difficulties, many people wear masks incorrectly – on or below their mouths – which greatly reduces protection. Even in Japan, where facemasks are common, a large study found that just 20% of people wear masks correctly.

Conventional facemasks have also led to a dramatic rise in plastic waste, exacerbated by governmental mask-wearing mandates, producing millions of tons annual.

Now, a Technion team led by Professors Moshe Shoham and David Greenblatt has come up with a radically new solution to the conventional mask dilemma by creating an invisible “air-screen” in front of the wearer’s face. The air-screen originates from within a lightweight filter-covered unit mounted on the visor of a cap.

Several major advantages became clear: the air-screen protects the eyes, nose, and mouth without negative effects on facial identity, emotion recognition, or oral communication. It is also reusable, so it does not pollute the environment.

Recently published research, based on experiments conducted in Prof. Greenblatt’s laboratory, demonstrated the air-screen’s efficacy by effectively blocking aerosols produced during oral communication, as well as large droplets produced by coughing and sneezing. It also removes quiescent aerosol-laden air from in front of the face by a process known as “entrainment.”

This joint effect of blocking and entrainment occurs where laser illumination is used to render the airflow visible, as seen in this video:

Several one-on-one interviews and pilot studies with more than 50 subjects from various sectors clearly showed the advantage of the invisible air screen over the commonly used face masks, according to the Technion.  These groups represent potential early adopters, who will benefit most from this new technology in Israel and globally.

The Technion recently licensed the technology to Israeli startup Wisdome Wearables Ltd.

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Hebrew University, the Technion and the Weizmann Institute of Science make top 100 in global list of best universities.

By World Israel News Staff

Three universities in Israel were listed in a prominent global ranking of the world’s most prestigious educational institutions, with all three ranking higher on the 2022 list than they did in past years.

The Shanghai Ranking of World Universities, a well-regarded publication of universities leading research, development, and academic achievement, released its annual list on Monday, which included the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, and the Weizmann Institute of Science.

The Shanghai Ranking breaks down universities by disciplines, such as the sciences, medicine, and liberal arts, as well as gives institutions an overall score.

Hebrew University was ranked in 77th place overall, and the Technion and Weizmann Institute of Science were tied in 83rd place overall.

Specifically in the field of mathematics, Hebrew University was ranked in 17th place in the world.

“The Hebrew University’s success in this year’s rankings is a testament to our ongoing academic and research excellence,” said the school’s president Professor Asher Cohen in a statement.

“To date, we’ve made notable achievements in a variety of disciplines, have developed lifesaving medicines and established influential companies in cutting-edge industries, placing Israel at the forefront of science worldwide.”

The Technion was ranked 22nd in the world specifically in the field of aerospace engineering. Its overall score rose to 83rd from 94th place in 2021.

Professor Uri Sivan, the president of the Technion, hailed the institution’s improved ranking in a statement, saying the listing signified “ a significant and important achievement.”

Sivan credited the university’s success to “our excellent human capital, which spearheads the numerous achievements and breakthroughs in research and teaching.”

He added that more government support is needed for Israel to continue making an impact on global research and advance its reputation for academic excellence.

The government “must significantly increase its financial investment in research and teaching and adopt a friendlier approach towards admitting foreign students and faculty members,” Sivan said.

“ It’s important to remember that without government support and globalization of research institutes, it will be hard for us to remain on the list.”

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Scientists have discovered that the immune system can find bacteria residing within cancer cells and use them to provoke an immune reaction against a tumor.

By Abigail Klein Leichman, Israel21c

The immune system can find bacteria residing within cancer cells and harness them to provoke an immune reaction against the tumor, according to a study published in Nature.

An international research team, led by researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, says this discovery may explain why the gut microbiome is known to affect the success of immunotherapy treatments for cancer.

Immunotherapy has dramatically improved recovery rates from certain cancers, particularly malignant melanoma, but still work in only about 40 percent of the cases.

Molecular cell biologist Ravid Straussman, one of the first to reveal bacteria in cancer cells, devised methods for Prof. Yardena Samuels and her lab to search for signposts to those bacteria.

Lead authors Shelly Kalaora and Adi Nagler analyzed tissue samples from 17 metastatic melanoma tumors derived from nine patients. They obtained bacterial genomic profiles of these tumors and then identified nearly 300 tumor peptides that can be recognized by the immune system.

Future studies may establish which bacterial peptides enhance the immune response, enabling physicians to predict the success of immunotherapy and to tailor a personalized treatment accordingly.

