Month: July 2018

Researchers in the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology Faculty of Biology have unearthed a new role of the caspase-3 protein in organ size determination. Their discovery could pave the way for novel therapeutic approaches in regenerative medicine and tumor therapy. This research was published as a cover story in Molecular Cell.

 

HAIFA, ISRAEL (July 27, 2018) – Scientists have long known that organ size is shaped by many factors, including the size of each cell, proliferation, cell differentiation, death, and, of course, the total number of cells. However, the molecular mechanisms directly regulating organ size had until now remained elusive, setting the stage for the current research directed by Assistant Professor Yaron Fuchs and led by Dr. Yahav Yosefzon.

The Technion researchers discovered a previously unknown molecular mechanism that regulates the size of sebaceous glands in the skin. The skin is the largest organ in the human body, weighing approximately 9 kg (almost 20 lbs.) in adults and with an overall area of approximately 2 m² (21.5 square feet). It is composed of an epidermis (the outer layer) and the dermis (the lower layer). The sebaceous glands are located in the epidermis, where they produce and secrete an oily substance (sebum) that protects the skin and the hairs covering it. Since sebaceous gland abnormalities can lead to acne and cancer development, there is a great need to understand the mechanisms responsible for their normal development and size.

The present study focused on the caspase-3 protein. Caspase-3 is considered a key player in apoptosis, a form of programmed cell death where dysfunctional cells “commit suicide,” which is essential for preventing the emergence of cancer and ensuring organismal survival. Caspase-3 functions by cleaving other vital proteins to execute cell destruction.

The Technion researchers found that, in contrast to the accepted dogma, caspase-3 does not induce apoptosis, but rather, leads to cell proliferation and thereby influences sebaceous gland size. Therefore they sought to elucidate the molecular mechanism by which Caspase-3 regulates cell expansion and organ size.

One major protein that governs these processes is the YAP protein. YAP is a transcription factor, which drives cell proliferation when it gains access to the cell nucleus. It is therefore very tightly regulated, in order to avoid uncontrolled cell division, which can lead to the development of cancer. To prevent it from entering the nucleus, YAP is anchored to the cell membrane by the a-catenin protein. The present work discovered that caspase-3 can cleave a-catenin, thereby liberating YAP from the membrane, enabling it to translocate to the cell nucleus and promote cell division.

This discovery is particularly important as it sheds light on the common cancer treatments, including radiation and chemotherapy, which intentionally accelerate caspase-3 activity to execute tumor cell apoptosis. “Our discovery has various potential applications, including in hindering cancer and promoting wound healing by manipulating caspase-3. Now that we have uncovered this novel non-apoptotic role of caspase-3, it should and must be taken into consideration in treatment strategies. Our lab’s preliminary and promising results indicate that inhibition of caspase-3 may be a highly efficacious means of treating advanced cancerous tumors,” said Assistant Professor Fuchs.

Assistant Professor Fuchs heads the Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the Faculty of Biology and is a researcher at the Lorry Lokey Interdisciplinary Center for Life Sciences and Engineering. His lab focuses on researching stem cells, which are responsible for tissue regeneration in our bodies. Within this framework, the lab isolates new stem cell populations, studies the mechanisms underlying stem cell apoptosis and promotes novel techniques for regenerative medicine and cancer therapy.

The study was supported by the Office of the Chief Scientist (KAMIN), RCDA, ICRF and GIF grants.

Researchers from Israel’s Technion have created a new type of optical system. Their “nano-hedgehogs  of light”, also known as optical skyrmions, set the stage for a new platform for information processing, transfer and storage applications.

HAIFA, ISRAEL (July 26, 2018) – Technion-Israel institute of Technology researchers have succeeded in generating minute “nano-hedgehogs of light” called optical skyrmions, which could make possible revolutionary advances in information processing, transfer and storage.

The research, published recently in Science, was led by Professor Guy Bartal of the Viterbi Department of Electrical Engineering and Professor Netanel Lindner of the Physics Department at the Technion. The research team also included Professor Bergin Gjonaj of the Albanian University Faculty of Medicine in Tirana; as well as Shai Tsesses, Evgeni Ostrovsky and Kobi Cohen, all research students at the Technion.

The term “skyrmion” is derived from the name of Dr. Tony Skyrme, an English physicist who, in 1962, discovered that high-energy arrangements of physical systems with fields that have a “hedgehog-like configuration” enjoy an enhanced stability. Over the years, the concept was applied to several material systems, most notably in magnets. Hedgehog arrangements are considered a highly promising alternative for data representation, which could drastically increase computer memory storage.

Currently, most of the world’s information is inserted or extracted on hard drives via a mechanical arm. But information management based on skyrmions only requires weak electrical currents. And skyrmions are of nanoscale dimensions – with diameters 10,000 times smaller than that of a hair strand. Such features are why skyrmions are expected to dramatically optimize, speed up and reduce the costs of information processing, transfer and storage.

