Month: June 2018

Research conducted at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology has, for the first time since 1971, uncovered a new light sensing protein family. The research – published this week in Nature – was conducted by PhD student Alina Pushkarev under the supervision of Professor Oded Beja, and included collaboration with Japanese, American and Israeli researchers.

Light reactive proteins allow living organisms to harvest the energy of the sun. These proteins are responsible for light harvesting by two distinct biological processes. The first of these processes is photosynthesis, which is utilized by plants, algae and aquatic bacteria (cyanobacteria). The second is via retinal bound proteins (rhodopsins), which are utilized by many microorganisms, as well as animal visual organs (including human eyes). Rhodopsins are embedded in the membrane of the cell, by crossing it seven times (i.e. they are a long protein “stitching” the cells’ outer wall seven times). Rhodopsins are comprised of a protein attached to a vitamin A derivative, called retinal, allowing them to capture light.

Currently there are two known rhodopsin types. Microorganisms use Type 1 rhodopsins to sense light and convert it to chemical energy, while Type 2 rhodopsins are found in animal eyes, and crucial for vision.

In the Technion marine microbiology lab, researchers aimed to discover completely new rhodopsins in the microorganisms residing in Lake Kinneret at the peak of summer – when the environment would be well sunlit. Lake Kinneret, like any natural environment, has an abundant variety of microorganisms that cannot be grown in a laboratory. So, Mrs. Pushkarev and Prof. Beja used a laboratory strain of E. coli as a protein factory for expression of the proteins belonging to the microbial residents of Lake Kinneret.

By adding retinal (a form of vitamin A that is the chemical basis for animal vision) to the growth media, the researcher found a gene that turned E. coli to a deep purple color. The gene turned out to be a completely new family of rhodopsins, which are embedded in a completely opposite orientation compared to all other known rhodopsins. Though this rhodopsin family was found to exist in almost all known marine and freshwater environments, it had never before been discovered, despite extensive research of these environments. The researchers named the new family heliorhodopsins (hḗlios, ‘sun’).

The first rhodopsins (Type 2) were discovered in 1876 by the German scientist Franz Christian Boll, who isolated them from frogs. In 1971, almost a 100 years later, researchers from the University of California discovered a new family of rhodopsins (Type 1), in a microbe from hypersaline waters. Their motivation was to explain the purple nature of the Haloarchaea (a salt dwelling archaea) living in these waters.

Three decades later, this seemingly non-medical oriented discovery would lead to the development of a new field in neuroscience: Optogenetics. This field is based on the use of Type 1 rhodopsins, for the controlled excitation of neurons, and even single neurons in mammals.

Today, many research groups in this field are working on the utilization of Type 1 rhodopsins in neuronal disease, correction of cardiac rhythm and more. Now, Mrs. Pushkarev and Prof. Beja’s discovery of a new family of rhodopsins could become the newest tool in the field of optogenetics.

Click here for the paper in Nature

 

 

 

 

 

Nature Biotechnology reports on an innovative technology that will provide the scientific community with novel tools to gain a comprehensive understanding of immune system activity. Developed at Technion Israel, the technology is based on of millions of scientific publications and maps disease immune profiles. These maps, which have identified previously unknown biological interactions, will enable the development of personalized, immuno-centric therapies.

A technology developed at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology will provide the scientific community with innovative tools to gain an in-depth understanding of the immune system in health and disease. The technology, which the researchers have named immuneXpresso, scans millions of scientific publications, and maps disease immune profiles. These maps, which have already identified previously unknown biological interactions, will enable development of personalized, immuno-centric therapies.The work, published in Nature Biotechnology, was led by the doctoral student Ksenya Kveler, under the guidance of Assistant Professor Shai Shen-Orr from the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine.

Contemporary medicine has advanced at a dizzying rate; life expectancy doubled between the middle of the 19th and the end of the 20th century, vaccinations have dramatically reduced mortality rates among infants and children and, in the last two decades, groundbreaking, immune system-related technologies have been introduced into clinical practices. Such technologies have dramatically improved our ability to treat diseases – particularly cancer – by manipulating the immune system.

The immune system, however, is highly complex, and rendering its analysis and targeted activation are a considerable challenge. In the past decade, the scientific community has developed innovative tools for precise and broad measurement of cells, proteins and genes among others. These tools provide a wealth of information and therefore, the current challenge, which the publication focuses on, is to analyze the information.

“Researchers and physicians, as experienced and exceptional as they may be, specialize in a narrow spectrum of the medical world,” said Prof. Shen-Orr. “As humans, they cannot have a perspective based on millions of studies and publications, particularly in the field of immunity, which has a huge volume of publications and a new publication released every half hour. But what human researchers and physicians cannot do, we can now offer through the immuneXpresso system, which constructs a computerized model of the immune system.”

The model provides, for the first time, a fascinating view of the system at large, a better understanding of the available information and its limitations, automated data interpretation and systematic generation of new hypotheses.

The Technion researchers developed the technology that scans life sciences scientific literature and generates, a global and high-resolution picture of the network of interactions between immune cells and the human body, across thousands of diseases. immuneXpresso is a dramatic step toward obtaining an immune-centric view of diseases.

