2021 - Technion - Israel Institute of Technology

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What do ultrasound imaging of a fetus, cellular mobile communication, micro motors, and low-energy-consumption computer memories have in common? All of these technologies are based on ferroelectric materials, which are characterized by a strong correlation between their atomic structure and the electrical and mechanical properties.

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology researchers have succeeded in changing the properties of ferroelectric materials by vacating a single oxygen atom from the original structure. The breakthrough could pave the way for the development of new technologies. The research was headed by Assistant Professor Yachin Ivry of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, accompanied by postdoctoral researcher Dr. Hemaprabha Elangovan and Ph.D. student Maya Barzilay, and was published in ACS Nano. It is noted that engineering an individual oxygen vacancy poses a considerable challenge due to the light weight of oxygen atoms.

Asst. Prof. Yachin Ivry

In ferroelectric materials, a slight shift of the atoms causes significant changes in the electric field and in the contraction or expansion of the material. This effect is the result of the fact that the basic repeating unit in the material contains atoms that are organized in an asymmetric structure.

In order to explain this further, the researchers use the seminal ferroelectric material, barium titanate, the atoms of which form a cubic-like lattice structure. In these materials, a unique phenomenon occurs: the titanium atom draws away from the oxygen atoms. Since titanium is positively charged and oxygen is negatively charged, this separation creates polarization, or in other words, an electric dipole moment.

A cubic lattice has six faces, so the charged atoms move into one of six possibilities. In different parts of the material, a large number of neighboring atoms shift in the same direction, and polarization in each such area, which is known as a ferroelectric domain, is uniform.

Traditional technologies are based on the electric field created in those domains. However, in recent years, a great deal of effort has been directed at minimizing the device size and using the borders, or walls, between the domains rather than the domains themselves, and thus converting the devices from three-dimensional structures to two-dimensional structures.

Dr. Hemaprabha Elangovan, Asst. Prof. Yachin Ivry and Ph.D. student Maya Barzilay

The research community has remained divided in opinion as to what happens in the two-dimensional world of the domain walls: How is the border between two domains with different electric polarization stabilized? Is the polarization in domain walls different to the polarization in the domains themselves? Can the properties of the domain wall be controlled in a localized manner? The great interest in addressing these questions stems from the fact that a ferroelectric material in its natural form is an excellent electric insulator. However, the domain walls may be conducting electrically, thus forming a two-dimensional object that are controllable by will. This phenomenon encompasses the potential to reduce significantly the energy consumption of data storage and data processing devices.

In this project, the researchers succeeded in deciphering the atomic structure and electric field deployment in domain walls at the atomic scale. In their recent article, they corroborate the assumption that domain walls allow for the existence of a two-dimensional border between domains as a result of partial oxygen vacancy in areas that are common to two domains, thus enabling greater flexibility in the deployment of the local electric field. They succeeded in engineeringly inducing an individual oxygen atom vacancy and demonstrated that this action creates opposing dipoles and greater electric symmetry – a unique topological structure called a quadrupole.

With the aid of computer simulations by Shi Liu of Westlake University in China, the researchers demonstrated that engineering the oxygen atom vacancy has a great impact on the electrical properties of the material not only at the atomic scale, but also at the scale that is relevant to electronic devices – for example, in terms of electrical conductivity. The significance is that the present scientific achievement is likely to be of help in miniaturizing devices of this kind as well as reducing their energy consumption.

In the micrograph: Image of the structure before (on the right) and after (left) removing an oxygen atom

In collaboration with researchers from the Negev Nuclear Research Center, the Technion research group also demonstrated that oxygen vacancies can be engineered by exposing the material to electronic radiation. Consequently, in addition to the technological potential of the discovery in electronics, it may also be possible to utilize the effect for radiation detectors, allowing for the early detection – and prevention – of nuclear accidents, such as the one that happened in 2011 in Fukushima, Japan.

The research, which was carried out at the Electron Microscopy Center in the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, was funded by the Israel Science Foundation and the Pazy Foundation. The Nano and Quantum Functional Structures Laboratory, headed by Asst. Prof. Ivry, is supported by the Zuckerman STEM Leadership Program.

