The 2018 Adelis Prize for Brain Research was awarded at Technion to Dr. Ofer Yizhar from the Weizmann Institute of Science
The 2018 Adelis Prize for Brain Research was awarded at Technion to Dr. Ofer Yizhar from the Weizmann Institute of Science. The main criteria for winning the Adelis Prize are excellence, innovation and proven scientific achievements. The Adelis Foundation’s management noted that the level of candidates submitted this year was outstanding and is a clear indicator of the vast potential of brain research in Israel.
Dr. Ofer Yizhar
The Adelis Foundation was established by the late Mr. André Cohen Deloro in order to support academic excellence in Israel, especially in the fields of scientific and medical research. In 2015, the Foundation inaugurated the Adelis Prize for Brain Research, now in its fourth year, in keeping with the intellectual legacy of its founder and out of loyalty to his vision. Each year, the Foundation confers a $100,000 research grant to a young, trailblazing Israeli researcher in the field of brain research. The prize is meant to encourage excellence among young Israeli scientists who are studying the brain, advance knowledge about the brain’s functioning and illnesses connected to the brain, and translate this knowledge into international impact.
This year, the jury included Dr. Gal Ifergan, Prof. Moshe Bar, Prof. Illana Gozes, Prof. Eilon Vaadia, Prof. Jackie Schiller, Prof. Noam Ziv, Prof. Rafi Malach and Prof. Michal Schwartz – all leading researchers in the field in Israel.
Dr. Yizhar received the award from the President of the Adelis Foundation, Mr. Albert Deloro (Mr. André Cohen Deloro’s brother), Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie and trustees of the Adelis Foundation. The ceremony took place on June 11th during Technion Board of Governors meeting.
Prof. Jackie Schiller from Technion’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine explained the jury’s decision: “Dr. Ofer Yizhar is a talented young scientist who has become one of the leading brain researchers in Israel. Dr. Yizhar develops innovative optogenetic methods for researching and learning about one of the most fascinating questions in brain studies: what are the mechanisms in the brain that are responsible for emotional and cognitive effects of social abnormalities? This study aims at understanding the parts of the brain responsible for controlling social behavior that, when damaged, might trigger psychiatric disorders. Dr. Yizhar has already positioned himself as a brilliant scientist on a global level, with several significant contributions to the field of optogenetics and the study of social behavior abnormalities in autism.”
Dr. Ofer Yizhar
Dr. Ofer Yizhar is a senior researcher in the Department of Neurobiology of the Weizmann Institute of Science. He received a BSc with honors in Biology from The Hebrew University and a PhD with honors in Neurobiology from Tel Aviv University. He completed his postdoc at Stanford University in the U.S., after which he joined the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2011 as a senior researcher.
The research in Dr. Yizhar’s lab deals with the mechanisms by which the prefrontal cortex controls behavior, emotional regulation and social communication. In order to conduct in-depth research on the prefrontal cortex’s complex nerve circuits, Dr. Yizhar is developing and implementing a method known as optogenetics.Optogenetics lets scientists understand the contribution of neurons to brain processes and decipher the complex connectivity network the brain uses for neuronal computation. Dr. Yizhar’s group uses these methods to understanding the organization of functional synaptic connectivity in the prefrontal cortex of mice. Genetic modifications related to psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and autism, as well as social isolation and extended stress, trigger changes in this network’s connectivity. Dr. Yizhar’s research focuses on characterizing these changes in order to better understand the mechanisms of the prefrontal cortex and the changes that occur in cases of psychiatric disorders.
Researchers at Israel’s Technion have discovered a relation between the structure of α-helical strands in proteins and the formation of the toxic fibrils involved in neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s diseases, and other systemic amyloidosis, including type 2 diabetes. The findings might one day lead to a development of drugs for the aforementioned diseases.
Researchers Find Clues About Formation of Toxic Fibrils Involved in Neurodegenerative Diseases, Other Amyloidosis
HAIFA, ISRAEL (July 2, 2018) – Researchers in the Technion’s Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering have discovered a relation between the structure of α-helical strands in proteins and the formation of amyloid fibrils – toxic fibrils involved in neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s diseases, and other systemic amyloidosis, including type 2 diabetes. The findings, published in Biophysical Journal, could one day lead to a development of drugs for the aforementioned diseases.
According to the researchers, helical coils of a certain structure are not stabilized by the environment, which increases the probability of amyloid formation.
The DNA-binding protein illustrated on the right consists mainly of α-helical secondary structures. α-Helices are the most abundant structures found within proteins and play an important role in the determination of the global structure of proteins and their function. The yellow structure on the left is an example of amyloid fibril. Amyloid fibrils consist in most cases of β-sheets. The protein on top is the anti-microbial protein moricin. Surrounding molecules that are attached through bifurcated hydrogen bonds to the α-helical backbone function as a steric shield that reduces the probability of amyloid fibril formation.