“The immune system fulfills a critical function in fighting diseases and in maintaining health. It serves as a kind of sensor that monitors the external and internal environments and responds to the changes that are occurring,” continued Prof. Shen-Orr. “The problem is that sometimes, it fails or forms harmful interactions with other cells in the body. Therefore, to enhance the efficacy of medical treatments, we have to crack open the black box of the immune system to understand how it works.”

In this context, immuneXpresso was programmed to scan the PubMed database – which, to date, contains 16 million publications. The study focused on molecules called “cytokines” – proteins that enable immune cells to send messages to cells and tissues throughout the body. This novel technology enables the researchers to generate a computerized, detailed map of connections between 340 types of cells and 140 types of cytokines across thousands of diseases – a novel and unprecedented knowledge-base in terms of its resolution and breadth. This process provides a global picture of the network of interactions between immune cells and of scientific knowledge accumulation patterns over time.

In addition to mapping known factors, the analytical approach described in the paper enabled prediction of hundreds of novel biological interactions, which have not been identified or reported until now. Also for the first time in history, the researchers mapped the immune profiles of various diseases and successfully clustered diseases based on similarity between their “disease maps”, which present the links between the medical status and the immune status. These “disease clusters” provide a unique roadmap to identify immune dysfunctions in various disease states. This achievement will enable designation of existing pharmaceutical therapies for new indications, which they are expected to be able to prevent or blunt.

“To translate this information to personalized medicine,” said Prof. Shen-Orr, “we plan to link it to the patient’s immune profile, with the clear understanding that the immune system varies between people as well as over time within the same person. If we manage to monitor this system, as we monitor, for example, cardiac activity, we will be able to provide personalized, accurate, knowledge-based medical interventions”.

During his postdoc at Stanford University, Prof. Shen-Orr studied the variability of the immune system between people. “It was the first time I analyzed data that was obtained by monitoring the immune system, and I identified differences in the function of eight cytokines in adult versus elderly people. I shared this discovery with experienced immunologists, hoping they would help me understand which cells secrete these cytokines. But none of them were able to provide me with answers, as each immunologist sees a partial picture of the immune system and none are familiar with the global picture as the system is too complex and the science traditionally reductionist. Since then, my work has focused on building a systems-level understanding the immunity and its interactions with the other systems in the body. In doing so, we aim to revolutionize immunology to a structured and model-based science, namely, true systems immunology.”

Systems immunology – first introduced approximately ten years ago – has primarily been focused on our ability to measure the system in humans and to generate a mass of data. But the complementary perspective – interpretation of the data – did not develop at the same pace. Prof. Shen-Orr projects that immuneXpresso will provide a significant push to the interpretive aspect, partially because it is a platform for mapping and standardizing existing data, which enables linkage between the scientific literature and experimental data.

Prof. Shen-Orr’s lab is an interdisciplinary space which brings together researchers from a computational background with biological scientists. He himself exemplifies the integration of various disciplines: he completed his bachelor’s degree in Information Systems in Industrial Engineering and Management and Computer Sciences at the Technion, his master’s in bioinformatics – application of information databases and computational tools for biological and medical research –at the Weizmann Institute of Science, his PhD in Developmental Biology at Harvard University and a postdoc in Biomedical informatics and immunology at Stanford. In 2011, he returned to the Technion as a Rappaport School of Medicine faculty member and now is the director of the Systems Immunology and Personalized Medicine Laboratory.

The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and involved years of invested time. Commercial development of the immuneXpresso technology is currently ongoing at CytoReason, a company building a machine learning model of the immune system and deploying it   to empower drug development and precision medicine.

Click here for the paper in Nature Biotechnology

Technion Researchers Develop Technology to Generate Electricity and Hydrogen from Live Bacteria

Described in Nature Communications, the technology is based on natural photosynthesis of photosynthetic bacteria

HAIFA, ISRAEL and NEW YORK (June 19, 2018) – A new technology developed at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology enables energy harvesting from photosynthetic bacteria – cyanobacteria. Cyanobacteria belong to a family of bacteria common to lakes, seas and many other habitats. Throughout their evolution, the bacteria developed photosynthetic mechanisms that enable them to generate energy from sunlight. In addition, they also generate energy in the dark, via respiratory mechanisms, which relies on sugar degradation.

The importance of photosynthetic bacteria is quite significant, as they form a source of atmospheric oxygen and an essential source of organic material (e.g., sugar), which constitutes the first link in the food chain. Using a “natural solar antenna” (PBS), they absorb a broad range of sunlight intensities and wavelengths – between 400 and 700 nm – effectively exploiting this inexhaustible source of energy. The energy is channeled to chemical reaction centers, where water is broken down, while releasing a flow of hydrogen ions. The ions are then applied to generate chemical energy, which drives food production.

