Israeli startup Jet-Eat wins the European Institute of Innovation and Technology 2018 Food Accelerator Network Program

Haifa, Israel – Israeli startup Jet Eat, which is developing plant-based beef-like steaks using proprietary 3D printing technology, is the winner of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology 2018 Food Accelerator Network Program (EIT FAN).

Jet Eat was chosen out of dozens of successful food technology startups that participated in the initiative and was one of three final winners that received a €60,000 zero-equity prize.

This innovative Israeli startup is the first company in the world to develop 3D printing technology specifically to address major problems facing the food industry. Established in 2018 by Eshchar Ben-Shitrit, Jet-Eat aims to help reduce food waste, contribute to a more sustainable food production system, and provide vegan, vegetarians and flexitarians with healthy, natural and sustainable alternatives to meat, without comprising their culinary experience.

“We are thrilled to be selected from this impressive group of startups. Not only that the award money will help us take a major step accelerating our development, but the validation from major players in the food industry gives us back-wind in our efforts to build a new food printing ecosystem. The contribution of the EIT FAN program in general, and specifically our collaboration with the Technion, were dramatic to our efforts in the past four months. We see this collaboration as a long-term relationship combining Jet-Eat, the Technion and EIT,” says Jet-Eat founder Eshchar Ben-Shitrit.

According to Ben-Shitrit, the cattle beef industry is a major cause of adverse environmental impact and represents a massive economic potential for disruption. Incorporating 3D printing technology into the quest to find an alternative to meat, and especially beef, has the potential to fundamentally change this reality and help build a more sustainable future while opening new opportunities in high-end plant-based meat.

The Israeli startup was one of some 40 food startups, poised to change the world’s food system, taking part in the EIT Food Accelerator Network.  The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School ETH Zurich and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) were chosen to run the program.

At the Technion, 10 startups took part in the four-month accelerator, led by Professors Ester Segal and Uri Lesmes of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering.  They received mentoring by leading academics at the university as well as food industry professionals from the Strauss Company.

Benoit Buntinx, Director of Business Creation for EIT Food, said: “Many congratulations to our winners from our EIT Food Accelerator Network Program. These start-ups aim to help tackle global food challenges and address the gap between innovation and the realization of genuine business opportunities.”

PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION AT THE MAIN GATE  

TRAFFIC CHANGES

On Thursday, 13.12.2018, from 20:00 until construction is complete, Yaakov Dori Road to the main gate will be closed from Roth Circle to the Main Gate.   

Vehicles will not be able to exit the Main Gate via Yaakov Dori Road.

Drivers who wish to exit the Technion from Thursday at 20:00 will be redirected to Nesher Gate, which will remain open continuously on Thursday and Friday.

Single lane vehicle entrance from Malal Street and through the main gate will be allowed during the entire period of construction.

 

• Traffic directions will be posted at the relevant sites.

 

• Please follow Security Guard instructions.

 

 

In case of an emergency, please contact security hotline:  2222.

Technion was honored to host a senior delegation from the French Academy of Sciences on Wednesday, November 28th, 2018. The delegation visited the Technion as part of a series of jointly sponsored academic events, marking the 70^th anniversary of the State of Israel.

On the French side, the respected delegation included, French Academy members: Prof. Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Harvey Prize winner (1996) and Nobel Laureate (1997) and his wife, Mrs. Jacqueline Veyrat Tannoudji; Prof. Odile Eisenstein, Technion Honorary Doctor and Emeritus Director of Research at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS); Prof. Pascale Cossart of the Pasteur Institute and Secretaire Perpetuelle of the French Academy of Sciences; Prof. Thibault Damour, Theoretical Physicist, CNRS Gold Medalist, (2017); Mr. Philippe Boncour, Advisor to the second Secretaire perpetuelle Prof. Catherine Brechignac; Mr. Sebastien Linden, Scientific and Academic Attaché to the French Embassy in Israel, and Mr. Patrice Servantir of the French Consulate in Haifa.

The delegation was received by Prof. Adam Shwartz, Senior Executive Vice President; Prof. Ilan Marek of the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry and member of the French Academy of Sciences, Prof. Eric Akkermans, Faculty of Physics; Prof. Emeritus Uri Shamir, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Prof. Shie Shamir of the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering.

