2022 - Technion - Israel Institute of Technology

Technion - Israel Institute of Technology > 2022

Do energy bars and ready meals have to be unhealthy? We’re told processed food is “junk food” that is bad for us. But does it always have to be? Processed foods fill certain needs in our lives: we might not have the time to cook on a particularly busy day, wish to pack a pick-me-up after a day of running around, or long for some comfort food. Can we have all of that, while also being confident that we are eating healthily?

In an international event funded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), students from Turin, Helsinki, Madrid, and the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology worked to design and develop new shelf-stable processed food products that are healthy. The groups were part of the Food Solutions project and chose to look at processed foods as a fact of life, recognizing an opportunity to offer foods that are both healthy and environmentally friendly. The two Technion teams won gold and silver medals respectively for their innovative ideas.

Group photo, R-L: Prof. Uri Lesmes, Michal Halfon, Ari Yolles, Eden Freundlich, Prof. Avi Shpigelman, Caroline Hali, Prof. Maya Davidovich-Pinhas, Neta Shimony, Noa Ben David-Zinn, Rauf Nasyer

“We think of ‘fresh’ and ‘natural’ as the healthy and ‘green’ choices,” Associate Professor Maya Davidovich-Pinhas, one of the teams’ guides, explained. “But that’s not quite true. Modern processing methods, based on scientific knowledge, can preserve, and even enhance the food’s digestibility and nutritional values. When you think about it, food processing has been a part of human history for millennia; it’s what enabled people to preserve food for winter, make it safe for prolonged periods, and carry it on long journeys. Even cooking is a form of processing food, which makes nutrients easier to digest, renders the food safer, and removes toxins and pathogens. Health-consciousness, a scientific approach, and new technology enable us to do the same things in smarter ways, and to get novel healthy food solutions.”

Speaking of products’ environmental footprint, the teams said fresh products require cold storage and cold transportation, which have a high energy cost that shelf-stable products do not incur. Fresh products also spoil quickly, and often go to waste. “One needs to look no further than the local greengrocer’s, at the fruit or vegetables that are imported from across the globe, but will be thrown away at the end of the day if they’re not sold,” the teams commented. “We wanted to create a product that harnesses the benefits of modern processing methods and changes negative connotations about processed food.”

The first team, “OmeleTofu,” won the gold medal for an instant vegan omelette that is ready to eat after just adding water. This tofu-based product is offered in two flavors: mushroom or shakshuka. The product is produced using freeze-drying, a process first developed for medical applications and space travel that, unlike heat-based drying methods, better preserves the food’s nutritional values. The team included graduate students from two faculties: Yael Friedler from the Faculty of Data & Decision Sciences and Neta Shimony, Eden Freundlich, Noa Ben David-Zinn, Rauf Nasyer, and Caroline Hali from the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering. The idea for the omelette, they say, came from Neta’s vegan boyfriend, who was struggling to find healthy food options that wouldn’t require much time to prepare and would match his dietary needs. The prototype development was supported by Garuda Labs, which helped the team with culinary aspects and implementation of the technology.

צוות Omletofu. מימין לשמאל, יושבים: ראוף נסייר ונטע שמעוני; עומדות: קרולין חלי, נועה בן דויד ועדן פרינדליך (לא נמצאת בתמונה: יעל פרידלר)

The OmeleTofu team. R-L, sitting: Rauf Nasyer, Neta Shimony. Standing: Caroline Hali, Noa Ben David-Zinn, Eden Freundlich. (Missing from the photo: Yael Friedler)

The product developed by the team. (Photo: Caroline Hali)

The second Technion team, which won silver, is comprised of undergraduate students Ari Yolles, Michal Halfon, and Shaked Katzelnik from the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, joined by chef Adam Kleinberg from “Bishulim” culinary school. Calling themselves “Proteinchick,” the team developed a vegan, gluten-free, low-sugar, savory protein snack. This snack is made from chickpeas and lentils with a cashew-based filling. Its manufacturing process utilizes its own side-stream – the water in which the chickpeas are cooked, to bring the ingredients together in a process of coextrusion that gives it a fluffy and crunchy texture.

