Month: January 1970

In peacetime, aside from his research, Professor Aviv Censor has a large following in Israel for his ultra-helpful videos explaining complex math problems for high schoolers.

Since October 7^th, he’s helped Israelis down South navigate the complex logistical and other challenges after the horrific attack.

Likewise active in the Achim LeNeshek (Brothers-in-Arms) organization protesting judicial reform, Aviv took a drastic pivot just 2 days after the attacks on Gaza Envelope kibbutzes.

He took his family and moved in with friends temporarily in Le Havin, 10 minutes north of Beer Sheva, so he could help in the massive Home Front effort.

The local Achim LeNeshek headquarters were quickly converted into a logistical coordination center and Aviv and other volunteers got quickly to work.

The aftermath of the attack, aside from being beyond devastating and totally unprecedented, required a lot of help with even simple things, like armed convoys to evacuate families, bringing medicines and equipment to just-arrived army units, baby food to families who needed it.

There is a strong need to pick vegetables and fruits to prevent them going to waste.

Cows and other domestic animals need to be evacuated or cared for in difficult conditions (army equipment noise, among others).

Vets and cattle ranchers and farm volunteers need transport and other help.

Lots of other non-military needs arise each day.

Just today, he went to sit shiva with various families, to provide comfort to mourners.

The volunteer effort is a truly massive one in the South, just as in the North and Center, a testament to the resilient and helpful spirit of Israel.

The Technion community is immensely proud and supportive of Aviv and our many other volunteers, as well as reservists and soldiers on active duty.

We pray for their safety and for better times very soon.

Researchers at the Technion’s Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and the Rap-paport Family Institute for Research in the Medical Sciences have discovered a subset of blood cells that predict the success of immunotherapy treatment. These findings are expected to streamline the process of matching an immunotherapy treatment to a specific patient, since it is

very important to identify in advance those patients who will react to a given treatment
The research published in Cancer Cell was led by doctoral student Madeleine Benguigui and post-doctoral fellow Dr. Tim J. Cooper, under the supervision of Professor Yuval Shaked of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine. They contributed equally to the research and to the article. The translational research is based on RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), analysis of existing data, pre-clinical models of cancer, and the corroboration of the findings in humans.
Background
Immunotherapy, which is considered one of the most important breakthroughs in the treatment of cancer, is based on the understanding that the natural immune system excels at attacking cancer cells in a selective and precise manner. The problem is that, in many cases, the cancer-ous tumor tricks the immune system and prevents it from identifying the cells as enemies. Im-munotherapy is based on the concept that, instead of attacking the cancer with chemotherapy drugs that also harm healthy tissue, it is preferable to boost the immune system with the goal to identify cancer cells as enemies and let it do the rest of the work on its own.
Despite the remarkable success of the immunotherapy approach for treating cancer, its effec-tiveness is still limited to around 40% of all patients. This means that many patients receive this harsh treatment without positive results. Consequently, it is crucial to attain a deep understanding of biological reactions to these treatments and to identify biomarkers that can predict the treat-ment’s future success.
Biomarkers are an important component of personalized medicine, which help physicians make educated medical decisions and formulate optimal treatment protocols adapted to the specific patient and their medical profile. Biomarkers are already being used for immunotherapy treat-ments, but they are obtained through biopsies – an invasive procedure that can endanger the patient. Moreover, this approach fails to sufficiently take into account the specific patient’s im-mune profile and its predictive capability is limited. For this reason, a great deal of research in this field – both in industry and in academia – strives to find new ways to predict which patients will respond to immunotherapy treatments.
The research itself
Technion researchers who focused on antibody-based immunotherapy discovered biomarkers that predict a specific patient’s response to the treatment. Since these biomarkers are in the bloodstream, they don’t require taking biopsies from the tumor – an invasive procedure that is not always feasible and, as mentioned, can sometimes endanger the patient.
In brief, the researchers discovered that a protein called STING, that activates the immune sys-tem, is triggered by cancerous growths, and is especially pronounced in cancer cells that will re-spond to immunotherapy treatment. This protein is manifested in interferon protein, which in turn stimulates neutrophils to be differentiated to a specific type (which expresses the protein Ly6Ehi). These neutrophils act directly on the immune system and stimulate it to target the cancerous tu-mor. Indeed, the researchers discovered that, these neutrophils may help the actual treatment, as their presence in the tumor prompts greater sensitivity to immunotherapy treatment.
The researchers inferred that testing the levels of Ly6Ehi neutrophils in the patient’s blood could serve as an efficient biomarker for predicting the response to immunotherapy treatment. The researchers tested these findings, which were based on pre-clinical studies, on patients with lung cancer and melanoma. These findings are consistent with the analysis of existing data on 1,237 cancer patients who underwent antibody-based immunotherapy treatments. Therefore, they demonstrated the neutrophils’ ability to predict with a high degree of precision, response to im-munotherapy in humans.
..
The technology developed by Prof. Yuval Shaked’s research group was registered as a patent and it is currently in the midst of a tech transfer process with the company OncoHost, in order to continue its development. Prof. Shaked points out that the technology can be used with the ubiq-uitous flow cytometry device, which can be found in almost every hospital and is approved by the regulatory agencies.
Various research groups from Israel and around the world took part in the research, including physicians and researchers from the Hadassah, Rambam, and Sheba Medical Centers, as well as from the University of Haifa, Heidelberg University (Germany), and Yale University (USA).
The research was supported by a European Research Council (ERC) grant, the Bruce & Ruth Rappaport Cancer Research Center, Israel Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health (USA), Ariane de Rothschild Foundation (Ariane de Rothschild Women’s Doctoral Program scholarship), and the Rappaport Technion Integrated Cancer Center (RTICC) as part of the Ste-ven & Beverly Rubenstein Charitable Foundation Fellowship Fund for Cancer Research.

