Author: EladAdmin

The first International Conference on the Design of the 21^st Century Hospital was held last week in the Technion’s Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning. The conference was attended by leading lecturers in Israel and worldwide who presented trends and directions in hospital construction in the 21^st century, and addressed questions on the structure of healthcare facilities in the next century and how to educate the next generation of architects and doctors to answer the needs of future medicine.

The conference, which was organized by Prof. Noemi Bitterman, Head of Industrial Design, together with the Faculty Dean, Prof. Yehuda Kalay, was attended by Prof. Eliezer Shalev, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, the deans of the other faculties, Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie, Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav, Director General of the Ministry of Health Prof. Roni Gamzu, and Prof. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, who served as the Director General of Hadassah Hospitals and currently serves as Director General of the National Insurance Institute.

Prof. Bitterman said that the conference was designed to break the barriers between academic researchers who tend to focus each on their own field, and to initiate a new, fruitful dialogue. “The reactions and the informal conversations during coffee breaks show that the goal was achieved. This is fascinating, since we have here a crossing of different fields, each with its own terminology, culture and way of thinking. Of course, it is important that the discussion focus on doctors and patients. When ‘talking architecture’, it is important to always remember that they are the ‘clients’ and it is them that we need to serve. Just as the study programs we developed here in the Technion do, such conferences advance this thinking and this essential dialogue”, said Prof. Bitterman.

Prof. Yehuda Kalay said that “it takes years to build a hospital, and during its construction medical technologies change. As architects we must always remember that our design has significant implications on medical practice, and we must always think ahead.”

Prof. Shlomo Mor-Yosef presented major trends in contemporary medicine, including molecular imaging, robotic surgery and personalized medicine. He noted that the trouble the Israeli healthcare system is in requires broad, creative thinking. “In our hospitals we deal with a very high occupancy rate, above 97%, and this makes it very difficult for these systems to function”, said Prof. Mor-Yossef.

Dr. Kobi Vortman, Technion alumnus and President of InSightec, presented the technology developed by his company – a method for non-invasive ‘surgery’ using sound waves. It is a “virtual, non-invasive scalpel of sorts, with which medical procedures can be performed on the brain and other organs without invading the body and without the need for hospitalization. It is an example of the successful implementation of patient-personalized medicine.”

Prof. Rafael Beyar, Director General of Rambam Medical Center, presented the new projects at Rambam, among them a secure underground hospital, fortified against conventional warfare as well as against biological and chemical warfare. It is an underground parking garage that can be converted within 72 hours into a 2,000-bed hospital which includes all the necessary equipment.

Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie said that in 1969 the Technion Senate made an historical decision: to establish in the Technion a faculty of medicine. “The rational, as phrased at the time, was that technology and medicine will walk in the future hand in hand, and that a faculty of medicine in a technological institute is therefore the right step. Today’s conference continues that vision.”

Prof. Jos Stuyfzand, Creative Director at Philips Netherlands, described the innovations in designing the user experience in hospitals, with the patient at the focus. “The healthcare system needs to perceive itself as a service provider. When we are sick we go to the hospital not for its buildings but to be provided with a service. You, the architects, need to think about the hospital with the same view, and not with a ‘purely’ architectural view. The architects must have a broader view of their work and work as part of a multi-profession team. It is very important to ask the patients what they want, rather than just the medical staff”.

Prof. Paul Barach, doctor and researcher of hospital safety and quality, told the conference participants that “medical technology is a wonderful thing. The tragic irony is that in many cases, it could in itself cause severe injury to patients. We must cease to sanctify the technology and focus on the health of the patient. Technology is not a magic solution to all problems, and it must serve the patient rather than be an end in itself.”

Prof. Barach, who resided in the past in Israel and was an undergraduate student at the Technion, currently works at the Utrecht Medical Centre in the Netherlands: “around 5 percent of all hospitalized patients are injured while receiving medical treatment, and 50 thousand patients die in the USA every year as a result of the medical procedure itself”.

