Author: shlomi ben-oz

A study from the lab of Prof. Noam Adir of the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology: natural evolutionary processes prevent the presence of dangerous and potentially lethal molecular interactions by avoiding the presence of specific protein sequences in microorganisms. They found these sequences by a novel method – looking for what is missing in biological data sets. The group then experimentally showed that when these sequences are present in a protein, bacterial growth is indeed inhibited. The study was recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA.

Evolution is an ongoing process, whereby those individuals of species that are the most fit for their environment have more offspring and thus out-compete less fit individuals. The individual’s fitness is a product of the quality of its cellular biochemistry, made possible by the thousands of enzymes that allow its physiology to perform all of the necessary chemical reactions that allow the cell to live. Deficiency in these molecular functions can lead to disease, loss of adaptability to environmental changes, or weakness against other organisms. The molecular machines that make life possible are large polymers made up of linear sequences of building blocks that contain different chemical functions: proteins, DNA, and RNA. Biological variety is a result of the evolutionary changes in these polymers, first and foremost the result of the astronomic number of possible permutations in the order of the 20 naturally occurring amino acid (AA) residues that are the building blocks of proteins. There are 8,000 possible sequences of three AAs, 160,000 sequences of four AAs, over 3 million sequences of five AAs and so on. Since proteins can contain between hundreds to thousands of AAs, the possibilities are endless.

The millions of different protein sequences found in all organisms determine the three-dimensional structures that give proteins the ability to function correctly. Proteins in cells can work alone or associate correctly with other cellular components, while avoiding incorrect and harmful associations with other components. Changes to the sequences naturally occur due to mutations (single site, or larger changes due to more dramatic sequence shuffling) of an organism’s DNA – the genetic material. Changes due to mutations can lead to new positive characteristics, or they may have negative consequences to the organism’s viability. A mutation that has a negative effect may prevent the organism from competing with other organisms in its environment, eventually leading to its demise. One could predict that over time, evolutionary pressure would work against the presence of organisms containing these internally lethal sequences and they would disappear.

Over the past few years, there has been a world-wide effort to obtain the entire DNA sequences (the entire genomes) of many organisms. These data have given us the ability to predict all of the possible protein sequences (the proteome) that might exist in organisms as simple as bacteria or as complicated as humans. Prof. Adir and his students, Dr. Sharon Penias-Navon and Ms. Tali Schwartzman, hypothesized that the huge amount of data made available by modern genomics would allow them to look for short sequences that occur less often than expected or are completely missing in the organism’s proteome. They developed a computer program that searched the many existing data sets to identify short sequences that are underrepresented (URSs). While they found that most of the sequences of three or four AAs indeed do exist at their expected frequency in the proteins of different organisms, URSs do exist. They used the program to search for URSs in the proteomes of many different organisms (especially pathogenic microorganisms) and found that different organisms have different URSs.  Adir and Penias-Navon wanted to prove that these URSs are indeed harmful, and they hypothesized that protein synthesis (translation) by the ribosome is the function that URSs might harm.

They embedded bacterial URSs (identified in the proteome of the gut bacterium E. coli) comprised of three or four AAs in a normal protein sequence, and showed that no matter where they put the URS, protein translation was inhibited. They showed that these same E. coli URSs had no effect on protein translation in human cells, showing that the effect is species specific. They further showed that one four-AA URS was powerful enough to inhibit translation completely to the point where the growth of the bacterial cells was significantly reduced: these are indeed lethal sequences. Adir and Navon suggested that URSs could be used as highly specific anti-microbial agents, and a patent, together with the Technion, was submitted.

In order to obtain even more precise molecular details on the action of the URS, they initiated a collaboration with Prof. Joseph Puglisi and his student Dr. Guy Kornberg of Stanford University, who are experts in following protein translation in single ribosomes, thereby obtaining direct information on the translation reaction mechanism. Using these single molecule methods, the inhibitory effect of the existence of a URS on translation was confirmed. Their methods enabled a precise determination of the site of inhibition. They found that as soon as the URS AAs enter the entrance to the ribosomal nascent protein exit tunnel, translation is inhibited.

Dr. Buzz Aldrin, the man who landed on the moon with Neil Armstrong: “Mankind does not need to visit Mars or conquer it, but rather to build a permanent settlement there”

“I have no doubt that I am lucky. My mother was born the year when the Wright brothers made the first flights in history, and my father was a pioneer in the world of aviation. I just I flew jets in the Korean War and made spacewalks, and yet – I got to go to the moon.”

