Ishai Zimerman and his son-in-law Ronen Atzili are the 2014 Technobrain first prize winners for building a device that successfully climbed up a steep cable at a high speed while being powered by an electric screwdriver. They will be awarded a 10,000 NIS cash prize.
At this year’s competition, Technobrain competitors were required to build a device that could climb up to a height of 25 meters in a nearly vertical manner, and then slide down from this height while lifting a “space elevator” suspended from the other side of the cable. This challenge was made further difficult because of the provision prohibiting the use of combustion or open flame energy sources of any kind.
This is the third time that Zimerman is competing in Technobrain, and Atzili’s second time. “My granddaughter was surfing the net one day and saw an advertisement for the completion and, she thought it would interest me, knowing of my sportive and creative spirit,” related Zimerman, who operates a locksmith’s workshop in Kibbutz Ein Harod and is in his 80’s.
הסטודנטים הזוכים בתחרות במקומות הראשונים.
“The idea of basing the engine on an electric screwdriver we borrowed from the world of manufacturing plastic pipes using plastic extrusion, in which raw plastic material is melted and formed into a continuous profile,” said Atzili. “In short, it’s an idea that came to me originating from my experiences working in the plastics industry.”
Do you have plans for what to do with the prize money?
“We’ll use it to cover the costs of this year’s competition, and whatever is left over we’ll use to cover expenses of next year’s competition!”
The Technobrain Competition is in memory of Neev-Ya Durban, who was an outstanding Technion graduate, and is funded by Dr. Robert Shillman (who everyone knows as “Dr. Bob”), who did his graduate work at the Technion.
The engineer Yuri Artsutanov who developed the concept of the “space elevator” was the guest of honor and one of the judges of the competition. He published his idea, which was based on the proposal by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, in the 1950’s. Artsutanov’s visit to the Technion was supported through the Dean of Students Office, the Asher Space Research Institute (ASRI), and the foundation founded by family members of Norman and Helen Asher from Chicago. This was his first trip to Israel. “The competition was very fun and entertaining,” he said.
The work of assistant Professor Shelly Tzlil is an enlightening example of interdisciplinary research: in her undergrad degree she completed a dual major in chemistry and computer science, her graduate research (MSc and PhD) was in physical chemistry, and her postdoc focused on polymer chemistry. She is a biophysicist, who started off as a theoretician turned experimentalist and today study mechanical sensing in living cells at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.
What do biological cells have to do with mechanical engineering? “Typically when you think about communication of cells with their environment, you think about chemicals that cells release and absorb,” explains Tzlil. “But in recent years scientists realize that cells also respond to mechanical forces, such as flow or distortion (deformation) of material that they interact with. Cells bind to their environment, exert forces on it, and unravel its elastic properties by ‘measuring’ the deformations these forces induce. In the case of cultured stem cells, for example, something very surprising occurs – the cells attempt to match the degree of their intrinsic elasticity – their flexibility – to that of the environment and this ‘elastic-matching’ tendency dictates the cell type they will differentiate into. If the environmental elasticity is similar to brain tissue, it will differentiate into neuron, and if this elasticity is like that of a muscle, it will differentiate into muscle cell.”
“In light of this phenomenon, the identity of the investigator and his discipline, greatly affects the type of research questions raised. “While physicists and chemists will ask – ‘How do cells sense elasticity?’ biologists might ask – ‘What is the evolutionary advantage of such a mechanism?’ And medical doctors would want to know how such a mechanism will manifest itself in health and disease,” explains Assistant Professor Tzlil. “I am interested in exploring how cells are able to ‘feel’ the mechanics of their environment, and how they communicate by deforming their environment mechanically.”
“Mechanical engineers study the way material responds to mechanical forces, and how to measure and apply them. They view the cell as a machine with control mechanism and this drive them to ask different type of questions, such as ‘how does the cell ‘know’ how much force to apply?’ It’s a different way of thinking. In interdisciplinary work of this kind both sides have to make an effort to understand one another. I found this willingness in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.”
The Technion is a natural playground for this type of interdisciplinary work. “At the Technion the collaboration between medicine and engineering already exists, and I knew I’d be able to find a multidisciplinary working environment that would both suit me and enrich me. My research requires a continuous dialogue with engineers, biologists, medical doctors, theoreticians and experimentalists and the Technion is an ideal place for such integration. Theoretically, I could have found myself in biology, biotechnology engineering or biomedical engineering. The advantage of working in mechanical engineering for me is the toolbox I have here – and of course the excellent partners I’ve made in the fields of elasticity, dynamics and more. I bring to the mechanical engineering faculty the biological aspect, the study of soft matter and the focus on the cellular and molecular levels – aspects that do not belong to traditional areas of mechanical engineering. I came here because I thought that this interaction between the two worlds can lead to an interesting outcome.”