Published in Nature Communications, the study was conducted by three Technion faculty members: Professor Noam Adir from the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, Professor Gadi Schuster from the Faculty of Biology and Professor Avner Rothschild, from the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering.  The work involved collaboration between Dr. Gadiel Saper and Dr. Dan Kallmann and colleagues from Bochum, Germany and the Weizmann Institute of Science. The three Technion researchers have collaborated in the past, including in a project in which they generated energy from spinach leaves using sunlight (published in Nature Communications in 2016).

The energy-generating processes that developed in photosynthetic bacteria throughout evolution have come to be appreciated as they perform their function without the generation of pollution. For this reason, the past few years have witnessed growing interest in the possibility of generating energy and hydrogen from these bacteria. One of the breakthroughs of this study was the use of live bacteria, which can repair damaged photosynthesis-related proteins in real-time. In addition, energy harvesting is not expected to harm the bacteria.

The Technion researchers developed an energy-producing system that exploits both the photosynthesis and respiratory processes, allowing for energy harvesting during the day (photosynthesis) and at night (respiration).  The harvested energy was leveraged to generate electricity, which was then utilized to produce hydrogen gas, currently considered the fuel of the future, as hydrogen-motorized vehicles only emit water, without pollutants.

The system is based on radiation-driven generation of a photocurrent, which the researchers showed was highly stable and enabled continuous production of hydrogen. They believe that it can serve as a promising source of clean, environment-friendly energy that will not emit pollutants during production or use (hydrogen fuel).

The work was supported by various bodies, including the Nancy and Stephen Grand Technion Energy Program (GTEP), the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute (RBNI), the Technion Hydrogen Technologies Research Lab (HTRL), the Adelis Foundation, the Planning and Budgeting Committee’s I-CORE program, the Israel Science Foundation, the USA-Israel Binational Science Fund (BSF) and the German research fund (DFG-DIP).

Click here for the paper

Technion hosted a fascinating panel discussion on the relationship between Science and Religion, featuring two great luminaries: Nobel Laureate Dist. Prof. Aaron Ciechanover and Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

Technion hosted an exceptional panel discussion on June 12^th, entitled “Does God Play Dice? A Dialogue on Science and Religion,” as part of the university’s annual Board of Governors meeting. The unique event featured two remarkable panelists, each of whom represented a different perspective on the subject: Nobel Laureate Aaron Ciechanover and Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. The moderator was Prof. Karl Skorecki, of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Director of Medical and Research Development at Rambam Health Care Campus.

Prof. Aaron Ciechanover received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2004 and is a Technion Distinguished Research Professor in the Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Research Institute. “For me, the question of God is completely irrelevant,” he asserted in his opening remarks, while nevertheless maintaining that Judaism is an important part of his identity. Prof. Ciechanover spoke of the limits of the scientific language and the need for a collaboration between Science and Religion. “Scientists need moral leaders to help them mediate between themselves and their audiences,” he claimed, adding that they are unable to do so by themselves. Furthermore, scientists cannot “lift the burden of the implications of their own research” and therefore they need leaders like Rabbi Sacks.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks is well-known both in his native U.K. and around the world as a leading Jewish theologian and author, frequently appearing in the secular media. He served as Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013, and has written dozens of books and religious commentaries. Rabbi Sacks was knighted by the Queen in 2009 and is a member of the House of Lords. The night before, he received an Honorary Doctorate from Technion. In his opening remarks, Rabbi Sacks quoted Albert Einstein, who famously insisted that, “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind,” adding that “you need humility on both sides.”

Although clearly representing Religion in the discussion, Rabbi Sacks made it clear that he does not see any conflict between Science and Religion, especially according to the Jewish faith. “Judaism is open to Science. God wants us to be a partner” in helping to make the world a better place, he believes, and “religious leaders have to learn from scientists since there is a vast ocean of truth we don’t understand.”

Both panelists addressed the issue of therapeutic vs. eugenic scientific intervention. According to Rabbi Sacks, “it is a mitzvah to cure generic diseases, but intervening in evolution is highly problematic.” Although we shouldn’t try to improve on Nature, genetically modified crops are a blessing that save many lives, and not a threat; in a nutshell, he believes in “therapeutics – yes, eugenics – no.” He admits, however, that the border is fuzzy and that there is a real danger that scientists will “do it because they can, not because they should.” Prof. Ciechanover agreed that, “there is a huge twilight zone between therapeutic and eugenic research,” and scientists shouldn’t and can’t answer these questions themselves. They should be careful not to cross the border in the name of academic freedom.

The one-hour panel discussion, which took place in a packed auditorium, concluded on a harmonious note, with the two men agreeing on the importance of dialogue. While Rabbi Sacks pronounced that “if you want to fear God, study Science,” Prof. Ciechanover asserted that “there is a great need for moral religious leaders.”

Glocalization: Spreading goodness in the world beyond their own communities

Technion awards Honorary Doctorates to nine distinguished individuals

This week, Technion awarded Honorary Doctorates to nine admirable individuals as part of its annual Board of Governors meeting.

Meet this years Honorary Doctors through this series of video clips.

Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie devoted his speech at the ceremony to the term “glocalization” – a merger of “globalization” and “localization.” He said that, “Today, we are here to celebrate what a glocal leader the Technion has become, shining its light and spreading its messages of futuristic science and technology for the betterment of the world, both across Israel and around the globe.” He thanked the honorees for their tremendous contribution: “Our honorary doctorates share the spirit of glocalization as each of them makes their unique contribution and creates their individual impact, extending beyond their own communities to spread goodness in the world. But they also share one more thing, for which we are so grateful, a love of Israel and of the Technion.”

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, an international religious leader, philosopher and author who has received numerous prizes and served as Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013, spoke on behalf of the honorary doctors. He said at the ceremony that, “It is a huge honor to receive an honorary doctorate from the institution that developed the drug for Parkinson’s, made breakthroughs in information technology, and spearheaded Iron Dome. Israel proves that it is possible to be 70, or almost 4,000 years old in the case of the Jewish people, and stay young, and part of the reason it stays young lies is the Technion itself. Technion is a living example of ‘tikkun olam,’ of mending a fractured world. And it does so by being at the very heart of Israel’s high-tech economy, Start-Up Nation. Every single technological development that Israel has developed, whether it be medical technology, nanotechnology, agricultural technology or information technology, has always been life-enhancing.”

View the booklet from the Honorary Doctorate Conferment Ceremony here.

Here are the recipients of the honorary doctorates from Technion for 2018:

Prof. Michael Aizenman is a paramount figure in the fields of mathematical physics, statistical mechanics, functional analysis and probability theory. His seminal contributions have shaped many of the most important developments in mathematical physics over the last 40 years. He is a professor of Mathematics and Physics at Princeton University.

He received the honor in recognition of his contribution to mathematical physics, particularly the development of powerful geometric and analytical methods for analyzing quantum statistical systems; and in recognition of his scientific leadership.

Prof. Stephen R. Forrest is an internationally-recognized expert in photonics and opto-electronics. He held several key positions at Princeton University and is currently on the faculty of the University of Michigan. He is responsible for several collaborative agreements between Michigan and Israeli universities, and is a distinguished visiting professor of the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering at Technion.

He received the honorary doctorate in recognition of his groundbreaking advances in organic optoelectronics, displays, lighting, optical communications and solar cells; in recognition of his scientific leadership; and in gratitude for his steadfast support of the Technion and the State of Israel.

Prof. Klaus A. Mullen is an internationally recognized chemist specializing in polymer chemistry. In 1995, he designed the first nanographenes, a milestone that led to the development of many modern energy technologies. He served as director of the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research from 1989 to 2016 and is an honorary member of the Israel Chemical Society.

He received the honorary doctorate in recognition of his significant contributions to the field of polymer-forming reactions and to the chemistry and physics of small molecules, graphene, dendrimers and biosynthetic hybrids; in appreciation for his wise and deliberative leadership; and in acknowledgment of his personal and professional accomplishments.

Dr. Andrew Goldenberg and Aviva Goldenberg are distinguished Technion alumni who live in Toronto, Canada. They are Technion Guardians – a title reserved for the most generous supporters. Dr. Goldenberg is an esteemed expert in the field of robotics whose career combined both academia and industry, and he is a professor emeritus of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. Architect Aviva Goldenberg founded her own architectural firm and was a professor and program coordinator of Architectural Technology at Centennial College AAT.

They were recognized for their significant contributions in electrical and computer engineering and in the field of architecture; in tribute to their application of robotics to solutions for real-world problems and for their efforts to promote women in science and technology; and in gratitude for their profound dedication to the Technion, academia and the State of Israel.

Dr. Jean-Yves Le Gall has been president of the French Space Agency since 2013. He is inter-ministerial coordinator for satellite navigation programs and chair of the Administrative Board of GSA, the European GNSS Agency, and president of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF). He is actively involved in boosting the ties between the space community in academia and in industry in France and in Israel.

He received the honorary doctorate in acknowledgement of his contributions to the promotion of space research in France, Europe and around the world; and in recognition of his support in strengthening the ties between the academic and industrial space communities in France and in Israel.

Baroness Ariane de Rothschild is a senior director of the Edmond de Rothschild Group, and leads the activities of the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation (Caesarea) in Israel. The Foundation contributes extensively to advancing excellence in academia.

She was awarded an honorary doctorate in recognition of her exceptional commitment to international philanthropic causes; in gratitude for her profound dedication to the advancement of higher education in Israel; in admiration for her leadership of the Rothschild Foundation (Caesarea) and for her generous support of the Technion and the State of Israel.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks is an international religious leader who served as Britain’s Chief Rabbi from 1991 to 2013. Rabbi Sacks has held a number of professorships, including at Yeshiva University and King’s College London. He is the author of several bestsellers, including Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence. In 2005, he was knighted by Her Majesty the Queen and in 2009 was made a Life Peer, taking his seat in the House of Lords.

He received the honorary doctorate in recognition of his lifetime contributions to maintaining Jewish traditional faith and enriching Jewish identity; in admiration of his position as an international religious leader and respected moral voice in the world; and in gratitude for his profound dedication to the State of Israel and the Jewish people.

