Category: Uncategorized

A study carried out at the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine sheds light on the mechanisms that sometimes result in successful chemotherapy, but that lead to the development of cancer metastasis – the main cause of cancer mortality. The article, published recently in Cancer Research, was selected to feature as the cover story and written about in an opinion piece by the magazine’s editors.

Professor Yuval Shaked and doctoral student Jozafina Haj-Shomaly, who led the study, explain that the existing cancer treatments are highly effective and in many cases save lives, as demonstrated in clinical studies and data accumulated over the years. However, they say there are patients who do not respond to this treatment, and in whom the disease breaks out more aggressively afterwards, including metastases in other organs such as the lungs. The article explains the mechanism that causes metastasis after treatment even in cases where it successfully inhibits the initial tumor. The researchers focused on the development of metastases in the lung tissue following chemotherapy for breast cancer.

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women; it also occurs in men, albeit at a low rate. The survival rates of Israeli breast cancer patients are increasing thanks to early detection of the disease and the improvement of treatment technologies. However, when the tumor metastasizes to other organs, the chances of recovery plummet. According to the statistics, about 30% of patients diagnosed with early stage breast cancer who are treated conventionally are expected to develop metastases within a few months or years. Metastases from breast cancer are due in part to the breast’s proximity to the lymph nodes in the armpits. This proximity makes it easy for cancer cells to make their way from the breast to the lymphatic system, which is a branched tubular system very similar to the circulatory system. Through the lymph fluid, the cancer cells migrate to other organs such as the lungs, liver, and bones, where they produce metastases.

The question that preoccupies many cancer researchers, in this context, is what conditions encourage the metastatic process and which medical interventions might contain it. According to Prof. Shaked: “Today we know that the metastatic process is not completely random. The metastases thrive in tissues where they find mechanical support and a supportive cell environment.”

Prof. Shaked’s research group discovered in previous studies that LOX, a common enzyme that affects tissue configuration, may alter lung tissue in a way that makes it easier for cancer cells to stick to it and develop metastases. When the researchers inhibited the activity of the same enzyme, a significant reduction in the ability of the cancer cells to attach to the lung tissue was achieved, thus reducing the formation of cancerous metastases.

In the current study, the researchers also focused on the LOX enzyme but this time in a different context – its involvement in the development of metastases following its secretion from specific immune cells: T cells classified as CD8⁺. The LOX enzyme can also be found in high doses in lung tissue in healthy individuals, however this dose increases rapidly and dramatically in response to chemotherapy. Contrary to popular belief that this enzyme manifests itself in mesenchymal cells, the Technion researchers were surprised to discover that the increased concentration of LOX was due to its increased secretion by the immune cells – those T cells classified as CD8⁺. The increase in the presence of this enzyme affects the properties of the lung tissue and transforms it into an environment that benefits cancer cells. This phenomenon can explain why some patients undergoing chemotherapy develop metastases even following successful primary care. In brief, chemotherapy affects the lung tissue in a way that makes it more comfortable for cancer cells.

“When we talk about the lung environment in this study,” explained Prof. Shaked, “we refer to the ECM, the extracellular environment within which the cells are located. This is a complex network of proteins that supports the cell structurally and mechanically as well as in terms of various functional aspects. In the current study, we found that LOX’s activity harnesses the extracellular environment in favor of the cancer cells. Following the changes that the T cells and the LOX enzyme cause in this medium, it begins to help the cancer cells grow, survive, move, divide, and cling to each other. Moreover, it can block the entry of normal immune cells and even anti-cancer drugs into the malignant region.”

The study was conducted in a breast cancer model in mice and the anti-cancer drug Paclitixel, but the researchers assume their findings will be relevant to other drugs and cancers, which are expected to be tested in future studies. “We were surprised to find that the mechanisms of action we discovered, which encourage the development of cancerous metastases, are activated not only in response to surgeries as previously found, but also in response to chemotherapy and other drugs that we are currently investigating,” said doctoral student Jozafina Haj-Shomaly.

“Our achievement – the detection of the mechanism that causes a structural change in health by the immune system – may enable the development of combined drugs and treatments that prevent this phenomenon and reduce the chances of developing metastases,” said Prof. Shaked. “We are now working on developing barriers to the different proteins that cause the same structural change in lung tissue. We believe the findings of the studies will lead to an updated definition of the therapeutic bank targets and the use of LOX inhibitors to inhibit metastatic developments.”