During the open scientific roundtable discussions, Prof. Odile Eisenstein focused on defining specific fields of collaboration between Technion and other academic institutions in France. Prof. Eric Akkermans spoke of the high demand for collaboration, and that post-doctoral student would be a good avenue to strengthen this collaboration while Prof. Ilan Marek summarized all past efforts to strengthen the scientific relationships between Israel and France.

“There is a growing interest in France with regards to academic collaboration with Israel,” Mr. Linden said. Specifically, he mentioned the Maimonides-Israel research program, which aims to support the development of scientific and technological cooperation between French and Israeli researchers and to strengthen the scientific partnership between research groups from both countries by establishing bilateral research networks.

Technion Confers Honorary Doctorate on Madame Lily Safra

Technion conferred an honorary doctorate on Madame Lily Safra, Honorary Chair of the Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation and of the Israel Scholarship Education Foundation (ISEF). The ceremony took place as part of the Technion France (ATF) Annual Gala Event in Paris.

The honor was bestowed upon Madam Safra, “In acknowledgment of her charitable donations for highly important causes and to many institutions in Israel and around the world; for her outstanding support of the ISEF program that helped thousands of students throughout Israel, including hundreds within the Technion; for her generous support of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Technion; and for her great dedication that inspires others.”

Mrs. Lily Safra shared her commitment to caring for the less fortunate with her husband, Mr. Edmond J. Safra, one of the twentieth century’s most accomplished bankers and founder of the Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation. Since 1999 she has chaired this Foundation, which supports projects related to education, science and medicine, religion, culture, and humanitarian relief in over 40 countries.

She has initiated many educational projects in memory of her husband, including endowing the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. A long and distinguished relationship with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem led to the naming of the Edmond J. Safra Campus. Mrs. Safra is Honorary Chairman of the Israel Scholarship Education Foundation, which she established with her husband in 1977, and which has become the largest non-profit organization promoting higher education for gifted Israelis from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Both personally and through the Foundation, she supports research into neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and the care of patients with those diseases, at dozens of hospitals and universities worldwide. Her awareness of the distress experienced by the families of those battling illnesses led her to construct the Family Lodge for patients and their families at the National Institutes of Health near Washington, DC.  She and her husband built a cutting-edge children’s hospital in Tel Hashomer, outside of Tel Aviv, which annually treats thousands of children from across the region.

In 2006 Mrs. Safra established the Edmond and Lily Safra International Institute for Neuroscience in Natal, Brazil. With her leadership, the Edmond J. Safra Foundation endowed the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is a member of the Board of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health.

Recognizing the importance of world-class higher education, Mrs. Safra has supported faculty recruitment, research and scholarships at the Technion, in particular at its Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, which now hosts an annual Edmond J. Safra Distinguished Visiting Professor.

Mrs. Safra holds honorary doctorates from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, the University of Haifa, Brandeis University, and Imperial College London, and is an Honorary Fellow of King’s College London and the Courtauld Institute of Art. She was made Chevalier de l’Ordre de Léopold II by the King of Belgium, and Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and Officier de la Légion d’honneur by the President of France.

Harvey Prize Predicts Two Nobel Prizes Awarded December 10th, 2018

Prof. James P. Allison and Dr. Arthur Ashkin joined the community of Harvey Prize Winners who went on to receive the Nobel Prize

Technion Harvey Prize winners, Prof. James P. Allison, and Dr. Arthur Ashkin proudly represented the Technion as they received the 2018 Nobel Prizes in Medicine and Physics respectively. Since 1986, 16 Harvey Prize Laureates (26%) of the total number have proceeded to win the Nobel Prize, thereby designating the Harvey Prize a ‘Nobel Predictor’

The Harvey Prize, first awarded by Technion in 1972, was established by the Leo Harvey Foundation recognizing men and women who have significantly contributed to the advancement of humankind in the fields of science and technology, health, and promoting peace in the Middle East. The recipients each receive $75,000       

Dr. Arthur Ashkin, 96, received the Nobel Prize in Physics. He won the Harvey Prize in 2004 for his research in generating high-intensity ultra-short optical pulses and for the invention of “optical tweezers” and their application to biological systems, at Bell Laboratories.   

Prof. James P. Allison, 70, received the Nobel Prize in medicine for the discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation. He received the Harvey Prize in 2014 for developing a new paradigm in the treatment of cancer. Prof. Allison’s research led to the development of FDA approved Yervoy (ipilimumab), for the treatment of late-stage, metastatic melanoma.   

