Researchers from the Faculty of Biology at Technion present a new technique for estimating the efficacy of antibiotic ‘cocktails’.

Researchers from the Faculties of Biology and Computer Sciences at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, have developed an innovative framework for measuring the efficacy of “antibiotic cocktails,” that combine different types of antibiotics.

Published in the journal Nature Microbiology under the title, “Additivity of inhibitory effects in multidrug combinations,” their study shows how the efficacy of an antibiotic cocktail depends on the number of different antibiotics present in it.

The research was conducted by Prof. Roy Kishony of the two faculties and doctoral student Dor Russ of the Faculty of Biology.

Antibiotics are one of the most important breakthroughs in medical history; in fact, they were more of a discovery than an invention, since antibiotics evolved and are produced naturally by fungi and yeast in the wild.

The development of drugs based on the naturally occurring antibiotics began a century ago, thanks to the research of Sir Alexander Fleming, Howard Fleury, and Sir Ernest Chain, who jointly received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1945. Fleming first observed the antibiotic properties of a mold that produces penicillin, but it was Chain and Fleury who developed it into a useful treatment. The three scientists are credited with saving the lives of over 200 million people around the world.

Antibiotics are a variety of molecules derived from microorganisms that control the growth of or kill other bacteria. Synthetics antibiotics, which are usually related chemically to natural antibiotics, have since been produced to accomplish the same tasks.

Despite saving so many lives, the success of antibiotics has made it a double-edged sword. That is because the use of antibiotics leads to the evolution of bacteria resistant to antibiotics – a process that Prof. Kishony demonstrated in the past using a unique platform that he built with his colleagues at Harvard University.

Today, many researchers express concern about a ‘post-antibiotic era in which bacteria will no longer be overcome by antibiotics. One of Prof. Kishony’s contributions in this context is a method for estimating the current level of resistance of a given bacterium to antibiotics as well as predicting the resistance it is likely to develop in the future. Based on this information, it is possible to prescribe the most effective antibiotics for the patient.

The current study examined the efficacy of cocktails of various antibiotics. The researchers have developed an innovative, automated system that enables the accurate measurement of the effect of different combinations of antibiotics on bacteria.  They found that when the number of drugs in a combination is increased, the total drug dosage required for growth inhibition increases as well, but the dosage of each individual drug can be decreased without reducing the cocktail’s efficacy.

The researchers examined different combinations of multiple antibiotics on several types of bacteria, thus confirming the efficacy of this novel system which they developed.

The study was supported by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Israeli Centers for Research Excellence (I-CORE) and the European Research Council (ERC).

Click here for the paper in Nature Microbiology

The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology together with two German institutions, RWTH Aachen University, and the Jülich Research Center, collaborated in a joint Umbrella Winter School in Kfar Blum in the North of Israel on December 9-13.  The three institutes have been collaborating within the framework of the Umbrella Program for over three decades, to promote scientific exchange and collaboration between Israel and Germany.

This year, for the first time, the Umbrella Program hosted together with The Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute (RBNI), a Winter School. The five day Winter School focused on material characterization and electron microscopy. Fourteen world-class lecturers and some 140 graduate students from the three institutions, as well as other universities in Israel and abroad, participated in the event.

Prof. Gadi Eisenstein, head of RBNI highlighted in his opening remarks the high level of speakers and the uniqueness of having Israeli students bonding with peers from countries, the world over. Professor Eisenstein announced that in the summer of 2019, a follow-up, “hands-on” school will take place in Jülich, where participants will have the opportunity to experience working with the most advanced microscopy systems in the world.  Finally, Professor Eisenstein thanked the Institute staff: Meirav Sondak-Minikes, Pazit Savyon-Maram, and Tanya Ashkenazi, and the organizations that helped finance the event.

The opening lecture was presented by Prof. Knut Urban the former head of the Ernst Ruska-Centre for Electron Microscopy and Spectroscopy at the Jülich Research Center and RWTH Aachen University. Today, Professor Urban serves as an active researcher at the center.