The study was supported by the BSF (US-Israel Binational Science Foundation), the ERC (European Research Council), and the ISF (Israel Science Foundation). Doctoral student Jozafina Haj-Shomaly is a fellow in the Ariane de Rothschild Women Doctoral Program – a program that supports outstanding doctoral students towards their integration into key positions in academia and Israeli society.

For the full article in Cancer Research click here.

A collaboration between researchers from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and the University of Debrecen, Hungary has led to the development of a novel experimental method that makes it possible to track the motion of a twin boundary at nanometer size scales and microsecond time scales. The paper, published in Advanced Functional Materials, was led by Professor Doron Shilo and the Ph.D. candidate Emil Bronstein of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, and Professor Ronen Talmon of the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical & Computer Engineering.

Twin boundary motion governs a highly prevalent deformation mechanism called “twinning.” This mechanism is found in a variety of materials (e.g., magnesium, titanium) and material classes (e.g., shape memory alloys, minerals, ferroelectrics). Because of this, understanding the behavior of twin boundaries has a crucial scientific significance and a direct influence on the comprehension of electro/magneto/thermo-mechanical responses of the aforementioned materials, and many more.

It has long been thought that when a material is rapidly loaded (e.g., by a strong, rapid electric impulse), a twin boundary propagates continuously at a velocity determined by the external loading. Contrarily, when a material is slowly loaded (e.g., by slow compression), twin boundary motion is discrete (discontinuous), and is characterized by short durations at which the twin boundary rapidly propagates separated by long durations at which the twin boundary is static. Despite being the same process, the link between the different behaviors (i.e., the responses to slow and rapid loading) has not previously been considered.

The researchers, however, developed a novel experimental method that enables direct tracking of the twin boundary motion by measuring the magnetic dipole changes of the material. The developed method can track the twin boundary during events that last a few microseconds (a millionth of a second) and have a characteristic size of nanometers. As a result, they provide direct measurements of the motion at unprecedented length and time scales. Analysis of the experimental results indicated, for the first time, that twin boundary motion under both slow and rapid loading can be explained by the same theory. The findings of this research have fundamental scientific importance, as well as a potential to improve actuators (motors) that rely on this process and are used in automobiles, aircraft, spacecraft, and biomedical applications.

Now, the researchers work on the development of data-driven, machine learning methods for the analysis of measured signals that will allow similar studies in a variety of materials and phenomena at short analysis times.

An experiment planned and built in the Faculty of Physics at the Technion will be launched to the International Space Station. Called GALI (Gamma-ray Burst Localizing Instrument), the experiment is an innovative gamma-ray (γ-ray) detection system. Placing the system on the space station will help identify the γ-ray radiation that originates from high-energy eruptions in distant galaxies.

It is widely assumed that short γ-ray bursts come from the fusion of two neutron stars, an event that also produces gravitational waves. However, to date, only one such event has been identified (in2017), hence the importance of the development of new detection tools. The detector developed in the Faculty of Physics is based on hundreds of small crystals arranged in a unique 3D pattern. Based on the relative signal received in each crystal, it is possible to reconstruct the location of the eruption with high accuracy.

Led by Professor Shlomit Tarem and Professor Ehud Behar, the research team also includes Ph.D. student Roi Rahin, master’s student Julia Salah, undergraduate Solomon Margolin, research assistants Alex Vdovin and Amir Feigenboim, systems engineer Avner Kaidar, and Hovhannes Agalarian from the Asher Space Research Institute.

“The main innovation in our system is in accurately identifying the location of the eruption,” Prof. Tarem said. “Such identification would allow astronomers around the world to direct telescopes to the event, study the eruption and link it to other events such as gravitational waves. Thanks to this unique arrangement, GALI will provide more accurate results than existing detectors, even though its dimensions are much smaller.”

GALI may have applied importance in other areas. According to Prof. Behar, “We found out that the system we developed is also interesting to people outside the world of astrophysics. Our collaborators in the Nuclear Research Center Negev, for example, want reliable and accurate systems that detect radioactive sources from afar. The system we have developed will be able – with required adjustments – to help locate such sources with high accuracy. In these contexts, the system also provides information about the emitting substances; so, it may help to adapt the optimal treatment. This is the context in which we submitted a joint U.S. patent.”