The Technion researchers were the first to extend Dr. Skyrme’s idea to the world of optics: they managed to generate skyrmions using the electrical field of electromagnetic waves. In contrast to “regular” light waves, whose electrical fields usually point along a specific direction (a physical principle underlying, for example, polarized sunglasses), the Technion researchers demonstrated that an electric field can take on a “skyrmion” shape and simultaneously face in all directions, such that its spatial configuration looks like the quills of a hedgehog. In addition, they showed that these “light hedgehogs” are robust against various defects in the material hosting the electromagnetic waves.

Successful generation of skrymions in electromagnetic waves may be of critical importance in practical applications. To date, materials in which skrymions are formed are very rare and usually require cooling to very low temperatures, typically achieved with liquid nitrogen or helium. The new discovery by the Technion team could enable future replication of this unique effect in a wide range of systems and materials, including  liquids, nanoparticle systems and even cold atomic gasses. It might also lay the ground for new skyrmion applications in optical (rather than magnetic) information processing, transfer and storage.

The work was supported by the Jacobs Foundation, I-CORE Excellence Center, the Israel Science Foundation (ISF) and the European Research Council (ERC).

Technion Researchers Discover “Severe” Bluetooth Communication Breach

HAIFA, ISRAEL (July 25, 2018) – Researchers in the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology Computer Science Department and the Hiroshi Fujiwara Cyber Security Research Center at the Technion have successfully deciphered Bluetooth communication, which was previously considered a safe communication channel against breaches. This was done as part of Lior Neumann’s master’s thesis, supervised by Prof. Eli Biham, head of the Hiroshi Fujiwara Cyber Security Research Center.

Bluetooth technology, developed in the 1990s, quickly became a popular platform thanks to its simplicity of use. Unlike Wi-Fi, Bluetooth is not based on a network connecting several devices to one another but rather on the individual pairing of two devices (e.g. a headset and a telephone). This method allows convenient use and configuration and makes securing communication between devices easier.

When using a Bluetooth headset, for example, the user must confirm the action on his phone. A connection is then established between the headset and the phone: an encrypted channel is formed between the two devices. Over the years, Bluetooth technology has developed and expanded, and has advanced to the latest encryption technologies. For this reason, this technology was widely considered immune to attack. And thanks to its simplicity and low cost, Bluetooth technology is present in almost every technological consumer device such as wearable equipment, car speakers, smart TVs, smart clocks, keyboards, and computers. It also supports Internet connections, printers and faxes.

After a year of theoretical and experimental work, Neumann and Prof. Biham developed an offensive that exposes a vulnerability in all the latest versions of Bluetooth. According to Prof. Biham, who is considered to be one of the world’s most prominent researchers in cryptography, “The technology we developed reveals the encryption key shared by the devices and allows us, or a third device, to join the conversation. We can eavesdrop on or sabotage a conversation. As long as we do not actively participate, the user has no way of knowing that there is a third party listening in.”

Bluetooth device coupling uses a mathematical concept called ECC: elliptic-curve cryptography. At the moment of coupling, the Bluetooth devices use points on a mathematical structure called an elliptical curve to determine a common secret key on which encryption is based. The Technion researchers found a point with special properties located outside the curve, which allows them to determine the result of the calculation without being identified as malicious by the device. Using that point, they set the encryption key that will be used by the two coupled components.

The offensive developed by Neumann and Prof. Biham is relevant to both aspects of Bluetooth technology – the hardware (chip) and the operating system (such as Android or iOS) in both devices (the headset and phone in the case of the example above) – and threatens the newest versions of the international standard. The Technion researchers contacted the CERT Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon University and Bluetooth SIG and informed them of the breach they discovered. “We also contacted major international companies including Intel, Google, Apple, Qualcomm, and Broadcom, which hold most of the relevant market, and informed them about the breach and ways to fix it,” said Prof. Biham. “Google defined the breach as ‘severe’ and distributed an update about a month ago; Apple released an update this week. Other manufacturers who heard about the breach contacted us in order to check their products.”

More information can be found here: https://www.cs.technion.ac.il/~biham/BT/

 

 

 

Researchers at Technion’s Computer Science Department and the Technion Hiroshi Fujiwara cyber security research center successfully deciphered Bluetooth communication, which was considered a safe communication channel against breaches. This was done as part of Lior Neumann’s master’s thesis, supervised by Prof. Eli Biham, head of the Hiroshi Fujiwara Cyber Security Research Center at the Technion.

Bluetooth technology, developed in the 1990s, quickly became a popular platform thanks to its simplicity of use. Unlike Wi-Fi, Bluetooth is not based on a network connecting several devices to one another but rather on individual pairing of two devices – a headset and a telephone, for example. This method allows convenient use and configuration and makes securing communication between devices easier.

For example, when using a Bluetooth headset, the user must confirm the action on his phone. A connection is then established between the headset and the phone: an encrypted channel is formed between the two devices. Over the years, Bluetooth technology has developed and expanded, and has advanced to the latest encryption technologies. For this reason, this technology was widely considered immune to attack. Thanks to its simplicity and low cost, Bluetooth technology is present in almost every technological consumer device such as wearable equipment, car speakers, smart TVs, smart clocks, keyboards, and computers. It also supports Internet connections, printers and faxes.