Dr. Robert J. Shillman (“Doctor Bob”) is Chairman of Cognex Corporation, the world’s leading supplier of machine vision systems. Doctor Bob founded Cognex in 1981 with his life’s savings of $86,000; its value is now nearly $10 billion. He received his bachelor’s degree from Northeastern University, and his Master’s and PhD from MIT.

He received the honorary doctorate in tribute to his professional accomplishments, inspired leadership and innovation as the head of an international company; in recognition of his decades-long commitment to the betterment of the Technion, Israel and the world at large; and in admiration for the vision and creativity that mark his commitment and his input.

Honorary Doctorate Conferment Ceremony: http://bit.ly/2t6h3Wm

Technion Computer Science Students Discover Security Breach in Cortana – Microsoft’s Voice-Activated Virtual Assistant

The students, Yuval Ron and Ron Marcovich, supervised by Technion alumnus Amichai Shulman, found a way to access Cortana-locked computers. They immediately reported the vulnerability to Microsoft, which corrected it and are rewarding the students for their goodwill

Yuval Ron and Ron Marcovich, two third-year students in the Computer Science Faculty at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, recently discovered a severe vulnerability in the security of Cortana, Microsoft’s virtual assistant, and promptly reported it to Microsoft’s Bounty Program. The two discovered the problem with Cortana as part of the undergraduate course Information Security Project, taught by Amichai Shulman, Tal Be’ery and Prof. Eli Biham, head of the Technion’s Hiroshi Fujiwara cyber security research center.

Cortana is a virtual assistant that allows users to operate their computer, smartphone or smartwatch using voice commands. Microsoft’s Israel-based R&D center was involved in the program’s original development before it was unveiled at Microsoft’s global developers’ conference in 2014.

In recent semesters, a number of student teams in the Technion Computer Science Faculty have worked on projects involving the security of virtual assistants. This past April, students Marcovich and Ron succeeded in breaching Cortana. They were able to take control of a locked computer and download an external file, enabling them to control all of the computer’s operations. They reported their findings to Microsoft, who were very grateful and immediately started working with them on a patch to protect against this form of attack. As of yesterday, the vulnerability has been repaired and it is no longer possible to access locked computers using Cortana in this way. Ron and Marcovich will receive a reward from Microsoft’s Bounty Program, and this August they will travel to the cyber security conference ‘Black Hat USA 2018’ in Las Vegas, where they will present the Cortana vulnerability.

The students’ discovery was groundbreaking since it was the first time that voice interface was used to bypass security features in such a dangerous manner, enabling people who are not technologically savvy to breach computer security and obtain complete access to a locked computer. According to Shulman, this is the second time a security vulnerability of this sort has been discovered but this one is the most dramatic.
The same vulnerability was reported independently to Microsoft by  Cedric Cochin from McAfee

In a festive ceremony, Technion inaugurated the ground station for the Adelis-SAMSON nanosatellite project

The ceremony took place on June 11 at Technion’s Asher Space Research Institute

A ground station for satellite missions has been built at Technion for the Adelis-SAMSON project, to be launched into space at the end of 2018 by a Dutch company that specializes in launching nanosatellites, with the support of the Adelis Foundation and the Israeli Space Agency of the Ministry of Science and Technology. Following the launch, the nanosatellites will be monitored by Technion’s ground station, which will monitor the satellites’ activities and receive transmitted data.

Mrs. Rebecca Boukhris, Director of the Adelis Foundation, said during the inauguration ceremony that, “At the end of 2014 we signed an agreement with Technion, and within one year NASA completed the agreement with the Israeli Space Agency. The Adelis-SAMSON project provides Technion and Israel with an opportunity to cross borders and initiate a new technological revolution, and we are proud to be among the pioneers of this project.”

Prof. Boaz Golany, Technion’s Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development, said that, “Israel is a small country with few resources, and it has no choice other than to rely on human capital – its most important resource. The only way to do this is by investing in higher education and academic research. Technion has pursued this goal by relentlessly striving to expand human knowledge, while seeking to solve the problems on Israel’s doorstep.”

The Adelis-SAMSON project was developed in recent years by a team of scientists headed by Prof. Pini Gurfil, director of the Asher Space Research Institute and a member of Technion’s Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, with the support of the Adelis Foundation and the Israeli Space Agency of the Ministry of Science and Technology. The project intends to prove that a swarm of satellites can orbit for one year in a controlled formation at an altitude of 600 km. The project will entail launching three nanosatellites into space that will operate autonomously, without human intervention. The satellites will receive signals from Earth and will calculate the location of the transmission’s source for the purpose of search and rescue operations, remote sensing and environmental monitoring. The size of each satellite will be 10x20x30 cm., approximately the size of a shoe box, and will weigh around 8 kg. The satellites will be fitted with measuring devices, antennas, computer systems, control systems and navigation devices. The software and algorithms that will operate the flight were developed in the Technion Distributed Space Systems Lab.