The GALI experiment is one of 30 Israeli experiments which are managed by the Ramon Foundation for the Rakia mission. The GALI test is scheduled to take off for the International Space Station on May 2022 with the SpX – 25 flight and will be accompanied by the Rakia Mission and supported by the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology.

 

Watch a video explaining the experiment (and others):

The development of drugs and other medical treatments usually begins with basic research, followed by experiments in the laboratory, pre-clinical trials and, finally, clinical trials that confirm both the treatment’s efficacy in humans and its safety. Clinical trials are long and expensive processes that seal the fate of the proposed treatment – whether it will receive approval from the FDA or other authorities, or be rejected. As a result, they play a central and critical role in the development of medical treatments.

A new article by researchers at the Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, in collaboration with Dr. Eric Horvitz of Microsoft Research, describes a specific bias that affects the implementation of these trials’ findings: underrepresentation of women in many clinical trials. The article, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA), depicts the bias and presents a specialized tool that can help compensate for this gender gap, thereby improving medical treatments for women.

According to Technion Ph.D. candidate Shunit Agmon, who conducted the research together with Technion alumna and visiting professor Dr. Kira Radinsky, “Nowadays, we know that different population groups react differently to a given treatment – in particular, women can have a different reaction than men to a treatment. For example, Zolpidem, a drug used to treat sleeping problems, clears more slowly in women and therefore it is important to prescribe a smaller dose for women than for men – which was discovered only after the drug was released to the market. The underrepresentation of women in clinical trials creates a problematic bias that harms the quality of women’s healthcare, including misdiagnosed diseases and adverse drug reactions.”

Gender bias in clinical trials is not new, and it has in fact worsened following traumatic events, including the Thalidomide affair – a drug that caused numerous birth defects when prescribed to pregnant women to alleviate morning sickness. That tragic episode, which took place in the early 1960s, led to a drastic decline in female participants in clinical trials.

In 1993, laws were passed in the United States that mandated the inclusion of women in these trials and the analysis of results with regards to gender. Yet, female underrepresentation remained a prevalent phenomenon, especially for trials that took place prior to 1993. Agmon points out that other population groups are also underrepresented, including certain age groups, ethnic groups, and other demographics. In some cases, there is also an underrepresentation of men, such as for diseases that are considered more “feminine,” such as fibromyalgia.

In recent years, machine learning models have been introduced to the world of medicine, aiming to improve medical diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. However, Agmon claims that “many of these models are based on biased trials and therefore they ‘inherit’ their biases, and in some cases even amplify them.”

The researchers explored this issue using machine learning tools, including natural language programming (NLP), and vector representation of words (word embeddings) – approaches that enable computers to “understand” texts. They used these methods on 16,772 articles from the PubMed database and allotted each one a “weight” based on the percentage of women in the clinical trials described in each article. This way, they developed an algorithmic tool that enables gender-sensitive use of clinical literature. This algorithm corrects the gender bias and improves the treatments’ suitability for female patients.

The algorithm succeeded in substantially improving predictions for women in various situations, including length of hospitalization, re-hospitalization within a month, and correlation between various diseases. Although the model focused on improving predictions for women, it also significantly improved overall clinical predictions (for men as well).

The researchers expect the JAMIA article to increase awareness of the problems of underrepresentation in research in general and in clinical trials in particular, and to promote additional solutions to improve the quality of personalized medicine.

 

Shunit Agmon grew up in the Haifa region and studied in the Technion’s Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science. After completing her B.Sc. summa cum laude, she worked for Google for two years and then returned to the faculty to pursue a master’s degree under the supervision of Professor Assaf Schuster. After receiving her M.Sc., she began her doctoral studies under the supervision of Dr. Kira Radinsky and Professor Benny Kimelfeld.

For the article in JAMIA, click here.