After a year of theoretical and experimental work, Neumann and Prof. Biham have succeeded in developing an offensive that exposes a vulnerability in all the latest versions of Bluetooth. According to Prof. Biham, currently one of the most prominent researchers in cryptography, “The technology we developed reveals the encryption key shared by the devices and allows us, or a third device, to join the conversation. We can eavesdrop on, or sabotage a conversation. As long as we do not actively participate, the user has no way of knowing that there is a third party listening in.”

Bluetooth device coupling uses a mathematical concept called ECC: elliptic-curve cryptography. At the moment of coupling, the Bluetooth devices use points on a mathematical structure called an elliptical curve to determine a common secret key on which encryption is based. The Technion researchers found a point with special properties located outside the curve, which allows them to determine the result of the calculation but is not identified as malicious by the device. Using that point, they set the encryption key that will be used by the two coupled components.

The offensive developed by Neumann and Prof. Biham is relevant to both aspects of Bluetooth technology – the hardware (chip) and the operating system (such as Android or iOS) in both devices (the headset and phone in the case of the example above) – and threatens the newest versions of the international standard. The Technion researchers contacted the CERT Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon University and Bluetooth SIG and informed them of the breach they discovered. “We also contacted major international companies including Intel, Google, Apple, Qualcomm, and Broadcom, which hold most of the relevant market, and informed them about the breach and ways to fix it,” said Prof. Biham. “Google defined the breach as ‘severe’ and distributed an update about a month ago; Apple released an update this week. Other manufacturers who heard about the breach contacted us in order to check their products.”

 

More information can be found here: https://www.cs.technion.ac.il/~biham/BT/

Researchers from Israel’s Technion have developed a new method for super-resolution single-molecule microscopy with unrivaled efficiency. In a matter of seconds/minutes, it produces images that typically take hours or even days to produce, and could make it possible to visualize nanoscale dynamic processes in real time.

HAIFA, ISRAEL (July 23, 2018) – Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have developed an innovative image reconstruction technique for super-resolution microscopy. The method exhibits unprecedented speed and accuracy, achieving state-of-the-art resolution without any assumptions on the structure in the sample. In a matter of seconds/minutes, it produces images that typically take hours or even days to produce.

The research group was led by Dr. Yoav Shechtman of the Technion Faculty of Biomedical Engineering and Lorry I. Lokey Interdisciplinary Center for Life Sciences & Engineering, and Dr. Tomer Michaeli of the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering. The study, published in Optica, was conducted by student Elias Nehme and post-doctoral researcher Dr. Lucian E. Weiss.

“Typically in super-resolution microscopy, the data is analyzed and an image is produced only after the acquisition is over,” said Dr. Shechtman. “It would be highly desirable to visualize nanoscale dynamic processes in real time, and this technique gets us one step closer to this feat, by enabling ultra-fast image reconstruction.”

In traditional optical microscopes, the resolution (or sharpness) of the image is constrained by the Abbe diffraction limit, a boundary calculated by German physicist Ernst Karl Abbe in 1873. Abbe proved that a microscope’s potential resolution could not go beyond a certain point – approximately half a wavelength. In other words, using wavelengths that are visible to the human eye, it is impossible to distinguish features smaller than 200-300 nanometers.

Of course, the optical microscope has advanced since the 19th century and new methods have succeeded in bypassing the Abbe diffraction limit in order to produce higher resolutions, known as super-resolution imaging. Despite this, the field of nano-biology presents challenges to these new methods, in part because short waves that allow for higher resolutions can harm living cells. Moreover, the dynamic nature of living cells makes imaging speed critical.

Localization microscopy, known as PALM (Photo-Activated Localization Microscopy) and STORM (Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy), is a recently developed method that produces a single image from a sequence of images (a movie) containing blinking fluorescent molecules. Computerized analysis of this movie, which typically consists of determining the positions of each individual molecule, produces a single super-resolved image with a resolution about 10 times better than the resolution of a conventional microscope.

Even this technology has difficulties reconstructing a single image from the many pictures of flickering molecules. For example, when nearby molecules blink simultaneously, their images overlap and make it difficult to determine their individual positions. Various computational solutions have been designed to solve this problem, but all of them are very complex, have long run times, and demand parameter-tuning, making them difficult to use for the non-experts.

The innovation of the Technion group is to harness the accumulated knowledge in artificial neural networks to aid with the super-resolution imaging problem. Artificial neural networks are a set of algorithms, modeled loosely after the human brain, that are designed to recognize patterns. Their hierarchical structure allows them to analyze complex information and to interpret sensory data through a kind of machine perception, labeling or clustering raw input.

The Technion researchers trained the computer to automatically produce super-resolution images from blinking data, by feeding it images of dense molecules along with their correct positions. The resulting method produces highly accurate super-resolution images directly from the raw fluorescence intensity images, and does so orders of magnitude faster than existing approaches. Moreover, unlike existing methods, this method does not require any parameters, special skills from the user, or previous knowledge about the structure of the sample.

