Two renowned universities, the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, inked an agreement on 10 February 2013 to set up a collaborative program in satellite and space research.

The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding will allow for the sharing of resources and enhance opportunities for student and faculty exchange. It also comes at a time where both NTU and the Technion have embarked on plans to launch a Nano satellite over the next five years. Both universities have identified potential areas of research, including the study of electric propulsion systems that maintain the orbit control of a Nano satellite.

The two universities will also participate in each other’s satellite programs – namely the Technion IIT’s Space Autonomous Mission for Swarming and Geolocation Nano satellites (SAMSON) program and NTU’s VELOX program. A student exchange program for undergraduates and postgraduates from both institutions is also in the works.

The Agreement was signed by NTU President, Professor Bertil Andersson, and Technion IIT President, Professor Peretz Lavie at the Technion campus in Haifa, Israel.

“This MoU brings together two established technological universities with similar goals in space and satellite research,” says Professor Andersson.

“The agreement will increase contact and mutual support between students and researchers of Technion and NTU, as well as strengthen exchange opportunities at the two universities”.

“The Technion is delighted to explore yet another collaboration with NTU, one of the leading technological universities in the world, ” says the Technion president, Professor Peretz Lavie.

“Combining the knowledge and talents of our institutes will ensure the high quality and excellence of the scientific and technological leaders in Singapore and Israel”.

Both universities have established programs in space research, with NTU having launched the X-SAT microsatellite in 2011 and the Technion launching its Gurwin-II TechSat microsatellite in 1998.

Above (left to right): Prof’ Bertil Andersson, Prof’ Peretz Lavie, and Prof’ Oded Shmueli, executive vice president for research (Technion)

A joint multidisciplinary study conducted by researchers from the University of Haifa (Dr. Moshe Gish and Professor Moshe Inbar from the Department of Evolutionary & Environmental Biology) and the Technion  (Dr. Gal Ribak and Research Professor Daniel Weihs from the Faculty of Aerospace, and the Technion Autonomous Systems Program (TASP)), found that  aphids (known as plant lice), which drop from the host plant as a defensive response to danger, are capable of turning themselves over in mid air to almost always land on their feet. The study, which describes the aerodynamic mechanism and the ecological significance of this phenomenon, was recently published in the Current Biology Journal.

Aphids are tiny sap-sucking insects that dwell on plants. The aphids are nourished by plant sap, feeding on several species of legumes, and many species are known to be among the most destructive insect pests on cultivated plants. When aphids sense danger, most often they choose to escape from the host plant by dropping to the ground. Researchers found that immediately after an aphid abandons its host plant, it carries-out a rotational maneuver in mid-air (similar to that done by cats), so that it lands almost always on the ventral side (i.e. right side up, as oppose to landing on its back), not dependant on the starting orientation from which it fell.  The study showed that Aphids dropping from their host plant in an attempt to escape one of its most deadly predators, the seven-spotted ladybug (Coccinella septempunctata), landed on their ventral side in 95% of cases when the drop was made from the height of 20 centimeters, whereas in cases where the drop was made from heights lower than this, its ability to rotate in mid-air was only slightly affected. A fraction of aphids were capable of pulling off the rotational maneuver in mid-air from heights of only a few centimeters. The researchers used special high-speed digital cameras to document the falling process on speeds above 1,000 frames per second, in order to identify the mechanisms used by the aphids in carrying-out the mid-air rotation. It has become clear that already from the beginning of the drop, aphids raise their back legs (in relation to their bodies) and tilt their long antennas forward, to get into a distinct and stable falling position. The researchers built a mathematical model based on air resistance, which demonstrated that during the fall, when the aphid is in its distinct falling position, aerodynamic forces on its body parts (caused by air resistance) cause the aphid to rotate to the point at which an aerodynamic stability is reached that locks the duration of the fall at a fixed angle, whereby its ventral side and legs are pointed in the direction of the ground. In essence, when the aphid’s body is in its distinct falling position, it forms a type of aerodynamic “roly-poly” stance, whereby every deviation from its being stable (during the fall) is automatically and immediately corrected by air resistance, devoid of any action required by the aphid.