These remarks were made on Tuesday, July 26, by Buzz Aldrin, one of the most famous astronauts in history, in a lecture at the Technion. Aldrin, who was born in January 1930 in New Jersey as Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr., is best known as one of the first two astronauts who set foot on the moon. The younger generation is also familiar with him thanks to Buzz Lightyear – the hero of the movie Toy Story – who was named after Aldrin.

The first landing on the moon, featuring Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, took place 47 years ago this month – on July 20, 1969. Armstrong descended from the landing module to the moon, followed by Aldrin, who described the scenery as “magnificent desolation” – as he later called his autobiography. They placed the US flag and a commemorative plaque on the moon, carried out a few predetermined scientific missions and spoke with then US President Richard Nixon. Then they boarded the landing module and returned to Columbia – the command nodule – where their fellow astronaut Michael Collins was waiting for them, orbiting the moon while they were on it.

Dr. Aldrin, a West Point graduate and former fighter pilot, received his Ph.D. from MIT. The subject of his doctoral thesis was manned rendezvous in space. The rendezvous methods that he developed in his thesis and subsequently are still in use today, and have earned him the nickname Dr. Rendezvous. In 1963 he was accepted into the ranks of NASA as an astronaut and became known mainly for his record breaking Gemini 12 spacewalk (1966) and the Apollo 11 moon landing (1969).

Apollo 11 was the peak of the Apollo program, announced by US President John F. Kennedy (JFK) in his famous speech in which he set the goal of landing a man on the moon before the end of the decade. Kennedy, assassinated in 1963, did not live to see his dream realized.

The main mission of the Apollo crew was a manned landing on the moon, and more than half a billion TV viewers followed Armstrong descending the landing module’s ladder and saying: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Aldrin descended about twenty minutes later and together they carried out the predetermined tasks, including walking on the moon, collecting soil samples, installing a TV camera to broadcast images from the moon to earth, and placing a plaque bearing a message of peace to any living creatures who finds it. Four days later, on July 24, 1969, Apollo 11 landed in the Pacific Ocean.

“We were given an opportunity to land on the moon, and the opportunity became a landmark event that changed the history of mankind,” said Dr. Aldrin at his lecture on Tuesday. “Mankind has managed to set foot in a new and completely different place. Four hundred thousand people were involved in the success of this mission and a half billion were watching us making history. When we returned from there we were greeted as heroes, but the world cheered not only us but what we represented: conquering the impossible.”

The Mars mission

Dr. Aldrin has never rested on his laurels, and for the past three decades he has spent most of his time on the next mission: populating Mars. “I’m not talking about a visit to Mars, or about occupation or even about having people coming and going to Mars; I’m talking about a permanent presence. My plan presents a define path to mankind’s next home.”

To this end, he founded the Buzz Aldrin Space Institute in Florida, which is working to promote settlement on Mars, with the target year being 2040. “Mars is the island awaiting us in the darkness of space, so get your ass to Mars. Because there, as President Kennedy said about the moon landing mission, a rendezvous with destiny is awaiting us.

International Space University

Aldrin’s lecture at the Technion was held as part of the SSP2016 session held at the Technion by the International Space University (ISU). Aldrin is currently serving as chancellor of ISU, and the lecture was dedicated to the memory of Gerald Soffen, one of the ISU’s biggest supporters. Prof. Finn Gurfil, head of the Asher Space Research Institute at Technion, thanked Dr. Aldrin for coming to the Technion and said: “People ask why invest in space, and the answer lies in an entire generation that grew into engineering and science thanks to space. The Technion is also involved in many aspects of space exploration, because this is our commitment: to make the hidden visible, and to make the unknown known.”

The International Space University (ISU) was founded in 1987 in Massachusetts, USA, and currently operates from Strasbourg, France. It is supported by major space agencies and aerospace organizations from around the world. Click here for more information about SSP16 – the summer program of the International Space University, currently held at the Technion: ssp16.isunet.edu

Researchers at the Technion Faculty of Medicine have uncovered a potential course of action of the placebo effect. The study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, indicates the effect of positive expectations on the immune system

For the first time, Technion researchers have indicated a possible course of action of the placebo effect in the context of the impact of an optimistic mindset on the operation of the immune system. According to the findings, the brain’s “reward system” transmits messages via the sympathetic nervous system that affect the immune system’s efficiency.

The article, published in the prestigious journal Nature Medicine, presents the work of Assistant Professor Asya Rolls from the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, carried out in cooperation with her colleague at the Faculty, Assistant Professor Shai Shen-Orr. The study was led by Tamar Ben-Shaanan, a doctoral student in the lab of Assistant Professor Rolls.