The Proteinchick team: Michal Halfon and Ari Yolles. (Missing from the photo: Shaked Katzelnik and Adam Kleinberg)

The product developed by the team. (Photo: Shaked Katzelnik)

Both groups were guided by Professors Maya Davidovich-Pinhas, Avi Shpigelman, and Uri Lesmes from the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering. “This competition offers students a unique learning experience,” explained Prof. Lesmes. “They get a taste of the challenges the food sector faces these days. 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 victories of “OmeleTofu” and “Proteinchick” join a line of trophies Technion students have won in Food Solutions competitions since the initiative was launched in 2017. Winning projects from previous years include vegan oat-based labneh, soy-based yogurt, low-sugar chocolate cake, spirulina-enriched falafel, and a solution to help prevent spoilage of natural juices.

The Technion teams’ success, year after year, is owed to experienced faculty, excellent students, and first-rate infrastructure. As part of their studies in the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, the students gain experience in developing food products and in practical work on semi-industrial machinery in the faculty’s Food Innovation Center, in addition to extensive studies of science and engineering. This year, the Technion has set out to upgrade the existing infrastructure, founding the Carasso FoodTech Innovation Center – a research and development center that will be one of its kind in Israel and one of the most advanced in the world, connecting the students to the flourishing foodtech ecosystem.

The Food Solutions competition is part of a larger EIT Food Education program aimed at strengthening the food sector in the European Union through training professionals for innovation, health awareness, and sustainability. The recent competition took place in Brussels, Belgium, in November, and was hosted by Puratos Corporation.

Jim Heppleman, president of the global software company PTC, made a special visit to the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology this week to launch the company’s new offices on the Technion campus in Haifa. He met with Technion President Professor Uri Sivan and with the University’s senior management team, toured the laboratories, and met with faculty members. A formal cooperation between the company and the Technion includes an investment of 15 million NIS to establish a unique research and development center within the Technion, that will employ approximately 100 employees and that is expected to expand in the future. In addition, PTC will participate together with the Technion in joint research in strategic areas, including 3D printing, the Internet of Things, augmented reality, simulations, and more, and will assist in the development of curricula that match industry requirements.

R-L: Ziv Belfer, CEO of PTC Israel and Global Vice President for Research and Development, PTC President Jim Heppelman, and Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan. Photo credit: Rami Shlush, Technion

“Today we made history in terms of cooperation and tightening of ties between academia and industry,” said Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan. “We thank you very much for fulfilling this vision with us. Scientific and technological breakthroughs today require close cooperation between academia and industry. In the past three years, Technion has worked to build a new ecosystem with industry and promoted examining commonalities on campus. The technological world around us is advancing and changing rapidly. Cooperation with PTC anchors a long-standing relationship between the Technion and the company and is important to us in all aspects, both in terms of the contribution to the education and training of our students and to the creation of joint research on campus.”

“All over the world, the importance of cooperation between academia and industry is recognized. As a company whose clients include giant companies such as Toyota, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Audi, Caterpillar, General Electric, Samsung, Dell, Toshiba, Motorola, and more, we see how they are constantly looking for ways to improve their production and development,” said PTC President Jim Heppelman. “I have no doubt that research conducted at the Technion will help us improve our products, which help companies improve processes. At the same time, the Technion will benefit from helping us train the engineers of the future.”

PTC is an American company headquartered in Boston and traded on Nasdaq. Its technology helps companies all over the world manage their product life cycle including planning, manufacturing, operation, and maintenance by experts in a connected world. In Israel, the company employs hundreds of people in two branches in Herzliya and Haifa. The Israeli center is PTC’s second largest R&D center outside the U.S. and is responsible for the development of the company’s leading products.

Since they became part of our lives some 80 years ago, computers have become faster and smaller, but their basic architecture hasn’t changed. There’s still one part that stores information – that’s the memory (e.g., RAM, hard drive), and another part that processes information – that’s the CPU or processor. Now Associate Professor Shahar Kvatinsky presents an architectural alternative. Bringing the “thinking” and the “remembering” functionalities together into one unit, he has built a neural network right into the hardware of a chip, and as a proof of concept – taught it to recognize handwritten letters. The results of his study were recently been published in Nature Electronics.