The scientists made additional experiments in order to clarify the benefits of an aphid’s ability to land on its ventral side.  Their finding showed that by landing on the ventral side, aphids will have a better chance of being able to cling onto the lower leaves of its host that they collide with on their fall to the ground. For the aphid, the ground is an extremely dangerous place, as it makes them susceptible to surface predators (such as ants), or death of starvation and dehydration. Although the aphid drops from its host plant to escape from dangers, it deliberately tries to do everything in its power to cling to the lower leaves of its host in order to avoid reaching the ground. A theory proposed by researchers, based on the video coverage, and from conclusions drawn by other experiments, suggests that when an aphid lands on its ventral side, sticky pads on the ends of their feet come in contact with the surface of leaves and consequently allows it to cling tightly onto the leaf and stop it from falling. Nonetheless, if an aphid lands on its side or backside, the sticky pads at the ends of their feet do not come in contact with the surface leaves and consequently, the aphid is spewed from the leaf and continues to fall towards the ground.

The mid-air rotational mechanism is very impressive in its simplicity and efficiency, because it doesn’t require from the aphid to act in any way, apart from moving its legs and antennas to the distinctive falling position. The aphid completes its rotation in a very short period of time – in less than two tenths of a second, a phenomenon that is made possible due to its small size (only a few millimeters). In such small masses, the falling speed of an aphid is relatively very low, while the viscosity of the air highly influences the aerodynamic forces on the body. In such instances, quick body rotation ensues, already at the early stages of falling. In contrast to cats, who, owing to their size are forced into making complex maneuvers to ensure they turn over in time before they land, aphids let air resistance and gravity  do the work for them.

The study highlights the significance of the host plant for the aphids that live off them: even upon being forced to escape for fear of becoming instant prey, its adapted mechanism enables the aphid to cling onto the lower leaves of its host and hold onto them for dear life.

Above: The free falling position of aphids. Aphids raise their back legs up and their antennas forward and up to form a stable aerodynamic falling position ensuring a good landing (on their feet). Illustration by Nick W. Sloff

Following their first year of study participants will continue their academic education in Hebrew

The Technion will be rolling out a special new Russian Freshman Year Program in September. The goal of the program is to attract outstanding high-school graduates from the former Soviet Union, and provide them with an opportunity to study first year engineering and science in the Russian language at the Technion. While the freshman curriculum will be taught in Russian, students will be enrolled in an intensive Hebrew language program, so that they will be able to integrate to the regular Technion faculties (taught in Hebrew with Israeli students) in their second year of study.

Ariel Geva, the Director of the Technion International School of Engineering (ISE), said that this type of program is in fact a model of an academic “base year,” which prepares students for full integration to the mainstream study programs at the Technion following their first academic year. ISE has, up till now, only offered a Bachelor’s Degree Program (B.Sc. of Civil & Environmental Engineering) and Freshman Year of Engineering Program in the English language.

This unique new program will be launched in partnership with “Path” (“Nativ” in Hebrew), a government organization strengthening ties of Soviet Jewry to Israel, with offices in Russia, the Ukraine, Moldova, the Baltic states, Asia and the Caucasus. The organization runs Israeli Cultural Centers in 11 major cities. It will be supported by the “Masa Israel Journey” Organization, a joint project of the Israeli government and the Jewish agency to strengthen the connection of young Jewish adults living in the Diaspora to Israel, through programs that let them experience life in Israel. These programs typically last between six months to a year and include up to 200 different courses of study, volunteering or professional training opportunities.

In accordance with the admission terms of ISE, students will be required to complete the Technion’s pre-academic “Mechina” preparatory study program, over a 16 week period, administered by the university’s Center for Pre-University Studies. Professor Amnon Katz, Academic Director of ISE, emphasized that the experience students’ gain during their pre-academic studies has been proven to improve a student’s later academic achievements, helping them attain excellence in their studies and ultimately complete their engineering degrees. According to Professor Katz, this preparatory period promises an “easy landing” for students continuing their education at the Technion, and acts as an excellent filtering mechanism as well.

Upon completing this preparatory period, students will go on to study two Technion level semesters, which will include four basic science courses common to all Technion faculties. In addition, students will take a history course on the Middle-East, to gain more insight about Israel and its neighbors, and participate in a Hebrew Ulpan. The Hebrew Ulpan Program was designed in cooperation with the Technion’s Department of Humanities & Art, and is under its supervision.