***
Shelly Tzlil was born in Rishon LeZion, and all of her degrees – her undergrad in chemistry and computer science, and her graduate degree in physical chemistry were completed at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In her doctoral studies she investigated processes such as the mechanics of DNA packaging in viruses, and protein adsorption on membranes. “My doctoral thesis was in theoretical biophysics – developing models that can explain biological processes. Over time, I realized that as a theoretician, I’m dependant on experimentalists to perform the experiments that interest me. As an experimentalist, I can design and conduct my own experiments to test our theories.”
Tzlil has done her postdoc at Caltech, working with Professor Dave Tirrell, a polymer chemist. “Tirrell knows how to “program” bacteria to operate as a polymer factory producing artificial proteins with unique functionalities.”
The research currently being conducted at Associate Professor Tzlil’s laboratory examines the implications of mechanical interactions between cells and the biological mechanism that enables it. Additionally, new biomaterials are designed that are able to increase the range of mechanical interaction between cells and simulate the physiological environment.
“Usually, biological interactions based on chemical or electrical signals are short range. Mechanical interactions can be felt in large distances. Cardiac cells, for example, can sense mechanical forces hundreds of microns away. It implies that cardiac cells can ‘feel’ each other and synchronize their beating without physical contact, especially when they are on an elastic substrate characteristic of a healthy tissue.”
Assistant Professor Shelly Tzlil believes that her research will enable the design of materials that will allow control over the rate and direction of nerve cell growth after injury. “As part of the research I’m developing bio-materials that increase the range of mechanical interactions between cells as well as materials that simulate the mechanical physiological environment,” explains Prof. Tzlil. “Materials that can effectively conduct mechanical deformations have the potential to control the rate and direction of nerve cell growth after injury.”
A warm welcome to our governors and friends from around the world who have joined us to celebrate Technion’s outstanding achievements and contributions on the national and global stages, and to look ahead to tomorrow’s challenges and promises.
The entire Technion community – faculty, students, staff and alumni – is grateful for the heartfelt generosity of our many supporters from Israel and across five continents.
Technion Scientists Develop ‘Test Tube Brain Tissue’ that Provides a 3-D View of Neural Activity
The new ‘Optonet’ cultures could enable a better understanding of complex activity within neural networks
Neural cells grown on laboratory plates (two-dimensional neural cultures) constitute a convenient model for many studies in the field of neuroscience and medicine. Their main advantage is the relative simplicity by which they can be used to examine physiological changes in neural cells’ activity patterns caused by changes in their environment. However, the shortcomings of these simple 2D cultures is that they contain only a single layer of cells, and do not exhibit the complex three-dimensional network connectivity found in real brains. Previous attempts to develop 3D models for studying the central nervous system have met with limited success, mainly due to the high complexity of developing a 3D culture capable of simulating brain tissue as well as challenges associated with developing methods for observing network activity in three dimensions. Technion researchers led by Professor Shy Shoham from the Department of Biomedical Engineering now report in Nature Communications that they were able to develop, for the first time, three dimensional cell networks that can simulate complex aspects of brain activity, which could provide a better access for understanding the physiology of the central nervous system.
המחשה של המיקרוסקופ אותו בנינו במעבדה. על ידי שימוש בטכניקה מתקדמת, הנקראת מיקוד זמני, ניתן לדמות ביעילות ובמהירות איזורים גדולים בתרבית. כל נקודה בתרבית מצולמת 10 פעמים בשניה, מהירות המאפשרת לזהות כל שינוי בפעילות התאים.
The Editors of Nature Communications note that three-dimensional neural networks represent a promising model of complex neural tissue, which may lead to a better understanding of the structure and function of the brain, and that the Technion researchers also present an advanced method for viewing the neural activity of the engineered culture using a fast microscopy system they developed.
Prof. Shoham and his research team, which included Dr. Hod Dana, Dr. Anat Marom, Shir Paluch, Roman Dvorkin and Dr. Inbar Brosh, explain that they grew the advanced culture in a clear gel that supports cellular growth and allows the cells to bind and form neural networks. “By optimizing the culturing conditions we achieved cellular density and composition similar to those found in the human brain, and were able to demonstrate the formation of connections between cells and of networks that maintain neural activity,” says Dr. Marom. To enable the study of network activity in 3D, optical tools were used: nerve cells in the cultures were genetically altered making it possible to view ongoing network activity through a fluorescence microscope, earning them the nickname “Optonets”.
To view cell activity in 3-D, the researchers developed an advanced imaging system that uses ‘temporal focusing’– a non-linear optical technique developed nearly a decade ago at the Weizmann Institute of Science. “The hybrid SLITE imaging system we developed is a significant step forward in improving research capabilities for viewing the activities of multiple brain cells in space and time through which we may be able to reach insights about brain activity,” explains Dr. Dana.