For the article in ACS Nano click here

Researchers at the Technion – Israel institute of Technology, in collaboration with researchers from CNRS, recently published findings about the development of an artificial molecule that may inhibit the development of Alzheimer’s disease. The molecule breaks down the toxic chemical complex Cu–Aβ, thus inhibiting the cell death that is thought to be related to Alzheimer’s. The study was led by Professor Galia Maayan and doctoral student Anastasia Behar from the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, in collaboration with Prof. Christelle Hureau from the Laboratoire de Chimie de Coordination du CNRS, Toulouse, France.

Prof. Galia Maayan

Copper ions are a key component of the structure and function of various cells in the body. But their accumulation can lead to cell toxicity, causing dangerous conditions such as oxidative stress, cardiovascular disorders, and degenerative diseases of the brain, including Alzheimer’s.

One of the mechanisms involved in the development of Alzheimer’s is the formation of free radicals that damage the brain cells. These are oxidizing agents formed, among other things, by Cu–Aβ, a complex of copper and amyloid beta.

It is already known that the breakdown of this complex, and the removal of copper from the amyloid, prevents cell death, followed by the inhibition of the disease. The extraction of the copper is done by chelation – using molecules that bind the copper ions and extract them from the amyloid.

Doctoral student Anastasia Behar

However, this is not a simple challenge, because the chelators must meet several critical chemical and kinetic conditions, including stability and resistance to oxidation-reduction reactions. It is also important that the chelator does not bind zinc ions during the copper extraction process, as they are also essential for neuron function (but do not cause toxicity when they are bound to the amyloid); if the chelator does not bind the zinc, it can continue to bind the copper ions, but if it binds zinc, copper binding will be inhibited.

The Technion and CNRS researchers report in the Angewandte Chemie on the successful development of a new artificial chelator that meets all these requirements. The chelator, called P3, is a peptide-like water-soluble synthetic molecule that performs its task selectively; it strongly binds copper and forms the complex CuP3, extracting the copper from the amyloid. By doing so, it inhibits and even suppresses the formation of harmful oxidizing agents, without creating new oxidation processes. Although it binds zinc ions and even extracts them from the amyloid faster than it extracts the copper ions, the binding to zinc is weaker, making the zinc-amyloid complex unstable, so in practice P3 mostly binds copper ions.

In the figure, from left to right: Oxidation of copper ions in an amyloid complex (that also contains zinc ions) leads to the formation of a toxic amyloid complex and harmful oxidizing agents (ROS). The water-soluble chelator extracts the copper ion from the amyloid complex by creating a new, stable complex, and inhibits the formation of harmful oxidizing agents (NO ROS), thereby neutralizing amyloid toxicity.

Click here for the paper in Angewandte Chemie

Doctors at Maccabi Healthcare Services have recently begun to work with an AI-based predictive algorithm developed by the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology together with KSM (Kahn-Sagol-Maccabi), the Maccabi Research and Innovation Center. The new algorithm advises doctors in the process of deciding on personalized antibiotic treatment for patients.

The first diagnosis on which Maccabi chose to focus is urinary tract infection (UTI) – the most common bacterial infection among women. Around 30% of the females suffer from the infection at least once during their lifetime, and up to 10% experience recurrent infections. Until now, in most cases general treatment has been administered based on clinical guidelines and medical judgment. Sometimes, the bacteria prove to be antibiotic resistant, resulting in the need to change the treatment plan.

Since the new algorithm was introduced, Maccabi doctors have treated tens of thousands of cases, and there has been a drop of around 35% in the need to switch antibiotics following the development of bacterial resistance to the drug prescribed. This is significant because accuracy in the choice of antibiotic is far greater thanks to the new technology. In light of the success of this new development in the treatment of UTI, Maccabi has begun working on the development of additional detection systems that will help to contend with other infectious diseases that require personalized treatment with antibiotics.

Prof. Roy Kishony

How does it work?

