Month: August 2017

Doctoral student Tal Gilboa from the Technion receives Clore Fellowship

Tal Gilboa, a doctoral student at the Technion Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, will receive the Clore Fellowship for outstanding scientists in November

In early November, Tal Gilboa, a doctoral student in the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at the Technion, will receive the Clore Fellowship for 2017. The $89,000 award includes a three-year fellowship, an allowance for research-related expenses and a personal award. The Clore Fellowships are awarded by the Clore Foundation to outstanding young scientists in order to promote scientific excellence in Israel.

Gilboa, the daughter of Orna and Rony Hitron, was born and raised in Nesher and attended the Nesher Comprehensive High School. She served as a logistics officer in the Nahal Brigade (and as a deputy company commander in the reserves) and began studying at the Technion after a trip around the world. Today she is 32, married with two children.

“I decided to study at the Technion and looked for an interdisciplinary degree,” she says, “and so I came to the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering – a faculty that instills and integrates knowledge in a variety of disciplines: electricity, computers, biology, optics, signal processing, mathematics and of course medicine. In my opinion, this is a fascinating field that uses engineering tools for improving and saving lives.” After earning her undergraduate degree, she continued in the direct PhD track in Prof. Amit Meller’s lab, where she is conducting the study that earned her the Clore Fellowship: the development of a bio-sensor to monitor individual DNA molecules in minute quantities for the purpose of personalized diagnostics. The new technology is based on passing DNA molecules through a nanopore with a diameter of less than 4 nanometers. As part of Gilboa’s research, the lab developed a system that includes optical reading of the DNA molecule as it is passing through nanopore. The characterization method is based on marking specific regions of diagnostic importance in different colors, identifying the color sequence as the DNA moves through the pore and classifying the molecule according to the signal obtained. Cross-referencing the optical and electric data obtained provides unprecedented accuracy in characterizing the molecule. The system built at the Technion enables the characterization of a single molecule but also an accumulation of heterogeneous molecules, thus providing critical diagnostic data such as accurate characterization of various infections and bacterial resistance to antibiotics – the area on which Gilboa is concentrating in her research.  

ACS Nano recently published another use of this system: monitoring sub-methylation in the DNA molecule. Disruptions in the methylation process are liable to lead to diseases, including various cancers. Current methods for monitoring methylation levels in DNA molecules have significant limitations which the new detection method has managed to overcome. The study was carried out in collaboration with doctoral student Chen Torfstein of Prof. Meller’s research team and researchers from Germany and Tel Aviv University.

“The Clore Fellowship is given based on one criterion alone- academic excellence,” says Prof. Meller, who has been Gilboa’s advisor since she began her master’s degree and now for her doctorate. “Tal is developing a revolutionary genomic method for identifying antibiotic-resistant bacteria, combining analytic capabilities from the field of signal processing, experimental research in optics and nanomaterials, and work in molecular biology.” In addition to being a diligent and outstanding researcher, which has been reflected in her publications in scientific journals, she has twice been named Outstanding TA in the Computerized Biomedical Design course, which has become a hit, largely thanks to her. She is now the first student at the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering to win the Clore Fellowship, and for us this is a very significant event and a source of great pride.”

Asael Reiter of Technion Wins First Place in International Mathematics Competition

Held in Bulgaria, the Israeli delegation won first place in the group ranking

Asael Reiter, a graduate of the Rothschild Scholars Technion Excellence Program, won first place in the International Mathematics Competition (IMC) held in Bulgaria August 2-3, 2017. Technion graduate Nitzan Tur won seventh place.

Teams of students from universities around the world participate in the IMC, which is held annually in Bulgaria. The Israeli delegation is comprised of students from various universities, and this year a student from the Open University and three from Tel Aviv University were also ranked among the top 20. The Israeli delegation won first place in the group ranking.

Reiter, who won first place in the competition, grew up in Moshav Nof Ayalon near Modiin, completed his high school studies at Shaalvim Yeshiva, and served in the IDF in  “Hesder,” a program for observant Jewish students combining advanced Talmudic studies with military service. He was then admitted to the Technion Excellence Program, and completed his studies last year with an undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Physics, and a second undergraduate degree in Computer Science. Reiter had the highest average grade among the graduates who took part in the recent undergraduate graduation ceremony. He is now a graduate student at Technion’s Faculty of Mathematics.

The Rothschild Scholars Technion Excellence Program is an individualized academic program designed to maximize the skills of outstanding students while fostering curiosity, creativity, and in-depth scientific research.

Science is fascinating to many, but sentences that are full of expert-level terms and description can scare away even the most passionate readers. Can scientists learn to talk about their research without using too many technical terms? One of the obstacles to avoiding jargon is that scientists suffer from “the curse of knowledge” – they simply do not remember not knowing what they now know as experts.