Proteins are biomolecular machines involved in a wide range of vital biological processes, including the transfer of oxygen from the lungs to the various organs and carbon dioxide in the opposite direction; extracting energy from molecules such as glucose; reception and conversion of acoustic and visual information into bioelectrical signals; and synthesis of DNA and other biopolymers.
The proteins themselves are biopolymers made up of amino acid chains folded into three-dimensional structures that allow them to function. However, protein misfolding may impair function. A defect in protein folding may lead to various disruptions, including the formation of amyloid fibrils – very stable structures formed from misfolded polypeptide residues. These fibrils tend to accumulate in the brain in lumps, causing disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, type 2 diabetes, Huntington’s, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob (“mad cow disease”). Their exceptional stability allows them to survive in particularly severe biological conditions.
Due to the toxicity of amyloid fibrils and their potential damage, many researchers around the world are working to decipher the matter of amyloidogenicity – the conditions that cause the massive formation of amyloid fibrils.
The study was led by Prof. Simcha Srebnik and doctoral student Boris Haimov. They studied the structure of α-helical regions in proteins that are involved in the formation of these fibrils. They developed novel equations that provide meaningful information on helical structures, and which were published in 2016 as an innovative analytical tool in the journal Scientific Reports. Existing helical domains were scanned and information was extracted using the equations. This information was cross-checked against existing information on amyloidogenic domains and a clear correlation was found between the helical structure and amyloidogenicity.
In order to explain the relationship between the helical structure and amyloidogenicity, the researchers developed a physical model that assumes that structural changes are influenced by stabilizing forces in their environment. According to this model, the helical region forms bifurcated hydrogen bonds with the surrounding molecules (usually water molecules), creating a kind of protective sheath around the helical region. The model allows for the assessment of whether the helical region is protected and thus predict its amyloidogenicity. When the area is not protected, the formation of amyloid fibrils is more likely; when it is protected, such formation is not expected.
Prof. Simcha Srebnik’s research group engages in the theoretical analysis and understanding of polymers and biopolymers. She and Boris Haimov conducted the present study through Technion’s Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute (RBNI). The researchers envision that the findings of their studies, which clarify the impact of environmental factors on helical structures with a tendency to form amyloid fibrils, will lead to the development of ways to prevent the formation of these fibrils.
This work was funded in part by the Israel Science Foundation Grant No. 265/16. Boris Haimov acknowledges the generous financial support of the Irwin and Joan Jacobs Fellowship, and the generous financial support of The Miriam and Aaron Gutwirth Memorial Fellowship.
Researchers at Israel’s Technion have created a mechanical way to make light go one way (and one way only) at nanoscales. It’s the first of its kind optical “isolator,” which might prove useful in quantum computing and optical computing, where you want to precisely control the direction and “size” of the light signals that move from chip to chip and carry the information of the computational process.
HAIFA, ISRAEL (July 12, 2018) – Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have constructed a first of its kind optic isolator, based on resonance of light waves on a rapidly rotating glass sphere. This is the first photonic device in which light advancing in opposite directions moves at different speeds.
Professor Tal Carmon
“Essentially, we developed a very efficient photonic isolator, which can isolate 99.6% of the light,” said research team leader Professor Tal Carmon. “Namely, if we sent 1,000 light particles, the device will effectively isolate 996 photons and will miss only 4. Such isolation efficiency is necessary for applications that include quantum optics communication devices and building high-powered lasers. The isolator we developed here fulfills several additional requirements: it also works well when light from both opposing directions is simultaneously perceived, it is compatible with standard optical-fiber technology, it can be scaled down and it does not change the color of the light.”
Just as swimming downstream is faster than swimming upstream and riding a bicycle with the wind behind you is faster than riding against the wind, light also changes its speed with “tailwinds” or “counter-flow”, in response to the medium in which it is moving. The speed of light in glass, for instance, is slower than its speed in air. Also, two beams of light advancing in opposite directions in glass, or any other material, will advance at the same speed.
“At the Technion, I also learned that the speed of light depends on the speed of the medium in which it is moving,” said Professor Carmon. “Precisely like a swimmer in a river – the speed of light against the movement of the medium is slower than its speed with the movement of the medium.”
This effect was already described in 1849 by the French scientist Armond Fizeau, who showed, that like a swimmer in a river, the speed of light down a current is faster than light going up a current. Fizeau’s discovery had a significant impact on the development of Einstein’s theory of Special Relativity.