The automated system recommends the most suitable antibiotic treatment for the patient to the doctor, based on clinical guidelines and other criteria such as age, gender, pregnancy status, residence in an assisted living facility, and personal history of UTI and antibiotics administered.

The unique algorithm was developed by Professor Roy Kishony and Dr. Idan Yelin of the Technion Faculty of Biology, in cooperation with KSM, Maccabi’s Research and Innovation Center, headed by Dr. Tal Patalon, and was introduced and implemented among Maccabi’s doctors by the HMO’s Medical Informatics team and Chief Physician’s Department. According to Prof. Kishony, “The algorithm we developed together with Maccabi’s experts is a major milestone in personalized medicine on the way to AI-based antibiotic treatments, which are personally tailored to the patient according to the prediction of treatment response and mitigate the development of resistant bacteria.”

Dr. Shira Greenfield, Director of Medical Informatics at Maccabi Healthcare Services, said, “The significance of administering personalized antibiotic treatment is that it lowers the risk of antibiotic resistance developing – a global problem which all healthcare entities are working to solve.”

Your phone pings. It’s a notification from your friend, who you just went out for a drink with last night. According to her text, she has just tested positive for COVID-19. You start feeling your throat, you sneak a short cough, and start to feel your body temperature rising. But then you calm down (after receiving your negative COVID results, of course) and realize these feelings were all in your head. But what if this is exactly it – what if there were indeed neurons in the brain that could induce a sensation of illness, or even an actual disease?

Psychosomatic disorders are described as diseases emerging with no apparent biological cause, and often include a strong emotional component as a trigger. In a study recently published in Cell, Technion scientists explore the brain’s potential to cause diseases on its own. Specifically, they induced inflammation in mice, and then triggered the neurons in the brain that were active during the initial inflammation.

The study was conducted by the research group of Associate Professor Asya Rolls from the Technion Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, led by Tamar Koren, an M.D./Ph.D. student in the lab. They showed that during colon inflammation, several brain regions exert enhanced neuronal activity, one of which was the insular cortex (insula). The insula is an area in the brain responsible for interoception, that is the sense of the body’s physiological state. This includes hunger, thirst, pain, and heart rate.

Prof. Asya Rolls

The researchers postulated that if report of inflammation in some area of the body is stored somewhere in the brain, this area responsible for interoception would be involved. Armed with this hypothesis, they induced in mice an inflammation in the colon and using genetic manipulation techniques, “captured” groups of neurons in the insular cortex that showed increased activity during the inflammation. Once the mice were healthy, the researchers triggered these “captured” neurons artificially. Without any outside stimulus other than this triggering of cells in the brain, inflammation re-emerged, in the exact same area where it was before. “Remembering” the inflammation was enough to reactivate it.

Scientific photo: Upper panel: Insular neurons (in red) that were captured during colitis and reactivated (in green) upon recovery. Lower panel: Colon sections showing white blood cells (in red) present in the tissue of a mouse after insular neurons reactivation (Gq, right) and its non-activated control (Sham, left).

If the brain can generate disease, is it possible that it can also turn it off?

In a similar manner, Tamar also demonstrated the opposite effect: in mice with active inflammation, suppressing the neurons that remembered it produced immediate reduction in the inflammation. Although this was a basic study in mice, and there are multiple challenges in translating the concept to humans, these discoveries open a new therapeutic avenue for treating chronic inflammatory conditions such as Crohn’s disease, psoriasis, and other autoimmune conditions, by attenuating their memory trace in the brain.

MD-Ph.D. student Tamar Koren

“There are evolutionary advantages to such a connection,” said Prof. Rolls in explaining the strange phenomenon whereby the immune system should be activated by memory alone, without an outside trigger. “The body needs to respond to infection as quickly as possible before the attacking bacteria or viruses can multiply. If certain activity, for example consuming particular foods, has exposed the body to infection and inflammation once, there is an advantage to gearing up for battle when one is about to engage in the same activity again. A shorter response time would allow the body to defeat the infection faster and with less effort. The problem of course is when such an effective mechanism goes out of control and can on its own generate the disease.”