The research was sponsored by Google Research Fund, the Zuckerman Foundation, the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology through its Career Advancement Chairship, the Ollendorf Foundation, the Henry and Marilyn Taub Foundation, the Alon Fellowship program, and the Israel Science Foundation. NVIDIA donated a cutting-edge Titan Xp GPU graphics card to the research team.

Click here for the paper in Nature

Technion Leads Israeli Universities with US Patents

The Technion is Israel’s leading university for registering patents in the United States with 56 patents approved in 2017, according to data from the US Patent and Trademark Office. In the list of the world’s top 100 universities registering patents in the US, the Technion ranked 39th – a jump of 14 places in a year, after being ranked 53rd in 2016.

In the ranking, the Technion is ahead of top global universities such as Yale, the University of Tokyo, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech, and the French École Polytechnique. The highest rank went to the University of California, followed by MIT, the University of Texas, and Stanford University. Tel Aviv University ranked 64th and the Hebrew University 82nd.

The 2017 ranking was published last month by the NAI (National Academy of Inventors) and IPO (Intellectual Property Owners Association) and is based on data from the US Patent and Trademark Office.

“The institutions on this list are doing incredible work promoting academic innovation and incubating groundbreaking technologies which exemplify the importance of technology transfer to institutional success,” said NAI President Paul R. Sanberg. “It is a privilege to showcase the vital contributions to society made by universities.”

“This joyous achievement expresses our approach to the interaction between basic science and applied science,” said Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie. “At the inauguration of the Technion’s first class in 1924, Menachem Ussishkin said, “Practical science and basic science are two sides of the same coin.” Since then, this concept has been part of the Technion’s DNA. Quality research does not contradict applied science, but rather supports it.”

The Technion’s patent registration is led by its commercialization unit, T³ (Technion Technology Transfer), which is part of the Technion R&D Foundation. The unit is responsible for scouting and examining new ideas and technologies; exploring potential; registration and maintenance of patents; and the commercialization of intellectual property originating at the Technion.

The complete rating: http://academyofinventors.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/TOP-2017.pdf

Ten researchers from the Technion received prestigious ERC grants from the EU.

A ceremony recently took place during the Technion’s annual Board of Governors meeting, awarding prizes to outstanding researchers. These include prizes donated by Technion supporters as well as recognizing prestigious ERC grants awarded as part of the European Union ‘Horizon 2020’ research program.

During the years 2016-2018, 10 faculty members from various disciplines won prestigious ERC grants. ERC Advanced Grants were awarded to Distinguished Prof. Moti Segev (Physics), Prof. Ilan Marek (Chemistry), Prof. Yuval Ishai (Computer Science), and Prof. Moshe Tennenholtz (Industrial Engineering and Management).  ERC Consolidator Grants were awarded to Assoc. Prof. Yuval Shaked and Prof. Lior Gepstein (Medicine).

ERC Starting Grants were awarded to Assoc. Prof. Asya Rolls (Medicine), Assoc. Prof. Uri Shapira (Mathematics), Assoc. Prof. Keren Censor-Hillel (Computer Science), and Asst. Prof. Shahar Kvatinsky (Electrical Engineering).

The Uzi and Michal Halevy Innovative Applied Engineering Award was won by Asst. Prof. Beni Cukurel (Faculty of Aerospace Engineering), and the Uzi and Michal Halevy Research Grants were awarded to Asst. Prof. Vadim Indelman (Aerospace Engineering) and Assoc. Prof. Alejandro Sosnik (Materials Science and Engineering).

The annual Hilda and Hershel Rich Technion Innovation Awards for inventions or research with business potential were won this year by: Assoc. Prof. Moran Bercovici, Nadya Ostromohov, Tal Zeidman-Kalman and Tally Rosenfeld (Mechanical Engineering); Assoc. Prof. Aharon Blank and Itai Katz (Chemistry); Assoc. Prof. Sefi Givli and Dr. Itamar Benichou (Mechanical Engineering); Prof. Gideon Grader, Assoc. Prof. Avner Rothschild, Dr. Hen Dotan, Dr. Gennady Shter and Avigail Landman (Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering); Assoc. Prof. Carmel Rotschild (Mechanical Engineering) and Asst. Prof. Yael Yaniv (Biomedical Engineering).

Era of Cooperation: New Interdisciplinary Science Building at Technion

A generous donation by the Adelis Foundation has enabled the establishment of the André Deloro Building for Biosciences, Medicine and Engineering

The cornerstone of the André Deloro Building for Biosciences, Medicine and Engineering was recently laid on the Technion campus – a new facility dedicated to interdisciplinary research. The new building will be constructed thanks to a generous donation by the Adelis Foundation, and will serve as a meeting place for scientists, bridging fields that were once researched individually.