Prof. Shahar Kvatinsky

“We like to describe a computer as a ‘brain’, but entirely separate hardware for storing information and for using it is not how an organic brain works,” explains Prof. Kvatinsky, who is a member of the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Prof. Kvatinsky develops neuromorphic hardware – electronic circuits inspired by neuro-biological architectures present in the nervous system. The idea of such computers was first developed in the 1980s at the California Institute of Technology, but it is modern technological developments that enabled considerable advances in that field.

One might think modern computers are already surpassing the human brain – has not a computer already defeated the best human chess and Go players? Although the answer is “yes,” AlphaGo, the program that defeated multiple Go masters, relied on 1500 processors, and accrued a $3000 electricity bill per game. The human players’ energy consumption for the same game amounted to a sandwich, more or less, and that same player is also capable of talking, driving, and performing countless other functionalities. Computers still have a long way to go.

Dr. Wei Wang

In collaboration with Tower Semiconductor, Prof. Kvatinsky and his team designed and built a computer chip that, like an organic brain, does everything: stores the information and processes it. This chip is also hardware-only, meaning its programming isn’t separate; it is integrated into the chip. What this chip does is learn; specifically, learning handwriting recognition, a feat achieved through deep-belief algorithms. Unlike most of the neuromorphic chips investigated these days, that use emerging unconventional technologies, this chip is based on commercial technology available in Tower Semiconductor foundries. Presented with multiple handwritten examples of each letter, the chip learnt which one is which, and achieved 97% accuracy in recognition with extremely low energy consumption.

Phd student Loai Danial

Artificial neural networks learn in a way similar to living brains: they are presented with examples (examples of handwritten letters, in this particular study), and “figure out” on their own the elements that make one letter different from others, but similar to the same letter in different handwriting. When the neural network is implemented as hardware, the learning process strengthens the conductivity of some nodes. This is very similar to how, when we learn, the connections between neurons in our brains are strengthened.

There are countless potential uses for chips that do everything. For example, Prof. Kvatinsky says, such a chip could be incorporated into the camera sensor of smartphones and similar devices, eliminating the conversion of analogue data into digital – a step that all such devices perform before any form of enhancement applied to the image. Instead, all processing could be performed directly on the raw image, before it is stored in a compressed digital form.

“Commercial companies are in a constant race to improve their product,” Prof. Kvatinsky explains, “they cannot afford to go back to the drawing board and reimagine the product from scratch. That’s an advantage the academia has – we can develop a new concept that we believe could be better and, release it when it can compete with what’s already on the market.”

Memristor array being tested on probe station

This study was led by two researchers in Prof. Kvatinsky’s lab: postdoctoral fellow Dr. Wei Wang, who now heads his own research group in Shenzhen, China, conceived the theoretical concepts of the hardware-based deep-belief network and performed the experimental measurements, while Phd student Loai Danial, who has since completed his doctoral studies, and is working in Mobileye, designed the physical chip and led the steps involved in its fabrication. The work was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) and the EU Horizon 2020 Future and Emerging Technologies (FET)-OPEN program.

Printed circuit used to test memristors

The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology announced that American philanthropists Lynda and Stewart Resnick, co-owners of California-based The Wonderful Company, have pledged, through their foundation, a $50 million gift to transform the university’s research and development of sustainability and catalysis.

The $50 million gift will establish the Stewart and Lynda Resnick Sustainability Center for Catalysis, designed to empower faculty and students to uncover new ways to maintain global growth while protecting the planet for future generations. The pledge is the latest in a series of gifts by the Resnicks’ foundation to improve the quality of life of future generations by protecting the ecosystem and preserve natural resources. The Center’s activity will strengthen the State of Israel and its economy and bolster the Technion’s position as a global center of innovation. It will facilitate the recruitment of young scientists and promote research collaborations with academia and industry.