Prof. Barach says that minor improvements, such as increasing the light in the room or supervising hand washing by medical staff, could significantly reduce harm to patients, but this requires awareness and research, which in turn mandates public funding. Israel is lacking in serious discussion on this matter, and it is time for such a discussion that will go beyond the standard petty complaints. Prof. Danny Gopher of the Technion and Prof. Yoel Dunchin of Hadassah are doing a great job in this sense, but unfortunately they are the exception to the rule. It is very important to bring the architects to the hospitals and to allow them to experience hospital simulations. For example, when an architect designs a hospital he does not think about hospitals’ activity on weekends, when most of their supporting staff is absent and the mortality rates in them increase by 20%. Proper planning which is aware of this could reduce mortality rates. We must perceive the structure as medication, and consider how its design can contribute as much as possible to patients’ health. “If we could achieve a 99.9% success rate in medical treatments, and only 0.1% of the patients would die as a result of such treatments, would that satisfy us? In a statistical analogy to aviation, based on the present frequency of flights worldwide, this would be one airplane crashing every three days. So this option, which would be inconceivable in aviation, is in fact accepted uncontested in healthcare.”

Prof. Gianfranco Carrara, a hospital architect from Italy, presented hospital design trends in Europe, and the architect Roger Hay of California, USA presented lean technologies. The Israeli experience in this field was presented by 6 leading architects: Prof. Yeuda kalay, Ralli Gavrieli, Ehud Gefen, Arthur Spector, Arad Sharon, and Avi Torjman.

A ceremony was held in honor of the architect Moshe Zarhy, whose healthcare buildings were a milestone in the history of hospitals in Israel.

Above: Moshe Zarhy (on the right) receives a “Hamsa” from Prof. Kalay. Photo: Technion Spokesman

Zohar Zisapel : “The Israeli Engineers are the Best in the World”

The CEO of Mellanox, Eyal Waldman, who graduated from the Technion in 1986, answered Prof. Peretz Lavie‘s question on the Technion’s contribution to his career, saying “the Technion shaped the way I think. The fact that the studies connect theory and practical experience is highly significant for later careers. Engineers who are Technion graduates have real experience, which differentiates them from the graduates of other institutions”.

The President of Intel Israel, Shmuel (Mooly) Eden, referred to the issue of the quality of Israeli engineers, saying that the Israeli culture creates engineers who are willing to take risks and to face challenges: “from my experience in Intel, there is a high correlation between senior managers and people who served in military command roles and as officers. Moreover, in Israeli culture there is a tendency to doubt authority and disobey hierarchy, which makes Israeli engineers leaders in founding successful start-ups”.

The President of RAD Data Communications, Zohar Zisapel, said that the Israeli engineers are the best in the world, but the fact that Israel excels in founding start-up companies, but not large companies, is a problem: “we have to get better at building large companies. At the end of the day, when you sell the start-up, you are selling your birthright for a bowl of stew. If we were to develop large companies in Israel, the contribution to the economy would be far more substantial, both in terms of employment and in terms of the company’s long term profit”.

Prof. Peretz Lavie talked during the panel discussion about the new cooperation with Cornell University in New York, which selected the Technion out of dozens of top universities worldwide to establish together with it a unique, combined program for the promotion of knowledge intensive industry in New York: “the new research institute will combine academy and industry. Cornell intends to invest in the project two billion dollars, and the Technion will be responsible for building the academic curriculum”.

During the panel, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg congratulated the Technion by video on its cornerstone centennial. Among others, Mayor Bloomberg said that he is excited about the cooperation between Cornell and the Technion. He also noted the 11 years anniversary of the Twin Towers terrorist attack, and thanked Israel for its assistance to New York during and after the attack.

The high tech conference opened yesterday with a visit to the Technion’s laboratories by dozens of guests from Israel and abroad, and later an event in tribute to the Technion’s cornerstone centennial. The conference sessions will continue at the Jerusalem International Convention Center until Wednesday, September 12^th.

Among the main speakers at the conference are the President and CEO of eBay, John Donahoe; President of Samsung Semiconductors, Dr. Nam-Sung Woo; CEO of SingTel, Allen Lew; President of Intel Israel, Mooly Eden; President of RAD, Zohar Zisapel;  President of Cadence, Lip-Bu Tan; CEO of Mellanox, Eyal Waldman;  CEO of Y&R, David Sable; and the CEO of Bank Leumi, Rakefet Russak-Aminoach – in addition to a long, illustrious line of senior vice presidents for technology, mergers and acquisitions, from Microsoft, IBM, Google, Citibank, SAP, eBay, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens, Alcatel Lucent, ZTE and others.