The ceremony was attended by President of the Adelis Foundation Albert Deloro (brother of the late André Cohen Deloro), Trustee of the Adelis Foundation Rebecca Boukhris, General Manager of Association Technion France Muriel Touaty, Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie and Technion Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development Prof. Boaz Golany. The master of ceremonies was Prof. Eric Akkermans of the Faculty of Physics.  

Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie said that, “André Deloro was a civil engineer who understood the significance of building bridges between different fields of research, between institutions, between people, and between countries. This understanding led to the establishment of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine in the late 1960s thanks to a prophetic and courageous decision by Technion management. The Faculty’s establishment, just like the building that will be erected here, was based on the understanding that medicine and engineering must go hand in hand.”

“The future of research lies in shattering dogmas and breaking down traditional walls between disciplines,” said Adelis Foundation Trustee Rebecca Boukhris. “The Deloro Building will also have an important social role: making medicine equally accessible to the entire population. We are not only investing money here, but also a great deal of hope, and we have no doubt that Technion will make the best possible use of this investment,” she added.

Technion, the Adelis Foundation and the Deloro family have a longstanding relationship that has generated the establishment of the new interdisciplinary building. The new building will include modern labs and facilities designed for researchers across the Technion, who will work together to advance interdisciplinary research and groundbreaking developments in science and medicine. These developments are expected to affect the lives of millions of people around the world, as Albert Deloro said at the ceremony: “The building will honor the memory of André Deloro in the best possible way – as a home for scientists from different faculties who will work towards a common goal: helping humankind overcome disease. The building will realize André’s vision of a strong Israel open to the world, and will showcase the excellence of Technion’s scientists and their wisdom.”    

The Adelis Foundation was established in 2009 by the late André Cohen Deloro in order to support academic excellence in Israel, especially in the fields of scientific and medical research. After André Cohen Deloro passed away, the Foundation management established the Adelis Prize for Brain Research, in accordance with Mr. Deloro’s intellectual legacy and vision. The prize is intended to encourage excellence in the field of brain research in Israel and to translate the research into global impact for the benefit of all humanity. The prize is open to all young Israeli researchers in the field of brain research, and the winner receives a $100,000 research grant.

The 2018 Adelis Prize for Brain Research was awarded at Technion to Dr. Ofer Yizhar from the Weizmann Institute of Science

The 2018 Adelis Prize for Brain Research was awarded at Technion to Dr. Ofer Yizhar from the Weizmann Institute of Science. The main criteria for winning the Adelis Prize are excellence, innovation and proven scientific achievements. The Adelis Foundation’s management noted that the level of candidates submitted this year was outstanding and is a clear indicator of the vast potential of brain research in Israel.

The Adelis Foundation was established by the late Mr. André Cohen Deloro in order to support academic excellence in Israel, especially in the fields of scientific and medical research. In 2015, the Foundation inaugurated the Adelis Prize for Brain Research, now in its fourth year, in keeping with the intellectual legacy of its founder and out of loyalty to his vision. Each year, the Foundation confers a $100,000 research grant to a young, trailblazing Israeli researcher in the field of brain research. The prize is meant to encourage excellence among young Israeli scientists who are studying the brain, advance knowledge about the brain’s functioning and illnesses connected to the brain, and translate this knowledge into international impact.

This year, the jury included Dr. Gal Ifergan, Prof. Moshe Bar, Prof. Illana Gozes, Prof. Eilon Vaadia, Prof. Jackie Schiller, Prof. Noam Ziv, Prof. Rafi Malach and Prof. Michal Schwartz – all leading researchers in the field in Israel.

Dr. Yizhar received the award from the President of the Adelis Foundation, Mr. Albert Deloro (Mr. André Cohen Deloro’s brother), Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie and trustees of the Adelis Foundation. The ceremony took place on June 11^th during Technion Board of Governors meeting.

Prof. Jackie Schiller from Technion’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine explained the jury’s decision: “Dr. Ofer Yizhar is a talented young scientist who has become one of the leading brain researchers in Israel. Dr. Yizhar develops innovative optogenetic methods for researching and learning about one of the most fascinating questions in brain studies: what are the mechanisms in the brain that are responsible for emotional and cognitive effects of social abnormalities? This study aims at understanding the parts of the brain responsible for controlling social behavior that, when damaged, might trigger psychiatric disorders. Dr. Yizhar has already positioned himself as a brilliant scientist on a global level, with several significant contributions to the field of optogenetics and the study of social behavior abnormalities in autism.”

Dr. Ofer Yizhar

Dr. Ofer Yizhar is a senior researcher in the Department of Neurobiology of the Weizmann Institute of Science. He received a BSc with honors in Biology from The Hebrew University and a PhD with honors in Neurobiology from Tel Aviv University. He completed his postdoc at Stanford University in the U.S., after which he joined the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2011 as a senior researcher.