The coronavirus pandemic, also known by its more precise name COVID-19, started in late 2019 and spread rapidly around the world. Although the original form of the novel coronavirus – SARS-CoV-2 – was armed with an effective system against mutations, it was not immune to them. Indeed, the virus has since “split” into strains according to differing evolutionary variables in different populations. The World Health Organization (WHO) decided not to give complicated names to each variant and has instead named the variants after letters of the Greek alphabet: Alpha for the British variant, Beta for the South African, Gamma for the Brazilian, Delta for the Indian, and so on.

The appearance of new variants is the result of random mutations and natural selection. Most mutations do not significantly alter the virus’s ability to survive and infect, but some give it a significant advantage to thrive and spread in the community. In the context of the current pandemic, these mutations occur in the spike protein – the arrowhead of the virus – which allows it to penetrate the cells in our body.

Many research groups are currently studying the mechanism for the emergence of new   coronavirus variants, through analyzing their evolution and specifically the evolution of the spike protein. These studies have allowed for the unprecedented development of dedicated and effective mRNA vaccines that have largely curbed the pandemic. Although they have not completely defeated it, they have succeeded – mainly in populations with high vaccination rates – in reducing its damage to human life, the burden on health systems, and disruption to daily routine.

The commonality between most of these studies is that they focus on the dynamics of the formation of variants in the population and on the more “active” variants in terms of infection in the population. A study carried out at the Technion and published in PLOS Pathogens sheds light on a lesser-studied area: new variants at the individual level, or, in other words, what happens in the body of the patient during their illness. The study was led by Assistant Professor Yotam Bar-On and doctoral student Dina Khateeb, both from the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine.

The study is the culmination of a year and a half of work and is based on an experimental platform that Prof. Bar-On began developing during his postdoctoral fellowship. The technology, initially developed as part of an HIV study, provided sequencing on an individual molecule level, mapping the genome of the individual virus, and comparing different variants that developed in the patient’s respiratory system. Furthermore, it can detect very low doses of virus found in tissue cells that do not show up with simpler methods.

During the study, the researchers discovered various mutations not included in existing databases and even a new, previously unknown variant. The researchers also examined the efficacy of existing vaccines against these variants and found that the efficacy varies depending on the different types of mutations in the spike protein.

Good news: the mutations that develop in the patient’s body produce, as a rule, variants with a relatively low adhesion capacity. In other words, these variants may not be transmittable from person to person. The scientists emphasise that this hypothesis still requires further research, but these findings hold true for the 10 variants examined to date in the study.

The researchers identified a specific mutation in s2 – one of the spike proteins, which impairs the effectiveness of antibodies battling the virus. “This identification is an important factor in understanding the adaptation of the virus to its host’s body,” explains Prof. Bar-On. “We appreciate that our findings may lead to the detection of weaknesses in the virus – mechanisms that weaken its ability to infect – and to develop new measures to curb infection.”

The findings show that analysis of the evolution of the virus at an individual level contributes to a better understanding of its development and of possible ways to combat it using vaccines and drugs. The researchers, who have focused on mutations related to the Alpha variant, estimate that a similar analysis of the Delta variant – currently the most dangerous strain – may increase the toolbox available to science and medicine in the fight against the pandemic.

Assistant Professor Yotam Bar-On completed his PhD at the Hebrew University and his postdoctoral fellowship at Rockefeller University. He is head of a laboratory in the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion, which deals with the interaction between viruses and the host organism in various diseases, including Coronavirus and HIV.

Dina Khateeb holds a B.Sc. in Medical Life Sciences from Hadassah College and an M.Sc. in Biomedical Sciences from the Hebrew University. She joined the Bar-On lab at the Technion in April 2020, shortly after the outbreak of the pandemic and immediately began studying the evolution of the coronavirus. The current study was based on samples from that period – using some of the first samples taken from coronavirus patients in Israel.

The study was supported by the National Science Foundation in collaboration with the Technion Genomic Center (TGC) headed by Dr. Tal Katz-Ezov, the National Center for Influenza and Respiratory Viruses at Sheba Hospital headed by Dr. Michal Mendelboim and the MIDGAM team – Israeli National Biobank for Research – at Rambam Medical Center.

Click here for the paper in PLOS Pathogens

Genetic counseling is a complex medical process that includes an explanation of genetic principles and hereditary diseases, risk calculations, and relevant tests. The knowledge revolution in the field of medical genetics makes these conversations increasingly challenging, both for consultants and patients, who need to digest new, complex, and medically complicated information, and translate it into more concrete steps and decisions with deep personal implications for individuals and families. Informed decisions are based on available information, as well as on a wide range of personal factors, including cultural, moral, and religious perspectives.