“The daily impact of environmental change is seen through every aspect of our world. We need great minds across the globe working to preserve the planet to prepare for the needs of future generations. It’s now or never,” said Stewart Resnick, chairman, and president of The Wonderful Company. “Through the resources, dedication, and efforts that will emerge from this sustainability and catalysis center, we will confront the climate crisis rather than hide from it. Lynda and I and the Wonderful Company are proud to call the Technion partners.”

Lynda and Stewart Resnick (photo credit: Wonderful Company)

The inspiration to create the Stewart and Lynda Resnick Sustainability Center for Catalysis stems from the university’s initiative to reform the approach to the rapidly growing population and longer life expectancies that will result in more than 10 billion people living on Earth in the year 2050. Innovative solutions to produce food, medicines, and other products are critical due to the accelerated depletion of essential natural resources. Technologies developed in the Stewart and Lynda Resnick Sustainability Center for Catalysis will enable humankind to meet its needs efficiently and speedily while lessening humans’ negative impact on nature and its resources.

Catalysis is a chemical process that dramatically speeds up a reaction between molecules; it also occurs in our bodies. In industry, catalysis is involved in 90% of the production processes. A catalyst is the molecule responsible for this acceleration, and it drives many processes that are not otherwise possible. The constant improvement of catalysis processes makes industrial methods more efficient and reduces their environmental damage, hence the connection between catalysis and sustainability.

“We understand today that continuing to produce more and more with the current methods is not a sustainable solution,” added Distinguished Professor Ilan Marek, of the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, who will head the Center. “Instead, we must refine the production processes and reduce their impact on the environment. The key is improving the many catalytic processes currently being used in thousands of production processes in all branches of industry. By using new catalysts, we can, for example, not only reduce pollution in the process of plastic production but also make plastics that can be degraded and recycled.”

Distinguished Professor Ilan Marek

Distinguished Prof. Marek’s leadership will be especially important as projects emerge that address how to reinvent global production in more sustainable, cost-effective, and efficient ways to reduce environmental harm. The 65,000 ft² building with large, open-space laboratories will incorporate a modular infrastructure that meets current needs and can be adapted to accommodate future developments in scientific technology equipment. The facility’s unique architectural design aims to foster collaboration and interaction among researchers.

“We thank Lynda and Stewart Resnick for their partnership and transformative gift. The climate crisis is one of humanity’s greatest challenges in the 21st century,” said Technion President Professor Uri Sivan. “Coping with this challenge demands many different scientific capabilities. The Technion has recently created a revolution in dealing with major global challenges based on the understanding that bold research achievements require interdisciplinary efforts that link researchers and students from varied scientific and technological fields. The Stewart and Lynda Resnick Sustainability Center for Catalysis will encompass a wide range of scientific expertise and enable us to meet the climate crisis and sustainable development challenges.”

Technion President Professor Uri Sivan

Michael Waxman-Lenz, CEO of the American Technion Society, said, “The Resnicks’ philanthropic vision demands forward-thinking actions to preserve and protect our planet. Their prescient gift to the Technion will enable some of the world’s brightest minds to tackle sustainability challenges through multidisciplinary research. We are deeply honored by Lynda and Stewart’s exceptional generosity and their trust in the Technion.”

The Wonderful Company, co-run by the Resnicks, is one of the largest privately held companies in the United States, whose iconic brands include FIJI Water, POM Wonderful, Wonderful Pistachios, Wonderful Halos, Wonderful Seedless Lemons, Teleflora, JUSTIN, JNSQ, and Landmark wines. Every year, the Resnicks invest in education, community development, and health and wellness initiatives across the Central Valley and beyond, a place-based giving approach centered on investing in, listening to, and collaborating with the communities where their employees live and work.