The new ground station is located in the Asher Space Research Institute and was funded by the Adelis Foundation. It includes antennas for tracking and satellite communication and a ground station with an extensive computing system. The antennas were manufactured by the Israeli company Orbit, and they include a large  4-meter diameter dish antenna. The ground station will communicate with the satellites using three different frequencies (S-Band, VHF and UHF) simultaneously. Furthermore, the ground station will enable both the reception of signals transmitted from the satellites to Earth and signals transmitted between the satellites themselves.  

“The proximity between the satellites creates a complex technological challenge for monitoring them from Earth,” explains Prof. Gurfil. “The ground station will enable automatic shifting of the communication beam between the ground and the satellites by turning the antennas towards each of the satellites that pass over the station, and all this without human intervention. In the future, it will be possible to monitor a larger number of satellites at the same time.”

 

“Continuously pursuing Tikkun Olam”

Technion confers Honorary Fellowships on six eminent figures from Israel and abroad

Sunday, June 11, 2018: Technion held its annual ceremony awarding Honorary Fellowships. This year’s honorees were Dr. Hiroshi Fujiwara from Japan, Dr. Moshe Marom from Israel, Rona Ramon from Israel, Dr. Martin and Grace Rosman from the U.S. and Les Seskin from the U.S.

Les Seskin spoke on behalf of the Fellowship recipients, saying, “As an engineering graduate, I understand how stressful an engineering program can be, and that is why I applaud Technion services that contribute to a well-rounded and motivated graduate. Services such as student tutoring, counseling  and modern on-campus dorms. I have no doubt that my path would have been far smoother had it included even some of the amazing programs, facilities, and personnel that exist at the Technion. I take great joy and satisfaction in knowing that my support and work for the Technion will benefit great minds of future generations.”

The ceremony took place on the first day of Technion’s annual Board of Governors meeting. Prof. Marcelle Machluf, Dean of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, was the MC. Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie said at the start of the ceremony: “I don’t know any university in the world that has filled such a central role in the life of the country and the nation. For us, this is a source of great joy and pride.” Prof. Lavie described Technion’s history prior to the founding of the State as well as in the last 70 years, and thanked the friends of Technion around the world, without whom Technion would not be able to position itself at the forefront of the world’s universities.

Dr. Hiroshi Fujiwara, who received the title of Honorary Fellow of Technion during the ceremony, opened his speech by blessing the State of Israel on the 70^th anniversary of its founding, and asserted that, “Receiving this honor today at Technion moves me more than when I received my PhD degree from the University of Tokyo.” Exactly one year ago, during the 2017 Board of Governors meeting, Dr. Fujiwara announced the first Japanese contribution to Technion. As a result, the Fujiwara Research Center was founded, which aims to position Technion as a leader in the field of cyber.

Dr. Fujiwara is one of the most prominent figures in the field of Internet in Japan. He is the Chair, President and CEO of BroadBand Tower, a pioneer in the specialty Internet data center (iDC) business. In his speech, he said: “I dreamed of becoming an astrophysicist; I was attracted to Computer Science R&D, and these days I am an entrepreneur – and this too may change. Technion also changes constantly, in accordance with worldwide changes. The world is facing enormous new challenges, and I trust Technion to know how to properly contend with them and to continuously pursue Tikkun Olam.”

During the ceremony, Technion’s new campaign to raise $1.8 billion by 2024 was announced. The funds will be used for improving research infrastructure and to recruit new faculty members in order to secure Technion’s standing as a global leader. The campaign was presented by Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie, VP for External Relations and Resource Development Prof. Boaz Golany, President of the American Technion Society Zahava Bar-Nir and Technion alumnus Zohar Zisapel. The ceremony concluded with a performance by David Broza.

Prof. Carla J. Shatz and Prof. Tobin J. Marks received the 2017 Harvey Prize at a festive ceremony at Technion honoring the two outstanding scientists

The prestigious Harvey Prize was conferred upon two highly distinguished scientists, Prof. Carla J. Shatz and Prof. Tobin J. Marks, at a ceremony at Technion on Sunday, June 10^th.

The Harvey Prize has been awarded by Technion each year since 1971 to outstanding individuals in the fields of science and technology. The prize, which was established by the late Leo M. Harvey of Los Angeles, is awarded to trailblazing scholars and scientists from around the world irrespective of nationality, race, religion or gender.

At this year’s ceremony, which took place during Technion’s annual Board of Governors meeting, Profs. Shatz and Marks received the prize from Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie.  Prof. Lavie described the two laureates as “being blessed with creativity” and told the audience that this year’s winners conformed to the high standards set by previous Harvey Prize recipients in that they “have made breakthroughs in science and technology that truly contribute to the progress of humanity.”

Prof. Tobin Marks is a professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Applied Physics, Chemical and Biological Engineering at Northwestern University, Illinois, USA. He received the Harvey Prize “in recognition of his groundbreaking research in the areas of catalysis, organo-f-element chemistry, electronic and photonic materials, and coordination chemistry, which have strongly impacted contemporary science.” Prof. Marks has published 1,260 peer-reviewed articles and holds 265 U.S. patents.