“Through complementary advances in microscopy and in neural tissue engineering we demonstrated an unprecedented ability to view more than a thousand cells within developing neural networks, exhibiting complex spontaneous activity patterns. These innovations open new windows of opportunity for further developments in the field of neural interfaces and other applications for 3-D engineered networks, ranging from basic brain research to the examination of the impact of neurological drugs on nerve cell activity”, summarizes Prof. Shoham.
In the photos:
Illustration of the Technion team’s SLITE microscope, which uses advanced optics to image the 3D culture at a rate of 10 images per second – fast enough to follow neural activity.
Optonets placed over text to illustrate their translucency; the images were taken on different days during the culture’s growth and development.
Clip:
The video shows activity imaged in a culture region containing approximately 1,000 cells, revealing synchronized spontaneous activity bursts in adjacent groups of cells. Neural activity is indicated by changes in the cells’ color.
“Space Elevators” to be Constructed as Part of the Technobrain Competition to be Held at Technion
Yuri Artsutanov, the Leningrad engineer who developed the idea of the ”space elevator,” will travel from Russia to Israel especially to judge the competition; among the competitors this year – three father-and-son teams of Technion graduates and students
Yuri Artsutanov, the engineer who developed the concept of the “space elevator,” will be the guest of honor and one of the judges in the traditional Technobrain Competition to be held at the Technion on June 18 as part of the Board of Governors meeting. Among the competitors this year – three father-and-son teams of Technion graduates (fathers) and students (sons).
The concept of the “space elevator” first appeared in 1895 when a Russian scientist by the name of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, inspired by the newly constructed Eifel Tower in Paris, thought of a tower that reached all the way into space. In 1957 Yuri Artsutanov drew up a more feasible plan for building such a space tower. He proposed using a geostationary satellite as a base from which to build it. He suggested lowering a cable toward Earth while a counterweight was extended from Earth, keeping the cable’s center of gravity at the geosynchronous point. Artsutanov published his ideas in the Sunday supplement Komsomolskaya Pravda (a national newspaper) in 1960.
The challenge of this year’s Technobrain is to build a device capable of climbing in a nearly vertical manner (at an 80 degree angle to the ground), to a height of 25 meters (for this purpose the Technion has ordered a huge crane), and then slide down from this height while lifting a “space elevator” carrying practical cargo from the other side of the pulley (the position of the pulley will signify the location of the Space Station in space, while the mission course will emulate the movement of the space elevator).
Contestants will not be allowed to use energy sources of combustion or open flame of any kind. In addition, at the height of 12.5-17 meters, competing devices will release a flag or other visual signal to mark the point of no return.
Winners of the competition will be awarded 5,000 and 3,000 NIS cash prizes.
The Technobrain Competition is in its twelfth year, in memory of its promoter and founder Neev-Ya Durban, a student and outstanding Technion graduate. Neev-Ya was serving as an officer in the IDF when he was murdered during a mugging on a quiet street in Tel-Aviv in March 2003. The competition and the prizes are funded by Dr. Robert Shillman (who everyone knows as “Dr. Bob”), who did his graduate work at the Technion. Yuri Artsutanov’s visit to the Technion is supported through the Dean of Students Office, the Asher Space Research Institute (ASRI), and the foundation founded by family members of Norman and Helen Asher from Chicago.
Professor Peyman Milanfar from the University of California Santa Cruz, at the Technion Conference:
To improve the quality of digital photography in small cameras it will be necessary to take a number of pictures and merge them together into one good image – Google Glass are the first to do so.
“Those of you with a keen eye and even those of you without can distinguish between a photo taken with a high quality camera than from one taken with a cell phone, but this will not be the case for long,” asserted Professor Peyman Milanfar from the University of California Santa Cruz, an expert in image processing and artificial vision who has been working for Google over the past year. He spoke at the Fourth Annual International Conference held by TCE Technion Computer Engineering Center named after Henry Taub at the Technion. Professor Milanfar is working with the team developing the Google Glass software.
Professor Oded Shmueli, the Technion’s Executive Vice President for Research, said at the opening of the conference: “We are at the brink of a process which will usher in a new era. The areas of research discussed at the conference, such as artificial intelligence, computer vision and image processing, affect all aspects of our lives.
Within a decade from now cars will travel on roads equipped with computer, sensors and navigation and radar systems which will allow them to travel alone without the intervention of a driver.”
Prof. Oded Shmueli
The TCE Technion Computer Engineering Center was inaugurated three years ago and since then has become a leading center of excellence in groundbreaking research,” said Professor Assaf Schuster, the Head of TCE. “We have been successful at creating here a new model for collaboration between academia and industry.”