The Fizeau drag may lead to significant applications in optics and computers, as its unique ability to differentiate between the speeds of light for counter-propagating beams can generate an optic isolator – a device into which light entering on one side is blocked, while the light entering from another side is transmitted. Until now, a device in which opposing light beams advance at different speeds, had not be constructed.
But now, for the first time, Technion researchers have succeeded in constructing such a device. The spherical optic device rotates at a high speed. Light beams are delivered into it from opposite directions via a nearby tapered fiber. The light approaching from the right moves along the circumference of the ball, in the direction of the rotation of the sphere, while the light approaching from the left turns opposite the direction of the rotation and therefore moves at a slower speed.
The novel device constitutes an optic isolator – it transmits light approaching from the left and turns off light coming from the right. Another effect that is relevant here is resonance. Just like a musical instrument that resonates at a specific frequency, light circumferentially circulating in the sphere resonantly echoes. Yet, the different speeds for counter-circulating light forces these counter-circulating light to have different colors. This way, light entering from one side
echoes inside the sphere while circulating thousands of times in the sphere, until it is absorbed. In contrast, light entering from the opposing side of the isolator is nonresonating and hence passes through the device practically undisturbed. In other words, the light moving with the device, resonates and is shut off, while the light moving against the device is transmitted and continues on”.
Professor Carmon noted that the device was constructed at the Technion glass blowing workshop. It was constructed from a glass rod whose tip was melted to a 1 millimeter-radius ball. The light enters the isolator from both sides of a standard optical fiber, tapered at the vicinity of the sphere to a diameter 100-time smaller than that of a hair, and positioned several nanometers away from the sphere. The sphere, which serves as the resonator, rotates at an ultra-fast speed – the tip of the ball moves at a speed of 300 kph – and the light coming from the fiber rotates within it thousands of times.
One of the engineering challenges the research group faced was maintaining the ultra-short distance between the fiber – via which light is provided – and the spherical resonator constant.
“Maintaining an accurate distance is a true challenge, even when the device is not moving, and is an enormous challenge when the sphere is rotating at such a high speed,” said Prof. Carmon. “Therefore, we sought a means of forcing the fiber to move together with the sphere, despite the fact that the fiber and sphere are not connected. We finally achieved this by designing the fiber to float on the wind generated by the rotation of the sphere. In this way, if the device wobbles – which it does due to the rapid rotation – the fiber will wobble with it and the distance between them will be preserved. In fact, the fiber is actually flying above the rotating sphere at a constant and self-alighted nano-elevation”
The photo shows the fiber (the empty circle), the tip of the rotating sphere (at the bottom, in grey), and the flow of wind between them, upon which the fiber floats. The fiber floats above the sphere while maintaining a distance of several tens of nanometers.
Professor Carmon hopes this nano-seperated paves a path toward a novel type of mechanical device based on relatively unexplored forces that dominates at nano-scale separation.
This illustration shows the fiber (the empty circle), the tip of the rotating sphere (at the bottom, in grey), and the flow of wind between them, upon which the fiber floats. The fiber floats above the sphere while maintaining a distance of several tens of nanometers.
“The forces acting at such distances include Casimir and Van der Waals forces – very strong forces originating from quantum effects, which, to date, have barely been exploited in mechanical devices, in general, and in mechanical oscillators, in particular,” he said. “We recently demonstrated, for the first time, lasers in which water waves mediate laser emission; and also, for the first time, micro-lasers where sound mediates laser emission.”
In the future, the researchers may be able to generate such lasers that are based on vibrations where the restoring force is Casimir or Van der Waals. Using their self-aligned nano separation method might also allow micro electro mechanical devices [MEMS] where Casimir and Van der Waals forces will be used.
This work was led by Professor Carmon, and conducted by his research team and his collaborators at the College of Optics and Photonics (CEOL) at the University of Michigan and at Hunan Normal University. The experiment at the Technion was conducted by Rafi Dahan, who was a Master’s student at the time, and Shai Maayani, then a doctoral candidate. Dr. Maayani is currently a postdoctoral fellow at MIT, where he is developing novel optic fibers under the guidance of Professor Joel Fink, a Technion alumnus. Dr. Maayani chose this research discipline, which was categorized as a strategic need for Israel, with the goal of returning to Israel after his postdoc for a faculty position. Professor Carmon emphasizes that the five first authors are Technion Mechanical Engineering faculty, including Yuri Kligerman and Eduard Moses, who performed the computations.
This study was supported by the I-CORE and “Circle of Light” Excellence Centers and by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Space.
Researchers at the Technion have successfully shrunk cancerous tumors in mice by manipulating the brain’s reward system. The explanation: the intervention caused the nervous system to stimulate the immune system.