Above: The panel – from right to left – Zohar Zisapel, Shmuel (Mooly) Eden, Eyal Waldman and Prof. Peretz Lavie. Photo credit: Hezi Hojesta, Technion Spokesman

The conference was formally opened with a salute to the Technion in celebration of 100 years to the laying of the cornerstone for our historic building in Hadar Hacarmel

This year’s conference boasts an unprecedented concentration of Israeli and international disruptive technologies. It will showcase a unique ‘Invented in Israel’ exhibit of innovative developments by the Israeli R&D centers of multinational companies. It will also showcase the first display of its kind in Israel of the leading Israeli startup accelerators, and, as it does every year, will present new and intriguing Israeli startups. The conference will also serve as a stage for a unique summit meeting of senior representatives of worldwide telecom leaders – Ericsson, Nokia Siemens, ZTE, Alcatel Lucent, and SingTel.

Among the main speakers at the conference are the President and CEO of eBay, John Donahoe; President of Samsung Semiconductors, Dr. Nam-Sung Woo; CEO of SingTel, Allen Lew; President of Intel Israel, Mooly Eden; President of RAD, Zohar Zisapel;  President of Cadence, Lip-Bu Tan; CEO of Mellanox, Eyal Waldman;  CEO of Y&R, David Sable; and the CEO of Bank Leumi, Rakefet Russak-Aminoach – in addition to a long, illustrious line of senior vice presidents for technology, mergers and acquisitions, from Microsoft, IBM, Google, Citibank, SAP, eBay, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens, Alcatel Lucent, ZTE and others.

The conference will be attended by senior government, academy and local authority officials, notably Israel’s President Shimon Peres, Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, Technion President Professor Peretz Lavie, former Ministry of Finance Director General Haim Shani, and others. The conference Chairs are Yossi Vardi and Yahal Zilka.

This would be the largest high tech conference in Israel for the third year in a row, and it will be attended by hundreds of senior executives from leading companies in Israel and worldwide, as well as by dozens of Israeli start-up companies that will participate in panels and present innovative technologies to representatives of companies from all over the world. IATI expects 4,000 participants from Israel and the world to attend the three conference days; international delegations of senior high tech representatives from the European Union, India, China, the US and others, venture fund representatives, senior executives of technology leaders from Israel and the world, the CEOs of leading Israeli start-up companies, entrepreneurs, and additional industry and high tech partners.

This year’s conference will be also attended by extended delegations of leading international companies, who are here to pursue business opportunities in the Israeli high tech and to obtain a personal impression of the local industry and entrepreneurship. The conference will address urgent issues in the global and local high tech, among them trends in fundraising, investments, funds and angels, technological innovations from the chip level to the future of man-computer interface, the telecom market and the transition to LTE, and the world of social media and online advertising.

Aaron Mankovski, outgoing Chairman of IATI and Managing General Partner of Pitango Venture Capital: “the international high tech conference taking place in Jerusalem for the third year now has succeeded in establishing itself as one of the top international conferences in the field, and in attracting the senior executives of leading companies worldwide. Last year, the annual high tech conference provided a platform for meetings and for the creation of professional and business relations between Israeli entrepreneurs and companies and worldwide leaders, which resulted in agreements, transactions and joint developments.”

Yahal Zilka, co-chairman of the conference and Managing Partner of Magma Venture Capital: “This year the conference is attended by an unprecedented concentration of global internet, telecom, chip and capital market senior executives – from China, India, the US and European Union countries. This summit meeting of key players from all over the world under one roof is a tremendous opportunity to create a collaborative growth engine for the Israeli high tech”.

Karin Mayer-Rubinstein, CEO of IATI: “During the conference, IATI will sign cooperation agreements with international companies that will bring added value to its members. This, further to cooperation agreements that IATI signed last year with Indian delegations, and which have strengthens relations with the Indian high tech industry.”

About Israel Advanced Technology Industries (IATI)

IATI is an umbrella organization for the high tech, venture capital and life science industries in Israel, including for individuals and companies that engage in research, development and marketing in knowledge intensive fields such as hardware, software, internet, telecommunications, bio-pharma and medical devices. The organization initiates and assists in developing policies and activities aimed at advancing the Israeli high tech and life science industries by promoting its interests vis-à-vis government authorities, creating collaborations between its members, promoting innovation and technology, and generating opportunities for the creation of business relations in Israel and worldwide.

Israel Advanced Technology Industries is the largest umbrella organization in Israel, representing over 300 companies and organizations of the entire industrial spectrum in Israel – high tech, life sciences, venture capital, start-up companies, technological incubators, commercialization companies and service providers – that employ hundreds of thousands of high tech and life sciences employees in Israel.