According to Professor Milanfar it will be hard and nearly impossible to achieve the level of next generation camera with the simple cameras installed today in cellular phones and tablets, and which in the near future may also be used as part of wearable computing devices. It is because they lack all the moving parts and the complex heavy lenses that professional cameras have. Even the need of not overburdening the user, which has prompted planners to make them lighter and smaller, doesn’t let them compete with the big cameras without encountering physical limitations. The
Professor Peyman Milanfar wearing the Google Glass
miniaturization of devices makes it very difficult to bring light into the device, so what remains is to use sophisticated algorithms to compensate for the size reduction.
“My job at Google is to develop the field of computerized photography that can merge a number of former disciplines such as image processing, photography, computer graphics and computer vision. It includes the development of algorithms, hardware Optics and image processing techniques (Rendering),” explained Professor Milanfar. “The principle is quite simple – instead of taking only one image you shoot a series of images and then merge them together into one image. This can be in the form of a high resolution picture, a trivial feature that allows intensified use of multiple photos, or making use of other ‘tricks’ such as shooting several pictures from different angles and calculating the distance to objects, so that you will be able to decide in which area of the picture to focus and what part of the image will remain vague to achieve a sense of depth. Another ‘trick’ that can be used is to capture images that cannot be detected by the naked eye, such as night vision (by using infra-red sensors),and the ability to detect changes that occur very quickly or very slowly, distinguishing fine details (for example, the motion of a baby’s breathing through cameras installed in a child’s bedroom).”
Scientists (and high school students alike) that use microscopes are surely aware of the phenomenon that occurs when looking at a sample – where only the central portion of the image appears very sharp while the rest of it remains vague. Merging the images will produce one photo where all of the parts of the specimen are sharp and clear. “Google Glass is the first device that contains a camera that at every snapshot photographs a series of pictures and merges them,” added Professor Milanfar.
Professor Amnon Shashua from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Co-founder, Chairman of the Board and CTO of Mobileye and the startup company OrCam, described another approach to wearable computing based cameras. OrCam developed a system that includes a camera and microphone that fasten onto regular eyeglasses. The system allows the visually impaired to point at bobjects such as street signs, traffic lights, buses or restaurant menus, and reads it back to them (the menu, color at traffic light, street sign, etc…).
“The OrCam concept differs from Google Glass – as it doesn’t shoot a photo each time the user requests a picture but rather shoots a continuous video and performs immediate processing. This requires a completely different deployment in terms of hardware and particularly with regards to energy consumption,” said Professor Shashua.
PTC signed an agreement with the Technion to establish a center for robotics and digital content
The agreement includes the option to expand the cooperation in the future to include the Technion institutions in the USA and China
The scope of the investment is 7 million dollars
X May, 2014 PTC Inc. signed an agreement with the Technion to support the establishment of a center for robotics and digital content in the department of Education in Science and Technology, investing 7 million dollars. Within the framework of this agreement, PTC will finance the creation of the center and its operational costs for the first 3 years. PTC has been operating in Israel for over 20 years. The Israeli branch is one of 3 worldwide development centers. PTC employees will take part in various activities of the Robotics Center. In addition, PTC will make its software available to Technion students in the new center. Both sides favorably view the possibility to expand the cooperation and include Technion institutions in the US and China.
PTC Inc. is an American company based in Boston (Needham, MA) and traded on the NASDAQ. The company has over 6,000 employees and sales in 2013 of a billion and three hundred million dollars. PTC customers are some of the largest manufacturers in the world, including: Toyota, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Audi, Caterpillar, General Electric, Raytheon, EADS, Samsung, Dell, Toshiba, Motorola, and more.
PTC’s office in Israel was established in 1991 as the first development center outside of the US. Today this development center employs about 250 professionals in Haifa and Herzliya. Outside of the US, it is the second largest PTC development center in the world. In recent years, PTC has named the Israeli office a strategic development center and as a result the office has tripled in size in less than a decade. The Israel office is responsible for developing PTC’s leading products that are sold worldwide.
With PTC’s software clients can design products in 3D. They can manage all aspects of the product life cycle starting with concept and design and ending with production and support. The software allows PTC’s clients to digitally design the product, visualize it in three dimensions, and examine how each of its components fit together. Clients and vendors can test the product during the design and easily modify it before going to production.
Ziv Belfer, Manager of the PTC Israel development center states: “We are excited about signing the agreement with the Technion and about taking part in the establishment of the new center. As a company that develops new technologies, we value technological education. The Technion is considered one of the leading academic institutions in the fields
of engineering and technology and such cooperation is another step in the advancement of technological education in Israel and abroad.”