Researchers at the Technion’s Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and the Rappaport Family Institute for Research in the Medical Sciences have discovered a subset of blood cells that predict the success of immunotherapy treatment. These findings are expected to streamline the process of matching an immunotherapy treatment to a specific patient, since it is very important to identify in advance those patients who will react to a given treatment. The research published in Cancer Cell was led by doctoral student Madeleine Benguigui and post-doctoral fellow Dr. Tim J. Cooper, under the supervision of Professor Yuval Shaked of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine. They contributed equally to the research and to the article. The translational research is based on RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), analysis of existing data, pre-clinical models of cancer, and the corroboration of the findings in humans.

Background
Immunotherapy, which is considered one of the most important breakthroughs in the treatment of cancer, is based on the understanding that the natural immune system excels at attacking cancer cells in a selective and precise manner. The problem is that, in many cases, the cancerous tumor tricks the immune system and prevents it from identifying the cells as enemies. Immunotherapy is based on the concept that, instead of attacking the cancer with chemotherapy drugs that also harm healthy tissue, it is preferable to boost the immune system with the goal to identify cancer cells as enemies and let it do the rest of the work on its own. Despite the remarkable success of the immunotherapy approach for treating cancer, its effectiveness is still limited to around 40% of all patients. This means that many patients receive this harsh treatment without positive results. Consequently, it is crucial to attain a deep understanding of biological reactions to these treatments and to identify biomarkers that can predict the treatment’s future success.

Biomarkers are an important component of personalized medicine, which help physicians make educated medical decisions and formulate optimal treatment protocols adapted to the specific patient and their medical profile. Biomarkers are already being used for immunotherapy treat-ments, but they are obtained through biopsies – an invasive procedure that can endanger the patient. Moreover, this approach fails to sufficiently take into account the specific patient’s im-mune profile and its predictive capability is limited. For this reason, a great deal of research in this field – both in industry and in academia – strives to find new ways to predict which patients will respond to immunotherapy treatments.

The research itself
Technion researchers who focused on antibody-based immunotherapy discovered biomarkers that predict a specific patient’s response to the treatment. Since these biomarkers are in the bloodstream, they don’t require taking biopsies from the tumor – an invasive procedure that is not always feasible and, as mentioned, can sometimes endanger the patient.
In brief, the researchers discovered that a protein called STING, that activates the immune sys-tem, is triggered by cancerous growths, and is especially pronounced in cancer cells that will re-spond to immunotherapy treatment. This protein is manifested in interferon protein, which in turn stimulates neutrophils to be differentiated to a specific type (which expresses the protein Ly6Ehi). These neutrophils act directly on the immune system and stimulate it to target the cancerous tu-mor. Indeed, the researchers discovered that, these neutrophils may help the actual treatment, as their presence in the tumor prompts greater sensitivity to immunotherapy treatment. The researchers inferred that testing the levels of Ly6Ehi neutrophils in the patient’s blood could serve as an efficient biomarker for predicting the response to immunotherapy treatment. The researchers tested these findings, which were based on pre-clinical studies, on patients with lung cancer and melanoma. These findings are consistent with the analysis of existing data on 1,237 cancer patients who underwent antibody-based immunotherapy treatments. Therefore, they demonstrated the neutrophils’ ability to predict with a high degree of precision, response to immunotherapy in humans.