Professor Arnon Bentur, Program Head of ISE, added that, “The Russian Freshman Program is based on the success of the comparable English Freshman Year of Engineering Program successfully administered by the Technion for a number of years. The English program attracts the best and brightest students from around the world, of which half of them come from developed countries and the other half from developing nations such as China and India.”

People who suffer from breathing disorders such as sleep apnea are usually at higher risk for cardiovascular disease. But an intriguing new study from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology scientists suggests that some heart attack patients with these conditions may actually benefit from mild to moderate sleep-disordered breathing.

Apnea and other types of sleep-disordered breathing can boost the numbers and functions of rare cells that help to repair and build new blood vessels, according to the Technion’s Dr. Lena Lavie and her colleagues. They say the findings could help predict which patients are at a greater health risk after a heart attack, and may even suggest ways to rebuild damaged heart tissue.

Sleep-disordered breathing is characterized by cycles of apnea-induced hypoxia, where the sleeper experiences a temporary drop in oxygen levels. It occurs in about 5 to 10% of the general adult population, but is extremely common in patients with cardiovascular diseases— somewhere between 40-60%. Many studies have shown that sleep apnea is a risk factor for everything from high blood pressure to chronic heart failure, Lavie noted. Earlier studies by the Technion scientists suggest apnea increases oxygen-related stress and inflammation in the heart and blood vessels.

The scientists’ study in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine could help resolve a puzzling medical issue. If sleep disordered breathing is associated with cardiovascular disease, why is it that people who suffer from breathing disorders in sleep seem to do as well as healthy sleepers after a heart attack?

Lavie, along with researchers Dr. Slava Berger, Prof. Doron Aronson and Prof. Peretz Lavie, looked for clues to this puzzle in 40 male patients—a mix of healthy sleepers and those with sleep disordered breathing—who had had a heart attack just a few days earlier.

Blood samples drawn from these patients revealed that the sleep disordered breathing patients had markedly higher levels of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), which give rise to new blood vessels and repair the injured heart, than the healthy sleepers. They also had higher levels of other growth-promoting proteins and immune cells that stimulate blood vessel production.

The Technion researchers were able to trigger a similar increase in vessel-building activity in vascular cells taken from a second set of twelve healthy men and women, by withholding oxygen from the cells for short periods. “Indeed, our results point at the possibility that inducing mild-moderate intermittent hypoxia may have beneficial effects,” Lena Lavie said.

In an accompanying editorial in the journal, Dr. Leila Kheirandish-Gozal of the University of Chicago and Prof. Ramon Farré of the Universidad de Barcelona said the Technion study moves toward reconciling the ideas that apnea can stress the heart but also “pre-condition” it for repair.

Patients with sleep-disordered breathing, they noted “are essentially better prepared to harness the recruitment of EPCs when [a heart attack] comes knock at the door.”

“Heart attack is a potent stimulus for EPC mobilization,” said Aronson, who is also affiliated with RAMBAM Medical Center.  He also explained that the cells move from bone marrow to the heart to repair damaged tissue after a heart attack.

“The field of cell-based cardiac repair has struggled to find the best approach to enhance recruitment of EPCs to the heart following myocardial infarction,” said Aronson. The Technion findings, he said, suggest that intermittent periods of oxygen deprivation in heart attack patients “provides a simple and powerful means to boost EPC mobilization.”

“It should be further investigated if inducing intermittent hypoxia immediately after a heart attack, in patients without sleep disordered breathing, will also have such an effect,” Lena Lavie said.

The researchers would like to test this possibility in animal studies, as well as expand their studies of the underlying mechanisms that activate EPCs and other vessel-building factors.

The Council of the Technion, chaired by Danny Yamin, CEO of Microsoft Israel, appointed three new members from the public sector to the Committee.

Dana Maor, CEO of McKinsey & Co. Tel-Aviv Office, holding an MBA from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and graduate of Technion’s Faculty of Computer Science. Between the years 1998-2008, Maor worked at the McKinsey New York offices as a consultant for giant American conglomerates, and in 2006, became a partner in the Consulting Group.