Harvey Prize Winners who went on to receive the Nobel Prize

Prof. Ada E. Yonath, Harvey Prize 2002, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2009

In recognition for her pioneering crystallographic studies on the ribosome, initiated more than a decade before other scientists were ready to tackle such a bold venture

Prof. Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Harvey Prize 1999, Nobel Prize in Medicine 2009

In recognition of her pioneering discoveries and leadership in the rapidly evolving field of research on telomeres, the ends of chromosomes

Prof. Rainer Weiss, and Prof. Kip Stephen Thorne, Harvey Prize 2016, Nobel Prize in Physics 2017

For the first direct detection of gravitational waves, confirming a central prediction of Einstein’s General Relativity

Prof. Bert Sakmann, Harvey Prize1991, Nobel Prize in Medicine 1991

In recognition of his breakthrough achievements in developing the patch clamp technique which revolutionized modern electrophysiology

Prof. Pierre-Gille de Gennes, Harvey Prize 1998, Nobel Prize in Physics 1991

In recognition of his contributions to condensed matter physics

Prof. Shuji Nakamura, Harvey Prize 2009, Nobel Prize in Physics 2014

In recognition of his seminal contribution to nitride containing white light LEDs which revolutionize energy efficient lighting system.

For the Complete list of Harvey Prize Winners, some of whom are also Nobel Prize Winners   

 

 

Prof. Eugene Kandel, former Chairman of the National Economic Council, spoke at the Zuckerman STEM Leadership Symposium.

“Israel is a technological success story, but in order to maintain a standing of relevance, we need to grow,” said Prof. Eugene Kandel, former Head of the National Economic Council in the Office of the Prime Minister, at the Technion on November 7th.  His lecture was delivered at the annual Zuckerman STEM Leadership Program Symposium, an academic program that aims to enhance the mobility and collaboration of postdoctoral students and research scholars in Israel and in the USA.

Professor Kandel, CEO of Start-up Nation Central, an organization that empowers Israel’s technological influence across the globe, said, “Israel has 2 coexisting economies that require different human capital. The local and less productive economy (down economy) and the Zeppelin economy which accounts for a staggering 50% of Israel’s GDP. Furthermore, the salaries differ significantly (2.5 % higher in the Zeppelin economy), and this gap contributes to inequality. The aim is to assist these two economies in growing independently but at the same time maintaining one society. To do this we, we must change the distribution of jobs in the Israeli market, and promote the influx of certain sectors”

The Zuckerman STEM Leadership Program, established through a generous $100 million donation by businessman and philanthropist Mortimer Zuckerman, enables American and Israeli researchers to collaborate. This program was established in 2016, following an agreement between the Zuckerman Institute and the four founding Israeli academic institutions: Technion, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University and Weizmann Institute of Science. Recently the program was extended to include 3 additional universities: Bar Ilan, Haifa and Ben Gurion.  

Prof. Yaffa Zilbershats, Chair of the Planning and Budgeting Committee of the Council for Higher Education, said, “We share the Zuckerman Institutes’ agenda of strengthening the state of Israel via its academia. A core aim is to bring the USA to Israel and not only Israelis to the USA, and that scholars from abroad will see the capacity that we have in our institutions.” Prof. Zilbershats added that, “All research universities in Israel already have international collaboration, but our challenge today is to position Israel as the best place for research. The percentage of foreign students in Israel is still low as compared to OECD countries, and we want to change this.”

The symposium titled “What’s Next in STEM“, was chaired by Prof. Ayelet Baram-Tsabari from the Faculty of Education in Science and Technology at Technion. “I was born in Israel but spent one year as a visiting scholar at Cornell University which greatly enhanced my education and expertise in my specific field. Therefore, I am very happy that the Zuckerman Institute has decided to focus on research collaborations.”

Prof. Boaz Golany, VP for External Relations and Resource Development at  Technion, said, “The academic bridge that Mortimer Zuckerman built between Israel and the USA, will be remembered as one of his most important projects. The program provides mobility to post-docs and Israeli researchers and an opportunity for Israeli researchers to return to Israel after their post-doc.” Prof. Golany added, “We are definitely concerned about the anti-Israel voices on USA campuses and I hear Israel being called an ‘apartheid nation’. To prove that these claims are baseless, I invite the symposium participants to meet Technion students from all ethnic groups to speak to them and to see with your own eyes whether this claim holds any truth. In addition, the strong ties among all ethnic groups are shared across all universities participating in the Zuckerman Program.”