“Many of these peptides were shared by different metastases from the same patient or by tumors from different patients, which suggests that they have a therapeutic potential and a potent ability to produce immune activation,” Nagler said.

“Our findings suggest that bacterial peptides presented on tumor cells can serve as potential targets for immunotherapy,” Samuels said. “They may be exploited to help immune T cells recognize the tumor with greater precision, so that these cells can mount a better attack against the cancer. This approach can in the future be used in combination with existing immunotherapy drugs.”

The study’s collaborators were from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology; Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center; Tel Aviv University; Open University of Israel; University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; Texas A&M University; Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in California; the US National Cancer Institute; Wellcome Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK; and The Netherlands Cancer Institute.

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“There is no dispute that Israel now belongs to the exclusive club of space powers, thanks to the rapid development of the space industry in Israel.”

By World Israel News Staff

The “Adelis-SAMSON” project, an autonomous group of three nanosatellites built and developed by the Technion – Israel institute of Technology, will be launched into orbit on March 20.

The project is the passion of a research team led by Professor Pini Gurfil of the Asher Space Research Institute (ASRI) and the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering with the support of the Adelis Foundation, the Goldstein Foundation, and the Israel Space Agency in the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The satellites will piggyback on a Glavkosmos Soyuz rocket from a site in Kazakhstan, and once in orbit, will be used to calculate the location of people, planes, and ships. The cluster of satellites will fly in formation in space by utilizing autonomous communication and control, without needing guidance from the ground.

The Adelis-SAMSON formation includes three miniature satellites (CubeSats), each weighing about 8 kg (17 ½ lb). Each CubeSat includes sensors, antennae, computer systems, control systems, navigation devices, and a unique and innovative propulsion system.

The satellites will travel at an altitude of 550 km (341 mi) above ground and detect signals from Earth using a mission receiver developed by IAI. The CubeSats will then transmit these signals to a mission control center located at Technion’s Asher Space Research Institute.

“Basic research over the course of many years, combined with advanced Israeli technology, allows Israel to take an important step forward in the field of nanosatellites,” explained Prof. Gurfil.

“You could compare the innovation of nanosatellites to switching from the personal computer to the cellphone. The Adelis-Samson project demonstrates a new concept in nanosatellite design and will enable many operations to be carried out that have been reserved until now for large and expensive satellites,” he said.

“This is a leap in the field of miniature satellites, in the capabilities of the Technion, and for the entire State of Israel, and one which will make the Technion a global pioneer in the fields of geolocation and satellite communication, with diverse applications including search and rescue, remote sensing, and environmental monitoring.”

“The Adelis-SAMSON project is a wonderful and exciting example of the successful integration of science and technology and the transformation of innovative ideas into effective systems that contribute to humanity,” said Professor Uri Sivan, president of the Technion. “Scientific and technological breakthroughs require multidisciplinary research and close collaboration between academia and industry, and this is what has led the project to this important day.”

“The current project continues a Technion tradition that began in 1998 with the successful launch of the Gurwin-TechSat II,” added the Technion President. “That satellite has been operating in space for more than 11 years, a record time for academic activity in space. The launch of Adelis-SAMSON is a dramatic moment that we have been waiting nine years for and will follow closely.”

“Today there is no dispute that Israel now belongs to the exclusive club of space powers, thanks to the rapid development of the space industry in Israel,” said Mrs. Rebecca Boukhris, trustee of Adelis Foundation. “Adelis-SAMSON is a unique project that embodies the Israeli spirit, power and intellectual resources. Israel shows its strength in technology and science and puts itself firmly on the world map of aerospace, all on a modest budget and in an academic environment.

“The Adelis Foundation sees itself as an organization that sows the seeds of the future and we hope that this project will be the first of many, inspiring other small and brilliant projects to lead Israel’s development in space and bring recognition to the State of Israel.”

“The field of nano-satellites has been booming recently and the number of launches is increasing every year,” said Avi Blasberger, director of the Israeli Space Agency at the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The launch will be live-streamed this Saturday, March 20, 2021 starting at 7:15 a.m. Israel time on: https://youtu.be/J1nfIV-4_e8

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A resonator is, in fact, one of the most important devices in optics: “It’s the transistor of optics,” said Prof. Carmon.

By World Israel News Staff

Graduate student Jacob Kher-Alden of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology has developed a new optical resonator. The resonator has record-breaking capabilities in resonance enhancement.