Pinhas Buchris, CEO of Oil Refineries Ltd. (ORL) – in Hebrew Bazan, served as commanding officer for the 8200 Unit holding the position of Brigadier General, and as the General Manager of the Israeli Ministry of Defense. When he was relieved of his duties in the IDF, Buchris became a partner in the APEX Investment Fund in Israel and held the position of Director of various public companies. Buchris completed the Advanced Management Program (AMP) at the Harvard University Business School, graduated from the MBA program of the Israel Branch of the University of Derby Business School, and received his B.Sc. from Technion’s Faculty of Computer Science.

Itzik Torgeman, CEO/Executive Vice President and General Director of the Rashi Foundation, Colonel in the IDF Reserves Corps, served as electronic engineer in a number of technology and administrative roles in the Research and Development Unit of the Intelligence Corps. For his many initiatives and achievments Torgeman was awarded the Israel Security Award in 1988 and the Head of IDF Intelligence Prize for Creative Thinking in 1999, and in 2003 he was awarded an honorary fellowship from the Technion. Torgeman holds a B.Sc. in electrical and electronics engineering, an MBA from the Ben-Gurion University of Beer Sheva/ the Negev, and holds an M.Sc. in Quality Assurance and Reliability from Technion’s Department of Nuclear Engineering.

Danny Yamin, CEO of Microsoft Israel and Chairperson of the Steering Committee of the Technion: “We are filling Technion’s Steering Committee with well-known champions in the Israeli public sector. The future of the country is increasingly hinged on quality technological education, and there is no doubt in my mind that the experience, knowledge and skills of our three new members will contribute greatly to the influence and future of the Technion, and to the scope and quality of its graduates. I congratulate Dana Maor, Pinhas Buchris, and Itzik Torgeman on their appointment to the Committee, and wish them all the best in their new roles they have agreed to take on.”

The Technion and AMIT (Alfred Mann Institute at the Technion) have established a new company for commercialization of stem cell technologies developed for over  a  decade at the stem cell research center headed by Professor Joseph Itskovitz-Eldor from the Bruce and Ruth Rappaport Faculty of Medicine. Professor Itskovitz-Eldor is a pioneer and a world leader in the field of stem cell research.

The company, Accellta, will market technologies  that will enable commercial companies and research laboratories to culture masses of homogenous stem cell lines in a fast and cost-effective manner. The innovative technologies, developed by Professor Itskovitz-Eldor and Dr. Michal Amit, a senior researcher at the stem cell research center, address the need for employing genetic manipulation of the cells; although a highly desirable procedure, the latter is currently associated with poor outcomes. The revolutionary technologies introduced by Accellta enable to successfully manipulate the cells and thus enhance the development of prospective stem cell-based therapies and disease models. In the future the company will also focus on regenerative medicine solutions and stem cell-based therapeutics for currently incurable diseases.

Professor Itskovitz-Eldor, Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Rambam Health Care Campus and Director of the Stem Cell Center at the Technion, is internationally recognized as one of the founders of the field of stem cell research. In 1998, in collaboration with Professor James Thomson from the University of Wisconsin, he isolated the first human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), which is considered one of the most important scientific breakthroughs in medical history. In the same year, he established the first stem cell research laboratory in Israel, and currently holds the largest number of scientific publications in the field of hESCs.

Since 1998, Professor Itskovitz-Eldor and Dr. Michal Amit have developed advanced stem cell technologies,  including xeno-free and defined growth media, cell culturing scale-up methods,  genetic manipulation techniques and protocols for induced differentiation of the cells into desired cell types; All of which fundamental to screening and testing of new therapeutic compounds. The Technion invested in a broad portfolio of patents to protect these promising inventions .

Accellta will operate in the global stem cell market, estimated at 2 billion dollars and double-digit annual growth. The market comprises mostly of products and services for stem cell research and development, as most stem cell technologies are still in development and have not yet been authorized for clinical use in humans. The stem cell market is expected to skyrocket in the coming years, once treatments currently under clinical evaluation receive approval from health authorities.

The Alfred Mann Institute at the Technion – AMIT, has been operating since 2006 to accelerate the development and commercialization of selected biomedical technologies invented by Technion scientists. The institute was founded by the initiative of American billionaire, Dr. Alfred Mann, who funds its activities and serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors. In addition to Accellta, AMIT also manages four other ventures, three of which have become start-up companies.