The research in Dr. Yizhar’s lab deals with the mechanisms by which the prefrontal cortex controls behavior, emotional regulation and social communication. In order to conduct in-depth research on the prefrontal cortex’s complex nerve circuits, Dr. Yizhar is developing and implementing a method known as optogenetics.Optogenetics lets scientists understand the contribution of neurons to brain processes and decipher the complex connectivity network the brain uses for neuronal computation. Dr. Yizhar’s group uses these methods to understanding the organization of functional synaptic connectivity in the prefrontal cortex of mice. Genetic modifications related to psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and autism, as well as social isolation and extended stress, trigger changes in this network’s connectivity. Dr. Yizhar’s research focuses on characterizing these changes in order to better understand the mechanisms of the prefrontal cortex and the changes that occur in cases of psychiatric disorders.

 

Researchers at Israel’s Technion have discovered a relation between the structure of α-helical strands in proteins and the formation of the toxic fibrils involved in neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s diseases, and other systemic amyloidosis, including type 2 diabetes. The findings might one day lead to a development of drugs for the aforementioned diseases.

Researchers Find Clues About Formation of Toxic Fibrils Involved in Neurodegenerative Diseases, Other Amyloidosis

HAIFA, ISRAEL (July 2, 2018) – Researchers in the Technion’s Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering have discovered a relation between the structure of α-helical strands in proteins and the formation of amyloid fibrils – toxic fibrils involved in neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s diseases, and other systemic amyloidosis, including type 2 diabetes. The findings, published in Biophysical Journal, could one day lead to a development of drugs for the aforementioned diseases.

According to the researchers, helical coils of a certain structure are not stabilized by the environment, which increases the probability of amyloid formation.

Proteins are biomolecular machines involved in a wide range of vital biological processes, including the transfer of oxygen from the lungs to the various organs and carbon dioxide in the opposite direction; extracting energy from molecules such as glucose; reception and conversion of acoustic and visual information into bioelectrical signals; and synthesis of DNA and other biopolymers.

The proteins themselves are biopolymers made up of amino acid chains folded into three-dimensional structures that allow them to function. However, protein misfolding may impair function. A defect in protein folding may lead to various disruptions, including the formation of amyloid fibrils – very stable structures formed from misfolded polypeptide residues. These fibrils tend to accumulate in the brain in lumps, causing disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, type 2 diabetes, Huntington’s, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob (“mad cow disease”). Their exceptional stability allows them to survive in particularly severe biological conditions.

Due to the toxicity of amyloid fibrils and their potential damage, many researchers around the world are working to decipher the matter of amyloidogenicity – the conditions that cause the massive formation of amyloid fibrils.

The study was led by Prof. Simcha Srebnik and doctoral student Boris Haimov. They studied the structure of α-helical regions in proteins that are involved in the formation of these fibrils. They developed novel equations that provide meaningful information on helical structures, and which were published in 2016 as an innovative analytical tool in the journal Scientific Reports. Existing helical domains were scanned and information was extracted using the equations. This information was cross-checked against existing information on amyloidogenic domains and a clear correlation was found between the helical structure and amyloidogenicity.

In order to explain the relationship between the helical structure and amyloidogenicity, the researchers developed a physical model that assumes that structural changes are influenced by stabilizing forces in their environment. According to this model, the helical region forms bifurcated hydrogen bonds with the surrounding molecules (usually water molecules), creating a kind of protective sheath around the helical region. The model allows for the assessment of whether the helical region is protected and thus predict its amyloidogenicity. When the area is not protected, the formation of amyloid fibrils is more likely; when it is protected, such formation is not expected.

Prof. Simcha Srebnik’s research group engages in the theoretical analysis and understanding of polymers and biopolymers. She and Boris Haimov conducted the present study through Technion’s Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute (RBNI). The researchers envision that the findings of their studies, which clarify the impact of environmental factors on helical structures with a tendency to form amyloid fibrils, will lead to the development of ways to prevent the formation of these fibrils.

This work was funded in part by the Israel Science Foundation Grant No. 265/16. Boris Haimov acknowledges the generous financial support of the Irwin and Joan Jacobs Fellowship, and the generous financial support of The Miriam and Aaron Gutwirth Memorial Fellowship.

Researchers at Israel’s Technion have created a mechanical way to make light go one way (and one way only) at nanoscales. It’s the first of its kind optical “isolator,” which might prove useful in quantum computing and optical computing, where you want to precisely control the direction and “size” of the light signals that move from chip to chip and carry the information of the computational process.

HAIFA, ISRAEL (July 12, 2018) – Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have constructed a first of its kind optic isolator, based on resonance of light waves on a rapidly rotating glass sphere.  This is the first photonic device in which light advancing in opposite directions moves at different speeds.

“Essentially, we developed a very efficient photonic isolator, which can isolate 99.6% of the light,” said research team leader Professor Tal Carmon. “Namely, if we sent 1,000 light particles, the device will effectively isolate 996 photons and will miss only 4. Such isolation efficiency is necessary for applications that include quantum optics communication devices and building high-powered lasers. The isolator we developed here fulfills several additional requirements: it also works well when light from both opposing directions is simultaneously perceived, it is compatible with standard optical-fiber technology, it can be scaled down and it does not change the color of the light.”