A resonator is a device that traps waves and enhances or echoes them by reflecting them from wall to wall in a process called resonant enhancement.

Today, there are complex and sophisticated resonators of various kinds throughout the world, as well as simple resonators familiar to all of us.

Examples of this include the resonator box of a guitar, which enhances the sound produced by the strings, or the body of a flute, which enhances the sound created in the mouthpiece of the instrument. The guitar and flute are acoustic resonators in which the sound reverberates between the walls of the resonator.

In physics, there are also optical resonators, such as in laser devices. A resonator is, in fact, one of the most important devices in optics: “It’s the transistor of optics,” said Prof. Tal Carmon.

Generally speaking, resonators need at least two mirrors to multiply reflected light (just like at the hairdressing salon). But they can also hold more than two mirrors. For example, three mirrors can be used to reflect the light in a triangular shape, four in a square, and so on. It is also possible to arrange a lot of mirrors in an almost circular shape so that the light circulates. The more mirrors in the ring, the closer the structure becomes that of a perfect circle.

But this is not the end of the story, as the ring restricts the movement of light to a single plane. The solution is a spherical structure, which allows light to rotate on all planes passing through the center of the circle, regardless of their tilt. In other words, in three-dimensional space.

In the movement from physics to engineering, the question arises of how to produce a resonator as close as possible to a sphere that is clean, smooth, and gives the maximal number of rotations for optimal resonance. It is a challenge that has engaged many research groups and has yielded, among others, a tiny glass resonator in the shape of either a sphere or ring, which is held next to a narrow optical fiber.

An example of this was presented by Prof. Carmon two years ago in Nature. Kher-Alden worked under the supervision of Prof. Carmon.

Here, there was still room for improvement, as even the stem that is holding the sphere creates a distortion in its spherical shape. Hence, the desire was born to produce a floating resonator – a resonator not held by any material object.

The world’s first micro-resonator was demonstrated in the 1970s by Arthur Ashkin, winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics, who presented a floating resonator.

Despite the achievement, the research direction was soon abandoned. Now, inspired by Ashkin’s pioneering work, the new floating resonator exhibits a resonant enhancement by 10,000,000 circulations of light, compared to about 300 circulations in Ashkin’s resonator.

The levitating resonator

In a resonator made of mirror that reflect 99.9999% of light, the light will rotate about a million revolutions or “round trips.”

According to Prof. Carmon, “If we take light that has a power of one watt, similar to the light of the flash on a cell phone, and we allow it to rotate back and forth between these mirrors, the light power will be amplified to about a million watts – the power is equal to the electricity consumption of a large neighborhood in Haifa, Israel.

“We can use the high light output, for example, to stimulate various light-matter interactions at the region between the mirrors.”

In fact, a million watts are made up of the same single particle of light that travels back and forth through matter, but the matter does not “know” that it is the same particle of light that moves repeatedly through the matter, since photons are indistinguishable. It only “feels” the great power.

In a device of this type it is also important that the million watts pass through a small cross-sectional area. Indeed, the device developed by Kher-Alden conducts light in 10 million circular trips, in which the light is focused on a beam area 10,000 times smaller than the cross-sectional area of a hair. In doing this, Kher-Alden has achieved a world record in the resonant enhancement of light.

The resonator developed by Technion researchers is made of a tiny drop of highly-transparent oil of about 20 microns in diameter – a quarter of the thickness of a strand of hair. Using a technique called ‘optical forceps,’ the drop is held in the air using light. This technique is used to hold the drop in the air without material support – which may damage its spherical shape or soil the drop.

According to Prof. Carmon, “This ingenious optical invention, the optical forceps, is used a lot in life sciences, chemistry, micro-flow devices and more, and it is precisely the optical researchers who hardly use it – a bit like the cobbler walking barefoot. In the present study, we show that optical forceps have enormous potential in the field of optical engineering. It is possible, for example, to build an optical circuit using multiple optical forceps that hold many resonators and control the position of the resonators and their shape as needed.”

The tiny dimensions of the drop also improve spherical integrity because gravity hardly distorts it, since it is marginal in these dimensions relative to the surface-tension forces at the liquid interface, which give it a spherical shape. In the unique system developed by Technion researchers, the drop of oil is held by a laser beam and receives the light from another fiber, which also receives the light back after it has passed through the resonator.