Artificially activating the brain’s reward system has led to a dramatic reduction in the size of cancerous tumors in mice. This is the conclusion of a study conducted at the Technion and published in the journal Nature Communications. The research was led by doctoral students Tamar Ben-Shaanan and Maya Schiller, under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Asya Rolls of the Technion Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Technion Asst. Prof. Fahed Hakim, Medical Director of the Scottish EMMS Hospital in Nazareth.
The immune system’s natural ability to destroy cancer cells has become increasingly clear in recent years. This has led to the growth of immunotherapy – an innovative medical approach based on the understanding that the immune system is able to fight cancer effectively if given the tools. In 2013, the editors of the journal Science called immunotherapy the most important breakthrough of the year. “However,” explains Prof. Rolls, “the immune cells’ involvement in cancerous processes is a double-edged sword, because certain components in these cells support tumor growth. This is done by blocking the immune response and creating an environment that is beneficial to growth.”
Group photo (L-R): Dr. Azulay-Debby, Prof. Rolls, Prof. Hakim and Maya Schiller
Prof. Rolls has been studying the brain’s effect on the immune system for several years. In a study she published in 2016 in Nature Medicine, she showed how the immune system can be stimulated by manipulating the brain’s reward system – which operates in positive emotional states and in anticipation of the positive. She says, “By artificially activating the region, we can affect the nervous system and, in turn, the immune system.” In the same article, Prof. Rolls and her colleagues showed that artificial intervention sends messages to the sympathetic nervous system, which stimulates the immune system. Moreover, as a result of the intervention, the immune system created a stronger immune memory against the bacteria to which it had been exposed, therefore it will work more efficiently the next time it is exposed to the same bacteria.
Most immune cells come from the bone marrow – the spongy tissue found in bones. The brain communicates directly with bone marrow, and can affect its attributes. The main breakthrough in this study is the researchers’ success in harnessing the immune system and preventing the cancerous tumor from taking over. The result is a dramatic contraction of the cancerous tumor in response to the activation of the brain reward system.
“The relationship between a person’s emotional state and cancer has been demonstrated in the past, but mainly in relation to negative feelings such as stress and depression and without a physiological map of the action mechanism,” Prof. Rolls said. Several researchers, for example, Prof. David Spiegel of the Stanford University School of Medicine showed that an improvement in the patient’s emotional state may affect the course of the disease, but it was not clear how this happened. We are now presenting a physiological model that can explain at least part of this effect.”
According to Prof. Hakim, “Understanding the brain’s influence on the immune system and its ability to fight cancer will enable us to use this mechanism in medical treatments. Different people react differently, and we’ll be able to take advantage of this tremendous potential for healing only if we gain a thorough understanding of the mechanisms.”
The authors pointed out that the study is preclinical and that they tested only two cancer models (melanoma and lung cancer) and only two developmental aspects – tumor volume and weight. However, this breakthrough will allow doctors to realize the physiological role the patients’ mental state may play in the development of malignant diseases. By artificially activating different parts of the brain, in the future it might be possible to encourage the immune system to block development of cancerous tumors more effectively.
Image of the reward system (VTA). Experimental mice were injected with a special compound known as a DREADD, that allows researchers to manipulate the brain and activate the reward system. The red is the DREADD expression limited to the reward system;
“I want to emphasize what our findings do not say,” Prof. Rolls said. “They do not say that it is applicable for all types of cancer and most importantly that it is not applicable to humans at this point. It is a robust artificial type of manipulation, designed to determine the system’s potential. In real-life situations, it most probably works differently, especially because other systems are also involved. For example, stress may counteract these reward system effects. I think it’s crucial for people to know that it’s not that one can just think positively and get better. People are very different in their reactions, and until we fully understand how this works, it merely offers a potential.”
The work was supported by the Adelis Brain Research Award. The Adelis Foundation was established by the late André Cohen Deloro to support academic excellence in Israel, in particular within the realm of medical and scientific research. In 2015, in line with Deloro’s legacy and vision, the Foundation inaugurated the Adelis Brain Research Award and the winner receives a $100,000 research grant. The prize is intended to encourage excellence in the field of brain research in Israel and to translate the research into global impact for the benefit of all humanity
Assoc. Prof. Asya Rolls completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Technion’s Faculty of Biology, and after her doctorate at the Weizmann Institute of Science and post-doctorate at the Department of Psychiatry at Stanford University in California, she joined the Technion’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine in 2012 as a faculty member. She was awarded the Adelis Brain Research Award, the Krill Prize, a European Research Council Grant, elected to the Israel Young Academy of Sciences and the FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence, and recognized as one of 40 international researchers by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).