To help scientists recognize which words are jargon and should be avoided or explained when engaging with the public, researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and HIT–Holon Institute of Technology have created a program that automatically identifies terms the average person may not know. In a recent paper published in the journal PLoS One, the free of charge and scientist-friendly De-Jargonizer  is introduced. Once a text is uploaded or pasted, the algorithm color codes words in the text as either frequent or intermediate level general vocabulary, or jargon. This is based on frequency of the words on an internet news site, designed and written for the public. The corpus will be updated periodically, and can be expanded to include other sources and languages.

“The De-Jargonizer provides a grim glimpse at the current level of jargon in scientific writing,” says Technion Prof. Ayelet Baram-Tsabari Who led the research with Dr. Tzipora Rakedzon.

When the authors compared 5,000 pairs of lay summaries, written for a wide audience, and their corresponding academic abstracts published in the journals PLoS Computational Biology and PLoS Genetics. Results showed that lay summaries indeed include less jargon (10%) than academic abstracts (14%) on average; however, research previously showed that for adequate comprehension, readers need to be familiar with 98% of the words. Therefore, the recommended level of unfamiliar words, i.e. jargon, is 2% – much lower than the percentage found in the lay summaries.

“The scientists intuitively understand they need to use less jargon when speaking with the public than to their peers”, says Baram-Tsabari, “but using so many unfamiliar words excludes the very people they are trying to engage.”

The program is designed to help scientists and science communication instructors improve and adapt vocabulary use when communicating with non-experts. Also, professionals in medicine could use it to evaluate text level for communication with patients. Overall, the importance of such a tool is to aid in making science and research accessible to the public, to support informed citizenship and more productive dialogue in these complex times for science in society. 

Technion Formula Team ranked 8th out of 31 in the student Formula competition in Austria. Next week the team competes in Germany.

The Technion Formula Team was ranked 8th out of 31 in the Formula Student competition in Austria. In the competition, 31 of the best teams in the world competed in the combustion category. Next week, the team will participate in a similar competition in Germany.

Technion team member Alain Altari said, “The competition is divided into the static part, in which we present the project, and the dynamic events, which include Acceleration; Skidpad (skid prevention); Autocross (driving one kilometer); and Endurance, which includes changing drivers and is 22 kilometers long. Racing cars must withstand very difficult conditions, so planning requires pure science and not just mechanical knowledge. We are pleased with the ranking in Austria and are preparing for the competition in Germany. Next year we hope to compete in the new Autonomous Racing Car category.”

This is the fifth year that Team Technion has participated in Formula Student competitions. Technion’s car was developed as part of the New Product Design Project course led by Dr. Hagai Bamberger under the guidance of Prof. Reuven Katz, Head of the Design, Manufacturing, and CAD track at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. This year, around 50 students from 7 different faculties are participating in the project, which is led by the Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace Engineering faculties. At the unveiling held recently at Technion, certificates of merit were awarded to several students: Alain Altari, Or Amsterdam, Yael Haslavsky, Omer Cohen, Tal Lipshitz, and Tom Mazor.

The new Formula car is a dramatic upgrade of Technion’s car that competed in Europe last year. Amongst other improvements, the pneumatic transmission system was replaced with an electric one, the weight of the car dropped from 255 kg to 175 kg, and the engine was replaced by a single-cylinder KTM engine. An active suspension system based on accelerometers was installed in the new car. In both competitions in Europe, the Technion team competes against veteran teams supported by leading car companies including BMW, Audi, and Porsche.

New Era in Microscopy in Israel: Technion Purchases the World’s Best Electron Microscope

The Themis microscope will enable characterization of the structure and chemical composition of materials at sub-nanometer resolution

The Technion recently purchased a Themis, an innovative and state of the art electron microscope, one of the most advanced in the world and the best of its kind in Israel. Themis is a transmission electron microscope (TEM) capable of providing an image of individual atoms and, based on this image, provide information about the material’s structure and properties. The microscope is about 4 meters high, and enables real-time tracking of dynamic processes occurring in the material, for example as a result of heating or cooling. The new microscope was purchased with the assistance of the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute (RBNI) at the Technion.

Themis (Titan Cubed Themis G2 300) is manufactured by the American company FEI (Thermo Fisher Scientific). Its installation at Technion took about a week, and preparations for its operation will be completed by company representatives and Technion’s Electron Microscopy Center staff within a few weeks. It is installed in a special room that is insulated from its surroundings to prevent the influence of acoustic noise, mechanical vibrations, and electromagnetic field interference on experiments. It is fixed to a surface anchored to a rock deep in the ground, stabilized by a floating floor that insulates it from various vibrations in the environment, and controlled from an adjacent dedicated control room.