Just as swimming downstream is faster than swimming upstream and riding a bicycle with the wind behind you is faster than riding against the wind, light also changes its speed with “tailwinds” or “counter-flow”, in response to the medium in which it is moving. The speed of light in glass, for instance, is slower than its speed in air. Also, two beams of light advancing in opposite directions in glass, or any other material, will advance at the same speed. 

“At the Technion, I also learned that the speed of light depends on the speed of the medium in which it is moving,” said Professor Carmon. “Precisely like a swimmer in a river – the speed of light against the movement of the medium is slower than its speed with the movement of the medium.”

This effect was already described in 1849 by the French scientist Armond Fizeau, who showed, that like a swimmer in a river, the speed of light down a current is faster than light going up a current. Fizeau’s discovery had a significant impact on the development of Einstein’s theory of Special Relativity.

The Fizeau drag may lead to significant applications in optics and computers, as its unique ability to differentiate between the speeds of light for counter-propagating beams can generate an optic isolator – a device into which light entering on one side is blocked, while the light entering from another side is transmitted. Until now, a device in which opposing light beams advance at different speeds, had not be constructed.

But now, for the first time, Technion researchers have succeeded in constructing such a device. The spherical optic device rotates at a high speed. Light beams are delivered into it from opposite directions via a nearby tapered fiber. The light approaching from the right moves along the circumference of the ball, in the direction of the rotation of the sphere, while the light approaching from the left turns opposite the direction of the rotation and therefore moves at a slower speed.

The novel device constitutes an optic isolator – it transmits light approaching from the left and turns off light coming from the right. Another effect that is relevant here is resonance. Just like a musical instrument that resonates at a specific frequency, light circumferentially circulating in the sphere resonantly echoes. Yet, the different speeds for counter-circulating light forces these counter-circulating light to have different colors. This way, light entering from one side

echoes inside the sphere while circulating thousands of times in the sphere, until it is absorbed. In contrast, light entering from the opposing side of the isolator is nonresonating and hence passes through the device practically undisturbed. In other words, the light moving with the device, resonates and is shut off, while the light moving against the device is transmitted and continues on”.

Professor Carmon noted that the device was constructed at the Technion glass blowing workshop. It was constructed from a glass rod whose tip was melted to a 1 millimeter-radius ball. The light enters the isolator from both sides of a standard optical fiber, tapered at the vicinity of the sphere to a diameter 100-time smaller than that of a hair, and positioned several nanometers away from the sphere. The sphere, which serves as the resonator, rotates at an ultra-fast speed – the tip of the ball moves at a speed of 300 kph – and the light coming from the fiber rotates within it thousands of times.

One of the engineering challenges the research group faced was maintaining the ultra-short distance between the fiber – via which light is provided – and the spherical resonator constant.

“Maintaining an accurate distance is a true challenge, even when the device is not moving, and is an enormous challenge when the sphere is rotating at such a high speed,” said Prof. Carmon. “Therefore, we sought a means of forcing the fiber to move together with the sphere, despite the fact that the fiber and sphere are not connected.  We finally achieved this by designing the fiber to float on the wind generated by the rotation of the sphere. In this way, if the device wobbles – which it does due to the rapid rotation – the fiber will wobble with it and the distance between them will be preserved. In fact, the fiber is actually flying above the rotating sphere at a constant and self-alighted nano-elevation”

The photo shows the fiber (the empty circle), the tip of the rotating sphere (at the bottom, in grey), and the flow of wind between them, upon which the fiber floats. The fiber floats above the sphere while maintaining a distance of several tens of nanometers.

Professor Carmon hopes this nano-seperated paves a path toward a novel type of mechanical device based on relatively unexplored forces that dominates at nano-scale separation.

“The forces acting at such distances include Casimir and Van der Waals forces – very strong forces originating from quantum effects, which, to date, have barely been exploited in mechanical devices, in general, and in mechanical oscillators, in particular,” he said. “We recently demonstrated, for the first time, lasers in which water waves mediate laser emission; and also, for the first time, micro-lasers where sound mediates laser emission.”

In the future, the researchers may be able to generate such lasers that are based on vibrations where the restoring force is Casimir or Van der Waals. Using their self-aligned nano separation method might also allow micro electro mechanical devices [MEMS] where Casimir and Van der Waals forces will be used.

This work was led by Professor Carmon, and conducted by his research team and his collaborators at the College of Optics and Photonics (CEOL) at the University of Michigan and at Hunan Normal University. The experiment at the Technion was conducted by Rafi Dahan, who was a Master’s student at the time, and Shai Maayani, then a doctoral candidate. Dr. Maayani is currently a postdoctoral fellow at MIT, where he is developing novel optic fibers under the guidance of Professor Joel Fink, a Technion alumnus. Dr. Maayani chose this research discipline, which was categorized as a strategic need for Israel, with the goal of returning to Israel after his postdoc for a faculty position. Professor Carmon emphasizes that the five first authors are Technion Mechanical Engineering faculty, including Yuri Kligerman and Eduard Moses, who performed the computations.

This study was supported by the I-CORE and “Circle of Light” Excellence Centers and by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Space.