The group’s findings have broad implications for understanding the way the human mind and body affect each other, but also more immediate implications for understanding and treating illness with a psychosomatic element, like irritable bowel syndrome, and even autoimmune diseases and allergies.

The Research group of Professor Asya Rolls

The study was done in collaboration with Dr. Kobi Rosenblum, of the University of Haifa and Dr. Fahed Hakim, of EMMS Hospital, Nazareth. This work was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant, the Allen and Jewel Prince Center for Neurodegenerative Disorders of the Brain, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), and the Wellcome trust.

For the full article in Cell click here.

An international research team headed by Technion scientists has found an alternative manner for eliminating damaged proteins when the cells are impaired by “oxygen radicals,” as can happen in failing human hearts where there is poor cell respiration and cells become oxygen depleted, or suffer “hypoxia,” because of poor oxygen uptake.

Significantly, the researchers discovered that there can be a shift from the tightly controlled process of eliminating proteins in the cells to a less strict mechanism when cells enter an “emergency protocol.” This shift can “clear up” the toxic proteins before their toxicity levels get too high.

L-R: Professor Oded Kleifeld, Professor Michael Glickman and Professor Ashraf Brik

L-R: Prof. Oded Kleifeld, Prof. Michael Glickman and Prof. Ashraf Brik

Their study was published on 26 October 2021 in Nature Communication. To carry out their study, the researchers investigated several “proteasomes,” protein complexes that work by a chemical reaction to degrade unneeded or damaged cell proteins. The researchers found that elevated levels of one type of proteasome, 20S, appears to contribute to cell survival, even for those cells under stress from damaged proteins.

Human cells – both functional and damaged – are constantly recycled by chemically “tagging” and targeting for removal when they are under stress by the ubiquitin system (2004 Nobel Prize in chemistry). At the same time, a few proteins that are intact and functional can also be dragged into the 20S proteasome “molecular disposal unit” along with the toxic proteins that have be targeted for destruction. Nevertheless, rather than harm cells, this mode of action by 20S proteasome may aid cells in rapidly remove toxic proteins. In their conclusion, the authors raised the interesting speculation that this emergency pathway can help even damaged cells to withstand bouts of stress and allow them to “age gracefully”.

Professor Michael Glickman (left) and Professor Indrajit Sahu

Professor Michael Glickman (left) and Dr. Indrajit Sahu

To carry out the study, Technion researchers Dr. Indrajit Sahu, Prof. Michael Glickman, Prof. Ashraf Brik, and Prof. Oded Kleifeld worked with Prof. Sharlene Day from the University of Pennsylvania and the research team of Prof. Yao Cong of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai, China.

Click here for the paper in Nature Communications

The use of robots in construction and architectural manufacturing is a vision steadily becoming a reality and is perceived as a key trend in the next revolution in the construction industry. For years, complex architectural projects have been planned by computer. On the ground, however, these projects continue to be executed using construction methods that have remained virtually unchanged for decades.

In recent years, thanks to continuous development, robotic instrumentation has begun to close the gap between the level of planning sophistication and practical execution on-site. Consequently, anyone who has seen videos of robotic manufacturing processes in architectural projects will find it hard not to be swept up in the tide of enthusiasm. The good ones show robotic arms in motion, lifting building parts that interlock with ease. The pace of production is accompanied by accurate cutting and precise detail.

A computer rendered image of one of the segmented 3D models computed by the new algorithm.

Despite the impressive tempo of the robots and the infinite possibilities inherent in these production processes, human intervention is usually necessary behind the scenes from the production aspect as well as in calculating and planning the various deliverables. This is especially true when architectural planning is based on complex spatial systems such as thin, doubly-curved surfaces, also known as “shells.”