According to Professor Itskovitz-Eldor, “The Company’s activities will facilitate the adoption by industrial and clinical entities of some of the world’s most innovative and advanced technologies for culturing pluripotent stem cells (both embryonic and induced). These unique cells have the ability to generate any cell type of the human body.  Our novel methods can also be used as a platform for the production of proteins and antibodies as well as for screening of novel therapeutics across a wide range of  diseases. Accellta has already started establishing collaborations with a number of international companies.”

Cells in the fetal Amnion membrane, which make up part of the amniotic sac, and protects the fetus throughout the pregnancy period, may be a new source for human eggs

Technion researchers from the Bruce and Ruth Rappaport Faculty of Medicine found that cells in the fetal Amnion membrane may be a source of human eggs, according to dissertation of doctoral student Ayelet Evron mentored by the Dean of the Faculty, Professor Eliezer Shalev.

Amnion membranes constitute a part of the inner layer of the amniotic sac, which protects the fetus throughout the pregnancy period. Typically, upon being ruptured during the birth, directly after birth both the expelled placenta and membranes get thrown out.

Amnion membrane cells develop at the very early stages of the life of the fetus (on the eighth day after fertilization) and are known to maintain the plasticity of embryonic cells prior to cellular differentiation. These cells have the potential of joining any one of the cell groups that later develop into different tissues in the body. To date, the capability of Amnion membrane cells to differentiate into germ cells with specific gene markers that develop into human eggs, has never been documented.

The research work was undertaken in collaboration with Dr. Shlomit Goldman at the research laboratory of Women’s Division of Gynecology and Obstetrics in the Emek Medical Center (in Afula). It uncovered for the first time that when growing hamnion membrane cells on growth medium also used in IVF (in vitro fertilization), these cells display specific signs of gene expression like those of germ cells, which develop into human eggs, at both the gene and protein levels, as well as in appearance (resembling large round cells that resemble eggs). Later, the cells express markers that mimic the characteristic of markers in human egg development, which enable division reduction upon entry (division that is essential in human egg development), and remain in this state.

Researchers still face a major challenge – for these cells to be used in substitute of human eggs, they need to properly complete the reduction process upon entry.  Only after finding a solution to this problem it will be possible to check whether or not Amnion membrane cells may be used as a new source for human eggs that would be suitable for women who cannot produce them on their own.

37 young men and women from Russia to study information technology security at Technion

Professor Yehudit Dori, the Dean of the Division of Continuing Education & External Studies of the Technion, said that this group includes undergraduate students from Russia and the former Soviet Union. They earned bachelor’s degrees in computer science, economics, information systems and the like, and have come to Technion to obtain their CISM certification, a new five month course taught in Russian.

According to Professor Dori, “In the first group we expected an enrollment of only 20, but 37 came.” She added that, “Right from our first meeting I was very impressed with the high caliber of people in the program, and have since met with them at least once a month. The interaction with the students has been tremendous, and this led me to propose that they stay on for another five months at the Technion, and some 70 % immediately agreed. I offered them an opportunity to set-up a mentoring program as a follow up to the course, which would consist of weekly one to two-day hands-on industry experience in coordination with industrialist Mr. Yehuda Zisapel, who stood at the head of the Technion Alumni Association for six years. This proposition immediately spiked further interest, with 100% in favor for staying on for this mentoring program. All of the students are eligible to make aliyah under The Law of Return.”

At present, Dr. Niva Vengrovitz, a post-doctoral student in the Department of Education in Technology and Science at Technion, is setting-up connections for students in the industry; all of the students placed in the Israeli industry continuing education program will continue to the second phase of the project.

The director of “Nativ” Ms. Naomi Ben Ami, former Israeli ambassador to the Ukraine, said that the Technion course is run through the framework of the MASA Program, which brings thousands of students and academics from the Former Soviet Union to study in Israel.  “We reveal to them a country with much to offer, in terms of knowledge and professional attainment, blended with a Jewish identity,” she emphasized. “Continued Aliyah to Israel is important for us, as is the human quality of our new immigrants. Participants in the Technion course are of especially high caliber.”