Based on the properties of the light returning to the fiber, researchers can know what happened inside the drop. For example, they can turn off the light entering the resonator and examine how long a photon will survive in the resonator before it fades.

Based on this data and the speed of light, they can calculate the number of rotations the photon makes (on average) in a drop. The results show a world record in light amplification: 10,000,000 rotations that pass through a cross-sectional area of about a micron squared, increasing the light 10 million times.

Additional participants in the study include Shai Maayani, Mark Douvidzon, Leopoldo Martin from the Technion, and Lev Deych from the Physics Department at Queens College, City University of New York.

The study was conducted as part of the “Circle of Light” Center for Excellence (ICORE) of the National Science Foundation and the Planning and Budgeting Committee; the U.S.-Israel Science Binational Foundation (BSF); the American National Science Foundation (NSF); and Israel Science Foundation (ISF).

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A team at Haifa’s prestigious Technion-Israel Institute of Technology developed a new 4D electron microscope, the first of its kind in Israel and one of the few in the world.

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A team of Israeli researchers is revealing an innovative way to address the global water-scarcity crisis, ILTV reports.

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The experiment is not only a “wonderful example” of the close relations between Israel and Italy but also carries extraordinary potential on the business level.

By World Israel News Staff 

Israel and Italy are to jointly carry out a space mission to be launched at the end of March for the purpose of carrying out medical experiments that have the potential to produce a breakthrough, reports Israel Hayom.

According to the report, the launching of the unmanned satellite is one of the manifestations of closer ties that have been developing between the two countries.

The president of the Italian Space Agency, Giorgio Saccoccia, visited Israel on the occasion of Space Week at the end of January, says the newspaper.

He was a guest at the 15th Ilan Ramon International Space Conference, which took place as part of the special events. Space Week is organized by Israel’s Ministry of Science and Technology.

Ramon was an Israeli fighter pilot and later became the Jewish State’s first astronaut. At the age of 48, he and six other crew members of the Space Shuttle Columbia were killed in a re-entry accident on February 1, 2003.

Behind the upcoming Israeli-Italian launch are researchers from the two countries and Israel’s Space Pharma.

The company says that its “mission is to leverage the miniaturized microgravity lab technology, enabling unprecedented possibilities to develop new drugs in Space.”

On its website, Space Pharma explains that “these labs provide an agile platform that can allow you to get unprecedented results that can not be obtained [in a] terrestrial setting.”

Two of the experiments to be conducted during the upcoming binational mission were originated by The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, says Israel Hayom.

Tel HaShomer Hospital, the largest hospital in Israel, located outside Tel Aviv, is behind an additional experiment, and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is responsible for a fourth experiment, says the report.

The research leading to one of the experiments was a collaborative effort involving professors from The Technion and the University of Bologna, says the Israeli daily.

Its purpose is to examine the behavior of anti-bacterial materials in space and the “influence on bacteria in zero gravity conditions,” the report adds.

The experiments are to be carried out “by remote control” from Earth, it notes.

In an interview with Israel Hayom, Saccoccia said that the experiment is not only a “wonderful example” of the close relations between Israel and Italy but also carries extraordinary potential on the business level.

Asked why Rome was cooperating with Jerusalem in the realm of space research, the president of the Italian Space Agency praised Israel for the way it exploits technological education from a young age to advance space initiatives.

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Israeli researchers genetically engineered bacteria to produce honey.

By Aryeh Savir, TPS

A team of Technion researchers was awarded a gold medal at the International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition (iGEM) in Boston for producing bee-free honey.

The team, including 12 members from six Technion faculties, developed a sustainable “BeeFree” honey using engineered bacteria, which processes a nectar-like solution using secreted enzymes that mimic the honey stomach environment.

The development’s significance is magnified by the unexplained decline of bee populations in many parts of the world.

This is the sixth medal the Technion has won since joining the competition in 2012.

iGEM Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to education and competition, the advancement of synthetic biology, and the development of an open community and collaboration. The foundation was created by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Launched in 2004, its competition focuses on synthetic biology. Student teams are given a kit of biological parts and work over the summer to build and test biological systems in living cells, ranging from bacteria to mammalian cells.

Teams from some 300 universities from around the world participated in this year’s competition.

One of the conditions for participating in the international competition is donating to the community. To meet this requirement, the members of the group held a Hackathon on environmental and sustainability issues for 44 outstanding Haifa-based students in the 10^th-12^th grades.