The Zuckerman Institute directorate was represented by Mortimer’s nephews, Eric Gertler, and James Gertler, trustees of the Institute, who thanked Lina Deshilton, Director of the Zuckerman Institute in Israel for her work vital to the program’s success.  Eric Gertler announced that MIT joined the program and added that the addition of three Israeli universities to the program is an important step toward realizing Mr. Zuckerman’s vision. “You were all chosen because you are geniuses, that is clear,” Mr. Gertler said to the program fellows, “But also because you are future leaders. I encourage you to think not only about your research but also about being the leaders you want to become.”

“As we enter our 3rd year, our program includes 87 researchers, 58 of whom are in Israel,” said James Gertler. “We collaborate with 7 Israeli universities and have extended our collaboration in the USA from 23 to 45 American universities. I have a degree from Harvard, but meeting you, the program fellows humbles me. Some of you may become future Nobel laureates and if your good work also helps to diffuse BDS, so be it.”

Prof. Shie Mannor of the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering summarized the current status of artificial intelligence research and Dr. Omry Koren of Bar Ilan University talked about discoveries in the world of microbiome research, bacterial populations that inhabit the human body. Several Zuckerman program fellows spoke about their research including Dr. Joseph Lefkowitz from the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at Technion, Dr. Tiffany R. Lewis from Haifa University, Dr. Daniel Kagan from Bar Ilan University, Dr. Omri Wurtzel from Tel Aviv University, Dr. Dahlia Perez from the Weizmann Institute of Science, and Dr. Laurel Stephenson Haskins from the Hebrew University.

“It has been an inspiring day,” said Prof Rivka Carmi, President of Ben Gurion University, in her closing remarks. “All universities represented here are excellent and stand at the forefront of global research. Zuckerman Program fellows represent the future of Israel and of the world at large. I turn to the Zuckerman Institute and request to promote women in the fields of Science and Technology, areas in which there is unjustifiable under-representation  At the universities, we all act to promote women, but you can accelerate their introduction into academia and into science and engineering disciplines in particular.”

http://zuckerman-scholars.org/second-zuckerman-us-israel-symposium-program

 

 

800 High School Students participated in the annual Tech Women event at Technion

Tech Women encourages outstanding female students to continue their academic studies in science & engineering

From Kiryat Shmona to Beer Sheva, Ashdod, and the Golan Heights, over 800 outstanding female high school students from all over Israel attended the Tech Women 2018 event (21^st November 2018), hosted by Technion to encourage outstanding female pupils to opt for science and engineering in their academic careers. This 4^th annual event was made possible through the generosity of the Rosalyn August GEM Initiative.

In honor of the event, Rosalyn August arrived at Technion with her eldest granddaughter, Lauren. Rosalyn was born in a small town in Virginia, USA. The daughter of immigrant parents who opened a small jewelry shop which in time turned into a prosperous business. As a young woman growing up during the ’60s, Rosalyn felt a dissonance between what she wanted to become and what society at large, and her own family, in particular, felt suitable for her.

Rosalyn shared with the students that her acquaintance with Technion began a decade ago.  She felt an instant bond with the quiet, underplayed vibe of the place. “There are many fields worthy of a donation, yet I chose Technion,” Rosalyn said. “Even though I don’t know much about technology, it is clear to me that technology is our future and it is our duty to help integrate women into this field. Trust yourselves, find what you love and love what you do.”

All of the students who were invited to participate in the event study mathematics and other science and technology related subjects, at the highest level of accreditation. During the event, they met with female researchers, faculty, and graduate students. They visited the laboratories and heard about the various fields of research and study.

When Technion was opened in 1924, female students comprised 6% of the student population, a ratio of 1 to 17. Gradually, and especially during the past decade, the number of female students at Technion has grown considerably, and today they account for 40% of the student population.

The students attended lectures and visited the labs of 10 engineering and science faculties:  Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Physics, Mathematics, the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry and the William Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management.

In her opening remarks, Prof. Marcelle Machluf, Dean of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering said, “I have always had to prove myself and being the only woman in the room drives me even further in doing so. Women are the future and I encourage each and every one of you to come and study at the Technion. You all have talent and the ability to succeed, with or without affirmative action.”