Prof. Boaz Golani, Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development at the Technion, stated that: “The Technion welcomes partnerships with technology companies that enrich the curriculum and contribute to the students learning experience. The agreement is a further step in an extensive range of existing connections between the Technion and educational institutions in the State of Massachusetts. PTC’s contribution is yet another evidence for the Technion’s reputation and international recognition as one of the leading institutions in the world in science and technology.”
For more information: Idit Rosenberg, Media-PR, 052-8527125
Mechanism that Expels Damaged Proteins “Takes a Break” Under Stress
Proteasomes temporarily stop working until oxidative stress dissipates
Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have discovered that the proteasome – the “biological machine” found in each and every one of the body’s cells (and the mechanism by which the body disposes of damaged proteins) – “takes a break” when cells are under harmful oxidative stress. The findings are published this week in Cell Reports.
The team led by Prof. Michael Glickman, of the Technion Faculty of Biology compares the phenomenon to a person caught in a sandstorm closing their eyes until the storm passes to avoid damage. They found that even after severe damage (which normally can kill cells), proteasomes get back to work properly, as long as the damage is temporary.
Potential damage to cells comes from a long list of sources, including harmful oxidation that can arise as a side effect of the body’s natural energy production. Such free radicals (reactive oxidative species) attack the body – including the proteins that make up a large portion of human solid body mass. Resulting damaged proteins must be disposed of quickly, or they will accumulate and cause long-term damage.
Proteasomes remove damaged proteins by recycling them into new proteins. The paradox is that proteasomes themselves are made up of proteins, something that led the researchers to ask: how do proteasomes avoid oxidative stress damage?
“In our experiments, the proteasomes stop working for up to 3 hours during times of stress, with very minor deleterious outcome,” said Prof. Glickman. “In this way, by shielding the protein-recycling mechanism, it reduces potential self-damage during an episode of oxidative stress, and in turn, protects the body from cumulative or unpredictable damage. After such a break, there is a good chance that oxidative stress has passed on, at which time the proteasome can get back to cleaning up the mess left behind.”
The research was conducted as part of Nurit Livnat-Levanon’s doctoral thesis, in collaboration with Noa Reis, microbiologist and lab manager together with Prof Thorsten Hoppe their partner on a Deutsch-Israelische Projektkooperation (DIP) grant at the University of Cologne, Germany.
In the photo: Prof. Michael Glickman. Photographed by: The Technion’s Spokesperson’s Office
According to Professor Guillermo Sapiro, a Global Expert on Image Processing and the Lead Speaker at the Technion Computer Engineering (TCE) Conference to be held at the Technion:
“The field of image processing is opening doors to many other new global applications – like computing tools for early diagnosis of psychiatric disorders”
“Perhaps in the future we can provide computational tools for early diagnosis of psychiatric disorders,” says Professor Guillermo Sapiro, from Duke University in the US, who will be the lead speaker at the Fourth Annual International TCE Conference that will be held at the Technion on May 26-27.
Professor Sapiro is a world expert in image processing who holds numerous technological breakthroughs in the field of video processing and image compression techniques, which were used to accelerate the speed of image broadcasts from Mars to Earth and are being used in the development of new vaccines based on photographic imaging of a virus.
“Along with psychiatrists Helen Egger and Geri Dawson I am working on the development of computational tools for early diagnosis of psychiatric disorders through video imaging analysis,” says Professor Sapiro. “Today, early diagnosis and support in the realm of mental health are limited to privileged kids. Our idea is to develop screening techniques that are both short and easy to administer, that can be given at school, home and pediatric clinics, what will enable access to appropriate mental health diagnosis and help to the general population. We believe that mental health screening should be standardized, like hearing tests are today. One of our main goals is to make tools available, consented to by caregivers, for very early screening of mental health, and one which will enable the system to be able to provide referrals for a child to be seen by a specialist where needed – just as standardized hearing tests given at schools serve as a basis from which children get referred to a specialist. We want mental health to be at the same level. In the US for example, less than one fifth of children undergo proper mental health diagnosis, such as in Autism or anxiety disorders where diagnosis is often provided in a 3-4 year delay on average in comparison to what we are proposing. Early screening therefore should not be limited to privileged children. We want to incorporate the technology we are developing into simple to use devices.”
Professor Guillermo Sapiro, a Global Expert on Image Processing and the Lead Speaker at the Technion Computer Engineering (TCE) Conference to be held at the Technion
Born in Uruguay, Professor Sapiro immigrated to Israel in the late 1980s as a kibbutz volunteer, and in 1989 was accepted to the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Technion. “I wanted to do my undergraduate degree at an excellent institution and of course the Technion was an obvious choice,” he said.