To date, the Resnicks through their foundation, and The Wonderful Company have invested more than $2.3 billion in philanthropy, with more than $1.3 billion invested in environmental sustainability, to help combat climate change and preserve the planet for future generations. Earlier this year, the Resnicks pledged the largest gift in the California Institute of Technology’s history and among the largest ever for environmental sustainability research with plans to open the Resnick Sustainability Center as a hub for research and education endeavors to advance innovative sustainability solutions. They also pledged a historic gift to fund a new agricultural innovation and research center at The University of California, Davis. As longtime supporters of research and development, the Resnicks aim to create long-term global value through their gifts and open new figurative portals to sustainability in research, education, and society.

Gali Vardi, a student at the Technion – Institute of Technology, won first place in the Student and Young Professionals Competition initiated by the European Region of International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA). Vardi, a student in the Technion’s Landscape Architecture Program, won in the “conceptual planning” category. She was invited to present her project as part of IFLA’s annual General Assembly held in Helsinki in October.

The project: “Resilient Path-Strategic Planning for Wildfires in the Jerusalem Mountains” was conducted within the framework of the “LandBasics Studio – Climate Crisis / Local Landscapes,” under the guidance of landscape architects Alisa Braudo, Matanya Sack, and Izabela Levy, and with the consultation of Dr. Shira Wilkof.

“Resilient Path” outline

The project dealt with extreme wildfire incidents that are increasing worldwide due to the climate crisis. In August 2021, a destructive wildfire erupted in the Jerusalem mountains in Israel, causing thousands of people to evacuate their homes, including the patients of “Eitanim” hospital. The disaster destroyed 11,000 dunams (11 sq. km) of forest area.

The analysis of the development of the fire showed that the firefighters might have been able to stop the fire from progressing towards the settlements if they had been aware of the existing buffer zones in the area – empty paths designed to stop fires. Vardi deduced from this the necessity of a systematic evaluation of the buffer zones and planned this as part of her project.

The resilient path will connect the settlements around the forest and weave the buffer zones into a structured system. Using fire-resistant vegetation and connection points for the supply of water, the proposed path itself will serve as an effective buffer and provide access for the fire services and an escape route for residents and travelers in danger. Such a system has added values, and on a daily basis, will be used as a hiking trail for leisure and sports, while exposing its travelers to the forest restoration process.

“Resilient Path” poster

It is an ecological restoration that Vardi suggests, one that also brings to the front historical, cultural and political aspects; the proposal promotes a transition into a sustainable forest, through planting and reuse of the terrace systems that were revealed with the last fire. The path is planned to pass next to old observation towers, which were used in the past to detect fires by the KKL.

While walking on the path and through the observation points, the visitors will reconnect with their surrounding landscapes. They will learn about the transformation of the forest – a mosaic of forest formations that creates a resilient system to preserve our nature from fires.

For Gali Vardi’s project, click here

To see the announcement of the winners, click here

The Technion hosted its 8th annual TechWomen event earlier this month. The institution’s flagship women’s empowerment event is designed to showcase opportunities at the Technion and to encourage young women from high schools across Israel to pursue academic degrees in science and engineering.

Loyal supporter and passionate advocate of women’s empowerment initiatives, Rosalyn August, sponsors the program each year through the Girls Empowerment Mission (GEM). This year, more than 700 young women attended the day-long event which features guest speakers, campus tours and other activities.

TechWomen 2022 kicked off with an inspiring message from Rosalyn August who explained her own struggles as a young woman attempting to make a career for herself in a male-dominated industry.

“You can do whatever you choose. That’s the beauty of being a woman in today’s society,” said August. “You have my support. I back you.”

The Technion’s newly appointed Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion Professor Adi Salzberg also had an important message for all the young women in attendance.

“You are the future of Israel. It is important for me to tell you that women have no limits except for those imposed by society’s traditions, habits, and prejudices,” said Salzberg.

Building on the excitement of the inspirational event, Salzberg went on to explain how the Technion is actively working to increase the number of women among undergraduate and graduate students, as well as among faculty. Salzberg said that she also hopes to lead initiatives that will ultimately lead to improved gender representation in high-tech and other industries.

“Studying here can pave the way to a career that’s interesting, satisfying, and rewarding, whether you choose the academic world or the industry,” Salzberg explained to the young women.