Clinical Asst. Prof. Fahed Hakim was recently appointed Medical Director of the Scottish EMSS Hospital in Nazareth and continues to serve as a Senior Physician at the Pediatric Lung Institute at the Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa. Prof. Hakim is an expert in pediatrics, pediatric pulmonology, and sleep disorders. He is an active member of the international associations for the study of lung disease, sleep, and brain research respectively. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Sleep Research at the University of Chicago in Illinois in 2013, he joined the Technion’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine as a faculty member.
Dr. Rivka Bekenstein has won the prestigious Deborah Jin Award of the American Physical Society (APS)
Dr. Rivka Bekenstein
It is our great pleasure to announce that Dr. Rivka Bekenstein, a graduate student of the Technion physics department, has won the prestigious Deborah Jin Award of the American Physical Society (APS) for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Research in AMO (atomic, molecular or optical) Physics. Rivka completed her PhD in 2017 under the supervision of Prof. Moti Segev, studying gravity models with optical setups both to contribute to the fundamental understanding of gravity models and to photonics applications. Her most important contribution is the first simulation of the Newton-Schrodinger system. She has been awarded the prize on her research titled: “Emulating gravity with linear and nonlinear optical settings”. This annual award is presented to one individual and Rivka is the first Israeli graduate to ever win. In 2015 Rivka won the IPS prize for a graduate student in theoretical physics awarded to one graduate a year.
Rivka is currently during her second year as an ITAMP (institute for theoretical atomic, molecular and optical physics) post-doc at Harvard University, working with Prof. Mikhail Lukin. She is studying quantum information science and is planning to relate the quantum optical setups she is working on to gravity models that take quantum effects into account. Her goal is to explore the relation between quantum physics and gravity in theory and in experiments. Congratulations Rivka we wish you all the best!
Research conducted at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology has, for the first time since 1971, uncovered a new light sensing protein family. The research – published this week in Nature – was conducted by PhD student Alina Pushkarev under the supervision of Professor Oded Beja, and included collaboration with Japanese, American and Israeli researchers.
A model describing the transmembrane orientation of previously known rhodopsins (described in grey), showing the 180 degrees flip of the new heliorhodopsin. (Illustration: Oded Béjà)
Light reactive proteins allow living organisms to harvest the energy of the sun. These proteins are responsible for light harvesting by two distinct biological processes. The first of these processes is photosynthesis, which is utilized by plants, algae and aquatic bacteria (cyanobacteria). The second is via retinal bound proteins (rhodopsins), which are utilized by many microorganisms, as well as animal visual organs (including human eyes). Rhodopsins are embedded in the membrane of the cell, by crossing it seven times (i.e. they are a long protein “stitching” the cells’ outer wall seven times). Rhodopsins are comprised of a protein attached to a vitamin A derivative, called retinal, allowing them to capture light.
Professor Oded Beja
Currently there are two known rhodopsin types. Microorganisms use Type 1 rhodopsins to sense light and convert it to chemical energy, while Type 2 rhodopsins are found in animal eyes, and crucial for vision.
In the Technion marine microbiology lab, researchers aimed to discover completely new rhodopsins in the microorganisms residing in Lake Kinneret at the peak of summer – when the environment would be well sunlit. Lake Kinneret, like any natural environment, has an abundant variety of microorganisms that cannot be grown in a laboratory. So, Mrs. Pushkarev and Prof. Beja used a laboratory strain of E. coli as a protein factory for expression of the proteins belonging to the microbial residents of Lake Kinneret.
By adding retinal (a form of vitamin A that is the chemical basis for animal vision) to the growth media, the researcher found a gene that turned E. coli to a deep purple color. The gene turned out to be a completely new family of rhodopsins, which are embedded in a completely opposite orientation compared to all other known rhodopsins. Though this rhodopsin family was found to exist in almost all known marine and freshwater environments, it had never before been discovered, despite extensive research of these environments. The researchers named the new family heliorhodopsins (hḗlios, ‘sun’).
The first rhodopsins (Type 2) were discovered in 1876 by the German scientist Franz Christian Boll, who isolated them from frogs. In 1971, almost a 100 years later, researchers from the University of California discovered a new family of rhodopsins (Type 1), in a microbe from hypersaline waters. Their motivation was to explain the purple nature of the Haloarchaea (a salt dwelling archaea) living in these waters.
Three decades later, this seemingly non-medical oriented discovery would lead to the development of a new field in neuroscience: Optogenetics. This field is based on the use of Type 1 rhodopsins, for the controlled excitation of neurons, and even single neurons in mammals.
Today, many research groups in this field are working on the utilization of Type 1 rhodopsins in neuronal disease, correction of cardiac rhythm and more. Now, Mrs. Pushkarev and Prof. Beja’s discovery of a new family of rhodopsins could become the newest tool in the field of optogenetics.