“I enjoyed my undergraduate degree so much that continuing on to graduate studies at the Technion came naturally. We worked very hard, much harder than what I have observed later at other universities, but it was fun. The Technion shaped my life and my career, and whenever I visit the Technion I feel as if I have come home. I met my best friends at the Technion, and my wife, so you can say it was a perfect package deal.”
Developments in video processing and battery imaging have led to many applications,” adds Professor Sapiro. “I love interdisciplinary research and working with people. I have been very lucky to be collaborating with outstanding colleagues and students who have helped me enter new disciplines. For example, in the technology development for finding new footholds for vaccinations based on tracing the outer contours of the flu virus, I am working with Dr. Sriram Subramaniam , a researcher from the American National Institute of Health (NIH). The idea for this research is to take information from CT scans and to use very advanced techniques in image processing that we developed to reconstruct the 3D shape of the Env, a protein in the contours/membrane of the HIV virus (we also have results on Influenza). This is imperative to understanding the mechanism of the transmission of the virus across cells.”
“The best decision of my academic career was to choose Professor David Malah from the Technion as my master’s degree advisor, and Professor Allen Tannenbaum from the Technion as my PhD advisor.” He added that, “David and Allen were not only the best mentors a person can wish for, but extraordinary human beings. They have made me into who I am today. I not only learned science from them, but also how to approach research, how to collaborate, how to mentor, and basically every single component of what is needed to be a successful researcher and human being. We have remained good friends and communicate often. Moreover, in my doctoral studies I collaborated with Professor Alfred Bruckstein, from the Faculty of Computer Science at the Technion, and I can’t imagine a better way to complement my academic experience learning than working with him, David and Allen. All three of them instilled in me the joy of learning and discovery. I hope to be able to inspire my students as they encouraged me.”
The 2014 TCE conference will be held at the Technion on May 26-27, and will be attended by world leading researchers in machine learning, signal processing and computerized vision. Participants will include Professor Richard Baraniuk from Rice University, Professor Ronald Coifman from Yale University, Professor Peyman Milanfar from University of California, Santa Cruz, Professor Joachim Weickert from Saarland University in Germany, Professor Guy Gilboa, Professor Nati Srebro and Professor Ronen Talmon from the Technion, Professor Michal Irani from the Weizmann Institute, and Professor Amnon Shashua from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Within eight years: Student dropout rates have significantly decreased among the Arab population at the Technion – only 12% in comparison with 73%.
The Technion has Launched a New Program for Outstanding Arab Students – a First of its Kind in Israel
A significant decrease in the number of student dropouts of Arab descent has been registered at the Technion. Within eight years the percentage went down from 73 to 12. This is what was mentioned at the inauguration of a new program for outstanding students – a first of its kind in Israel.
The Assistant to the Senior Vice President for Minorities, Professor Yosef Jabareen, said that the program was built after it became apparent that Technion activities to lessen the dropout rate of Arab students was successful, and when the percentage of Arab students at the Technion reached the percentage of the general Arab population in Israel. For the time being, it has been decided that this will be an annual program for Arab students who excel in their studies, with the aim to: encourage them to continue on to graduate studies and to provide them with assistance in integrating into the Israeli labor market.
פרופסור סידי מופיעים בפני הסטודנטים המצטיינים. צילום: שרון צור, דוברות הטכניון
“When I completed my undergraduate studies at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Technion, it took me a year to find a job,” related Professor Jabareen to the outstanding students in the audience. “Finally, I found a job as a security guard at the Holon Cemetery. I decided to continue my education and today I’m a faculty member at the Technion. I believe that you can do it, too!”
A poll conducted among outstanding Arab students revealed that about 56% of them would like to continue on to graduate school. Most of them want to get a better understand of the business world and expressed interest in entrepreneurship. Many also wanted to improve their command of English and Hebrew.
The new program, “Generous Hands” (in Hebrew Yad Nadiv) was designed in accordance with the survey findings, and in collaboration with the Budget and Planning Committee (PBC) sub-committee of the Council for Higher Education. Outstanding students will participate in special workshops, be sent on tours of leading laboratories abroad, and will be given scholarships. A special grant will be given to lecturers that will accompany them.
Professor Hossam Haick from the Faculty of Chemical Engineering told students that, “For many years the Arab community concerned itself with survival, since we didn’t have a lot of opportunities. Today we understand that excellence is the key to breaking down barriers.”
“Every employer thinks of how to advance his/her business and to this end seeks to hire the best and most outstanding. From my experience, excellence is not an easy feat – it involves perseverance, dedication and an ability to deal with failures. To succeed we also must know how to handle failure. In the future, when you are a success, remember how much support you received from the Technion and give back to the community.”