Significant Applications

“Our study explains how areas of the brain associated with positive emotions can affect the body’s coping with diseases,” explains Assistant Professor Rolls. “Placebo is a complex phenomenon in which the patient’s expectation of recovery affects his state of health. Expectation of improvement and arousal of positive emotions are reflected in the activity of neurons in the brain.  Therefore we decided to understand, at the molecular level, how areas of the brain associated with positive feelings affect the functioning of the immune system, which is basically the body’s main defense system. We have no doubt that an understanding the mechanisms connecting the brain to this system could lead to significant medical applications based on the effect of the mind on the body.”

We are all familiar with the effect of the mind on the immune system. Sometimes mental stress leads to poor physical condition, and sometimes a good mood alleviates the sensation of pain. One of the most fascinating expressions of the influence of one’s mental state on physical health is the placebo-effect: the effect of sham treatment, for example a sugar pill, on a person’s physical condition. Since this is an absolutely genuine effect, the authorities now require the existence of a “placebo group” in every drug approval process; since only with such a group is it possible to determine the chemical and physiological effects of the test drug on patients, disregarding the placebo effect. In this process it turns out, in many cases, that the test drug is not more effective than the placebo – both achieve improvements.

The research group of Assistant Professor Rolls examined the effect of the “reward system” – a brain region that is triggered in anticipation of a positive experience and is also stimulated during the placebo effect. Using innovative technological means, the researchers triggered the reward system in the brains of mice and examined the behavior of the immune system following this intervention. The findings show that triggering the reward system stimulates the immune system, that is, causes it to operate more effectively and eliminate bacteria more quickly.  Moreover, as a result of the intervention the immune system created a more robust immune memory against the bacteria it was exposed to. In other words – it will operate more effectively next time it is exposed to the same bacteria.

Innovative Technology

“Our breakthrough was made possible thanks to two new technologies,” explains Assistant Professor Shen-Orr. “One is DREADD technology, which enables precise activation of specific neurons, and the second is CyTOF technology, which enables high resolution characterization of hundreds of thousands of cells in the immune system. By coupling these two technologies, we were able to demonstrate a causal connection between the activation of specific neural circuits in the brain and the increased activity of cell populations in the immune system.

In the brain context, the researchers focused on the ventral tegmental area (VTA), a key component in the dopamine reward system. “This is the area of expectation for a reward positive,” explains Assistant Professor Rolls, “and it is stimulated, for example, when someone offers us a bar of chocolate. Stimulation of this area, as we found, stimulates the immune system’s anti-bacterial response, especially if stimulation occurs before exposure to bacterial infection.

The researchers also mapped the route through which the message passes from the brain to the immune system; the sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for immediate response in emergency situations and stress. “This is the system that dilates the pupils, accelerates the heartbeat and makes our hair stand on end when we’re under stress. So it is no wonder that this is the system through which the brain sends the immune system a message to be on the ‘alert’ in the case of a bacterial infection, and even in the case of a tumor. Now, as stated, it turns out that even the thought or anticipation of something good or a reward, is able to stimulate this system and increase the activity of the immune system.”

According to Assistant Professor Rolls, this is the first scientific study conducted with an experimental animal model, indicating the connection between the brain’s dopamine activity and the immune system’s antibacterial activity. “This study demonstrates that the immune system is NOT completely autonomous and opens the possibility of stimulating it to act by a direct effect on the brain. Understanding that stimulating the VTA in the brain triggers the immune system will allow us to optimize existing therapies against infections and boost the effectiveness of vaccines.”

An Evolutionary Advantage

This is how Assistant Professor Rolls explains the effect of the brain on the immune system. The brain sees the big picture of the body and its environment, and therefore it can prioritize actions and direct the immune system. “Moreover, such a connection between the reward system and the immune system may have an evolutionary advantage. The reward system is activated in situations such as a good meal and sex, situations that expose us to bacteria and contaminants. Thus, it makes sense to couple reward activation and infection. Moreover, if we enjoyed that activity it is likely we will repeat it in the future and therefore it is in the body’s interests to create a stronger immune memory against these bacteria in order to overcome them next time.”

Each year, the International Space University honors the memory of one of its greatest supporters, Dr. Gerald Soffen, with a lecture featuring a prominent visionary in the space sector. Few are more visionary than ISU’s Chancellor and Apollo 11 moonwalker, Dr. Buzz Aldrin.

Buzz Aldrin, most famously known as the second man to walk on the Moon is hands-on with the next big dream: humanity’s next big frontier – getting people to Mars.

On Tuesday 28th July 2016 at the Technion the 86-year-old space man addressed the 2016 class of the International Space University, sharing his experiences as an astronaut and his mission not only to fly people to the Red Planet, but also to “maintain a permanent human presence on Mars.”

“There’s no greater endeavor that humanity will undertake for generations to come than to create a permanent presence on another planet in the solar system.”

Recalling the impact of the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon he said that, “The world welcomed us back as heroes. But we understood that they were [not] just cheering for three guys. It was what we represented: a nation, and the world coming together. We had accomplished the impossible and the true value of Apollo is the amazing story of innovation and teamwork that overcame many obstacles to reach the Moon.”

Buzz Aldrin earned his Doctorate of Science in Astronautics at MIT and wrote his thesis on Manned Orbital Rendezvous. He was selected by NASA in 1963 into the third group of astronauts, and earned the nickname “Dr. Rendezvous.” The docking and rendezvous techniques he devised are still used today. He also pioneered underwater training techniques, as a substitute for zero gravity flights, to simulate spacewalking.

In 1966 on the Gemini 12 orbital mission, Buzz set an EVA record for a 5 ½ hour spacewalk. On July 20, 1969, Buzz and Neil Armstrong made their historic Apollo 11 moonwalk, becoming the first two humans to set foot on another world. They spent 21 hours on the lunar surface and returned with 46 pounds of moon rocks. An estimated 600 million people – at that time, the world’s largest television audience in history – witnessed this unprecedented heroic endeavor.

Since retiring from NASA, Buzz has remained a proponent of human space exploration. He devised a master plan for missions to Mars known as the “Aldrin Mars Cycler”, and has received three US patents for his schematics of a modular space station, Starbooster reusable rockets, and multi-crew modules for space flight. He founded Starcraft Boosters, Inc., a rocket design company, and Buzz Aldrin’s ShareSpace Foundation, a nonprofit devoted to addressing science literacy for children by igniting their passion for science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) through delivering hands-on STEAM activities and inspirational messages.

Dr. Aldrin is an author of nine books including his New York Times best-selling autobiography entitled, “Magnificent Desolation”. He continues to inspire today’s youth with his illustrated children’s books: Reaching for the Moon, Look to the Stars, and recently released Welcome to Mars: Making a Home on the Red Planet. His 2013 book, “Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration”, outlines his plan to get us beyond the moon and on to Mars. As one of the leading space exploration advocates, Buzz continues to chart a course for future space travel and is passionate about inspiring the younger generations of future explorers and innovators.

Representatives of Mazor Robotics Ltd, which was born in Prof. Moshe Shoham’s lab and the Technion incubator, attend the Closing Bell Ceremony at NASDAQ

Representatives of Mazor Robotics, founded at the Technion in 2001 through the tech transfer unit Technion T³, attended the Closing Bell Ceremony at NASDAQ on Wednesday July 13, 2016. The representatives from Mazor, including CEO Ori Hadomi, COO & VP R&D Eli Zehavi and Prof. Moshe Shoham of the Technion, were greeted by NASDAQ officials and representatives of ATS – the American Technion Society.

Attendance of the Closing Bell Ceremony is a NASDAQ honor generally granted to its listed companies at a milestone in their history. Mazor, traded on NASDAQ as MZOR since August 2013, was invited to ring the bell the day after the unveiling of its new robot, the Mazor X. The privilege of ringing the bell was given to Company CEO Ori Hadomi.

Mazor’s technology was born in the medical robotics lab at the Technion Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. The head of the lab, Prof. Moshe Shoham, led the idea to commercial realization at the Technion incubator, together with student Michael Burman and Eli Zehavi, former director of engineering at Elscint (Israel) Elscint and currently COO & VP R&D at Mazor. The company was founded in 2001 at the Technion incubator and moved to the Caesarea industrial zone two years later.

Mazor Robotics develops robotic systems for back and brain surgery. Mazor’s systems, including the Renaissance robot, are used for treating back problems such as spine deformity, herniated discs and spine instability, and brain disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, which require accurate electrode insertion for deep brain stimulation (DBS). These systems, currently operating in over 120 hospitals, have been used in some 17,000 operations with more than 100,000 implants, and have never caused permanent nerve damage in any patient. The advantages of the system, according to Prof. Shoham, are its high precision, minimal invasiveness and the reduced dose of radiation for the patient and operating room staff. He said:  “The launch of the Mazor X system, and the signing of an agreement with medical device giant Medtronics, is leading the company into a new era in terms of technology and in terms of the ability to realize our motto: Healing through Innovation.”

Researchers from the Technion and Rambam Health Care Campus have won Best Innovation Prize in an international competition. Their project: a dedicated robot for minimally invasive neurosurgery.

Researchers from the Technion and Rambam Health Care Campus have won the Best Innovation Award in the Surgical Robotic Challenge 2016. Twelve teams from around the world participated in the competition in London.

The Technion-Rambam team’s development is a robot for minimally invasive neurosurgery, intended for the removal of brain tumors of up to 6 cm in size. The robot is operated through a small keyhole in the skull using laser irradiation and tumor extraction. It does so using novel technologies of a needle assembly, real-time tumor detection and therapy of the cancerous tissue.

The robot was developed by Technion doctoral student Hadas Ziso, supervised by Professor Moshe Shoham, head of the Medical Robotics Laboratory at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, and Professor Menashe Zaaroor, faculty member of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Director of the Department of Neurosurgery at Rambam. The robot is protected by a patent registered in the names of the three researchers and its first inventor, Assistant Professor David Zarrouk, who worked on the project in its early stages during his PhD at the Technion.

The needle assembly

The robotic device is composed of a needle assembly: a rigid outer needle and a self-reassembled inner needle. The outer needle is responsible for rotational movement and vertical movement into the tumor, while the inner needle is able to move laterally. Thus, in effect, three degrees of freedom are achieved.

“This project involved many challenges,” says Ziso. “Besides the challenge of miniaturizing the detection and treatment tool, we had to allow the passage of a 90-degree curve in order to minimize the outer needle diameter. For this purpose we developed an inner needle that is flexible enough to pass through the curve, but also strong enough to lead the diagnostic and treatment tool to the tumor accurately, while bearing lateral loads resulted from heterogeneous environment. The inner needle mechanism that we developed is based on a chain of tiny magnetic beads, that are partially separated and self-reassembled while passing through a minimal curvature path, Kevlar fibers (a composite material) that pull the mechanism inward, stainless steel links that hold the optical fibers and suction tube, and a polyurethane cover.”

The robotic treatment includes several preliminary stages. First, prior to surgery, MRI scans are performed, and the physician prepares the treatment plan on the MR images. Second, a few hours before surgery, the patient drinks a fluorescent medium (5-ALA) that accumulates in the tumor during surgery, so that the robot will rely on both the preliminary MR scans and the morphology of the tumor in real time.

Focused laser beam

During surgery, ultraviolet (UV) light is projected at the tumor via optical fibers, causing the emission of red light from the fluorescent medium, accumulated within the tumor. The red light allows accurate identification of the cancerous tissue in real time. Based on the information obtained from the detection tool, a high intensity laser is activated, projected from the tip of an optical fiber on the tumor in close range (1 mm) and ablates the tissue. During treatment, the real time detection is constantly activated to prevent damage to healthy tissue.

Ziso earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Technion Faculty of Biomedical Engineering. The topic of her master’s thesis, supervised by Professor Eitan Kimmel, was treating malignant tumors using ultrasound and micro-bubbles. On completion of graduate school, she worked at InSightec and other biomedical companies. Four years ago, she began her doctorate under the supervision of Professor Shoham and Professor Zaaroor.

Two Israeli companies are involved in the development process: Prizmatix, which built the optical detection system, and Civan Advanced Technologies, which built the laser system. Hadas Ziso and Roman Shamsutdinov, an electronics engineer and member of the project team, attended the competition and demonstrated the robotic action to the judging panel.

Competition website:http://www.roboticsweek.uk/surgicalrobotchallenge.htm

Israel in Space Panel

Participants in the International Space University’s 29th Space Studies Program (SSP), currently being held at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, posed for a group photo from space yesterday (July 20th).

The photo, taken from a height of 520 kilometers, shows the 104 program participants lying on the main lawn of Technion campus in Haifa, with their bodies forming the letters ISU – the abbreviation of International Space University.

The photo was taken by the EROS-B satellite. The EROS observation satellites, built by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and operated by the Israeli company ImageSat International (ISI), are equipped with a space camera manufactured by El-Op. ISI previously purchased two such satellites and ordered a third satellite last year, far more advanced than the existing models. EROS satellite photos are sold to both civilian and defense customers worldwide.

The highly acclaimed Space Studies Program (SSP) has been conducted annually by the International Space University since 1988. Each summer, it is held in a different host institution in locations spanning the globe.  This is the first time it is being held in the Middle East – at Technion in Haifa, Israel. As part of the current session, SSP16, the Technion is hosting lectures and panels that are open to the public, free of charge. All the open events are held in English and require advance registration.