Prof. Marks professed to being deeply honored by the Harvey Prize, especially given the fact that former winners were so illustrious. In fact, several of them later received a Nobel Prize. Addressing the audience, Prof. Marks said that he was especially thrilled to accept the Harvey Prize given the close connection between Israel and the world of Chemistry. He cited both Fritz Haber, the Nobel Prize winning chemist who died on his way to Mandatory Palestine in 1934, and Chaim Weizmann, the Zionist leader who was also a world-renowned chemist, and asserted that, “the success of this nation has close connections to Chemistry.”

Marks also reminisced about his first trip to Israel in 1986, when he spent a month as a young lecturer at Technion. “That visit was transformative. It’s amazing how the country has changed. At the time, the ‘Start-Up Nation’ mainly referred to trying to start up all the old cars people had. Since then, I have felt a strong bond between myself and Israel.”

The second honoree, Prof. Carla J. Shatz, is a professor of Biology and Neurobiology at Stanford University, California, USA. She has devoted her extensive research career to understanding the interplay between genes and environment that shapes brain circuits. Among other achievements, her studies of the visual system have influenced neuroscience research and human health. She was awarded the Harvey Prize “in recognition of her discoveries concerning the emergence and function of brain circuits for vision,” and the therapeutic implications of her findings on the treatment of memory loss.

Upon receiving the prize, Prof. Shatz stressed that she “wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for the support of so many people.” In particular, she thanked her parents, who taught her “to think independently,” and her ‘scientific parents,’ the Nobel Prize laureates at Harvard who invited her to join their lab at a time when there were few women in the field. “Thanks to them, I learned the joy, excitement and fun of Science,” she insisted. Prof. Shatz also reminisced about her late grandmother, who experienced a stroke 50 years ago and who is largely responsible for her interest in neuroscience.

“There were many amazing developments in the last century,” Prof. Shatz concluded, “and now we are facing the ultimate challenge – how do we synthesize everything we have deconstructed? New synergies must be created by all disciplines. There’s still so much to discover.”

 

Israel’s Technion Launches Unprecedented $1.8 Billion Campaign to Support University’s World-Changing Innovation

HAIFA, ISRAEL (June 10, 2018) — The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology has kicked off a global $1.8 billion, ten-year fundraising campaign—the largest and most ambitious initiative of its kind ever launched by an Israeli university. The campaign will raise support for world-changing, life-saving innovation, and better prepare for the challenges and opportunities the digital revolution brings with it, and which are expected to be at the focus of global attention well into the second half of the 21st century.

 

 

The unprecedented effort was officially launched at the June 2018 Technion Board of Governors meeting, and will conclude in 2024, the centennial of the first Technion class. The campaign will deliver funding that amplifies the Technion’s outsized impact in sectors including the environment, sustainability, alternative energy and water conservation; health and medicine; artificial intelligence, information, and communication; quantum science, matter, and engineering; and advancing Israel security, leadership, and diversity.

Through the campaign, the Haifa, Israel-based Technion—Israel’s first university—will fund crucial areas of need such as fellowships and other student support, faculty recruitment and retention, research infrastructure, and capital projects.

“This campaign is truly global in nature,” said Prof. Peretz Lavie, President of the Technion. “Not only does it involve our societies around the world—including the UK, Canada, Switzerland, Australia, France, Israel, and the U.S.—but it will result in global benefits, such as better quality in soil, water, and air, easy-to-use sources for clean and renewable energy, engineering aid to developing countries, advancing breakthroughs in fighting cancer, and much, much more.”

“We live in the era of social entrepreneurship, when top philanthropists seek to maximize the return on investment for every single gift,” said Jeffrey Richard, CEO of the American Technion Society, whose donors have provided more than $2.5 billion for the Technion since 1940. “It is important that potential donors understand just how far their money goes at the Technion.”

The Technion has earned international recognition for its research in a myriad of fields, including regenerative medicine, aerospace, computer science, quantum engineering, nanotechnology, biotechnology, the life sciences and more. The institution has signed memoranda of understanding with more than 200 universities and research frameworks abroad, and last year inaugurated the Guangdong Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Israel’s first university campus in China, and celebrated the move of the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute to its permanent home, the new Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island in New York.

Ambassador Ronald S. Lauder has accepted the Technion’s invitation to serve as an honorary chair of the Technion Global Campaign. In October, Ronald and Jo Carole Lauder will host a special event at their home in New York to launch the Technion campaign in the United States. The event will be attended by the President of the Technion, friends of the Technion in New York and personal friends of the Lauder family.

“I feel a profound sense of commitment and responsibility to the Technion, Israel’s first and best school of engineering, the professional breeding house for so many of us, and the institution that has addressed – and that will continue to address – so many of the world’s challenges,” said Zohar Zisapel, the Israeli Chair of the Technion Global Campaign. “I’m honored to be a part of the Technion’s Global Campaign Committee, and to help ensure the future of this unique institution to the benefit of millions around the globe.”