Prof. Urban, the winner of the prestigious Wolf Prize (Physics, 2011) and a world renown researcher working in the field of microscopy, spoke about correcting aberrations (distortions in the image formed by electron microscopes).  According to Prof. Ubran, “Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was developed in the 1930s, but it was only in 1997 that we succeeded in demonstrating a technology that corrects its distortions. Today, there are some 800 microscopes based on the technology we developed, and this is a dramatic revolution.”

The Technion Executive Vice President for Research Prof. Wayne Kaplan presented the progress in Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDS) spectroscopy and its advantages in characterizing chemical constituents on surfaces and interfaces between different materials.

“EDS detectors receive X-ray signals and convert the energy of each X-ray beam into an electrical signal which is proportional to the energy of the X-ray signal. This makes it possible to identify atoms in materials, and together with high-resolution electron microscopy, the chemical composition of materials can be characterized at atomic resolution,” Kaplan said.

Prof. Yeshayahu Talmon of the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering at the Technion presented developments in Cryo-TEM microscopy of biological materials and other soft materials. “In order to view these materials, we must freeze them, but the freezing process must be done carefully so as to ensure that the crystalline structure that is investigated is not destroyed. Our mission is to understand their nanoscale crystalline structure, and to this end, we use innovative, highly sensitive cameras that allow the monitoring of individual electrons.  It is also very important to ensure that the electron beam used in the microscope is of low intensity so that it does not destroy the material,” Talmon said.

Prof. Uri Sivan of the Technion’s Physics Department lectured on “The Last Nanometer” – Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) at super high resolutions.

Prof. Sivan is an expert in microscopy of surfaces, specifically of liquids, and he combines basic research with biological applications.  He and his students construct all their microscopes. In recent years, they have achieved significant improvements in 3D mapping of DNA and other objects at the atomic scale.

Prof. Claus Ropers of the University of Göttingen presented the developments in electron microscopy where the electron beam is pulsed and is synchronized to a pulsed laser. Prof. Ropers is one of the leading scientists in this revolutionary field.  There are currently only a hand full such systems in the world and the Technion has recently established the only such microscope in Israel.

Prof. Thomas Kelly from the University of Wisconsin, a groundbreaking scientist in Atom Probe Tomography, described the latest developments in these microscopes and the enormous potential embodied in their use.

Prof. Jean Susini, director of research at the ESRF Center for Electronic Analysis and X-rays in Grenoble, France, described the activities at the center, where researchers from 22 countries participate in some 10,000 experiments per year.

Prof. Rafal Dunin-Borkowski, the current director of the Ernst Ruska-Centre surveyed holographic activities in electron microscopes; an area in which he is one of the leading scientists in the world.

 

Technion mourns the passing of Moshe (Misha) Arens, former Technion faculty member, and Honorary Life Member of the International Board of Governors. During his career, Arens served as Israel’s Minister of Defense, Minister of Foreign Affairs and also as Israel’s Ambassador to the United States in 1982. Throughout the years, he maintained a close relationship with the Technion.

In 1986, Technion conferred an honorary doctorate on Moshe Arens. During 1957-1965, Arens served as faculty member at Technion’s Faculty of Aerospace Engineering. “During the ’50s there was much doubt with regards to the necessity of an Aeronautics Department,” Arens told former Technion President Prof. Zehev Tadmor, during a videoed interview on the phenomenon of the Start-up Nation.  “Founders of the faculty were seeking engine experts and that’s how they found me, a Caltech alumnus who had a few years’ experiences working for the US industry. At Technion, I started to teach aircraft design and was very impressed with the students’ academic level. Indeed, as years went by, the department evolved into a world-renowned faculty in its field.”

1958 saw the first graduation class of Technion’s then-Aeronautical Engineering Faculty, with 11 male graduates and a single female graduate. These aspiring students and those that followed them created Israel’s aerospace industry.

Moshe Arens was proud of the graduates of the faculty’s early years who have contributed to making Israel the aerospace power that it is today.

May his memory be a blessing.