The technology developed by Prof. Yuval Shaked’s research group was registered as a patent and it is currently in the midst of a tech transfer process with the company OncoHost, in order to continue its development. Prof. Shaked points out that the technology can be used with the ubiquitous flow cytometry device, which can be found in almost every hospital and is approved by the regulatory agencies. Various research groups from Israel and around the world took part in the research, including physicians and researchers from the Hadassah, Rambam, and Sheba Medical Centers, as well as from the University of Haifa, Heidelberg University (Germany), and Yale University (USA). The research was supported by a European Research Council (ERC) grant, the Bruce & Ruth Rappaport Cancer Research Center, Israel Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health (USA), Ariane de Rothschild Foundation (Ariane de Rothschild Women’s Doctoral Program scholarship), and the Rappaport Technion Integrated Cancer Center (RTICC) as part of the Steven & Beverly Rubenstein Charitable Foundation Fellowship Fund for Cancer Research.

Researchers at the Technion’s Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and the Rappaport Family Institute for Research in the Medical Sciences have discovered a subset of blood cells that predict the success of immunotherapy treatment. These findings are expected to streamline the process of matching an immunotherapy treatment to a specific patient, since it is very important to identify in advance those patients who will react to a given treatment.

The research published in Cancer Cell was led by doctoral student Madeleine Benguigui and post-doctoral fellow Dr. Tim J. Cooper, under the supervision of Professor Yuval Shaked of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine. They contributed equally to the research and to the article. The translational research is based on RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), analysis of existing data, pre-clinical models of cancer, and the corroboration of the findings in humans.

Background

Immunotherapy, which is considered one of the most important breakthroughs in the treatment of cancer, is based on the understanding that the natural immune system excels at attacking cancer cells in a selective and precise manner. The problem is that, in many cases, the cancerous tumor tricks the immune system and prevents it from identifying the cells as enemies. Immunotherapy is based on the concept that, instead of attacking the cancer with chemotherapy drugs that also harm healthy tissue, it is preferable to boost the immune system with the goal to identify cancer cells as enemies and let it do the rest of the work on its own.

Despite the remarkable success of the immunotherapy approach for treating cancer, its effectiveness is still limited to around 40% of all patients. This means that many patients receive this harsh treatment without positive results. Consequently, it is crucial to attain a deep understanding of biological reactions to these treatments and to identify biomarkers that can predict the treatment’s future success.

Biomarkers are an important component of personalized medicine, which help physicians make educated medical decisions and formulate optimal treatment protocols adapted to the specific patient and their medical profile. Biomarkers are already being used for immunotherapy treatments, but they are obtained through biopsies – an invasive procedure that can endanger the patient. Moreover, this approach fails to sufficiently take into account the specific patient’s immune profile and its predictive capability is limited. For this reason, a great deal of research in this field – both in industry and in academia – strives to find new ways to predict which patients will respond to immunotherapy treatments.

The research itself

Technion researchers who focused on antibody-based immunotherapy discovered biomarkers that predict a specific patient’s response to the treatment. Since these biomarkers are in the bloodstream, they don’t require taking biopsies from the tumor – an invasive procedure that is not always feasible and, as mentioned, can sometimes endanger the patient.

In brief, the researchers discovered that a protein called STING, that activates the immune system, is triggered by cancerous growths, and is especially pronounced in cancer cells that will respond to immunotherapy treatment. This protein is manifested in interferon protein, which in turn stimulates neutrophils to be differentiated to a specific type (which expresses the protein Ly6E^hi). These neutrophils act directly on the immune system and stimulate it to target the cancerous tumor. Indeed, the researchers discovered that, these neutrophils may help the actual treatment, as their presence in the tumor prompts greater sensitivity to immunotherapy treatment.

The researchers inferred that testing the levels of Ly6E^hi neutrophils in the patient’s blood could serve as an efficient biomarker for predicting the response to immunotherapy treatment. The researchers tested these findings, which were based on pre-clinical studies, on patients with lung cancer and melanoma. These findings are consistent with the analysis of existing data on 1,237 cancer patients who underwent antibody-based immunotherapy treatments. Therefore, they demonstrated the neutrophils’ ability to predict with a high degree of precision, response to immunotherapy in humans.