Genetic counseling is an important service whose availability becomes more and more limited due to a shortage in professionals, the increasing length of time needed for each session, and restricted access to a genetic counseling service in certain geographic areas. These challenges are even more significant in a multicultural population with diverse educational levels, and a poor understanding of genetics. The recent epidemic has added another layer of difficulties in accessing the service.

Olfat Abuleil-Zoubi and Chen Gafni-Amsalem, both studying for a Ph.D. in the Technion’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and working together at the HaEmek Medical Center’s Genetic Institute, have developed an approach to make it easier for consultants and patients to streamline the process.  They examined whether the use of digital tools, such as professional animations they developed on selected topics, affect the outcome of genetic counseling. They compared the effect of these animations to counseling without prior intervention, as is the current practice, as well as to the effect of reading an information booklet on the subject prior to counseling, as a more “traditional” educational tool.

Abuleil-Zoubi and Gafni-Amsalem were supervised by the director of the Institute, Clinical Professor Stavit Shalev from the Faculty of Medicine, and Professor Ayelet Baram-Tsabari from the Faculty of Education in Science and Technology. According to Prof. Shalev, “Genetic testing is a process that affects not only those being tested but also their family members and sometimes the wider community as well. The process can generate many concerns, so the access to information and full understanding of the whole medical picture, is very important.  These are topics that are very diverse and personal, such as deciding whether to marry a partner, whether to endanger a pregnancy with an invasive test, or whether to terminate a pregnancy due to diagnosis of a particular genetic condition. They’re decisions that have far-reaching implications. Effective communication between service providers and recipients is critical to a successful process, at the end of which patients will make an informed personal decision, appropriate for them, based on the knowledge and information they acquired during the consultation.”

The two students selected ten relevant topics within genetic counseling and made an animated video for each one containing information and guidance on the specific content. Altogether they produced 20 videos – each topic in both Hebrew and Arabic. “The need for early preparation for counseling has been made clear to us by the people who come to the Genetics Institute for advice,” said Zoabi. “We all know that knowledge is power, and the knowledge relevant to the important decisions related to pregnancy and birth allows people to make more informed decisions in line with their worldview. Furthermore, it is now clear to us that knowledge may help alleviate the concerns associated with the process.”

The trial involved 1,380 patients, some of whom came in for counseling due to abnormal findings during pregnancy and some on other issues, such as genetic screening tests, advanced age of the mother, conditions of family members, and fertility defects. Gafni-Amsalem explained that “although reading explanatory pamphlets has been found to be effective, the animations have been found to be much more effective, especially among less educated populations with poor understanding on genetics.”

“We expect people to make informed decisions about their health,” said Prof. Baram-Tsabari, “but that moment of receiving surprising news in the genetic counselor’s office is probably not the best time to learn the basic concepts of genetics. Making the relevant science accessible, and only the relevant science, in a clear and non-threatening way at a time convenient for the patient to digest, makes it easier for them to make an informed decision.”

Gafni- Amsalem agreed. “The importance of accessing information digitally is particularly relevant today, after a long pandemic that has made it difficult to hold in-person consultations,” she said. “Using animation as a preparatory stage for genetic counseling has many advantages such as being consistent, accurate and reliable, and can be consumed at a time, place – and pace – comfortable to the user, to ensure optimal user experience. Today, digital tools are part of our daily personal and social behavior and digesting the material on a phone prior to a hospital appointment is very normal for our patients.”

“In the experiment, we showed the patients the videos while they were with us at the Institute of Genetics, but following its success, we began to routinely send the digital files to patients’ phones before genetic counseling,” Prof. Stavit said. “Considering the success of the intervention, we plan to roll-out this approach to all patients as part of the general health service in Israel.”

The videos (in Hebrew) can be viewed here.

 

On January 3, 2022, the Technion held an award ceremony for prizes, research grants and scholarships as part of a project, sponsored by SolarEdge, in memory of the late Guy Sella. A Technion graduate, Guy Sella founded SolarEdge in 2006 together with Lior Handelsman, Meir Adest, Yoav Galin and Amir Fishelov. The company they founded became a world leader in smart energy technology, and particularly for solar-power generation.