Professor Mirela Ben Chen

A research group from the Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology is working on narrowing the gap between the promise and reality. The researchers, Professor Mirela Ben Chen, Dr. Kacper Pluta, and Michal Edelstein, together with their colleague, Professor Amir Vaxman of Utrecht University, responded to a request from an architect and developed an algorithm that finds automated solutions that meet robotic manufacturing needs for complex surfaces. The researchers created a computational framework that takes as input complex and diverse doubly curved surfaces and computes its segmentation into planar panels. The researchers have shown that the planar segments can be assembled from cardboard, a first step towards robotically manufactured shells made from timber.

“It’s important to recognize that industrial robotic manufacturing is not a technological whim,” Prof. Ben Chen explained. “It has numerous advantages in different aspects of sustainability such as material savings, reducing construction time and mitigating the environmental impacts of the construction process. The algorithm we developed can take complex surfaces and break them down into small segments, hexagons, in a way that increases the surface’s mechanical advantages. Further development of the computational tool will enable an optimal implementable solution to be devised.”

Fabrication of one of the models from construction paper. (a) Planar hexagonal mesh, (b) 2D face templates for cutting, (c-d) intermediate and (e-f) final constructions

“In order for the computational system to be applicative in the ‘real world’ as well, collaboration with architects is necessary,” Prof. Ben Chen continued. “Ultimately, we hope that our research will lead to the development of a system that can compute and manufacture building segments through automation, so that they can be assembled on-site without detracting from or compromising on architectural or structural complexity.”

Computer rendered images of face offset meshes generated from planar hexagonal meshes. Can be used for paneling with glass (left) or wood (right).

To read the researchers’ paper in ACM Transactions on Graphics, click here

The prestigious 2021 Landau Award in Bioinformatics has been awarded to Prof. Roy Kishony of the Faculty of Biology and the Faculty of Computer Science at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The prize is awarded annually by the Mifal HaPais Council for the Culture and Arts to outstanding artists and scientists who made significant impact in key areas.

Prof. Roy Kishony

The award committee noted that “Prof. Roy Kishony is one of the most brilliant and respected scientists working in Israel. His research combines bioinformatics, mathematical models, machine learning, and experimental work in a creative and innovative way to study basic questions in areas of crucial importance to human health.”

His work focuses on bacterial resistance to antibiotics and ways to prevent it. Prof. Kishony’s many contributions to science include “describing the interactions between antibiotics and their impact on the development of bacterial resistance, understanding how, through antibiotic monitoring, the development of resistance can be delayed or prevented, and even discovering why antibiotic resistance is uncommon in bacteria growing in natural ecosystems,” the committee noted.

In recent years, Prof. Kishony has channeled his scientific insights into advancing health systems. He developed a computational learning system for predicting the most appropriate drug based on the patient’s personal medical record. Most recently, Prof. Kishony “greatly contributed to the understanding and improvement of the testing and vaccination for COVID-19,” the committee noted. “Prof. Kishony is an original and creative world-renowned scientist in the field of systems and computational biology.”

In conclusion, the committee wrote: “His multidisciplinary research takes advantage of bioinformatics as a tool for a better understanding of biological and medical systems.”

The Harvey Prize in the Science and Technology category will be awarded to Professor James R. Rice of Harvard University this year. Prof. Rice was chosen for the Technion’s most prestigious award for his fundamental and long-standing contributions to the fields of mechanics of materials and geophysics, particularly for the development of the J-integral and for his leadership, which has broadened the understanding of friction and earthquakes.

Prof. Rice was born on December 3, 1940, in Frederick, Md. He studied at a Catholic school that recruited science and math teachers from the nearby army base. These teachers inspired his love of engineering and science.

Professor James R. Rice of Harvard University

In 1958 Prof. Rice began studying at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Penn., and within just six years he completed three consecutive degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics. He went on for a postdoc at Brown University, where he began working in 1964. In 1981, he accepted a position at Harvard University, where he serves as the Mallinckrodt Professor of Engineering Sciences and Geophysics.

Prof. Rice has won numerous awards, including the Timoshenko Medal and the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) Medal, and was elected as a foreign member of the Royal Society of London, as well as to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and the U.S. National Academy of Science. In honor of his contributions to the engineering sciences, the Society of Engineering Science established the James R. Rice Medal in 2015. He received an honorary doctorate from the Technion in 2005.