Dr. Efrat Sabach, an astrophysicist in the Technion’s Faculty of Physics, had a message of her own to deliver.

“There were people along the way who told me physics is for boys and that it will be hard for me,” said Sabach. “These words can make one lose hope, but luckily, I didn’t. I stuck by my love for physics. If you have a dream, go for it. Believe in yourselves, ignore background noises, and don’t be afraid of challenges.”

Assistant Professor Arielle Fischer from the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering and graduate student Vivian Darsa-Maidantchik from the Wolfson Department of Chemical Engineering also spoke to the young women.

“The lectures were interesting and enlightening,” said Shiraz Daviv, a high school student from Ashdod. “They gave me many things to think about with regard to my future. They also gave me a new perspective on my academic studies.”

Rafi Aviram

The Technion Council has approved the appointment of Dr. Rafi Aviram to be the Technion’s next Executive Vice President and Director General, following his nomination by the Technion President Professor Uri Sivan and the recommendation of the Technion Senate.

Dr. Aviram’s extensive management experience includes five years as Vice President and Director General of Azrieli College of Engineering in Jerusalem, and, in the past year and a half, Chairperson of the Directors-Generals’ Forum of the Public Colleges in Israel [VARAM].

Dr. Aviram retired from the IDF with the rank of Colonel after a long commanding service. He served as the Managing Director of the Friends of the IDF (FIDF) organization in the United States. Upon returning to Israel, he was appointed an Executive Director of the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

“After a thorough process and the consideration of dozens of candidates, I am happy to announce the appointment of Dr. Rafi Aviram as Executive Vice President and Director General,” said Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan. “He arrives to the Technion with extensive management experience and specifically in all aspects of the management of academic institutions. I have no doubt that he will quickly become an integral part of the Technion and contribute his experience and abilities to its continued development.”

“I am excited to join the Technion family, a first-class academic institution in Israel and in the world,” said Dr. Aviram. “I am a strong believer in teamwork and will work towards its advancement.”

Dr. Aviram earned a Bachelor’s degree in Physics and Atmospheric Sciences from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Tel Aviv University, and a Doctorate degree in Professional Studies in Business from Lubin School of Business, at Pace University, New York.

An important step has been made in the collaboration between Intel and the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. The huge Intel Corporation – the American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California and the world’s largest semiconductor chip manufacturer – has donated to the faculty an advanced characterization device that will help train undergraduate students as leading engineers and scientists.

The new device, called Atomic Force Probe (AFP), makes it possible to perform complex electrical measurements in nanotechnology devices. It came directly from the company’s research and development labs where it was used to develop innovative chips. The device will be available to the students in the faculty’s advanced laboratory courses, to characterize the electrical properties of nanometer structures that they create themselves.

L-R: Dr. Sigal Ben Zvi, director of Intel-Technion relations; Mariana Waxman, director of Intel Israel’s academic relations; Merav Chetrit, responsible for human capital planning for Intel Israel’s production centers; Prof. Gitti Frey, dean of the Technion’s Faculty of Science and Materials Engineering; Estee Gazit, academic relations coordinator at Intel Israel; and Prof. Yachin Ivry, Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering

On behalf of the Technion, the initiative was led by Prof. Yachin Ivry. “The close and ongoing collaboration with Intel expresses our mutual commitment to training the future generation and helps us maintain the Technion’s status as a leading place for training materials engineers,” he asserted. “The device for electrical measurements that Intel is donating will allow students to characterize materials they produce in the laboratory courses in a way that reflects the material taught in the theoretical courses, while using current and relevant tools in an industry that is expected to absorb them after graduation.”

According to faculty dean Prof. Gitti Frey, “We attach great importance to the advanced lab courses, where the theoretical knowledge of the students is combined with the practical work on the research and engineering equipment that they will use outside the academics as well. The new equipment will allow us to expand and deepen this important experience during their undergraduate studies.”

Mariana Waksman, director of academic relations for Intel Israel. said: “Intel and the Technion have cooperated since the establishment of Intel Israel in 1974. It is important to us and will continue to be true in the future. The donated device will mean that not only the students from the faculty will benefit from it but also Israel’s semiconductor industry. We are committed to promoting academic teaching in the field and will continue to strengthen the Israeli academy through support and strategic collaborations with the various universities.”