Guy Sella passed away in August 2019. The project set up in his memory includes the establishment of PEARL (Power Electronics and Renewable Energy Lab) in the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Technion; research prizes, research grants, and graduate student scholarships in the field of energy; a biennial energy hackathon for students; and tours for high-school students to the Grand Technion Energy Program (GTEP).

The award ceremony was attended by Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan, SolarEdge CEO Zvi Lando, Guy’s widow, Barbara Sella, and representatives from the Grand Technion Energy Program. “I’m sorry that I did not get to know Guy personally,” said the Technion president “I don’t know what impact the Technion had on him, but he certainly left an impact on so many others. The partnership with SolarEdge is a pillar in the strategy that the Technion has been leading in recent years – a true partnership between industry and academia and the removal of boundaries between basic and applied research. Over the next decade, these boundaries will blur even further, and we will realize new breakthroughs and achieve new goals together.”

“Guy wanted to make the world a better place,” SolarEdge’s CEO said. “Our mission is to turn Israel into a sustainable energy powerhouse, and with cooperation between academia and industry, we will continue to push the limits and achieve research goals.”

The ceremony was hosted by the director of the Grand Technion Energy Program, Prof. Yoed Tsur from the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering, who said: “Since its establishment in 2007, the Grand Technion Energy Program has been active in creating research infrastructure and promoting research in this field. GTEP-led activities have generated significant scientific discoveries and major national initiatives and have forged strong industrial and academic collaborations within Israel and with prominent international institutes. We and SolarEdge share a common goal; each of us aspires to be part of the global energy revolution and to provide the necessary solutions to leave a slightly better world for future generations.”

The Guy Sella Research Prize was won by two members of the Grand Technion Energy Program: Prof. Gideon Grader from the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Prof. Avner Rothschild from the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering. They received the award for developing innovative technology to produce hydrogen – the technological basis upon which the start-up company H2Pro was established.

The research grant was awarded to Prof. Yair Ein-Eli from the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, and Dr. Nadav Amdursky from the Shulich Faculty of Chemistry.

The Guy Sella Scholarships were awarded to Shalom David Aksman Kleingesinds from the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Amir Marzouq from the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Aviad Navon from the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Natalie Levyfrom the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, and Daniel Gino from the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning.

2022 has begun, and the campus is buzzing with research and student activities — from harvesting seaweed energy, to automating warehouses using robotics, all the way to removing ‘forever chemicals’ from drinking water and improving healthcare through innovative technologies. As our Fall semester is coming to a close, it’s also a wonderful opportunity to salute our seven women deans and nine new female faculty members.

Read all about it in the January edition of ‘Technion LIVE.’

To get the latest news, check out the January edition of our e-newsletter, Technion LIVE.

To read previous issues of Technion LIVE, click here. To subscribe, click here.

The grants are being awarded to the following faculty members:

Dr. Ayala Shiber of the Faculty of Biology is exploring how RNA molecules in the cell direct proteins to fold to their native, functional state and avoid misfolding. She was awarded the ERC grant for her research on cellular mechanisms that protect proteins during synthesis and prevent neurodegeneration and aging.

 

Dr. Shay Moran of the Faculty of Mathematics is researching mathematical problems that arise in computer science, with a focus on combinatorial-geometric problems related to machine learning. He received the ERC grant to conduct research on modern challenges in the theory of generalization.

 

Dr. Aviv Tamar of the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering is developing methods to teach robots to autonomously carry out tasks. He received the grant to research deep Bayesian reinforcement learning.

 

Dr. Ron Rothblum of the Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science specializes in theoretical computer science, especially in the context of cryptography and complexity theory. He was awarded the grant to develop fast proofs for verifying computations.

“This is an impressive achievement by any measure, especially since the number of applications rose by 25% in 2021,” said Prof. Koby Rubinstein, Executive Vice President for Research at the Technion. “Three of the winning research projects are connected to artificial intelligence (AI), a fact that matches the Technion’s extensive and in-depth activities in this field. The Technion’s efforts to advance the field of AI in Israel have positioned it in first place in this area in Europe, and today the Technion is ranked at the top of European AI research and development.”