Prof. Rice is an expert in solid and fluid mechanics, i.e. stress analysis, deformation, fracture and flow – applied to seismology, tectonophysics and surface geological processes. He focuses on theoretical mechanics in earth and environmental science, including earthquake source processes (research carried out together with his wife, Dr. Renata Dmowska), fault and crack dynamics, tsunami and landslides. One of his greatest achievements, which is also noted by the Harvey Prize Council, is the J-integral, which has become a standard in fracture mechanics, to analyze the crack-tip fields and the crack’s propensity to propagate (fracture). He named this particular integral the “J-integral”, with the uppercase letter “J” coinciding with his nickname “Big Jim,” respectfully used by his students – but the “J” also being a standard notation for energy fluxes in solids, in studies he pursued in the same area with senior Brown Univ. colleagues such as Daniel C. Drucker, Joseph Kestin and also with Rodney Hill at Cambridge Univ., UK.

The $75,000 Harvey Prize, established in 1971 by Leo Harvey (1887-1973), is awarded by the Technion each year for outstanding achievements in science and technology, human health, and significant contributions to mankind. Over the years the Harvey Prize has become a predictor of the Nobel Prize, with more than 30% of Harvey laureates ultimately receiving the Nobel. Three of them – Prof. Emmanuelle Charpentier, Prof. Jennifer Doudna, and Prof. Reinhard Genzel – won the Nobel Prize in 2020.

Prof. Yoav D. Livney

The European Union’s EIT Food organization awarded the “Innovation Impact Award” to a project led by Prof. Yoav D. Livney of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, in collaboration with Amai Proteins and the global Danone and PepsiCo companies.

The EIT Food Innovation Impact Award was given to them for the development of a healthy sugar substitute based on the smart enhancement of sweet proteins found in tropical fruits. The name of the project is “Sugar-Out, Prote-In, Application of Microencapsulated Sweet Proteins as Sugar Substitutes.”

Amai Protein produces designer proteins using computational protein design and production through precise fermentation. Since these proteins are between 4,000 and 11,000 times sweeter than sugar, they can be used in minute amounts hence would be more affordable than sugar per sweetness unit. Furthermore, they have glycemic value of 0 and do not adversely affect the population of intestinal bacteria (the microbiome).

Product photo by Pazit Asulin

The winning technology is based on adding natural food ingredient agents – termed MicroPatching agents – or other food ingredients to produce a protein flavor as similar as possible to that of sugar. This should result in a significant reduction of sugar consumption, which is harmful not only to human health – most obviously in obesity and the development of metabolic syndrome – but also to the environment, and is unsustainable. The new technology uses more environmentally friendly production processes than the traditional sugar industry.

Product photo by Pazit Asulin

The researchers tackled several challenges including improving the taste and eliminating an aftertaste; protein stability; competitive pricing and adverse health effects. According to Prof. Livney, “winning the Impact Award will help us advance towards commercialization of the technology and consequently reduce sugar consumption in Israel and around the world.”

According to Dr. Ilan Samish, founder and CEO of Amai Protein, “the multidisciplinary R&D project led by the Technion allows us to combine groundbreaking technologies with applied R&D from leading international beverage and food companies for the purpose of introducing a product that consumers really long for.”

Our Faculty of Biology marks 50 years of academic and research excellence. Founded in the fall of 1971, the faculty started out as the Horace W. Goldsmith Institute of General and Industrial Microbiology. Now, most of its labs are housed in the the Emerson Life Sciences Building, which was completed in 2011.

Over the years, the faculty has grown from six professors to 30 senior faculty members and eight active Emeritus faculty members, who work at the forefront of modern biology. The faculty’s location in the heart of the Technion campus promotes interdisciplinary research that combines life sciences, medicine, exact sciences and engineering, and spans diverse topics from biochemistry to biophysics.

The faculty’s vision is to continue to lead interdisciplinary research at the Technion and to position itself among the best biology faculties in Israel and around the world.

To read more about the jubilee, click here.