Researchers at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, in collaboration with researchers at Nagoya and Tokyo Universities in Japan, have uncovered a significant new function of the mammalian sperm protein IZUMO1 that may ultimately lead to more targeted diagnoses and treatment of human fertility problems, as well as enable the development of more sophisticated forms of contraception.

The study, published in The Journal of Cell Biology, was led by Technion researchers Professor Benjamin Podbilewicz and postdoctoral fellow Dr. Nicolas Brukman from the Technion’s Faculty of Biology, and Professor Tetsuya Higashiyama and Dr. Kohdai Nakajima from the Nagoya and Tokyo universities, Japan.

The research group from the Technion,R-L: Prof. Benjamin Podbilewicz, Clari Valansi, Dr. Nicolas Brukman, Xiaohui Li and Katerina Flyak

The researchers found that the protein IZUMO1, which had been discovered in 2005 by Inoue and collaborators to be critical for the binding of sex cells, also plays an essential role in fusing the cells to allow the exchange of genetic material and, ultimately, the creation of the zygote. In 2017, Podbilewicz’s lab discovered the fusogenic function of a different protein responsible for the fusion of sperm and egg cells in plants.

During mammalian fertilization, the plasma membranes of the sex cells attach via an interaction between the sperm protein IZUMO1 and the egg protein JUNO. Once this binding has taken place, IZUMO1 works unilaterally as a fusogen to allow the exchange and combination of the sperm’s and egg’s respective DNAs into a single nucleus. IZUMO1 is the first such protein to be designated as a fusogen in mammalian reproduction. The present study was conducted in the lab, utilizing sperm and eggs from mice and kidney cells in culture.

Dr. Nicolas Brukman, postdoctoral fellow at Podbilewicz lab

Interestingly, the two functions of IZUMO1 – in binding and fusing – operate in a compartmentalized fashion in different regions of the protein, so that each function may potentially be isolated to address specific fertilization problems related to either realm, opening the door to more tailored or personalized fertility treatments and diagnosis.

IZUMO1’s newfound property as a fusogen may also open the door to new approaches to next-generation male oral contraceptives that temporarily disrupt the sperm protein’s binding and/or fusing abilities. This new function of IZUMO1 makes it even more suited to its name, which is taken from one of the most sacred shrines in Japan, dedicated to marriage.

A kidney cell expressing JUNO and a protein that binds DNA (green) was mixed with mouse sperm cells expressing IZUMO1 (red) and their DNA is stained in blue. The pink arrowhead points a sperm that is bound but did not fuse and the white arrowhead points a sperm fused to the cell and therefore is stained in green

Kidney cells expressing IZUMO1 and a fluorescent protein on the nucleus (magenta) are bound to a mouse oocyte expressing a fluorescent protein on the membrane (green) and a blue staining to see the DNA.

Click here for the paper in The Journal of Cell Biolog

In the dorm room of student Ahlam Abugosh hangs a painting of a bird drawn by her sister, Rina Abugosh. “She sold it to me for 100 shekels when she was 12 – after we negotiated the price,” Ahlam says with a smile.

This is just one example of the 97 works on display in the new exhibition in the Technion’s Ullmann building. Although the gallery has only been opened last year, this is already the third exhibition to be held there, in a cooperation between the Dean of Students Office and the Unit for Undergraduate Studies.

The current exhibition, called “Dorms Art Survey,” features photos of diverse works of art from 39 apartments in the Technion dorms. The works were selected by the exhibition team headed by curator Valeria Geselev. More than 40% of the presented artwork was created by the students themselves.