Above (right to left): Maiko Nishimoto and Kazunari Nawa of Toyota,  Alfonso Gutierrez of Finland, and the Senior Executive Vice President of the Technion, Professor Paul Feigin Professor, at the start of the tours of the Technion labs. Photo: Yoav Bachar, Technion Spokesman

The researchers were able to directly decode vowels from the neural activity which leads to their articulation – a finding which could allow individuals who are completely paralyzed to “speak” to the people around them through a direct brain-computer interface

“There are diseases in which the patient’s entire body is paralyzed, he is effectively ‘locked in’ (locked-in syndrome) and is unable to communicate with the environment, but his mind still functions”, explains Prof. Shoham, Head of the Neural Interface Engineering Laboratory in the Technion Department of Biomedical Engineering. “Our long term goal is to restore these patients’ ability to speak using systems that will include implanting electrodes in their brains, decoding the neural activity that encodes speech, and sounding artificial speech sounds. For this purpose, we wanted to first understand how the information about the articulated syllable is encoded in the electrical activity of an individual brain neuron and of a neuron population. In our experiments we identified cell populations that distinctly participate in the representation. For example, cells we registered in an area in the medial frontal lobe that includes the anterior cingulate cortex, surprised us in the manner in which they ‘sharply’ represented certain vowels but not others, even though the area is not necessarily known as having a major role in the speech generation process”.

The experiments were conducted in the UCLA Medical Center with the participation of epilepsy patients, in whose brain Prof. Fried and his team implanted depth electrodes. The objective of the implant is to locate the epileptic focus, which is the area in the brain where epileptic seizures begin. After the surgery, the patients were hospitalized for a week or two with the electrodes in their brain, and waited for the occurrence of spontaneous seizures. During that time, Dr. Tankus, who was a post-doctoral fellow at UCLA and is now a researcher at the Technion, conducted experiments in which he asked the patients to articulate vowels as well as syllables comprising a consonant and a vowel, and recorded the resulting neuronal activity in their brain. The researchers discovered two neuron populations that encode the information about the vowel articulated in an entirely different way. In the first population, identified in the medial frontal lobe, each neuron encodes only one or two vowels by changing its firing rate, but does not change its activity when other vowels are articulated. However, in the second population, located in the superior temporal gyrus, each neuron reacts to all vowels tested, but the cell’s reaction strength changes gradually between vowels. Moreover, the researchers were able to deduce a mathematical arrangement of the manner in which the vowels are represented in the brain, showing it to match the phonetic vowel trapezoid, which is built according to the location of the highest point of the tongue during articulation. Thus, the researchers succeeded in connecting the brain representation with the anatomy and physiology of vowel articulation.

As aforesaid, understanding brain representation of speech generation constitutes also a significant step on the road to decoding cellular activity using a computer, as Dr. Tankus explains: “we have developed a new algorithm that improved greatly the ability to identify from brain activity which syllable was articulated, and this algorithm has allowed us to obtain very high identification rates. Based on the present findings, we are currently conducting experiments toward the creation of a brain-machine interface that will restore people’s speech faculties”.

Above: The two language areas where cell reactions during speech were researched. The graphs present a selective code for vowels in an area in the frontal lobe and a non-selective code in an area in the temporal lobe (each color represents a neuron).
The image highlights the brain areas where neurons with a structured code for speech generation were found. In the frontal region neurons were highly vowel-selective while in the temporal region (on the right) the code was broad and non-selective
Credit: Ariel Tankus

Advances to 29^th in chemistry and 42^nd in engineering; Technion ranks 18^th in computer sciences, above all European universities

The Technion jumped to the 78^th place in the Shanghai ranking of universities, considered the world’s most reliable and comprehensive ranking system. Last year the Technion was in the 101-150 category.

In natural sciences the Technion jumped to 39^th place (51-75 in 2011), and in engineering it maintained its 42^nd place. In computer sciences, the Technion is ranked #18 worldwide, higher than all European universities; in chemistry the Technion jumped to 29th place (51-75 last year), in part a result of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Distinguished Professor Dan Shechtman.

Technion President Professor Peretz Lavie attributed these rankings to the outstanding achievements of the past year, including Prof. Shechtman’s Nobel Prize and the selection of the Technion and Cornell University to establish a new applied science and engineering campus in New York City. He noted that in a recent survey by Business Insider, the Technion placed 25^th   among engineering universities worldwide.