The Themis replaces the previous microscope, the Titan (FEI Titan 80-300 KeV S/TEM), which was purchased by the Technion in 2006 and was considered the world’s leading electron microscope at the time. Dr. Yaron Kauffman, head of the Electron Microscopy Center at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, said, “We call it a microscope, but it is actually a complete laboratory that enables us to perform diverse experiments under changing conditions, monitor processes in materials, and characterize materials in ways that were previously unavailable to us. This is a significant tool for atomic-level characterization of diverse materials such as metals; semiconductors and polymers; and ceramic, organic, hybrid, and biological materials.”

“Themis will lead the microscopy revolution at the nano and quantum scale, and marks the beginning of a new era in microscopy in Israel,” said Prof. Wayne Kaplan, Technion’s Executive Vice President for Research. “The new microscope will enable us to see the bonds between atoms, and important fundamental chemical processes with nanometer resolution.”

Prof. Kaplan added, “In order to remain at the forefront of global science we must constantly update the research infrastructure at the Technion. Unfortunately, despite the quantum leap in research in Israel thanks to the new microscope, it was purchased by the Technion without financial assistance from the Planning and Budgeting Committee of the Council for Higher Education (or any other government agency). It is regrettable that the government decision-makers who congratulate us on our scientific achievements and Nobel Prizes do not understand that the State of Israel will not be able to remain a global science and technology power without massive investment in research infrastructures.”

How does it work?

The principle of the operation of the electron microscope is similar to that of the optical microscope, which the public is more familiar with; but instead of using glass lenses to illuminate the sample with a focused light beam (photons), the electron microscope uses electromagnetic lenses (coils) to project a focused electron beam onto the sample.
The main advantage of the electron microscope is its high-resolution capability. Compared with the optical microscope, which is limited to a resolution of about 200 nanometers, the electron microscope is capable of achieving a resolution below 1 Ångstrom (one tenth of a nanometer). The reason for the difference is that the wavelength of the electron is significantly shorter than the wavelength of light.

In TEM, the electrons penetrate the sample, are emitted on the other side, and monitored by various sensors. These sensors enable us to understand the structure of the material (arrangement of atoms), its chemical composition (type of atoms), and the types of chemical bonds inside it.

Like its predecessor, Themis will operate at the Electron Microscopy Center at Technion’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering. The Center is used by scientists both from the Technion and from outside academic and industrial entities in the following fields: TEM, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), application of analytical methods for chemical analysis, and computerized optical microscopy. The Center also prepares microscope samples using diamond saws, diamond polishing systems, ultrasonic cutting machines, electrochemical systems, gold and carbon coaters, and more.

HAIFA, ISRAEL and ZURICH (August 8, 2017) – Proteins are one of the most important classes of biomarkers – biological molecules indicative of a disease or health of an individual. Protein detection is critical in a wide variety of tests that include the diagnosis of malaria, detection of a cardiovascular event, cancer screening and monitoring, and more.

Now, a team from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel and IBM Research in Zurich has improved the sensitivity of protein detection in immunoassays by more than 1,000-fold, when compared to standard immunoassay implementation. The team’s method – which appears on the cover of the peer-reviewed journal Analytical Chemistry – is based on a simple piece of hardware: a microfluidic chip containing flow channels the width of a human hair.

High sensitivity in detection is particularly important when protein biomarkers are present in extremely small numbers, as is the case in the early stages of a disease. The team’s approach might one day enable simple devices capable of analyzing small samples (such as a drop of blood), replacing the large and sophisticated laboratory equipment that is currently required.

“We use an old focusing technique called isotachophoresis (ITP) in a new way,” says Assistant Professor Moran Bercovici, of the Technion Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. “Using a combination of electric fields and specialized chemistry, we collect proteins into a tiny volume and precisely deliver them to react with detection antibodies patterned on the surface of the microchannel.”

“We essentially cheat the detector,” says Federico Paratore, a joint PhD student between the groups, and the lead author on the work. “We present a protein concentration that is 10,000-fold higher than in the original sample to a standard detector, and get the detector to respond accordingly.”

The test is a simple one, as demonstrated by Paratore. A few drops of the sample are introduced into the microfluidic chip, and an electric field is turned on. The proteins are compressed to a volume of approximately 50 picoliters – about 1 million times smaller than the volume of a human teardrop, and the result is visible within a few minutes.

Paratore is part of a joint European Union project, Virtual Vials, and works across both sites, combining the strengths of the Technion’s team in electrokinetics and fluid mechanics with IBM-Zurich’s expertise in microtechnology and diagnostics. At the Technion, Paratore collaborated with Tal Zeidman-Kalman and Tally Rosenfeld, who are co-authors of this paper.

“The elegance of this approach is in its simplicity, and of course the immense enhancement in assay sensitivity that could be applied to a range of immunoassay,” says Dr. Govind Kaigala, scientist at IBM Research in Zurich. “We strongly believe such a technology will help to fill the gaps in existing immunoassay technology, and be applied directly to biological samples such as blood, saliva, or urine.”