The students receive a monthly scholarship, learn at a Hebrew Ulpan, take English conversation lessons, live in the university’s dorm rooms and given guided tours around the country. They are also involved in volunteering works in the community, at retirement homes, kindergartens and charity organizations.

Mr. Oded Raviv, the Head of the Division of Continuing Education & External Studies at Technion, and Ms. Ella Blinderman, the Division’s Project Manager, said that about 80% of the participants in the course are academics, with 30 men and seven women enrolled in the program. “Many of them already notified us of their plans to stay in Israel at the end of the course and are looking into making Aliyah. We have no doubt that by the end of the second stage of the program, which will expand further on technology aspects and expose students to more Hebrew and English – that most of them will decide to settle in Israel permanently,” added Blinderman.

Ms. Irit Frommer-Kfir, the Head of Content and Activity Development at Nativ, said that the first stage of the course was taught entirely in Russian, and that in light of the success of the program – the planning of a follow-up course in March 2013 is in the making. She expressed hope that in the summer of 2013, a course for high-school graduates from Russia will be offered, in cooperation with the Technion International School, to encourage students to enroll into undergraduate engineering studies at the university.

Above: The photo shows course participants, taken by Technion’s Spokesperson’s Office

Applying a conceptual modeling language developed over a decade ago, they depict complex biological systems both diagrammatically and textually in a formal yet intuitive way and at any desired level of detail

Technion researchers modeled the lifecycle of yeast mRNA, which transports genetic code from the nucleus to the ribosome for building proteins. Their novel method makes use of Object-Process Methodology (OPM), a holistic conceptual modeling paradigm that uses objects and processes as the only two building blocks of the universe. OPM, invented over fifteen years ago by Professor Dov Dori from the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, is in advanced stages of becoming the first conceptual modeling language which is an ISO standard.

Recently, Professor Dori has teamed up with Mordechai Choder, a molecular biologist from the Bruce and Ruth Rappaport Faculty of Medicine. Jointly mentoring Ms. Judith Somekh, a PhD candidate about to complete her dissertation, they built a conceptual model consisting of hundreds of objects and processes at eight levels of detail that describes key aspects of the mRNA lifecycle, which is responsible for gene expression. “It’s like a gigantic puzzle with vast amounts of information that has accumulated over years of meticulous research by thousands of researchers”, explains Professor Dori. “The model we built allows for an overall conceptual view of this subsystem and for testing it via qualitative simulation of the model.”

The model is based on dozens of published studies made on many pieces of this “puzzle” that together form an overall picture of major parts of the mRNA lifecycle subsystem. The research paper was published in the open access journal PloS ONE. In the process of building the model, the team – professors Dori and Choder and Judith Somekh – found and classified knowledge gaps in the system. Identifying such gaps can assist scientists in pinpointing specific aspects such as unknown mechanism or substances whose resolution requires design and execution of “wet lab” experimentation to verify or refute conjectured facts, and update the model accordingly. While systems biology has been a subject of much research in recent year, this approach has opened conceptual model-based systems biology as a new research area within systems biology.

The Technion decides that a lecturer who does not meet the standards of good teaching – can no longer teach required courses

The ten faculty members who received the award this year are: Eli Aljadeff, Yoram Halevi, Yoram Tambour, Oded Rabinovitch, Avigdor Gal, Erez Petrank, Uri Peskin, Gitti Frey, Isaac Keslassy and Yoav Arava.

Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie said in the festive ceremony that online academic courses have recently become highly popular. “This is indeed a significant revolution in academic education, but these courses cannot replace the strong bond created between a good lecturer and his student”, Prof. Lavie emphasized. “A good teacher gives of himself, reads the body language of his students, supports and guides them. The consistent thread running among the winners of the Yanai Award is love for the student and love for the profession”.

Executive Vice President for Research of the Technion, Prof. Gadi Schuster, disclosed in the ceremony that the Technion has recently resolved that a lecturer who does not meet the standards of good teaching – can no longer teach required courses. Chair of the Technion Student Association, Assaf Zinger, said in response that he is amazed at this decision of the Technion and is thrilled with it, as it is joyous news for all students.