“These achievements are the result of the uncompromising excellence of the Technion, that is celebrating 100 years since the laying of the cornerstone for our historic building at Hadar Hacarmel”, he emphasized. “Our outstanding faculty, researchers and staff will continue to nurture and train the students of the Technion, the future generation of Israel, the ‘start-up nation.’ “

The Academic Ranking of World Universities, conducted by researchers at the Center for World-Class Universities of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, is  highly respected by university heads worldwide, and its editors have agreed to publish it on the internet, thus complying with many requests from around the world. Since it launched in 2003, the website has recorded 2000 visits daily. Among the ranking criteria are the number of Nobel laureates in the university, and the number of its scientific publications and their quality. The list of 500 leading universities is headed once again by U.S. universities – Harvard, Stanford, MIT and Berkeley.

This causes serious health problems to the infants and the mothers must provide them with a zinc-containing supplement; the researchers have developed a simple genetic test to identify mutations in the gene, which will allow pre-pregnancy screening

Technion researchers headed by Prof. Yehuda G. Assaraf and the doctoral student Inbal Lasry of the Faculty of Biology, in collaboration with researchers from the Sheba Medical Center, have identified and characterized a mutation in breastfeeding mothers which leads to zinc-deficient milk and could in turn cause serious health problems in exclusively breastfed Infants. These findings were published in the scientific Journal of Biological Chemistry and have garnered substantial interest, as breast milk is perceived as always being healthy for the infant.

“Zinc is a mineral which plays an essential role in growth and development processes, including the development of cognitive and motor functions of the brain as well as the proper function of the immune system and the skin. Thus, zinc is a highly essential mineral particularly for infants, as they undergo accelerated growth and development processes”, explains Prof. Assaraf, head of the Fred Wyszkowski Cancer Research Laboratory in the Faculty of Biology at the Technion. “A large number of proteins in our body relies on zinc for their normal function”, adds Prof. Assaraf.  Zinc deficiency could lead to rashes and dermatitis that have the appearance of severe burns; it could alos lead to diarrhea, hair loss, loss of appetite, impaired function of the immune system and impaired function of the nervous system”. Thus, for example, zinc deficiency could impede our ability to defend ourselves, through the immune system and the inflammation process, against foreign pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, and parasites.

The research was conducted in collaboration with a team from the Edmond and Lily Safra Children’s Hospital in the Sheba Medical Center, headed by Dr. Yair Anikster, Director of the Pediatric Metabolic Diseases Unit. The research began with the referral, by Soroka University Medical Center and Bikur-Holim Hospital, of two infants from two different Israeli families who suffered, among others, from an especially severe rash which has the appearance of a severe burn. Blood tests and breast milk analysis led to the hypothesis that the illness is due to zinc deficiency, and this in turn led the researchers to examine the sequence of the ZnT-2 gene. The importance of the ZnT-2 transporter is critical during the breastfeeding period because it acts as a transporter which delivers zinc from the mother’s blood to the breast milk on which the infant feeds. The researchers identified in the mothers, a specific mutation in the ZnT-2 gene in a highly evolutionarily conserved region, that appeared essential for the preservation of the proper structure and function of this zinc transporter protein. “We have discovered that the mutation in the ZnT-2 zinc transporter disrupts its activity, and this consequently prevents the transport of zinc to the breast milk. As a result, an infant who is exclusively breastfed and who does not receive any food supplement does not receive the appropriate zinc levels, which in turn leads to disease”, explains Prof. Assaraf. This part of the research was conducted in collaboration with Prof. Shannon L. Kelleher of Pennsylvania State University, USA.

“Every gene has two genetic components known as alleles – one originates from the father and the other from the mother. In the present disease – one of the two alleles was defective. Supposedly, the second, healthy allele, being entirely normal, should have protected the infant from this defect”, explains Prof. Assaraf. The Technion researchers have found an answer to this scientific-medical dilemma: the current research made the discovery that the ZnT-2 zinc transporter operates as a couple known as a dimer, namely: two identical ZnT-2 proteins couple to create the mature, active zinc transporter which transfers zinc from the mother’s blood to the breast milk. Therefore, if one of these proteins is impaired – the zinc transporter becomes inactive. That is, even a single mutation, either in the paternal allele or in the maternal one, is sufficient to shut the zinc transporter down, a phenomenon known in the scientific language as a dominant negative effect.

This discovery paves the way for pre-pregnancy genetic screening in women, toward providing them with genetic counseling to clarify to those of them who harbors the defective gene that while they are breastfeeding, they will have to provide their baby with a zinc-containing food supplement, in order to avoid health problems to the infant. Among others, the researchers are currently examining the prevalence of the mutations in the ZnT-2 gene.

This heralds the potential for the fabrication of transplantable “islets”

The scientific journal PLoS ONE reports that Technion researchers have succeeded in constructing a three-dimensional polymeric scaffold array with pancreatic islets surrounded by a vascular network.