The first prize was awarded to “The Green Choice Group,” which developed a solution to reduce the amount of food thrown away around the world through an application that allows supermarkets to offer low prices on products that are about to expire.

The Technion Group ranked one of the top five teams in the iGEM Community Engagement category for this activity.

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Paramedics rushed to the scene and evacuated the injured man, badly burned, to Rambam Medical Center.

By World Israel News Staff

A 60-year-old man was seriously injured on Sunday morning in an explosion in a Technion University laboratory in Haifa, Ynet reports.

The explosion occurred at the Technion’s Materials Engineering Faculty building.

Magen David Adom paramedics gave the man initial treatment and sent him to to Rambam Medical Center in the city.

MDA senior paramedic Dan Foreman said: “We linked up with firefighters and workers at the facility who led us to the building near the site of the incident. The injured man had been moved there.

“He was unconscious with burns all over and injuries to his upper body. We gave him life-saving medical care, included for the burns, gave him painkillers and a respirator and we sent him in serious condition to the hospital,” he said.

Damage at the Technion laboratory. (Firefighters’ Spokesperson’s Unit)

Ten firefighters reportedly are monitoring the presence of hazardous substances in the air, Ynet reports.

A firefighter said that “the explosion caused a lot of damage to the floor where it took place. Most of the firefighters continue to scan the structure, to prevent additional casualties and simultaneously perform monitoring operations, and counter the leakage of hazardous materials.”

Shortly after the blast, the automatic water sprinklers were activated in the area, extinguishing a fire started by the explosion.

Technion University said, “The Technion’s management is now at the location and an initial investigation into the circumstances of the incident are under way.”

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The project marks “a real breakthrough in the field of antibiotic resistance,” according to Prof. Varda Shalev of Maccabi.

By World Israel News Staff 

Technology developed by the Technion and Maccabi Health Care Services “is expected to improve and make more efficient” administering antibiotic treatments, according to a joint statement issued Thursday. The technology was presented in a study published in Nature Medicine magazine.

“The use of antibiotics globally is extensive and leads to bacteria developing antibiotic resistance,” the researchers explain.

“One of the factors that speeds up the evolution of antibiotic resistance is the widespread use of broad-range antibiotics, drugs designed to kill a wide spectrum of bacteria.” Therefore, they say, “reducing this dangerous trend can potentially be achieved by prescribing antibiotics specifically aimed at the infection causing bacteria for each particular patient.”

Prof. Roy Kishony, a Technion researcher who is considered one of the leading experts in the field of antibiotic resistance, developed methods for genetic mapping of bacterial resistance to antibiotics.

In the joint Technion-Maccabi study, “a system was developed to help the doctor choose the optimal antibiotic for treating urinary tract infections,” said the joint statement.

“The researchers found that antibiotic resistance levels were different for each patient and that a certain antibiotic would be effective in one patient and not in another,” explained the statement, adding that “the reasons for this are related to each patient’s personal characteristics and medical history.”

“It is now possible to computationally predict the level of bacterial resistance for infection-causing bacteria,” said Dr. Idan Yelin, a Technion researcher.

“This is done by the weighting of demographic data, including age, gender, pregnancy, or retirement home residence, together with levels of resistance measured in the patient’s previous urine cultures as well as their drug purchase history,” he said.

“The study analyzed more than five million cases of antibiotic purchases made over 10 years and measurements of antibiotic resistance in more than 700,000 urine cultures,” said the statement. “A sophisticated algorithm was able to find a clear link among the various data and thus predict the level of antibiotic resistance for each infection and provide a recommendation for the best type of antibiotics,” it added.

The project marks “a real breakthrough in the field of antibiotic resistance,”  according to Prof. Varda Shalev, head of the Kahn-Sagol-Maccabi Research and Innovation Institute.

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Israeli students find a blue-and-white way to help introduce protein-rich algae into daily diets.

By Naama Barak, ISRAEL21c

With the world’s population expected to rise to a staggering 9.8 billion by 2050, the question arises how to feed everyone nutritious, healthy food without ruining the planet’s resources. A surprising solution might be found in a food that was eaten by the Aztecs hundreds of years ago: spirulina.

While nowadays better known in the form of dietary supplement pills and superfood powders, spirulina is in fact a biomass of blue-green algae. It was a daily food source in the Americas until the 16th century, when it lost popularity as lakes were drained for agriculture and urban development.

Spirulina produces its own food by photosynthesis, and its cultivation requires much less land and water than that needed by cattle or poultry, making it an eco-friendly alternative to feed the world.