Nature Biotechnology reports on an innovative technology that will provide the scientific community with novel tools to gain a comprehensive understanding of immune system activity. Developed at Technion Israel, the technology is based on of millions of scientific publications and maps disease immune profiles. These maps, which have identified previously unknown biological interactions, will enable the development of personalized, immuno-centric therapies.
System-level characteristic of information flow between cellular secretion of cytokine families and those cytokine families that affect a variety of cell subsets
A technology developed at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology will provide the scientific community with innovative tools to gain an in-depth understanding of the immune system in health and disease. The technology, which the researchers have named immuneXpresso, scans millions of scientific publications, and maps disease immune profiles. These maps, which have already identified previously unknown biological interactions, will enable development of personalized, immuno-centric therapies.The work, published in Nature Biotechnology, was led by the doctoral student Ksenya Kveler, under the guidance of Assistant Professor Shai Shen-Orr from the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine.
L-R: Ksenya Kveler, Assistant Professor Shai Shen-Orr and Elina Starosvetsky
Contemporary medicine has advanced at a dizzying rate; life expectancy doubled between the middle of the 19th and the end of the 20th century, vaccinations have dramatically reduced mortality rates among infants and children and, in the last two decades, groundbreaking, immune system-related technologies have been introduced into clinical practices. Such technologies have dramatically improved our ability to treat diseases – particularly cancer – by manipulating the immune system.
The immune system, however, is highly complex, and rendering its analysis and targeted activation are a considerable challenge. In the past decade, the scientific community has developed innovative tools for precise and broad measurement of cells, proteins and genes among others. These tools provide a wealth of information and therefore, the current challenge, which the publication focuses on, is to analyze the information.
“Researchers and physicians, as experienced and exceptional as they may be, specialize in a narrow spectrum of the medical world,” said Prof. Shen-Orr. “As humans, they cannot have a perspective based on millions of studies and publications, particularly in the field of immunity, which has a huge volume of publications and a new publication released every half hour. But what human researchers and physicians cannot do, we can now offer through the immuneXpresso system, which constructs a computerized model of the immune system.”
The model provides, for the first time, a fascinating view of the system at large, a better understanding of the available information and its limitations, automated data interpretation and systematic generation of new hypotheses.
The Technion researchers developed the technology that scans life sciences scientific literature and generates, a global and high-resolution picture of the network of interactions between immune cells and the human body, across thousands of diseases. immuneXpresso is a dramatic step toward obtaining an immune-centric view of diseases.
“The immune system fulfills a critical function in fighting diseases and in maintaining health. It serves as a kind of sensor that monitors the external and internal environments and responds to the changes that are occurring,” continued Prof. Shen-Orr. “The problem is that sometimes, it fails or forms harmful interactions with other cells in the body. Therefore, to enhance the efficacy of medical treatments, we have to crack open the black box of the immune system to understand how it works.”
In this context, immuneXpresso was programmed to scan the PubMed database – which, to date, contains 16 million publications. The study focused on molecules called “cytokines” – proteins that enable immune cells to send messages to cells and tissues throughout the body. This novel technology enables the researchers to generate a computerized, detailed map of connections between 340 types of cells and 140 types of cytokines across thousands of diseases – a novel and unprecedented knowledge-base in terms of its resolution and breadth. This process provides a global picture of the network of interactions between immune cells and of scientific knowledge accumulation patterns over time.
Assistant Professor Shai Shen-Orr
In addition to mapping known factors, the analytical approach described in the paper enabled prediction of hundreds of novel biological interactions, which have not been identified or reported until now. Also for the first time in history, the researchers mapped the immune profiles of various diseases and successfully clustered diseases based on similarity between their “disease maps”, which present the links between the medical status and the immune status. These “disease clusters” provide a unique roadmap to identify immune dysfunctions in various disease states. This achievement will enable designation of existing pharmaceutical therapies for new indications, which they are expected to be able to prevent or blunt.
“To translate this information to personalized medicine,” said Prof. Shen-Orr, “we plan to link it to the patient’s immune profile, with the clear understanding that the immune system varies between people as well as over time within the same person. If we manage to monitor this system, as we monitor, for example, cardiac activity, we will be able to provide personalized, accurate, knowledge-based medical interventions”.
During his postdoc at Stanford University, Prof. Shen-Orr studied the variability of the immune system between people. “It was the first time I analyzed data that was obtained by monitoring the immune system, and I identified differences in the function of eight cytokines in adult versus elderly people. I shared this discovery with experienced immunologists, hoping they would help me understand which cells secrete these cytokines. But none of them were able to provide me with answers, as each immunologist sees a partial picture of the immune system and none are familiar with the global picture as the system is too complex and the science traditionally reductionist. Since then, my work has focused on building a systems-level understanding the immunity and its interactions with the other systems in the body. In doing so, we aim to revolutionize immunology to a structured and model-based science, namely, true systems immunology.”