 

 

On January 1, 2019, four new deans took office at the Technion 

• Prof. Yasha Jacob Grobman; Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning. Prof. Grobman combines research and hands-on architectural design. In 2003, he founded T_CODE, Technion’s Computer Oriented DEsign; an experimental computer design research laboratory.
• Prof. Oleg V. Gendelman; Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Prof. Gendelman’s main fields of interest are nanomaterials and nanoparticles. He specializes in heat transportation in nanosystems; nanomechanics of polymer systems; mechanical and thermal properties of nanostructured metals.
• Prof. Yoram Reiter; Faculty of Biology. Prof. Reiter’s main field of interest is immunology. He established a cutting-edge research program in the molecular immunology of cancer. His major work involves the development of novel immunotherapeutic approaches as well as the study of molecular mechanisms in anti-tumor and anti-viral immunity.
• Prof. Elon Eisenberg; Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine. Prof. Eisenberg is also the Director of the Pain Relief Unit at Rambam Medical Center. His main areas of research include mechanisms and treatment of neuropathic pain including complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), cancer pain, opioids and electrical stimulation.

On November 21st the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology hosted the inaugural Technion-Waterloo Research Symposium. The two-day conference was part of an ongoing collaboration between the Technion and the University of Waterloo (UW) in Canada.

The ties between the two institutions were established in 2014 with the signing of an agreement aimed at accelerating breakthroughs in collaborative research and commercialization opportunities in priority areas of national and international importance; namely water, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing and technology.  The agreement was supported by the Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman Foundation and includes support for workshops and for 11 research projects, one of which has already borne a spin-off company, as well as for research grants totaling some $3.4 million.

Vice President of the Technion for External Relations and Resource Development Prof. Boaz Golany spoke about the importance of cooperation and of the university’s extensive and in-depth entry into new fields, including cyber and artificial intelligence.  He noted the great achievement in setting up the Helen Diller Center for Quantum Science, Matter and Engineering at the Technion and added that the two universities have many points in common, including the recruitment of female faculty.

Vice President of University Research at the University of Waterloo Charmaine Dean, conveyed the blessing of Waterloo University President Feridun Hamdullahpur. Dean said that “since the signing of the agreement, a number of very significant research studies had been launched. In the beginning, the collaboration focused on quantum information, nanotechnology and water, and today we are also supporting cybersecurity.  This is an opportunity to work at the forefront of global innovation for the benefit of society and humanity as a whole.”

Prof. Derek Schipper from the University of Waterloo, who delivered the first lecture at the symposium, presented his joint research with Prof. Nir Tessler from the Technion and stressed that “this research would not have been possible without this important partnership between the Technion and the University of Waterloo.”  Prof. Philippe Van Cappellen presented his joint research with Prof. Eran Friedler. The two are developing new ways to monitor populations of microorganisms underground.

The final remarks were delivered by Prof. Gadi Eisenstein, head of the Technion’s Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute, who also hosted several of the conference’s sessions.

 

The Olympic Committee of Israel and Technion have established a joint research center to advance Olympic Sports in Israel to be headed by Prof. Alon Wolf, Technion Faculty of Mechanical Engineering

The Israeli Olympic Sports Research Center aims to encourage studies that will enhance Olympic sports in Israel in line with US and European models.

Yigal Carmi, Chairman of the Olympic Committee of Israel said, “The (joint) establishment of the center will position Israel in an advantageous position over our competitors in world sports with regards to scientific knowledge and technology. The fields of biomechanics, motion analysis, and technological development are areas of application that will now receive special attention so the performance of our athletes can be improved. The Olympic Committee of Israel welcomes and acknowledges this strategic cooperation with Technion, which involves the fusion of brilliant scientific minds for the benefit of Israeli Olympic sports. We are certain that this will push our sports performance forward.”

Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie welcomed the establishment of the new research center and said, “The cooperation between the Olympic Committee of Israel and the Technion is exceptional and very promising. This link between Technion scientists and leading Israeli athletes will upgrade human performance and ensure future achievements.”

The joint research activity has already begun. The center’s first research goal is related to windsurfing. Gur Steinberg, who coaches the Israeli windsurfing team, and Yair Talmon, Scientific and Technical Coordinator of the competitive sports unit, targeted as their first goal to research surfer/ surfboard compatibility in order to provide the athlete with best performance ability.