“We have shown that the three-dimensional environment and the engineered blood vessels support the islets – and this support is important for the survival of the islets and for their insulin secretion activity”, says Prof. Shulamit Levenberg of the Department of Biomedical Engineering. “We have shown that these laboratory-made polymeric scaffolds can be transplanted subcutaneously and can heal a diabetic mouse. The ability to increase the islets’ vasculature and to support their post-transplant survival could allow the transplant of four times less islets than is customary in transplants in mice, while still achieving decreased blood sugar levels and diabetes relief”.

The mechanism which causes the failure of pancreatic islet transplants is as yet not entirely clear, but the prevailing opinion is that it has to do with ischemic damage – and a delay in the creation of new blood vessels. The Technion researchers hypothesize that blood vessels also have an active role in intercellular communication that supports the survival and function of pancreatic islets. To test this hypothesis, the researchers developed a three-dimensional network of endothelial blood vessels in engineered pancreatic tissues produced from islets, fibroblasts and endothelial cells. This triple array, which was seeded on highly porous polymeric scaffolds, mimics the natural anatomical context of pancreatic vasculature. “We have shown that the increase in islet survival is correlated with creation of surrounding endothelial tubes”, says Prof. Levenberg. “Adding fibroblasts to pancreatic islet and endothelial cell cultures encouraged the creation of the vascular network, which supported islet survival as well as insulin secretion. Significant differences were seen in many variables – gene expressions, profiles of the growth factors of endothelial cells, ECM, morphogens and screening markers – between two-dimensional culture systems and three-dimensional culture systems that allow an endothelial network, and such differences were even greater after fibroblasts were added that support the creation of the engineered blood vessels.”

Transplanting the vascularized engineered islet tissue has improved the survival and acceptant of such islets in diabetic mice, and has even improved their function in decreasing blood glucose. The Technion researchers hope that these findings herald potential strategies for the fabrication of transplantable islets with improved survivability.

The work was done by research student Keren Francis in Prof. Levenberg’s laboratory and in cooperation with Yuval Dor from the Hebrew university, under a joint research grant provided by Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International. The laboratory is currently conducting a continuing research of the effect of the vascular network and the three-dimensional growth on human islets, under joint finance of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International and the Israel Science Foundation.

Danny Yamin, CEO of Microsoft Israel, was appointed Chairman of the Technion Council, replacing Yoram Alster after nine years.

The Council serves as the guiding and deciding authority with regard to Technion matters, between meetings of the Board of Governors (the highest authority of the Technion). Among its authorities: supervision of the enactment of regulations and appointments, awarding of honorary titles, supervision of codes and procedures designed to ensure student discipline, administrative, financial and asset supervision, etc.

The Chairman of the Council is selected by the Council from among its members who are representatives of the public, including former members who have ended a maximum tenure, and as recommended by the committee appointed to search for the Chairman of the Council.

Danny Yamin, who is a Technion graduate, has been serving as CEO of Microsoft Israel since 2004. In recent years he has also served in various administrative positions in the Technion, including as member of the Council and as Chairman of the Technion alumni’s ‘100 Club’.

Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie:  “Danny Yamin’s vast management experience in a global organization is essential at a time when the Technion itself is treading deeper into the global arena. The establishment of the Technion and Cornell research campus in New York is one type of the challenges we will be contending with in the coming years, as is the advancement of the Technion in Israel. I am looking forward to working with Danny Yamin in his new role, and believe that his vast experience will in fact contribute greatly to the way we contend with the new local and  global challenges”.

Danny Yamin, CEO of Microsoft Israel and Chairman of the Technion Council: “I am pleased to expand my activity in the Technion, an institute which plays a major role in the State of Israel. The relationship between industry and academy is essential to both sides, and it is my hope that together with Technion President Peretz Lavie, the Technion’s management and its Council members, we will continue to realize the Technion’s great potential in Israel and worldwide”.

In the picture (right to left): Yoram Alster, Prof. Peretz Laviem Danny Yamin. Photo: Shlomo Shoham, Technion Spokesman

According to the directed deterrence hypothesis, defensive chemicals (secondary metabolites) in ripe fruits deter seed predators, but have no or little effect on seed dispersers. Indeed, there is some evidence that birds (seed dispersers) and mammals (seed predators) differ in their responses to defensive chemicals. However, this mechanism was only demonstrated based on differences at the class level, namely differences in vanilloid receptors found in mammals but not in birds.