Researchers at the Technion have successfully shrunk cancerous tumors in mice by manipulating the brain’s reward system. The explanation: the intervention caused the nervous system to stimulate the immune system.

Artificially activating the brain’s reward system has led to a dramatic reduction in the size of cancerous tumors in mice. This is the conclusion of a study conducted at the Technion and published in the journal Nature Communications. The research was led by doctoral students Tamar Ben-Shaanan and Maya Schiller, under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Asya Rolls of the Technion Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Technion Asst. Prof. Fahed Hakim, Medical Director of the Scottish EMMS Hospital in Nazareth.

The immune system’s natural ability to destroy cancer cells has become increasingly clear in recent years. This has led to the growth of immunotherapy – an innovative medical approach based on the understanding that the immune system is able to fight cancer effectively if given the tools. In 2013, the editors of the journal Science called immunotherapy the most important breakthrough of the year. “However,” explains Prof. Rolls, “the immune cells’ involvement in cancerous processes is a double-edged sword, because certain components in these cells support tumor growth. This is done by blocking the immune response and creating an environment that is beneficial to growth.”

Prof. Rolls has been studying the brain’s effect on the immune system for several years. In a study she published in 2016 in Nature Medicine, she showed how the immune system can be stimulated by manipulating the brain’s reward system – which operates in positive emotional states and in anticipation of the positive. She says, “By artificially activating the region, we can affect the nervous system and, in turn, the immune system.” In the same article, Prof. Rolls and her colleagues showed that artificial intervention sends messages to the sympathetic nervous system, which stimulates the immune system. Moreover, as a result of the intervention, the immune system created a stronger immune memory against the bacteria to which it had been exposed, therefore it will work more efficiently the next time it is exposed to the same bacteria.

Most immune cells come from the bone marrow – the spongy tissue found in bones. The brain communicates directly with bone marrow, and can affect its attributes. The main breakthrough in this study is the researchers’ success in harnessing the immune system and preventing the cancerous tumor from taking over. The result is a dramatic contraction of the cancerous tumor in response to the activation of the brain reward system.

“The relationship between a person’s emotional state and cancer has been demonstrated in the past, but mainly in relation to negative feelings such as stress and depression and without a physiological map of the action mechanism,” Prof. Rolls said. Several researchers, for example, Prof. David Spiegel of the Stanford University School of Medicine showed that an improvement in the patient’s emotional state may affect the course of the disease, but it was not clear how this happened. We are now presenting a physiological model that can explain at least part of this effect.”

According to Prof. Hakim, “Understanding the brain’s influence on the immune system and its ability to fight cancer will enable us to use this mechanism in medical treatments. Different people react differently, and we’ll be able to take advantage of this tremendous potential for healing only if we gain a thorough understanding of the mechanisms.”

The authors pointed out that the study is preclinical and that they tested only two cancer models (melanoma and lung cancer) and only two developmental aspects – tumor volume and weight. However, this breakthrough will allow doctors to realize the physiological role the patients’ mental state may play in the development of malignant diseases. By artificially activating different parts of the brain, in the future it might be possible to encourage the immune system to block development of cancerous tumors more effectively.

“I want to emphasize what our findings do not say,” Prof. Rolls said. “They do not say that it is applicable for all types of cancer and most importantly that it is not applicable to humans at this point. It is a robust artificial type of manipulation, designed to determine the system’s potential. In real-life situations, it most probably works differently, especially because other systems are also involved. For example, stress may counteract these reward system effects. I think it’s crucial for people to know that it’s not that one can just think positively and get better. People are very different in their reactions, and until we fully understand how this works, it merely offers a potential.”

The work was supported by the Adelis Brain Research Award. The Adelis Foundation was established by the late André Cohen Deloro to support academic excellence in Israel, in particular within the realm of medical and scientific research. In 2015, in line with Deloro’s legacy and vision, the Foundation inaugurated the Adelis Brain Research Award and the winner receives a $100,000 research grant. The prize is intended to encourage excellence in the field of brain research in Israel and to translate the research into global impact for the benefit of all humanity

Assoc. Prof. Asya Rolls completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Technion’s Faculty of Biology, and after her doctorate at the Weizmann Institute of Science and post-doctorate at the Department of Psychiatry at Stanford University in California, she joined the Technion’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine in 2012 as a faculty member. She was awarded the Adelis Brain Research Award, the Krill Prize, a European Research Council Grant, elected to the Israel Young Academy of Sciences and the FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence, and recognized as one of 40 international researchers by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).

Clinical Asst. Prof. Fahed Hakim was recently appointed Medical Director of the Scottish EMSS Hospital in Nazareth and continues to serve as a Senior Physician at the Pediatric Lung Institute at the Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa. Prof. Hakim is an expert in pediatrics, pediatric pulmonology, and sleep disorders. He is an active member of the international associations for the study of lung disease, sleep, and brain research respectively. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Sleep Research at the University of Chicago in Illinois in 2013, he joined the Technion’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine as a faculty member.