Steinberg explained that a certain surfboard model can have various types of fins and this can make a difference in the athlete’s performance. This difference requires each surfer to examine and test the selected fin over time, but this takes much effort and sometimes even causes the fins to break.

Steinberg and Talmon’s initiative led to a Technion study named, ‘The Mechanical Signature of Olympic Surfboard Fins,’ which makes it possible to differentiate accurately among the various fins and adapt them optimally to the surfer. The research was conducted at Technion’s Material Mechanics Center Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, headed by Prof. Daniel Rittel, and with the scientific support of Prof. Nitai Drimer and Prof. Alon Wolf who is also the Head of the Laboratory for Bio-Robotics and Biomechanics. Prof Wolf’s research encompasses many areas, including robots used for surgery, rehabilitation and rescue and recovery missions; the study of the mechanics of the body; and the development of technologies to improve the motor function of healthy and sick people.

“Very often we see that a fraction of a second or a few centimeters determine whether a competitor will win a gold medal. This kind of advantage is the result of scientific understanding and its implementation in training and equipment. We believe that if we implement the knowledge and capabilities that have made Israel the Start-Up Nation that it is today, into Olympic sports, we will be able to advance the achievements of our Olympic athletes and help them become role models whose achievements will infiltrate into Israel’s sports culture,” Prof. Wolf said.

The Olympic Committee in Israel is an umbrella organization for Israeli sports, one that brings together all the Olympic branches and represents Israel in the International Olympic Committee. Its main function is to ensure the optimal preparation of the athletes in Israel’s delegations to the Olympic Games and other competitions.

The new agreement was signed by the Olympic Committee in Israel, the Technion and the Technion Institute for Research and Development. The strategic agreement for the establishment of the new Israeli Olympic Sports Research Center was initiated following a seminar held at the Technion for Olympic sports coaches and in recognition of the need for extensive and in-depth research on various aspects of sports.

On behalf of the Olympic Committee of Israel, were: Chairman, Yigal Carmi; Director-General, Gili Lustig; Committee Board Member and Sports Committee Chairman, Yael Arad; Scientific Director and physiologist, Muli Epstein and European Championship silver medalist, Yoav Omer.

Technion representatives included President, Prof. Peretz Lavie; Technion Vice President for Research, Prof. Wayne D. Kaplan; Technion Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development, Prof. Boaz Golany; Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Prof. Yoram Halevi and Prof. Alon Wolf.

The world is literally hungry for new types of tasty, nutritious foods that are also inexpensive, can be produced rapidly in a relatively small space and don’t contribute to global warming or rob the Earth of its natural resources. It sounds like the protein gap is an impossible bill to fill with an expected 9.8 billion mouths to feed in 2050. Plant and algae-based – rather than animal-based – proteins provide a solution; today.

A team of graduate students at the Biotechnology and Food Engineering Faculty, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, have made an important contribution, winning first prize in the EIT Food Project (European Knowledge and Innovation Community) as part of an innovative microalgae product development competition, held in early December.

After a year’s work, the graduate students conceived, developed and produced ‘Algalafel’. The product is a novel falafel enriched with spirulina, with additional tahini enriched with astaxanthin, a health-promoting compound found naturally in certain algae and seafood. It is known for conferring salmon its reddish color, and flamingo feathers their pink hue.

Mentored by Prof. Maya Davidovich-Pinhas, Prof. Uri Lesmes, Prof. Avi Shpigelman and project leader Prof. Yoav D. Livney the Technion team consisted of Meital Kazir, Yarden Abuhassira-Cohen, Hani Shkolnikov, Hila Tarazi, and Ina Nephomnyshy.

The second prize was awarded to a team of students from the German University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart who developed ‘Algini’, a lentil-based vegan product enriched with spirulina. In the third place were students from Finland’s Helsinki University who created ‘Spurtti’, a vegan oatmeal dessert enriched with spirulina.

The two-day event, hosted by the Technion on its campus, included lectures on microalgae, a workshop on incorporating microalgae in Mediterranean food and finalized with the competition.

By connecting consumers with businesses, start-ups, researchers, and students from around Europe, EIT-Food supports creative and economically sustainable initiatives that promote health, access to quality food and the environment. The project included also three industrial partners: Israel’s Algatechnologies, which also supplied the raw microalgae materials used by the teams, Germany’s Doehler and Finland’s Fazer.