Moshe Yanai, a worldwide data storage pioneer, said that with his donation he wanted to repay the Technion somewhat in tribute and appreciation of the tools for life that the institute has given him during his studies there forty years ago. Having remembered that period as a difficult and even traumatic one at times, he decided, in consultation with Prof. Lavie, to donate 12 million dollars that will be awarded to lecturers who are excellent educators, thus contributing to students at the Technion.  The award, in the amount of NIS 100 thousand per lecturer, will be awarded over twenty years. “This is the second year that the award is being given, and it is highly satisfying to see how the winners, who are excellent educators as is, seem to stir their colleagues to do the same”, said Mosh Yanai in the ceremony.

Above: The winners with Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie (at the center, to the right of the sign), and with Rachel and Moshe Yanai (at the center, to the left of the sign). Photo: Yoav Bachar, Technion Spokesman.

This is a significant scientific breakthrough that represents an effective solution to a major problem in organic synthesis that has, yet, never been resolved, and which could lead to large-scale reductions in pharmaceutical industry processes

Technion researchers found a novel solution to a major problem in organic synthesis that has to date never been resolved, despite worldwide intensive efforts. The Technion team successfully prepared a new molecular framework possessing a challenging asymmetric center in a single chemical step from easily available starting materials. Until now, by lack of available efficient strategies, very few attempts were made and they were all based on long and tedious approaches. This is a significant scientific breakthrough in synthesis, which could lead to a considerable reduction in the production of pharmaceuticals. This groundbreaking discovery is reported by the popular scientific journal “Nature.”

“Synthetic organic synthesis is a science that deals with the building of complex organic molecules from simpler elements,” explains Professor Ilan Marek from the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry at Technion, whose team of researchers were responsible for this major breakthrough. “One of the greatest applications of this new approach is a quick and efficient synthesis of complex natural materials that may be used in pharmaceutical industry. It must be the goal of the 21st century to accomplish more with less. In today’s society, no one can afford to follow the inefficient route of long and tedious synthesis. We should think organic synthesis differently and I am sure that new transformations that were not possible to perform by conventional methods will soon appear” continues Professor Marek.

Although, there are still molecular frameworks that are extremely challenging to prepare, the real question of the 21st century is no longer “can we synthesize this molecule”, but rather “how can we synthesize it efficiently, using the fewest number of steps, with optimum convergence, with as little as possible functional group transformations, little or no by-products and maximum atom-efficiency and at minimal cost.” Over the years, Professor Marek’s research team developed several innovative new synthetic methods that not only fulfilled these requirements, but also gave solutions to challenging problems in organic synthesis.

One of these critical challenges is the formation of chiral all-carbon quaternary stereogenic centers in acyclic systems. A chiral molecule is a type of molecule that has a non-superposable mirror image. Human hands are perhaps the most universally recognized example of chirality: the left hand is a non-superposable mirror image of the right hand; no matter how the two hands are oriented, it is impossible for all the major features of both hands to coincide. This difference in symmetry becomes obvious if someone attempts to shake the right hand of a person using his left hand, or if a left-handed glove is placed on a right hand. This characteristic is also present in organic molecules and two mirror images of a chiral molecule are called enantiomers.

Many biologically active molecules are chiral, including the naturally occurring amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) and sugars. In biological systems, most of these compounds are of the same chirality and understanding the origin of chirality may shed some light on the origin of life. In many cases, both enantiomers of a specific material can affect the human body in completely different ways, and therefore understanding these chiral molecular characteristics is of great importance for the pharmaceutical and food industries. The most infamous case of medical disaster was caused by a misunderstanding of the different pharmacological characteristics of two enantiomers of the same material, known as Thalidomide which caused severe birth defects. Many infants were born without limbs because the drug Thalidomide, which was administered to their mothers, could in-vivo interconvert the two enantiomers.

In the context of building molecules, the aldol reaction is one of the most versatile carbon-carbon bond formation processes available to synthetic chemists but also a critical biological reaction in the context of metabolism. However, coming back to efficiency, the aldol reaction combines only two components with the creation of only one new carbon-carbon bond per chemical step. As discussed previously, better efficiency is now necessary in organic synthesis in which several new carbon-carbon bonds should be formed. Moreover, the construction of chiral all-quaternary carbon centers could not be achieved in the previously aldol-based methodologies. In the most recent report published in Nature by Professor Marek and his colleagues, a very efficient solution to this problem has been reported through a completely different approach. In a single-pot operation, starting from classical hydrocarbons, the formation of aldol products containing the desired all-carbon quaternary stereocenter have been prepared through the concomitant formation of three new bonds. This groundbreaking discovery represents an innovative solution to a challenging synthetic problem.