Sara Katzir, the Head of the Beatrice Weston Unit for the Advancement of Students at the Dean of Students Office said, “Today we are embarking on a new path, now that we have managed to narrow down the dropout rate. You are among the first in Israel to participate in this new program, and many eyes are fixed on you.”
In the photo: Professors Yosef Jabareen and Moshe Sidi, Technion’s Senior Executive Vice President, appearing before the outstanding students at the inauguration ceremony.
Photographed by: Sharon Tzur, the Technion’s Spokesperson’s Office
“Pharmacological Trojan Horse” Fighting Cancer and Resistance to Anticancer Drugs
Technion researchers develop a novel approach for potential treatment of cancer cells that are resistant to chemotherapy
Technion researchers have discovered that multidrug resistant cancer cells frequently produce a large number of lysosomes. Taking advantage of this unique feature of the production of multiple lysosomes and the dramatic irreversible accumulation of certain lipid-soluble drugs bearing light-sensitive properties in these lysosomes– a “Pharmacological Trojan Horse” has been developed that results in the destruction of drug resistant cancer cells.
For this groundbreaking research achievement, Professor Yehuda Assaraf, the Dean of the Faculty of Biology, will be awarded the Hilda and Hershel Rich Innovation and Entrepreneurship award in June 2014. This innovative new technology has been registered as an American patent, and has stirred a great deal of interest among major international pharmaceutical companies. Its potential therapeutic approach was published in the journal “Cell Death and Disease” and received wide coverage in a “Spotlight of Cell Press” article.
“Cancer cells acquire a wide range of sophisticated mechanisms to overcome cytotoxic drug therapy (i.e. chemotherapy) directed against them,” explains Professor Assaraf. “This phenomenon, known as ‘multidrug resistance’ (MDR) often stems from the fact that cancer cells possess an abundance of pump proteins, located in the membrane of cancer cells, that act as efficient pumps which expel a multitude of anticancer drugs from the cancer cells. This is an important mechanism by which malignant tumors become resistant to chemotherapy.”
Two types of MDR are known– inherent drug resistance that exists prior to drug therapy as well as acquired drug resistance that is provoked by drug treatment. Therefore, Professor Assaraf and members in his research team, including Dr. Michal Stark, Dr. Eran Bram and Yamit Adar, made it their primary goal to develop innovative therapeutic strategies in order to overcome the MDR phenomenon, which is a major hindrance to the development of curative drug therapies of cancer.
The researchers searched for the “Heel of Achilles” of MDR cancer cells which would constitute the weakest point through which these chemoresistant cancer cells could be defeated. They discovered that MDR cancer cells often contain a large number of microscopic intracellular organelles called lysosomes. Lysosomes were first discovered in 1974 by Nobel Laureate, Professor Christian de Duve. Lysosomes are intracellular acidic vesicles that contain dozens of hydrolytic enzymes capable of breaking down virtually all kinds of cell components, including proteins, fats, sugars, DNA and RNA. The role of lysosomes is to break down these cell components and other cells that have reached their end, to safeguard the proper physiological functioning of body cells.
The researchers discovered that light-sensitive, lipid-soluble drugs bearing weak basic features, selectively concentrate to very high levels within the multiple lysosomes present in MDR cancer cells. “MDR cancer cells are frequently equipped with two complementary defense systems,” explains Professor Assaraf. “One is the drug extrusion pump proteins located in the cell membrane that efficiently expels different anticancer drugs. The other is the multiplication of lysosomes; many anticancer drugs are lipid-soluble drugs with attributes bearing weak basic features. In other words, in an acidic environment such as inside lysosomes, these drugs become positively charged, get irreversible captured by lysosomes and accumulate to very high concentrations. Drugs capable of escaping one of the “guardians”- that is – the pumps that expel anticancer drugs, will be efficiently “vacuum-cleaned” by the numerous lysosomes found in the resistant cells and thereby prevent the drug from damaging its targeted site in the cancerous cell, resulting in high drug resistance.”
“We took advantage of this unique feature as an “Achilles Heel” and devised a “Pharmacological Trojan Horse” to kill MDR cancer cells,” explains Professor Assaraf. “When we illuminated light upon the MDR cells containing the light-sensitive drugs trapped in the lysosomes, it created oxygen free radicals that destroyed the lysosome membrane and as a result, all of the contents of the lysosomes was spilled into the cancerous cell. This resulted in a massive release of the above enzymes, and rapid digestion and destruction of MDR cancer cells.”
In collaborative efforts with other researchers, among them Professor Griffioen, Dr. Nowak-Sliwinska, Professor van den Bergh, Professor Skladanowski, and Professor Sarna from Holland, Switzerland and Poland, it turned out that in live model experiments using multidrug resistant tumors of human ovarian cancer origin, the core of the tumor was destroyed upon exposure to light, after having accumulated vast amounts of anticancer drugs inside the lysosomes. Moreover, due to the free oxygen radicals that were created after light exposure, the blood vessels nourishing the tumor were destroyed and others were occluded (i.e. blocked). As a result, the blood supply to the remaining cells in the malignant tumor was cut off, and this led to the destruction of any malignant cells that remained.