Systems immunology – first introduced approximately ten years ago – has primarily been focused on our ability to measure the system in humans and to generate a mass of data. But the complementary perspective – interpretation of the data – did not develop at the same pace. Prof. Shen-Orr projects that immuneXpresso will provide a significant push to the interpretive aspect, partially because it is a platform for mapping and standardizing existing data, which enables linkage between the scientific literature and experimental data.
Prof. Shen-Orr’s lab is an interdisciplinary space which brings together researchers from a computational background with biological scientists. He himself exemplifies the integration of various disciplines: he completed his bachelor’s degree in Information Systems in Industrial Engineering and Management and Computer Sciences at the Technion, his master’s in bioinformatics – application of information databases and computational tools for biological and medical research –at the Weizmann Institute of Science, his PhD in Developmental Biology at Harvard University and a postdoc in Biomedical informatics and immunology at Stanford. In 2011, he returned to the Technion as a Rappaport School of Medicine faculty member and now is the director of the Systems Immunology and Personalized Medicine Laboratory.
The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and involved years of invested time. Commercial development of the immuneXpresso technology is currently ongoing at CytoReason, a company building a machine learning model of the immune system and deploying it to empower drug development and precision medicine.
Technion Researchers Develop Technology to Generate Electricity and Hydrogen from Live Bacteria
Described in Nature Communications, the technology is based on natural photosynthesis of photosynthetic bacteria
HAIFA, ISRAEL and NEW YORK (June 19, 2018) – A new technology developed at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology enables energy harvesting from photosynthetic bacteria – cyanobacteria. Cyanobacteria belong to a family of bacteria common to lakes, seas and many other habitats. Throughout their evolution, the bacteria developed photosynthetic mechanisms that enable them to generate energy from sunlight. In addition, they also generate energy in the dark, via respiratory mechanisms, which relies on sugar degradation.
The importance of photosynthetic bacteria is quite significant, as they form a source of atmospheric oxygen and an essential source of organic material (e.g., sugar), which constitutes the first link in the food chain. Using a “natural solar antenna” (PBS), they absorb a broad range of sunlight intensities and wavelengths – between 400 and 700 nm – effectively exploiting this inexhaustible source of energy. The energy is channeled to chemical reaction centers, where water is broken down, while releasing a flow of hydrogen ions. The ions are then applied to generate chemical energy, which drives food production.
Published in Nature Communications, the study was conducted by three Technion faculty members: Professor Noam Adir from the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, Professor Gadi Schuster from the Faculty of Biology and Professor Avner Rothschild, from the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering. The work involved collaboration between Dr. Gadiel Saper and Dr. Dan Kallmann and colleagues from Bochum, Germany and the Weizmann Institute of Science. The three Technion researchers have collaborated in the past, including in a project in which they generated energy from spinach leaves using sunlight (published in Nature Communications in 2016).
Prof. Noam Adir; Prof. Avner Rothschild & Prof. Gadi Schuster.
The energy-generating processes that developed in photosynthetic bacteria throughout evolution have come to be appreciated as they perform their function without the generation of pollution. For this reason, the past few years have witnessed growing interest in the possibility of generating energy and hydrogen from these bacteria. One of the breakthroughs of this study was the use of live bacteria, which can repair damaged photosynthesis-related proteins in real-time. In addition, energy harvesting is not expected to harm the bacteria.
The Technion researchers developed an energy-producing system that exploits both the photosynthesis and respiratory processes, allowing for energy harvesting during the day (photosynthesis) and at night (respiration). The harvested energy was leveraged to generate electricity, which was then utilized to produce hydrogen gas, currently considered the fuel of the future, as hydrogen-motorized vehicles only emit water, without pollutants.
The system is based on radiation-driven generation of a photocurrent, which the researchers showed was highly stable and enabled continuous production of hydrogen. They believe that it can serve as a promising source of clean, environment-friendly energy that will not emit pollutants during production or use (hydrogen fuel).
The work was supported by various bodies, including the Nancy and Stephen Grand Technion Energy Program (GTEP), the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute (RBNI), the Technion Hydrogen Technologies Research Lab (HTRL), the Adelis Foundation, the Planning and Budgeting Committee’s I-CORE program, the Israel Science Foundation, the USA-Israel Binational Science Fund (BSF) and the German research fund (DFG-DIP).