For the development of original synthetic approaches, Professor Ilan Marek received the prestigious Royal Society Chemistry Organometallic Award (2011) and in 2012 the Janssen Pharmaceutica Prize for Creativity in Organic Synthesis.

Scientists from Technion and the University of Colorado, Boulder have taken a closer look at how stars systems and their planets grow old together.

The influence of stellar aging on systems composed of three stars in orbit about each other is particularly intriguing. Binary stars systems where one of the stars is orbited by a planet, react similarly to stellar maturation. Stars and planets in these systems can change orbital partners. In some cases, they may even collide or be expelled from the star system all together. This wild and turbulent scenario may have produced of the brightest star system in the sky, Sirius A and B. These findings raise the possibility that collisions between stars are more common (at least 30 times over) than conventional wisdom has shown.

Most stars either live a solitary existence, or pair up with one other star to make a binary system. However 15 percent of all stars orbit at least two other stars, forming a triple star system. Similarly, planets can be “hosted” by a binary system, which then behave much like a triple star system except that one object is vastly smaller than the other two. The evolution of stars in these systems can generate dramatic outcomes. The aging process of stars involves many major changes: a star can expand to a circumference greater than hundreds of times its original size, and then lose most of its mass in intense winds. At the end of this process the stellar core, a white dwarf, is all that is left behind.  While much work has been devoted to understanding the evolution of single and binary star systems, studies on the evolution of triple stars are novel As is evident in the most recent research of Prof. Hagai Perets from the Faculty of Physics at Technion University, and Dr. Kaitlin Kratter from CU-Boulder, triple-star systems and their evolution are deserving of more interest. “Binary stars are systems that are generally stable,” says Perets. “The triple-star systems, on the other hand, are much more fragile,” and thus susceptible to disruption.

When mass is lost from one star during the ageing process, all of the orbits in the system change. These changes can induce dynamical instability, driving the system into a wild dynamic ‘dance,’ whereby the stars exchange partners until one of them gets expelled from the system altogether. Because the mass losing star begins to swell as it ages, it becomes a large target, significantly increasing its chances of crashing into another star in the midst of its wild ‘dance.’

Ordinarily, stars only collide in dense star clusters (systems with millions of stars packed into a volume of only a few cubic light years; for comparison, within the same volume in the neighbourhood of the Solar system there is only one star – the sun). Even in these dense clusters, the probability of a collision is very low.

“We discovered that when it comes to triple star systems, there is a different picture all together. Star collisions outside of dense star clusters can occur at a rate of 30 times higher in comparison to those coincidental collisions that occur within star clusters,” says Perets.

An answer to a Sirius mystery

According to Perets and Kratter, this type of chaotic evolution may be relevant to one of the best known stars, Sirius – the brightest star in the sky.  Sirius is accompanied by a white dwarf in a binary system, but on a very eccentric orbit. This configuration is unusual for a star in a close orbit to a white dwarf; astronomers normally expect such orbits to be nearly circular, due to the exchange of mass between the stars as they age. The most recent findings show that this strange configuration may be explained if the Sirius binary system is the remnant of a triple system that became unstable and lost a star. “This surprising revelation that the triple evolution scenario we studied could solve the decades old mystery related to our brightest night-time star, Sirius, is very exciting; it appears that Sirius had a much wilder history than we could have ever imagined,” adds Perets.

Planetary “star-hoppers”

What would you do if your neighbourhood started to deteriorate? Would you consider moving to a better neighbourhood? It seems as if planets might make the same decision. Kratter and Perets also investigated systems where one of the three elements is not a star but a planet. Much like the case with three stars, mass loss by the planet-host can drive the planet into an unstable, chaotic orbit. The outcome, says Kratter, is surprising. “A planet can actually change which star it orbits, bouncing back and forth between the two.” Sometimes, such a star-hopper will settle down into a new, stable orbit around the companion star.  More often, this story has an unhappy ending. It is more likely that the planet will collide with one of the two stars during its voyages between the two. Such a collision would obliterate the planet.