Dr. Efrat Sabach who completed her doctoral thesis at Technion’s Faculty of Physics, said,  “When I said that I wanted to study physics I was told that I would be the only girl among many boys but that didn’t scare me, I always asked questions and I was always given a legitimacy for these questions.”

With regards to her thesis, under the guidance of Prof. Noam Soker, Dr. Sabach said, “I am an astrophysicist who studies processes in space and even though I am the only woman in my research team I have never felt unequal to the others.”

Sara Nagosa, a Ph.D. student at the Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine said that she chose Technion because she wanted to study at the best academic institute. “At first I was scared, but then I understood that if I don’t try I will never know if I am capable and that is how I made it to today, the final year of my doctoral thesis. Technion gave me more than knowledge, it provided me with determination, perseverance, and tools for life.”

When you think of electrical engineers you probably do not have me in mind, but here I am, a woman with a doctoral degree, at the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering, said Dr. Adi Hanuka.

Dr. Hanuka told the students about the two projects which she has been leading over the past years: the first, a miniature particle accelerator intended for use in X-ray and radiation equipment and the second, an Eyelid Motion Monitor (EMM) for diagnosing various diseases.

During my doctoral thesis, I traveled to the USA to continue my studies at Stanford University. The people in my research team were surprised that I was female, and someone even pointed out that girls are not supposed to study electrical engineering but rather psychology or economics. This leads me to say that it is not enough to strengthen only the girls and relay to them how capable they are, but also to ‘educate’ boys in a way that will make them see that girls do not fall short with regards to talent and ability.”

Found In Translation: Algorithm Could Speed Up Development of New Medical Therapies

HAIFA, ISRAEL (November 27, 2018) – In findings published today in Nature Methods, Israeli and American researchers reported on a revolutionary, big data-driven, machine learning algorithm designed to predict results of human gene expression based on preliminary results of mouse studies. The tool, which is expected to speed up the development of new medical therapies and may reduce future experiments done on mice, was developed by researchers from the research team of Assistant Professor Shai Shen-Orr from the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion, together with Professor Rob Tibshirani and Ph.D. candidate Wenfei Du from Stanford University.  The study was led by Technion Ph.D. candidate Rachelly Normand.

Use of laboratory mice for basic and preclinical research is essential to advance medicine and develop new medicines and therapies around the world. Mouse model studies are critical in experiments that cannot be performed in humans due to ethical considerations, including the study of diseases and physiological processes in the brain, spleen, and heart and in testing the efficacy of new treatments for certain diseases.

But despite the common use of lab mice, extrapolations of mouse study results in understanding the effects of such treatment in humans is not always straightforward. This is due to the many physiological, genetic, life expectancy and environment differences between the two species. In other words, many effects are “lost in translation” in the mouse-to-human transfer and many drugs that are effective in lab mice fail when tested in humans. The tool developed at the Technion, which predicts the relevance of preliminary mouse test results to human physiology, could speed up the development of new drugs and dramatically reduce the cost of development.

One of the developments that enabled this breakthrough is a relatively new norm: uploading raw data from scientific studies to the internet. This change, which began with the human genome project, has evolved and grown, and there are now measurements of more than 2 million samples registered online. Most were collected from tissues of human patients and disease animal models.  The levels of mRNA – a central component in protein production – were measured in each sample – covering tens of thousands of genes in the genome.

“This is a huge amount of data – a tremendous amount of information on the internet, which is generally not used beyond the study in which it was generated,” explained Assistant Professor Shen-Orr.  “The assumption in my laboratory is that these data hold hidden treasures which can be extracted using creative thinking and algorithm development.  In the current study, we decided to leverage this information to address the problem of translating animal model findings to insights relevant to humans.  In other words, in this study, we bridge the “cross-species gap” arising from the differences between humans and animal models.”

Assistant Professor Shen-Orr, Rachelly Normand and their colleagues developed an algorithm that better “translates” the experiments that were conducted in mice and enables extrapolation of the implications they will have on human physiology.  The system is called FIT (an abbreviation of Found in Translation, a play on “Lost in Translation”). Using this big data – a great deal of the information accrued in prior studies and which has collected on the internet – the system learns the relationship between gene expression in mice and an equivalent human condition. Given a new animal study, such as the evaluation of a new pharmaceutical treatment, the system identifies, for each gene, whether the information collected from prior studies is relevant and beneficial for the new study.  If the information is relevant, the system adjusts the results measured in the new study and enables investigators to interpret the new study findings in mice such that it is relevant to humans.