The technology developed by Prof. Yuval Shaked’s research group was registered as a patent and it is currently in the midst of a tech transfer process with the company OncoHost, in order to continue its development. Prof. Shaked points out that the technology can be used with the ubiquitous flow cytometry device, which can be found in almost every hospital and is approved by the regulatory agencies.

Various research groups from Israel and around the world took part in the research, including physicians and researchers from the Hadassah, Rambam, and Sheba Medical Centers, as well as from the University of Haifa, Heidelberg University (Germany), and Yale University (USA).

The research was supported by a European Research Council (ERC) grant, the Bruce & Ruth Rappaport Cancer Research Center, Israel Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health (USA), Ariane de Rothschild Foundation (Ariane de Rothschild Women’s Doctoral Program scholarship), and the Rappaport Technion Integrated Cancer Center (RTICC) as part of the Steven & Beverly Rubenstein Charitable Foundation Fellowship Fund for Cancer Research.

Click here for the full article: https://www.cell.com/cancer-cell/pdf/S1535-6108(23)00433-6.pdf

On the morning of October 7th, Neta Portal and Santiago Perez woke up in their small apartment in Kfar Aza to the sound of warning sirens. They locked themselves in their safe room but were injured by the bullets that penetrated the door. When Santiago realized that the terrorists had thrown a grenade at the safe room door, he pushed Neta out of the window and followed her. While escaping from the apartment, they faced more gunfire from terrorists but managed to evade it and hide under one of the nearby buildings in the kibbutz. Santiago was hit in the back by a bullet, and Neta suffered seven gunshot wounds to her legs.

Both Neta and Santiago survived, injured but hidden, until they were rescued by Neta’s father, Deputy Chief Superintendent Shimon Portal. During her rehabilitation period at the Loewenstein Rehabilitation Center, Neta received a unique orthotic device tailored especially for her. The device will help her to walk while her severely injured ankle is unable to bear weight. The device was developed at the Technion and tailored to Neta based on a three-dimensional scan of her leg. The personalized device was built thanks to a long-standing collaboration between Dr. Dana Solav from the Technion’s Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Dr. Amir Haim from the Loewenstein Rehabilitation Center. Both were doctoral students at the Technion under the guidance of Prof. Alon Wolf, currently dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, and have maintained a fruitful professional relationship ever since.

From left to right: Dr. Dana Solav, Neta Portal and Dr. Amir Haim

According to Dr. Solav, the purpose of the device is to enable the recovery of mobility while practicing natural and symmetrical walking under the requirement that the ankle is entirely or partially offloaded. The device effectively transfers weight to the healthy part of the leg above the injured part, allowing walking without causing pain. Moreover, it features an adjustment mechanism that facilitates a gradual and measured increase of weight-bearing of the affected part, according to the level permitted by the clinical condition.

Dr. Solav added that while walking with the device, the knee and hip joints can move and function normally, which helps prevent muscle atrophy and bone density reduction, especially in long-term rehabilitation processes. The three-dimensional scan eliminates the need for a plaster cast, and the computational design process facilitates the fabrication process, which combines a lightweight aluminum frame and 3D-printed parts.

Dr. Solav stated that in peacetime, injuries like Neta’s are uncommon. Unfortunately, in recent months, she has encountered other cases of soldiers with similar injuries. Sometimes, the injuries lead to amputation, but in many cases, doctors try to save the foot and ankle with complex surgeries, and the orthosis can improve the effectiveness of long-term rehabilitation after surgery. Additionally, they believe the orthosis can assist many diabetes patients who cannot walk due to pressure ulcers on the soles of their feet.

Dr. Solav’s research team, which consists of students and engineers, continues to develop and improve the orthosis while exploring its impact on walking. Simultaneously, the team is planning clinical trials in collaboration with Loewenstein Rehabilitation Center, and hoping to see many people improve their walking rehabilitation by using the innovative orthosis in the near future.

Dr. Dana Solav, a faculty member in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Technion, completed her MSc and PhD under the guidance of Prof. Alon Wolf and Prof. Miles Rubin, and returned to the Technion as a faculty member after completing a post-doctorate at MIT. Her laboratory focuses on biomechanical interfaces, developing medical devices that connect to the body, such as prosthetics and braces, using 3D scans, medical imaging, and computer simulations.

Dr. Amir Haim is the director of the Biomechanical Rehabilitation Unit, the chairman of the Research Authority and a senior physician in the Department of Orthopedic Rehabilitation at the Loewenstein Rehabilitation Medical Center. He is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University and an outstanding graduate of the combined MD/PhD track at the Technion – a track where participants complete a degree in medicine and a doctorate in philosophy.