“The standard practice of campaign communications among leading US universities is to soft launch the campaign and then make it public once one third of the campaign goal is secured,” said Prof. Boaz Golany, Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development at Technion. “When we launched the quiet phase of the campaign in October 2014, we estimated it would take four years to cross that threshold. We were glad to discover we were wrong. Thanks to the vision and generosity of our friends worldwide, we are already at a point in which we’ve raised more than 40% of our total goal of $1.8 billion.”  

 

A New System for Delivering Anticancer Drugs to Pediatric Tumors

HAIFA, ISRAEL and NEW YORK (June 4, 2018) – In most of the Western World, cancer is the primary cause of death in children over the age of one. Existing treatments for adult cancer patients are not particularly effective for children. This is because chemotherapeutic drugs have different effects on children’s physiology, which is quite dissimilar from adult physiology. A child’s cancer cells differ in aspects that include genetic characteristics, growth patterns, and developmental pathways, and conventional chemotherapy can cause particularly severe damage to an ill child.

The transport of drugs using nanoparticles is a very promising technology expected to change the face of medicine. It is particularly relevant for transferring anti-cancer drugs into the tumor. But despite extensive research and developments, the implementation of such technology for children with cancer has not been widely studied to date. This is due in part to restrictions on child participation in clinical trials and variances in the physiology of children at different ages.

But a new system for the transport of anti-cancer drugs, developed at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology offers hope and a glimpse of things to come. The system – which slows tumor growth and prolongs life expectancy in mice by 42% – was developed by Prof. Alejandro Sosnik of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering together with graduate student Alex Bukchin and conducted in collaboration with the research group of Dr. Angel Carcaboso from the Hospital Sant Joan de Deu-Barcelona. The study was published in the Journal of Controlled Release.

The development led by Prof. Sosnik is based on the selective transport of the chemotherapeutic drug Dasatinib via nanoscale packaging. This packaging directs the drug mainly to the cancer cells, thereby greatly reducing the exposure of other organs to the drug, and significantly reducing toxicity.

Dasatinib is an approved drug sold throughout the world. It inhibits a tyrosine kinase, an enzyme that acts like a switch for activating and deactivating various cellular processes. One of these processes is cell growth and division, so a mutation in a tyrosine kinase can lead to uncontrolled cell division – that is, a cancerous tumor.

Currently administered in the form of tablets, Dasatinib inhibits the tyrosine kinase and stops cancer growth. However, the drug is released in an untargeted way in the patient’s body, which causes it to affect healthy cells as well.

The technology developed by Prof. Sosnik and his team is intended to prevent this phenomenon by transporting the drug to cancer cells alone, thus maximizing its efficiency without harming healthy tissues. The transporter is made up of polymer micelles, nanostructures created by the self-assembly of polymers in water and considered to be an excellent method for transporting drugs, in part due to their tiny size (10 to 300 nanometers). The major innovation in Prof. Sosnik’s research is the addition of sugar to the nanoplatform. The cancer cell identifies the sugar and intakes the delivery system, releasing the drug inside the cell and inhibiting the enzyme activity.

In the lab experiment carried out by Prof. Sosnik’s research group, the efficacy of the new delivery system reduced the dosage of the drug needed to kill sarcoma cells – a cancerous tumor of muscles and bones which accounts for about 10% of tumors in children – in vitro by about 90%.

The efficacy of the delivery system was also demonstrated in vivo using cancer models in mice developed by the Spanish group using tumor biopsies of pediatric patients. The delivery system significantly improved the accumulation of the drug into the tumor environment. Moreover, the use of this nanotechnology platform led to a dramatic prolongation (42%) of the median lifespan of mice from 19 days (in the control group) to 27 days.

In both the lab and animal experiments (unlike the conventional administration of this drug by swallowing) the injection of Dasatinib using the new delivery system leads to its accumulation mainly in the tumor. This means that the efficacy of the drug increases while healthy tissues are not affected, thus avoiding the various side effects of many chemotherapies.

The article in the Journal of Controlled Release summarizes a three-year study that led to the first success in delivering Dasatinib with the help of these nanoparticles, and the first demonstration of the particles accumulating in the tumor in the patient’s tissue, in a model of pediatric cancer in experimental animals. The research was supported by Technion as well as grants from the European Commission (#612765-MC-NANOTAR and #PIRG-08-GA-2010-276998).

Prof. Sosnik, who leads the joint curriculum of the Technion Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Faculty of Biology, focuses on developing special treatments for children with cancer.

“The target audience is very physiologically fragmented and therefore less economically viable for pharmaceutical companies, he said. “The differences between children of different ages are great, and drug companies do not want to invest in research and development for such narrow age ranges. A child’s physiology is very different from that of an adult, so the tumor develops differently. The effects of drugs on the tumor are also not the same. In addition, clinical trials are rarely conducted on children for obvious reasons. I hope that the delivery system we have developed will improve the situation and serve to deliver a broad spectrum of anti-cancer drugs.”

Prof. Sosnik is part of the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute (RBNI) and recently joined the Technion Integrative Cancer Center (TICC) as affiliated engineering faculty member.

 

Technion celebrates 70 years of Israeli innovation with this commemorative 2018 edition of the President’s Report.