The researchers evaluated FIT’s performance in 170 different mouse studies and demonstrated that in 88% of the cases FIT is predicted to be relevant to the new mouse experiment, the system indeed correctly predicted the gene expression profile in the analogous disease state in humans. This improves the mouse-to-humans inference by 50%.  In addition, the researchers tested the predictive power of FIT in a Crohn’s disease mouse model. FIT predicted that the ILF3 gene will be expressed in humans, despite the fact that it is not expressed in mice.  In a validation experiment, the researchers showed that the protein product of the ILF3 gene is indeed expressed in Crohn’s patient samples – a result not previously known and which would not have been discovered without using the machine-learning algorithm.

“This process not only improves research accuracy,” summarized Assistant Professor Shen-Orr, “but also prevents false leads and shortens drug and therapy development processes.”

Click here for the paper in Nature Methods

 

 

A 6-student delegation recently visited Uganda within the framework of a new course at the Technion Faculty of Medicine

Six students from the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion recently returned from a working visit to Uganda. They participated in a new course entitled “Medicine in low-income countries,” and worked for several weeks in a rural hospital in Kiboga, Uganda. The Israeli Brit Olam non-governmental organization operates a medical aid program in this hospital.

“One thing that caught my attention and amazed me was the acceptance of the reality,” recounted student participant Uri Shemesh. “All the family members we met see their loved ones suffering and even dying. It very obviously pains them, but they apparently understand that this is life in Africa and under the prevailing conditions sometimes little can be done to help. In contrast to what we are used to in Israel, none of the family members turned to us for help when we entered the department each morning.  They would wait patiently until we approached them, and even then, they seemed to have reconciled to the situation, with death – as if anything we could do was considered a bonus. I remember one case of a 10-year-old boy who came to the hospital with pain and 40° C temperature and couldn’t get out of bed for several days. His father just stood next to him day and night, without referring to us or asking for anything. Each time we approached his son, he just returned a thank you motion with his hands.”

While Israeli medical teams travel to developing countries in aid delegations, this is the first time Israeli medical students were given the opportunity to do so within the framework of an academic program with a tutor. The delegation was led (voluntarily) by Dr. D. A., a member of the Air Force Rescue Unit. Since the Uganda hospital had no imaging facilities, Dr. D.A. arranged a donation of a portable ultrasound unit and a simulator to learn the topic. This enabled the delegation members to perform imaging tests on their own, with online support from Israeli experts. Dr. Nira Beck, a Technion Faculty member and Director of the Ultrasound Unit at Rambam Hospital, assisted in this program.

The simulator was developed by Simbionix –  a world-leader in the creation of simulators to practice complex medical procedures. The simulators enable medical teams to improve their clinical skills in a safe learning environment, which shortens the user’s learning curve.

Dr. D.A. summed up that “during our 14-day stay at the Kiboga General Hospital, we tended to tens of patients of various ages, suffering from a wide range of medical problems – internal illnesses, orthopedic problems, trauma injuries, surgical problems, and others. Some of the ailments were unique to Africa, while others were no different than those we meet daily in Israel, but the lack of resources and the very limited range of diagnostic, monitoring and therapeutic options, forced us to improvise and generate solutions ex nihilo. Although we were there for a very short period of time, I think it was a building experience. I am confident that the students learned a lot about the medical profession and about themselves and others. I hope that this experience will turn the participants into better doctors and possibly even better people who will continue to express interest and contribute to the development of medicine in developing countries.”

The delegation was masterminded by Dr. Ami Neuberger, a faculty member at the Technion Faculty of Medicine, a senior doctor at the Rambam Medical Center and a specialist in internal medicine and infectious diseases.  He has worked previously in Equatorial Guinea, Haiti, Nepal, Ivory Coast and South America and is currently the Director of the Travelers Clinic at Rambam Hospital. He explained that “during my visits to developing countries, I saw that leading Western universities send medical students to clinical rotations, and thought that it would be befitting for the Technion to do the same. It is important to be exposed to the reality of life in underdeveloped countries and is it also important to learn about diseases that do not exist in Israel. Luckily, my idea was embraced by Professor Shimon Marom, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and by Professor Ruth Margalit, a faculty member who has been involved in medical assistance to low-resource countries for years.”