It’s also so nutritious – dried spirulina contains 5 percent water, 8% fat, 24% carbohydrates and around 60% protein – that it’s been suggested as dietary support for long-term space missions.

But how to incorporate it into everyday diets?

A team of graduate students from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology found one very Israeli answer to that – a falafel enriched with spirulina.

For an extra kick, they served it with tahini enriched with astaxanthin, a health-promoting compound found in certain algae and seafood (it’s responsible for salmon’s reddish color and flamingo feathers’ pink hue).

It took the students – Meital Kazir, Yarden Abuhassira-Cohen, Hani Shkolnikov, Hila Tarazi and Ina Nephomnyshy – a year to conceive, develop and produce their “Algalafel.”

The hard work paid off, as the team recently won first prize in a competition held by EIT Food, a European initiative focused on the food sector.

The second prize in the two-day event hosted by the Technion went to a team from the German University of Hohenheim for “Algini,” a lentil-based product enriched with spirulina. Third place went to students from Finland’s University of Helsinki, who created “Spurtti,” a vegan oatmeal dessert enriched with spirulina.

EIT Food supports creative and economically sustainable initiatives that promote health, access to quality food and the environment. The project included three industrial partners: Israel’s Algatechnologies, which supplied the raw microalgae materials used by the competing teams, Germany’s Doehler and Finland’s Fazer.

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Researchers at the Technion successfully shrank malignant tumors in mice by manipulating the brain’s reward system.

By Israel21c 

Artificially activating the “reward system” in the brains of mice with two types of cancer led to a dramatic reduction in the size of their tumors, according to authors of a study conducted at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.

“The relationship between a person’s emotional state and cancer has been demonstrated in the past, but mainly in relation to negative feelings such as stress and depression and without a physiological map of the action mechanism,” said Assoc. Prof. Asya Rolls of the Technion Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, who supervised the study.

“Several researchers, for example Prof. David Spiegel of the Stanford University School of Medicine, showed that an improvement in the patient’s emotional state may affect the course of the disease, but it was not clear how this happened. We are now presenting a physiological model that can explain at least part of this effect,” she said.

The results were published in the journal Nature Communications by Rolls along with doctoral students Tamar Ben-Shaanan and Maya Schiller, as well as Hilla Azulay-Debby, Ben Korin, Nadia Boshnak, Tamar Koren, Maria Krot, Jivan Shakya and Michal A. Rahat, and Technion Asst. Prof. Fahed Hakim, medical director of the Scottish EMMS Hospital in Nazareth.

According to Hakim, “Understanding the brain’s influence on the immune system and its ability to fight cancer will enable us to use this mechanism in medical treatments. Different people react differently, and we’ll be able to take advantage of this tremendous potential for healing only if we gain a thorough understanding of the mechanisms.”

The authors emphasized that the study is preclinical and that they tested only two cancer models (melanoma and lung cancer) and only two developmental aspects – tumor volume and weight.

However, this breakthrough may allow doctors to realize the physiological role the patients’ mental state plays in the development of malignant diseases. By artificially activating different parts of the brain, in the future it might be possible to encourage the immune system to block development of cancerous tumors more effectively.

Rolls explained that although the immune system has been proven able to fight cancer effectively if given the right tools, “the immune cells’ involvement in cancerous processes is a double-edged sword, because certain components in these cells support tumor growth. This is done by blocking the immune response and creating an environment that is beneficial to growth.”

Rolls has been studying the brain’s effect on the immune system for several years. In a study she published in 2016 in Nature Medicine, she showed how the immune system can be stimulated to work more effectively by manipulating the brain’s reward system – which operates in positive emotional states and in anticipation of the positive.

The main breakthrough in the present study is the dramatic contraction of cancerous tumors in response to the activation of the brain’s reward system.

Rolls cautioned, however, that the findings are not necessarily applicable to all types of cancer and that the experiments have not been done on humans at this point.

The artificial manipulation that worked on mice “most probably works differently” in humans, she said, “especially because other systems are also involved. For example, stress may counteract these reward system effects.”

Rolls said it’s not as simple as thinking positively to get better. “People are very different in their reactions, and until we fully understand how this works, it merely offers a potential.”

The study was supported by the Adelis Brain Research Award, a $100,000 research grant won by Rolls in June 2017. The prize is intended to encourage excellence in the field of brain research in Israel and to translate the research into global impact for the benefit of all humanity.

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