The European Research Council was founded in 2007 to support all fields of research and to encourage the best researchers from anywhere in the world. ERC grants are awarded in different categories, one of which is the ERC Starting Grant – a grant intended for young faculty members. Each winning project receives at least 1.5 million euros in support, to be used for advancing the project during a five-year budgetary period.

PFAS are a family of problematic pollutants also known as “forever chemicals” because of their chemical stability and environmental persistence. These substances can be found in a large range of products, including Teflon pan coating, fire-fighting foam, flame retardants, and water repellent additives. They reach the groundwater in various ways, including agricultural irrigation using treated wastewater and fire-fighting substances seeping into the soil. As a result of their chemical stability, they remain intact in the ground for a long time, leading to extensive contamination of drinking sources, which in turn significantly increases human exposure.

International studies have demonstrated the many health risks posed by exposure to PFAS, including cancer, heart and liver disease, fertility problems, birth defects, and damage to the immune system. Consequently, Israel has begun monitoring these substances. In fact, last summer the extraction of potable water in the Krayiot region was stopped following the discovery of a high concentration of PFAS.

Today, removing these substances from drinking water is accomplished through relatively simple and inexpensive adsorption techniques. However, these methods are not sufficiently efficient, and, most importantly, they only transfer the pollutants from the water to the adsorbent material – which requires additional purification steps to get rid of the toxic adsorbed substances. Furthermore, these methods are not selective: they can also remove substances that are essential for people’s health.

There are two new and promising solutions: using oxidation processes and using targeted polymers that efficiently adsorb the polluting substances. Yet, until now these technologies have not exhibited satisfactory results.

The new research examined the possibility of combining these two methods – separating the pollutants with special polymers, and then using advanced oxidation processes to eliminate them. The findings indicate that proper planning leads to high efficiency under a wide range of acidity (pH) and salinity. The method depicted in the article shows the removal of seven types of PFAS – even when all of them are found in the same unit of fluid – at a level of efficiency that approaches 90%, and it does so within a few minutes.

The system described in the article is based on natural materials that are both safe and inexpensive. The researchers used ubiquitous soil minerals – iron oxides and clays, together with cyclodextrin polymers. The clay-iron-polymer composites act as accelerators that confine the PFAS on the surface and then accelerate the oxidation process that destroys the pollutants into non-toxic substances (fluoride ions, water, and carbon dioxide). This combination efficiently removes the PFAS and does not release unwanted substances in water used for drinking.

In their article, the researchers show that this system makes it unnecessary to carry out complementary processes such as heating, UV radiation, and using sound waves, which make the task more complicated and more expensive.

The research was conducted in the Soil Chemistry Laboratory in the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The researchers wish to thank the Lady Davis Foundation for Samapti Kundu’s postdoctoral research grant.

Click here for the paper in Chemical Engineering Journal.

 

Researchers from Maccabi KSM Research and Innovation Center, in collaboration with researchers from the Technion, found that the effect of the COVID-19 booster shot on lowering the viral load is waning, similar to the second dose of the vaccine

A new study by Maccabi KSM Research and Innovation Center (Kahn-Sagol-Maccabi), headed by Dr. Tal Patalon, and the Technion, shows that the effectiveness of the coronavirus booster vaccine in lowering the viral load, is similar to the second vaccine dose – reducing the viral load within months. Previous studies have found that the viral load is most likely related to the chances of infecting others, so the lower the viral load, the lower the chances of infection.

According to Dr. Tal Patalon, Head of Maccabi Research and Innovation Center: “In light of the spread of the Omicron variant, it is highly recommended that at-risk populations follow the recommendations of the Ministry of Health. We researchers, along with healthcare policy representatives, have to continue monitoring the spread of the virus; its short- and long-term implications, and to manage this global epidemic wisely.”

“The results suggest a significant decrease in the effectiveness of the vaccine against the transmission of the virus, and this decline may be affecting the spread of the virus in the community”

According to Prof. Roy Kishony from the Technion’s Faculty of Biology: “In previous studies, we have seen that the vaccine and the booster not only reduce the chances of getting the disease but also reduce the viral load in the body of those who are infected, thus apparently reducing further infections in the population. However, during our current work, we have seen that the protection of the vaccine against a high viral load decreases within a few months after the booster, similar to the decline we saw after the second dose. These results suggest a significant decrease in the effectiveness of the vaccine against the transmission of the virus, and this decline may be affecting the spread of the virus in the community.”

This is the sixth study on coronavirus as part of collaborative work between the researchers. The study was led by Dr. Tal Patalon and Dr. Sivan Gazit from the Maccabi Research and Innovation center together with Prof. Kishony, Matan Levine-Tiefenbrun and Dr. Idan Yelin from the Technion Faculty of Biology and the Lorry I. Lokey Interdisciplinary Center for Life Sciences and Engineering.

The study was carried out on anonymized data with the approval of the IRB Committee and included over 21,000 positive tests from Maccabi members over the age of 20. The period studied was between June 28 and November 29, 2021 – five months during which Delta was the dominant strain in Israel, prior to the onset of Omicron.

The researchers note that the study has some limitations. Firstly, the study refers solely to the effect of the booster on the viral load and does not examine the efficacy in preventing the disease; that is, it does not determine if the protection against infection is similarly waning. Secondly, although viral load is a common indication of the presence of the virus, the correlation between the viral load and infection is not fully established. Thirdly, differences in public behavior may affect the timing in which people are tested, and since viral load is associated with the time after infection, such differences may skew the results of the study.

The researchers plan to continue tracking real world data and conducting followup studies in different populations.

The MindState ideation competition, which harnesses scientific and technological knowledge for improving healthcare, will take place online on January 11-12. Approximately 70 students from the Technion and Cornell Tech will participate in the ideation sprint, working in mixed groups of students from both institutions with support from medical teams and leading designers. The winners will receive monetary prizes – $5,000 for 1^st place, $3,000 for 2^nd place and $2,000 for 3^rd place.

During the event, student teams tackle challenges of developing innovative technologies that have business potential and can improve the future of medicine. In past years, the winning teams proposed unique and innovative solutions for a wide range of medical problems. Last year, the team that won 1^st place later received the top prize in the BizTEC entrepreneurship competition: https://www.technion.ac.il/en/2021/02/time-to-care/.

The annual ideation event is organized by the Technion, Cornell Tech, the MindState company and two leading hospitals, Rambam and Sourasky. The competition presents real challenges and real problems, and some of the solutions developed by the students during the ideation become actual inventions and sometimes grow into start-up companies.

Senior doctors have been extremely helpful in formulating the challenges: Prof. Lior Gepstein of the Technion Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, director of the Rambam Department of Cardiology and director of the Research Division; Dr. Yona Weissbuch, director of the National Center for Medical Innovation Studies in partnership with Rambam and the Technion; and Prof. Eli Sprecher, deputy director of Research & Development and director of the Department of Dermatology at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov).

This is the hackathon’s third year, and this year 35 students from seven different Technion faculties will participate – compared to only six students who took part in the first year, 2020.

This year, the event will focus on the connection between climate and medicine, with a special emphasis on challenges in three categories: Planet Earth, hospitals, and patients. The teams will confront a range of subjects, such as air pollution and respiratory disease, early detection of skin cancer, preparedness for natural disasters, improving hospital processes, ‘green’ hospitals, reducing the psychological impact of isolation, and dealing with fatigue of medical teams due to lack of sleep.

The competition is the conclusion of a unique class offered at the Technion by Dr. Joachim Behar, director of the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Laboratory (AIMLab­) in the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, and teaching assistant Sophie Segal. Together with Dr. Behar, the ideation sprint is led by Prof. Ron Brachman, Director of the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute; Prof. Ariel Orda, Jacobs Program head at Technion; Michael Escosia, Libby Budashev and Lucie Milanez of the Jacobs Institute; and Tamar Many and Henk van Assen, founders of MindState. According to Many, “the previous ideation sprints clarified the importance of the direct connection between the multidisciplinary students, the designers and the medical teams who cope with real problems. The enthusiasm can be seen from all sides, and I am delighted that the medical teams and the hospital management are fully committed to our initiative in such difficult times.”

The student teams are accompanied by mentors from the Rambam and Sourasky medical centers and by professional designers from the leading companies Designit, Monday, Google, Melio, Wix and Lightricks. The concluding ceremony, during which the winners will be announced, will take place in April.