R-L: Technion Student Association chairman Liby Manash; Dean of Students Prof. Ayelet Fishman, Exhibition Curator Valeria Geselev, Israeli Hope Officer at the Technion Effi Barka’i Goral, Senior Technion Executive Vice President Prof. Oded Rabinovitch, Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion Prof. Adi Salzberg, and Dr. Janna Shainsky-Roitman, the Dean of Students

“We issued an open call to students to participate in the exhibition, and the response was tremendous,” said curator Geselev. “All summer, we walked around the student dorms on campus, looking for artworks of all kinds – posters, drawings, oil paintings, and more. We photographed them professionally, with the cooperation of the students, of course. They were warm and enthusiastic. Behind every door, we found love. The students opened up their worlds to us, their personal space, that is sacred to my eyes.”

The exhibition’s opening last week was attended by the Technion Senior Executive Vice President Professor Oded Rabinovitch; Dean of Students Professor Ayelet Fishman; and the director of the dean’s office, Dr. Janna Shainsky-Roitman; the director of the student dormitories, Avraham Adgaha; Efrat Nativ Ronen, secretary of the Unit for Undergraduate Studies.; Israeli Hope Officer Effi Barkai Goral; and Liby Manash, chairman of the Technion Student Association.

The director of the student dormitories Avraham Adgaha

Exhibition curator Valeria Geselev

“The Ullmann building, where all Technion students spend their first year, is considered the melting pot of the Technion, and the most important building in the education we offer our students,” said Prof. Oded Rabinovitch. “This is where the Technion spirit is created, so this location is right and proper for the exhibitions held here. This exhibition will also enhance the feeling of home and transmit a beautiful and important message to the entire Technion community.”

“The exhibition represents the diversity of the dormitory residents,” said Dean of Students Prof. Ayelet Fishman at the opening. “It is a means for women and men pursuing all degrees, individuals and families from all sectors, from Israel and abroad, to express themselves. I warmly thank the students who shared their personal spaces with us.”

“When I began my studies here four years ago, the walls in Ullmann building were empty,” said Technion Student Association Chairman Liby Manash. “This change is so important because art is vital to life. It’s very exciting to see how many students devote time to art while studying at the Technion.”

Student Maymana Hasan alongside her works

Student Tab Mandler next to the works in the exhibition

Student and artist Ofek Zur

Other examples of art presented in the exhibition include:

Levi Horvitz’s dorm room is decorated with paintings his partner, Sapir Solomon, drew as a child;
Zoe Morgenstern hung tapestry in her room, that she got from her brother before he flew abroad;
Jose María Velasco decorated his room with paper cutouts that are part of the Day of the Dead tradition in his native Mexico. “It’s my favorite holiday. I really miss the colors”;
Gleb Merkulov hung a painting in his room created by Lali Kalinina, his mother’s friend from Moscow;
Bhargav Jah has a painting that his former roommate, Noam, found and brought home. “Since then, Noam has returned to the U.S., but the painting remains in my Technion dorm”;
Ofek Zur from the Faculties of Physics and Electrical and Computer Engineering, who filled her room with her own paintings, explained that “The paintings remind me to believe in my talent to create life on paper. They also give me peace and calm and remind me of significant and pleasant moments in my life.”

Students at the exhibition

Curator Valeria Geselev noted that she got her inspiration from the exhibition “Home Is Where The Art Is,” held in 2020 at the Zeitz MOCAA Museum in Cape Town, South Africa. That exhibition displayed about 2,000 works that residents brought from their homes.

According to Geselev, “In the Technion exhibition, we didn’t bring the works themselves, but photographed them and printed them in their original sizes on the walls of the corridor in the Ullmann building. The Technion is seen as a place of achievement and sometimes as a rigid place, but the exhibition reflects the beautiful and varied face of the campus’s human diversity. For me, this is a celebration of individualism – students, their lives, their stories, the human connections they form. I thank all the partners who joined me on the exciting path that led to this exhibition, which is a rich group portrait depicting a temporary human community whose center is the Technion.”

A wall in the exhibition

Explore the arts of the student residences

The Dorms Art Survey

Curator: Valeria Geselev

Producer: Haneen Abed

Photographer: Tair Zargari

Design: Hagar Messer and Ofri Fortis

All the texts in the exhibition appear in Hebrew, Arabic and English

The exhibition will be open until the end of February, 2023.