Before the delegation set out, they went through a week of preparation that included lectures about the “Israeli medicine on the equator” project run by “Brit Olam”, lectures about tropical diseases and diseases common in Uganda, as well as discussions relating to the social and cultural interactions between a foreign medical team and the local population. The preparation was delivered by healthcare professionals from various hospitals, on a voluntary basis.

“Despite the high cost of the trip and the extensive amount of time dedicated to it,” said Dr. Neuberger, “we had ten candidates for each of the six available spots.”

The students who traveled to Africa were:

Ravit Gabai Yehezkeli (28) lives in Moshav Balfouria, near Afula. “My greatest hobby is to discover new things.  Already as a child, I moved over 20 times due to my father’s military service. Each house was an opportunity to discover a new place, to hike in a new area and to meet new people.  Ever since I continue to nurture this hobby by traveling throughout the world.” At the Faculty of Medicine, she combines her medical studies with muscle regeneration research.

Daniel Brue (29) is originally from Ramat Hasharon, and currently living in Haifa.  Daniel earned her BSc in Animal Sciences and will soon begin her fifth year of medical studies at the Faculty of Medicine. “I first traveled to Africa after my army service, and traveled the continent over several months, and volunteered for two months in an orphanage. I was taken by the magic of Africa and fell in love with the culture, the people and the scenery. Ever since I have dreamed of returning to experience it and to contribute on a professional level.”

Manar Baderna (23) was born in Sakhnin to two lawyers and grew up in Haifa. While studying at the Technion, she teaches in the Yoel Geva psychometric exam school. “I love to cook and travel.”

Ori Shemesh (29) lives in Ramat Gan and is due to get married in two months. He completed his BSc in Neuroscience at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and will be beginning his fifth-year medical school. “In the past, I was a guitarist, playing mainly jazz and blues, but in recent years, it has turned into a hobby only.”

David Weiman (26) moved to Israel from Belgium 8 years ago. He served in the Givati Division and then completed his degree in Medical Sciences at Tel Aviv University. He will soon begin his fifth year of medical school studies at the Technion.

Nitzan Molho-Stav (28) is from Tel Aviv. “I love yoga, to travel abroad and to discover new places.” Nitzan recounts a story that particularly touched her heart when with the medical delegation in Africa.  A 13-year-old girl arrived in a life-threatening state with type I diabetes. “She was hospitalized and, most of the time was there alone. We treated her until her condition stabilized and when we wanted to discharge her, we understood that she didn’t have any insulin, which is vital for daily stabilization of her blood sugar levels.  We bought her a months-worth of insulin, which is considered very expensive there. A few days later, she was re-admitted in a life-threatening state. When we asked her if she had injected her insulin as we had explained to her, she said that she hadn’t – because she didn’t have any insulin. It’s impossible to know if she lost it or had to sell it, or didn’t grasp the severity of her condition and how much her life was dependent on this drug.  Bottom line, she is a 13-year-old child with a chronic disease and she has to take responsibility for her life as if she were an adult.”

 

Dr. Naama Geva-Zatorsky of the Technion Has Won the Azrieli Foundation’s Prestigious CIFAR Fellowship

The 12 recipients were selected from 402 candidates from 55 countries

Dr. Naama Geva-Zatorsky of the Technion’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine has received a Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR )scholarship from the Azrieli Foundation. This year, 402 researchers from 55 countries submitted their candidacy for the scholarship, and the Foundation selected 12 winners from five countries: Israel, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United States, and Canada. Two of the winners are Israeli: Dr. Geva-Zatorsky and Dr. Yaniv Ziv of the Weizmann Institute’s Department of Neurobiology.

The researchers were selected based on excellence in research, potential contribution to the relevant program in CIFAR, and leadership potential outside the academy. The fund announced the winners last week and noted that the diverse areas of research interest include renewable energy, astrophysics, understanding consciousness, and the microbiota’s effect on human evolution and health.

Dr. Geva-Zatorsky studies the microbiota – the microbial population that exists in our body and plays a critical role in our health. In her research, published in CELL, Science, and other leading journals, she has shown that the microbiota dramatically affect the immune system’s functions. While at Harvard, she developed a new technology that can track live intestinal bacteria in a living organism in real time. She says, “Our technology allows us to identify the role of each bacterium in this process. In the future, we hope to produce drugs from these bacteria, customized to various immune system disruptions and diseases.”