“Here we present the findings of physiological and behavioral experiments demonstrating the use of defensive chemicals of the mustard oil bomb to encourage broad-range, class-independent (e.g. mammals vs. birds) seed dispersal in sweet mignonette fruits, in order to force a behavioral change at an ecological timescale, converting rodents from seed predators to seed dispersers”.  Says researcher Michal Samuni-Blank, who has researched the subject under the guidance of Profs. Zeev Arad of the Technion and Ido Izhaki of Haifa University. “This change is achieved through the unique compartmentalization of the mustard oil bomb, which causes activation of the system only upon seed and pulp co-consumption. This ‘motivates’ seed dispersal which has led to the first ever documentation of a rodent dispersing seeds via seed spitting”. The research findings demonstrate the power of fruits defensive chemicals to shift the animal-plant relationships from predation to mutualism, and provide support for the directed deterrence hypothesis at the intraspecific level, in addition to the interspecific level.

A spiny mouse from Israel is shown spitting seeds from the desert shrub Ochradenus baccatus into its paws and onto the ground as it eats the berries. If the seeds are chewed simultaneously with the berry pulp, toxic chemicals are released. So the plant has made a normally seed-eating mouse become a seed-spitter that spreads the plant’s seeds, helping it reproduce, says a new study from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, University of Haifa, University of Utah, and University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Photo Credit: Michal Samuni-Blank, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology

The Technion awarded yesterday eight honorary doctorates and has launched today Profs. Shlomo Maital and Amnon Frenkel’s book on the Institute’s contribution to the State of Israel. Their research shows that the investment in the creation of human capital in the Technion produces an annual return of at least 76-197 percent, or, in absolute terms, a return of 35-60 billion dollars over the 50 years of a graduate class.

The total annual product of engineers who are Technion graduates in the high-tech, computer services, communications and research and development industries is estimated at a minimum of 21 billion dollars; the median income of Technion graduates is the salary group of NIS 20-25 thousand gross per month, which is significantly higher than both the average salary in the Israeli economy and the salary of employees with 16+ years of education. Moreover, the investment in the creation of human capital in the Technion, and specifically the training of engineering and science students, is entirely risk-free. These engineers also contribute to the creation of 78,000 high-tech, high-wage supporting jobs in the economy. The Technion graduates’ contribution is also expressed in the annual taxation income they generate for the government, estimated at about NIS 16.6 billion, or about 13% of the total income of the State from direct and indirect taxes.

Processing of Dun & Bradstreet data shows that from among the 125 leading business leaders in Israel, 41 (about one-third) are Technion graduates. 28 of them have established firms that are traded on the stock exchange, and 13 have established private companies.

Technion graduates lead the 11 largest Israeli companies in terms of export volumes, which employ about 80,000 workers and export about 19.5 billion dollars out of a total of 45 billion dollars.

121 Israel companies are traded on the NASDAQ, and represent 41% of a total of 298 foreign companies traded on NASDAQ. About half of these (59 companies) are led or were established by Technion graduates. The market value of these companies is estimated at about 28 billion dollars (as of November 2010).

Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie said in the festive ceremony held at the Technion’s historic building at Hadar HaCarmel (today the Madatech Museum, the Israel National Museum of Science) that “nowadays we would have thought of the founders of the Technion as brave entrepreneurs who established a start-up company” and that it is unlikely that when they laid its cornerstone one hundred years ago, they imagined that the day will come when it would become a leading science and technology university worldwide.

The recipients of the honorary doctorates yesterday are: Prof. Srulik Cederbaum, Prof. Francois Diederich, Gary Goldberg, Itzhak Nissan, Dr. Eli Opper, Joan Seidel, Prof. Gunter Spur and Moshe Yanai.

Above: Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie (on the right) with one of the recipients – Moshe Yanai, pioneer of the computerized storage systems revolution. Photo: Moshe Shoham, Technion Spokesman

The exhibition is part of the events of the annual meeting of the Board of Governors

“I’m a frustrated auto mechanic, which is why I turned to making jewelry”, says Prof. Shechtman. “I understood the materials from which I was making the jewelry better than my teacher, Audrey Crey, did, but she knew art better than I did. She taught me that esthetics is not an exact science.  Jewelry is created with love and feeling, slowly and patiently. This was in 1972, in Dayton, Ohio.  Zippi, my wife, was busy in the evenings studying for a Master’s Degree in Sociology, and I, a postdoctoral fellow, found myself studying stone polishing in the arts center during my free evening hours”.

Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie said that the meeting of the Board of Governors will be held with a focus on the Technion’s cornerstone centennial and “today we just might have laid the cornerstone to a Technion faculty of arts”.

“The artistic creation itself is integrated and encompassed within the knowledge Prof. Shechtman already possesses”, says Anat Har-Gil, curator of the exhibition.  “He works with metal as a routine since he is a metallurgist by trade. He understands metal well, and it is as clay in his hands, to shape and create his jewels as he wishes. The enamel is sealed, at times melting in his hands to transparency. The metal expands and contracts. Enamel, metal and stone merge in a melting pot of matter and spirit.  Scientific thinking has a severity in it.  It is that which he clings to. It is where he draws the form from.  And yet at the same time, the making of jewelry is an excuse for him to escape it, a reason to loosen his grip on the laboratory. The thought is now visual and it begs to raise awareness of latent by existing legitimacy.  Professional knowledge is translated into plastic values, and the true occurrence is the transformation of sketches and technical ability into a product of beauty.  And behind it all is the moment, the story. A jewel as an expression of emotion, in its own sake.  Or to mark an event, perhaps. The process is fed, fertilized, and observed by an ‘audience’ that is but one woman. His wife. Zippi. When this journey comes to an end, it is not yet completed. It is then that a ceremony begins, authentic, modest. The jewel is presented to her as a surprise. Since although she was present even before it was made, she was not party to its making”.

The exhibition presents 15 jewels and is open to the public throughout the days on which the meeting of the Board of Governors is held, June 10-14, 2012, 10:00-16:00, on the 4^th floor of the Ullman Teaching Center.

Above (right to left): the curator Anat Har-Gil, Technion President Professor Peretz Lavie, Prof. Dan Shechtman and his wife, Prof. Zippi Shechtman.  Photo: Yossi Shrem, Technion Spokesman

Technion researchers from the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine have identified five genes that predict Parkinson’s disease, reports the scientific journal Molecular Neurodegeneration. The research was conducted by Dr. Silvia Mandel, Vice Director of the Eve Topf Center of Excellence for Neurodegenerative Diseases Research and Teaching, together with her colleagues Prof. Moussa Youdim (Technion), Prof. Judith Aharon (Rambam Medical Center), and Prof. Martin Rabey (Assaf HaRofeh Medical Center), as well as her colleagues from the Universities of Würzburg and Pisa.

“Currently, there is no blood test that can diagnose PD, making the detection of individuals at risk or at earliest stages of PD practically impossible. Instead it is identified by a clinical neurological examination based on findings suggestive of Parkinson’s disease. Finding biomarkers for Parkinson’s disease will help to capture those high-risk subjects before symptoms develop, a stage where prevention treatment efforts might be expected to have their greatest impact to slow disease progression”, says Dr. Silvia Mandel. “The first aim of our study was to assess whether a gene signature could be detected in blood from early Parkinson’s disease patients that could support the diagnosis of the disease”.

The examination was conducted on blood samples from 62 early stage Parkinson’s disease patients and 64 healthy age-matched controls. The selection of the genes and determination of their expression in the blood was based on previous research conducted by Drs. Silvia Mandel and Moussa Youdim on the brains of Parkinson’s disease patients, in which a group of genes was identified with defective expression compared to the brains of healthy people (control group). Five genes were found that are optimal predictors of Parkinson’s disease.

The predictive ability of the model was validated in an independent cohort of 30 patients at advanced stages of Parkinson’s disease, with 100% accuracy, which suggests a potential for the genetic signature to assess disease severity. Lastly, the model fully discriminated between Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

“The findings strengthen the assumption that a five-gene panel in the blood allows to diagnose early stage Parkinson’s disease, with a possible diagnostic value for detection of the disease before the appearance of the characteristic motor symptoms”, say the Technion researchers. “The biomarker could assist in diagnosing individuals at presymptomatic stages of the disease (patients with depression, sleep disturbances or hyposmia (reduced ability to smell) or patients carrying genetic risk factors) who are good candidates for neuroprotective treatment. Such a biomarker will be of value in clinical trials for the identification of that subgroup of Parkinson’s disease patients that may respond favorably to therapies targeting the mechanisms reflected by the gene panel. All five genes play a role in the ubiquitin-proteasome system, whose involvement in the pathology of Parkinson’s disease has previously been demonstrated.

The Technion researchers believe that, in the future, the blood test may be combined with brain imaging and/or biomarkers in the spinal fluid or other peripheral tissues, as a gold standard not only for early diagnosis, but also for the differential diagnosis of Parkinson’s and motor disorders mimicking the disease.