Technion hosted a fascinating panel discussion on the relationship between Science and Religion, featuring two great luminaries: Nobel Laureate Dist. Prof. Aaron Ciechanover and Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
Technion hosted an exceptional panel discussion on June 12th, entitled “Does God Play Dice? A Dialogue on Science and Religion,” as part of the university’s annual Board of Governors meeting. The unique event featured two remarkable panelists, each of whom represented a different perspective on the subject: Nobel Laureate Aaron Ciechanover and Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. The moderator was Prof. Karl Skorecki, of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Director of Medical and Research Development at Rambam Health Care Campus.
At the panel discussion: (L-R) Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Prof. Karl Skorecki and Nobel Laureate Dist. Prof. Aaron Ciechanover
Prof. Aaron Ciechanover received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2004 and is a Technion Distinguished Research Professor in the Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Research Institute. “For me, the question of God is completely irrelevant,” he asserted in his opening remarks, while nevertheless maintaining that Judaism is an important part of his identity. Prof. Ciechanover spoke of the limits of the scientific language and the need for a collaboration between Science and Religion. “Scientists need moral leaders to help them mediate between themselves and their audiences,” he claimed, adding that they are unable to do so by themselves. Furthermore, scientists cannot “lift the burden of the implications of their own research” and therefore they need leaders like Rabbi Sacks.
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks is well-known both in his native U.K. and around the world as a leading Jewish theologian and author, frequently appearing in the secular media. He served as Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013, and has written dozens of books and religious commentaries. Rabbi Sacks was knighted by the Queen in 2009 and is a member of the House of Lords. The night before, he received an Honorary Doctorate from Technion. In his opening remarks, Rabbi Sacks quoted Albert Einstein, who famously insisted that, “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind,” adding that “you need humility on both sides.”
Although clearly representing Religion in the discussion, Rabbi Sacks made it clear that he does not see any conflict between Science and Religion, especially according to the Jewish faith. “Judaism is open to Science. God wants us to be a partner” in helping to make the world a better place, he believes, and “religious leaders have to learn from scientists since there is a vast ocean of truth we don’t understand.”
Both panelists addressed the issue of therapeutic vs. eugenic scientific intervention. According to Rabbi Sacks, “it is a mitzvah to cure generic diseases, but intervening in evolution is highly problematic.” Although we shouldn’t try to improve on Nature, genetically modified crops are a blessing that save many lives, and not a threat; in a nutshell, he believes in “therapeutics – yes, eugenics – no.” He admits, however, that the border is fuzzy and that there is a real danger that scientists will “do it because they can, not because they should.” Prof. Ciechanover agreed that, “there is a huge twilight zone between therapeutic and eugenic research,” and scientists shouldn’t and can’t answer these questions themselves. They should be careful not to cross the border in the name of academic freedom.
The one-hour panel discussion, which took place in a packed auditorium, concluded on a harmonious note, with the two men agreeing on the importance of dialogue. While Rabbi Sacks pronounced that “if you want to fear God, study Science,” Prof. Ciechanover asserted that “there is a great need for moral religious leaders.”
Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie devoted his speech at the ceremony to the term “glocalization” – a merger of “globalization” and “localization.” He said that, “Today, we are here to celebrate what a glocal leader the Technion has become, shining its light and spreading its messages of futuristic science and technology for the betterment of the world, both across Israel and around the globe.” He thanked the honorees for their tremendous contribution: “Our honorary doctorates share the spirit of glocalization as each of them makes their unique contribution and creates their individual impact, extending beyond their own communities to spread goodness in the world. But they also share one more thing, for which we are so grateful, a love of Israel and of the Technion.”
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, an international religious leader, philosopher and author who has received numerous prizes and served as Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013, spoke on behalf of the honorary doctors. He said at the ceremony that, “It is a huge honor to receive an honorary doctorate from the institution that developed the drug for Parkinson’s, made breakthroughs in information technology, and spearheaded Iron Dome. Israel proves that it is possible to be 70, or almost 4,000 years old in the case of the Jewish people, and stay young, and part of the reason it stays young lies is the Technion itself. Technion is a living example of ‘tikkun olam,’ of mending a fractured world. And it does so by being at the very heart of Israel’s high-tech economy, Start-Up Nation. Every single technological development that Israel has developed, whether it be medical technology, nanotechnology, agricultural technology or information technology, has always been life-enhancing.”
Here are the recipients of the honorary doctorates from Technion for 2018:
Prof. Michael Aizenman is a paramount figure in the fields of mathematical physics, statistical mechanics, functional analysis and probability theory. His seminal contributions have shaped many of the most important developments in mathematical physics over the last 40 years. He is a professor of Mathematics and Physics at Princeton University.
He received the honor in recognition of his contribution to mathematical physics, particularly the development of powerful geometric and analytical methods for analyzing quantum statistical systems; and in recognition of his scientific leadership.
Prof. Michael Aizenman
Prof. Stephen R. