Author: shlomi ben-oz

The Technion has inaugurated a new and unique program for Russian speaking students: Freshman Year in Science and Engineering in the Russian language, integrating an intensive Hebrew language course. From their second year onwards, these students will be able to assimilate into Technion’s regular Hebrew study tracks at the university’s 18 faculties, together with their Israeli counterparts. The first cohort, consisting of 22 students aged 17-25 arriving to Israel from Russia, the Ukraine, Belarus and Moldovia, began their studies at Technion this month. The project is managed and run by the Technion International School, and was developed in cooperation with the “Massa” and “Nativ” organizations, in conjunction with the Ministry of Education, which is responsible for the Hebrew portion of the program.

“Your arrival here is a pioneering move,” said Technion President, Professor Peretz Lavie, “I wish my grandfather, who arrived to Israel from the Ukraine at age 17, could have lived to see you all here today. Tour the country and enjoy its rich culture, its peoples and its beautiful landscapes. Eat falafel and learn Hebrew. You were all hand-picked for this program. You are an elite group of young men and women, and it is my greatest hope that you’ll want to stay here at the end of your studies.”

The Director of the “Nativ” organization, Ms. Naomi Ben-Ami, briefed the new students on Technion achievements and on the range of options available to them here. “The screening process for Technion admittance began six months ago,” she said. “This was a professionally managed process that selected the very best candidates. You all made a very good and courageous decision in coming here.

Dr. Sarah Rubinstein from the Ministry of Education welcomed the students and reminded them that this year will also highlight improving their grasp of the Hebrew language: “This year you will study in Russian and learn Hebrew, and in the coming years we hope that you’ll all be able to integrate into the study tracks of any Technion faculty of your choosing.”

“The students in the Freshman Year program take a four-month Mechina (pre-university) program in the Russian language that includes studies in mathematics, physics, and Hebrew. Upon completion of this stage, they will go on to study four Technion academic courses that provide the basis for engineering and science required at each of Technion’s faculties,” explained Ariel Geva, the Managing Director of the Technion International School. “In addition, students will take an intensive Hebrew language course throughout the year, totaling 400 study hours. After successfully completing their first year, these students will then be able to go on to pursue their studies at any of Technion’s engineering and scientific faculties according to their grade point average.”

Professor Arnon Bentur, the Head of the Technion International School, said: “One of the main goals of this program is to encourage students to integrate into the university as regular Technion students. If they do so, they will be eligible for financial assistance from the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption – full funding of their studies at the Technion. In addition, we are recruiting students who are not eligible for aliyah benefits, to come to study at the Technion for its high academic quality.”

The students chose to share their experiences with the ceremony attendees in an original manner. Five of them went up on stage and told their stories sequentially, summarizing their personal absorption process to Israel. “In the first three months after arriving to Israel, we toured many different beautiful places, from the Galilee to the Negev,” they told us. “We saw the Kinneret, Jerusalem and the Shomron. On the way, we visited five top universities, were exposed to lectures, and were given a synopsis on the study options available to us. After we arrived to the Technion, we all made a unanimous decision – we’re staying here.”

“Media creators and tech companies have a lot to gain from a strong, collaborative working relationship, and I am proud that Cornell and the Technion will be training the next generation of tech talent in New York City to work with the media industry. We will reap the benefits of that partnership in the form of job creation and global competitiveness.”

Get the latest details of the Connective Media Degree at JTCII

Focusing Laser Light on Tiny Nanopores will Boost Accuracy of DNA Sequencing Method

The Opto-electrical effect can be used to control the passage of DNA molecules through nanopore sensors, thereby leading to more accurate sensing and sequencing of individual DNA molecules

Low-cost, ultra-fast DNA sequencing would revolutionize healthcare and biomedical research, sparking major advances in drug development, preventative medicine and personalized medicine. By gaining access to the entire sequence of your genome, a physician could determine the probability that you’ll develop a specific genetic disease or tolerate selected medications. In pursuit of that goal, Professor Amit Meller (BME) has spent much of the past decade spearheading a method that uses solid state nanopores: 2 – 5 nanometer-wide holes in silicon chips that read DNA strands as they pass through to optically sequence DNA molecules.

Now Meller and a team of researchers at the Technion and Boston University have discovered a simple way to improve the sensitivity, accuracy and speed of the method, making it an even more viable option for DNA sequencing or characterization of small proteins, such as Ubiquitin in their native, folded, state.

In the November 3 online edition of Nature Nanotechnology, the team demonstrated that focusing a low-power, commercially available green laser on a nanopore increases current near walls of the pore, which is immersed in salt water. As the current increases, it sweeps the salt water along with it in the opposite direction of incoming samples. The onrushing water, in turn, acts as a brake, slowing down the passage of DNA through the pore. As a result, the nanoscale sensors can get a higher-resolution read of the DNA as it crosses the pore, and identify small, proteins that could not previously be detected.

Meller: “The light-induced surface charge modulation phenomenon that we describe in this paper can be used to instantly switch on and off the “brakes” acting on individual biopolymers, such as DNA or proteins sliding through the nanopores. This critically enhances the sensing resolution of solid-state nanopores, and can be easily integrated in future nanopore based DNA sequencing and protein detection technologies”

Slowing down DNA is essential to DNA or RNA sequencing with nanopores, so that nanoscale sensors can make the right call on what’s passing through.

“The goal is to hold a base pair (of DNA nucleotides) in the nanopore’s sensing volume long enough to ‘call the base’ (i.e, determine if it’s an A, C, G or T),” said co-author Allison Squires (a Boston University student, who also worked at the Technion and fabricated nanopores in the study). “The signal needs to be sufficiently different for each base for sensors in the nanopore to make the call. If the sample proceeds through the sensing volume too quickly, it’s hard for the sensors to interpret the signal and make the right call.”

Meller and his team characterized the amount of increase in current under varying illumination in many different-sized nanopores. They next aim to explore in greater detail the mechanism underlying the increase in surface current when the green laser is applied to a nanopore, information that could lead to even more sensitivity and accuracy in DNA sequencing