Dr. Geva-Zatorsky completed her bachelor’s degree at Tel Aviv University and her MSc and PhD at the Weizmann Institute of Science. After a postdoctoral research at the Harvard Medical School, she joined the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and the Technion Integrated Cancer Center. She has been awarded the Alon Fellowship – a prestigious scholarship designed to enable the absorption of young researchers in Israeli universities – and was selected as a Horev Fellow in the Technion’s program for leaders in science and technology.

CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars Program

According to the Azrieli Foundation’s website, “CIFAR has been successfully taking on difficult challenges for more than three decades by undertaking global research programs connecting many of the world’s best minds – across borders and between disciplines – to shape new perspectives and spark groundbreaking ideas. CIFAR offers research fellows the rarest of commodities: freedom to take the kinds of intellectual risks that are essential for creating truly transformative knowledge.”

The CIFAR scholarship provides researchers who are just beginning their academic careers with funding and support in building academic ties and developing the skills necessary for research leadership in academia and beyond. Since its inception in 1982, CIFAR has selected about 400 promising researchers. Each recipient receives a $100,000 research grant and is integrated into one of CIFAR’s 12 programs for two years. The program helps participants present their research to colleagues, contribute to discussions, initiate new collaborations, and reach policymakers, industry leaders and others.

“Young people are the future of research,” said CIFAR President and CEO Alan Bernstein. “CIFAR is exceptionally pleased to provide financial and other support to this phenomenal group of young researchers to advance their leadership and financial skills. Their enthusiasm and energy lead to new ways of thinking that will advance science and create solutions for the challenges facing our world today.”

For the Azrieli Foundation’s announcement about the CIFAR Global Scholars, click here

 

Prof. Hossam Haick Won the EU Innovation Award for the SniffPhone Project

Prof. Hossam Haick from the Technion Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering received the European Commission “2018 Innovation Award: Most Innovative Project” on behalf of the SniffPhone Project. The award was presented in Lisbon on November 21, at the European Forum of Electronic Components and Systems (EFECS).

The SniffPhone Project, established and coordinated by Prof. Hossam Haick with the support of the Horizon 2020 ICT-02a-2014 Program, is a collaboration of nine partners from six countries. SniffPhone is a compact handheld device for early diagnosis of cancer. The high-accuracy device is low-cost, non-invasive, and easy to use. The SniffPhone project integrates micro- and nano-technologies to create an autonomous system that can be connected to smart devices and can analyze disease markers from exhaled breath. The breath sample is tested via a miniaturized array of highly sensitive nanosensors and processed by a microfluidic lab-on-a-chip. The electrical signals are transferred via the smart device to a server. Statistical pattern recognition is applied to the received data and a clinical report including the screening results is sent back to the attending medical professional. SniffPhone represents a new concept in healthcare, taking into consideration ethical aspects. SniffPhone has an unparalleled advantage over traditional screening methods and provides a simple and cost-effective alternative for medical professionals.

The core technology, containing innovative nanosensors for breath analysis, was developed by the Technion team. Nanosensors for defining the breathing protocol were developed by NanoVation-GS Ltd. – a Technion spin-off company. The micropump was developed by Cellix in Ireland, fluidics by Microfluidic ChipShop in Germany, and the cloud platform by VTT in Finland. The clinical studies were carried out at the University of Latvia in Riga, with further testing and technical experimentation done in Austria at the University of Innsbruck. Siemens has taken part in the testing and validation phase of the SniffPhone project and conducted usability studies. JLM Innovation, Germany provides system integration, the device software, the SniffPhone App and algorithms for the measurement system.

The 2018 Innovation Award was presented on the 21st of November in Lisbon, at the European Forum for Electronic Components and System (EFECS) in the presence of EU leadership and the Israeli Ambassador in Portugal Rafi Gamzo; Dr. Jan Mitrovics – CEO JLM Innovation GmbH and SniffPhone partner was called to join Prof. Haick in receiving the award.

Prof. Haick serves as a consultant to several spin-off companies from his laboratories at Technion, and leads three EU consortia, with numerous collaborators in, academia and the health system.  He holds numerous patents and was named one of the World’s 35 Innovators Under the age of 35 (MIT, 2008); and more recently one of the world’s 100 leading innovators. He has won many honors, including “Knight in the Order of Academic Palms” granted by the French Government; the Humboldt Award, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Award; and the Hilda and Hershel Rich Technion Innovation Award.