As an ecologically friendly, nutritious microalgae, spirulina has been suggested as a solution for food insecurity and malnutrition and even food for consumption during long-term space flights or Mars missions. Spirulina cultivation requires much less land and water to produce protein and energy than that needed by cattle or poultry.

Spirulina, the biomass of blue-green algae, produce their own food by photosynthesis without a living organic carbon. Dried spirulina contains 5% water, 24% carbohydrates, 8% fat, and about 60% protein.

Ironically, this natural product was utilized hundreds of years ago – it was a daily food source for the Aztecs and others in the Americas and in Africa until the 16th century, but it seemed to lose popularity when nearby lakes were drained for agriculture and urban development.

Back in 1974, the World Health Organization described spirulina as “interesting food for multiple reasons, rich in iron and protein” that can be and is able to be fed to children without any risk. Such innovative products and young entrepreneurs enable the utilization of spirulina and other algae to benefit the world’s future hungry mouths.

 

An Optics and Photonics News honorable mention for Technion graduate’s photographed experiment

Dr. Shai Maayani, a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who completed all three of his degrees at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, has just received honorable mention in the 2018 photography competition of the Optical Society of America (OSA).

All eight winners captured scientific images look like magnificent geometric works of art. Dr. Maayani’s award-winning entry shows three jewel-like spheres trapped in white light. He called the experiment he photographed “calculated intensity, as particles are added, reveals that each of the particles gives rise to a new power maximum near the place where the next particle settles.”

Her photograph appears in the special issue of the association Optics and Photonics News (OPN) journal devoted to “Optics in 2018.” He described the experiment in which three balls are trapped in a white beam of light that makes them float in the air. The balls break the light that captures them just like raindrops that break the white light to all the colors of the rainbow.

In addition, in the same issue of OPN, Dr. Maayani and Rafi Dahan conducted research on optical isolators (diodes) as one of the 30 most important optics experiments of the year. The experiment was reported in the prestigious journal Nature.

These studies were conducted in the laboratory of Prof. Tal Carmon in the Technion’s Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. It was the second consecutive year that the work of Dr. Maayani, Prof. Carmon and their partners had been selected by the OSA as one of the most important experiments. Shai is currently a postdoc scholar at MIT, where he is developing novel fiber-optics under the direction of Technion graduate Prof. Yoel Fink

Visit www.osa-opn.org/home/gallery/photo_contests/2018 for a gallery of all the submissions to this year After Image photo contest.

 

Japan’s NICHIA Joined the Industrial Liaison Program of the Technion

Japan’s NICHIA has joined the Technion Industry Liaison Program and will be part of a group of international companies already operating within it.

As part of the cooperation, NICHIA will receive access to the database of future Technion research interests, including emerging IP and other data that may assist the company in identifying opportunities to support novel research.

The purpose of the Technion Industry Liaison Program (TILP) is to connect academia and industry, in order to create research and business collaborations, and obtain international funding for the further advancement of research.

TILP was established in a response to the current accelerated pace of technological transformation. TILP enables a company to navigate the Technion’s resources and establish a direct line of communication with Technion researchers in relevant fields.

NICHIA is one of the world’s largest suppliers of LEDs and LDs, with nearly 9,000 employees globally and the company develops optoelectronic products: LEDs and LDs and fine materials: phosphors and battery materials. The company already started funded research with Technion.  

Professor Wayne D. Kaplan: “NICHIA’s participation in TILP will lead to interesting and challenging collaboration. Every day we work to blur the boundaries and become more global. There is no doubt that our connection to NICHIA will prove this more than anything else”.

 

Technion Mourns the Passing of Rona Ramon

On June 11^th 2018, Rona Ramon received an Honorary Fellowship from Technion at the Board of Governors Annual Event. The award was bestowed upon her by Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie, “In recognition of her public activity in the field of education and the promotion of youth and children in Israel; in acknowledgement of her significant contributions to the Israeli space industry and the encouragement of science and space studies; and in appreciation for her outstanding leadership and dedication to Israeli society and the State of Israel.”

“Rona Ramon was an exceptional woman who left a deep imprint on Israeli society. She founded the Ramon Foundation which aims to ignite the three essential values which Ilan and Asaf Ramon stood for – academic excellence, social leadership, and groundbreaking courage,” said Prof. Peretz Lavie.

Rona lost her beloved husband Colonel Ilan Ramon, a national hero, and first Israeli astronaut, and six years later also grieved the loss of their son, IDF Captain, Asaf Ramon who followed in his father’s footsteps and became a fighter pilot in the IDF.

Rona devoted her time to comforting others in Israel and across the globe, telling Ilan and Asaf’s story and reinforcing the ideals for which they stood.

 

It’s a Stretch: Giving Direction to Blood Vessels

Scientists from the Technion- Israel Institute of Technology and the Weizmann Institute of Science reveal the mechanical forces that influence the spatial organization of blood vessels

HAIFA, ISRAEL (December 16, 2018) – Israeli scientists from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the Weizmann Institute of Science recently combined one group’s expertise in tissue engineering with the other’s expertise in the physics of complex systems to understand in detail how mechanical forces can direct the orientation of developing blood vessels. Their findings, which were published in the scientific journal Nano Letters, may advance methods of growing artificial tissue for transplant.

Cells, whether in the body or in lab-grown tissue, constantly interact with the extracellular matrix (ECM) – a highly complex molecular network that provides structural support for cells. Until recently, scientists had assumed these interactions were primarily biochemical. Researchers have now realized that mechanical interactions – for example, the ability of cells to sense various properties of the ECM and respond in kind – also play significant roles in cell development and function.

The present research was led by doctoral student Shira Landau and Prof. Shulamit Levenberg of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at the Technion, and doctoral student Avraham Moriel and Prof. Eran Bouchbinder of the Weizmann Institute’s Chemical and Biological Physics Department, in collaboration with Dr. Ariel Livne, a former postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Molecular Cell Biology at the Weizmann Institute.

One of the scientific challenges to producing artificial biological tissues for transplant is that – like the real thing – they must contain a network of blood vessels to ensure a steady supply of oxygen and nutrients. Highly essential to the implant’s integration and survival is the directional order of this network. In other words, the blood vessels must organize themselves in the same direction.

In Prof. Levenberg’s laboratory, a platform designed to improve tissue generation and self-organization for transplantation has been developed. The technology is based on three-dimensional scaffolds made of polymers. Biological cells that are essential for the development of blood vessels are seeded on these polymeric scaffolds; studies have proven this technology viable and robust. In a series of studies, she and her team had previously used this platform to examine the mechanical sensitivity of vascular networks. In particular, they noted that mechanical forces have a strong influence on the properties of these networks, especially in the directions in which they grow and develop.

In 2016, Prof. Levenberg and Dr. Dekel Rosenfeld, then a doctoral student in her lab, showed how an original stretching system, which applied tensile forces to the artificial tissue, affected biological processes in the cells, including differentiation, shape, migration, and organization in the structures – as well as the geometry of the emerging tissue, its maturity and stability. This earlier study also showed that tensile forces acting on the tissue during development promote the growth of blood vessels with well-defined directionality.

“We then wanted to understand how this process works and how to control it,” says Ms. Landau. “Prof. Bouchbinder and his colleagues at the Weizmann Institute of Science developed a theory that explains the effects of mechanical forces on individual cells; and together, we expanded this theory to include multicellular tissues.”

In the new study, the researchers considered two types of stretching forces that can affect the development of blood vessels. These two, known as dynamic-cyclic stretching and static stretching, can lead to the emergence of directional order in vascular networks. The researchers discovered that the biophysical mechanism behind each of these two processes is fundamentally different. “One significant challenge we faced was to understand the relationship between the complicated biological experiments and the physical theory,” says Mr. Moriel.

The study led to the establishment of a tensile stretching protocol – one that allows the controlled generation of optimal tissues, including stable, rich networks in which the blood vessels have a well-defined directional order.
The researchers believe that these results and insights they provide will advance the possibility of engineering blood vessels in tissue with structures and directionality that may enable their successful transplantation in patients.