Professor Assaraf and his research team are diligently working towards developing a second generation of “Pharmaceutical Trojan Horse” selectively targeting cancer cells only by homing protein receptors that are selectively present on the malignant cells without harming healthy body cells. These receptors will deliver the “Pharmacological Trojan Horse” into the lysosomes, which will then be activated by light irradiation from optic fibers. This and much more – the researchers are also developing an alternative “Trojan Horse” that will be activated by ultrasonic waves that would be possible to target any cancerous tissue or metastasis of cancerous cells in a patient’s body without using any invasive procedure.
However, Professor Assaraf emphasizes that the way to develop a “Pharmacological Trojan Horse” for the practical treatment of malignant tumors in humans is still a long way off.
In the image: MDR lung cancer cells containing large amounts of lysosomes (vesicles marked in red) shown on the bottom line of resistant cells as compared with the top line showing sensitive cancer cells with small amounts of intracellular lysosomes). The green fluorescent drugs which are sensitive to light accumulate to very high concentrations in the multiple lysosomes in multidrug resistant tumor cells (the vesicles marked in green) and after exposure to light the multiple lysosomes explode due to the abrupt formation of oxygen free radicals, and the lysosomes enzymes become released into the cells, hence digesting the contents of the cancer cells and killing them.
Scientists, Doctors and Patients Convene at a Unique Meeting Aimed at Developing New Psychiatric Treatments
“Research in this field is facing significant challenges, and we need to initiate new ways to deal with it and develop other areas such as early intervention and new treatments.
The goal: improved quality of life and enhancing the capabilities of the mentally ill”; “Sleep disorders can impair the functioning of stem cells in the immune system”
Scientists, doctors and patients will come together at a unique meeting in Australia this week, aimed at developing new treatments for psychiatric illness and brain diseases that affect the mind and cognition. Two Technion researchers will participate at this special forum ‘Meeting for Minds,’ Assistant Professors Asya Rolls and Itamar Kahn. The conference was organized in collaboration with the Technion Society of Australia (TSA).
פרופסור משנה איתמר קהאן. צילום: דוברות הטכניון
In recent years, more and more studies on brain imaging are being conducted on people with mental illnesses who suffer from emotional (such as depression and anxiety), cognitive (such as autism and attention deficit disorders) and perceptual (schizophrenia) disorders. The goal is to amass significant data on brain structure and function of thousands of healthy and non-healthy individuals in the hope to gain new insights into these disorders (its occurrence, severity and development). Imaging data is collected from fetuses, infants, teenagers, adults and the elderly. In the context of psychiatric and mental disorders, the challenge is to collect information in the early stages of the disorder appearing in at-risk groups or right at the onset in patient groups, and to consider environmental factors known to have critical importance in mental illnesses.
“Mental and psychiatric disorders present significant challenges, since the source of the disturbance may be connected to biological processes and environmental factors taking effect already at the embryonic stage, in childhood or adolescence, many years before the disorder is manifested. Hence there is a need for imaging over many years and across diverse populations,” said Assistant Professor Itamar Kahn from the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion. “The adoption of long term brain imaging over a wide population, along with the attempt to identify risk factors over many years before the onset of the syndrome, gives us a broader understanding of psychiatric disorders and mental health so that we may be able to lessen or prevent the disorder or possibly predict a reaction to a specific treatment.”
Assist. Prof. Asya Rolls
“At the conference I would like to promote discussions on the effects of mental health on one’s physical immunity and particularly on the functioning of our immune system,” said Assistant Professor Asya Rolls. “Our laboratory focuses on how the mind influences our immune functions. For example, we can see that sleeping disorders can impair the functioning of stem cells in the immune system. Emotions can also affect the immune system; for example, negative emotions such as stress and mental strain can affect our ability to cope with an illness. On the other hand, positive emotions such as an expectation that a new drug will provide a cure are known to have positive effects on one’s physical condition, recognized as the placebo effect. I will try to promote the importance and need for research that combines the two disciplines, the brain and the immune system, in order to better understand the neurological mechanisms that link the brain and the immune system.”
To achieve significant progress in the medical aspects of this issue requires collaboration between basic scientists as physician-scientists from different disciplines. The ‘Meeting for Minds’ forum is taking it one step further – by involving patients and their families in discussions on research directions. “From my point of view this is a significant step, because in order to advance we need active participation in studies lasting over many years,” added Assistant Professor Kahn.
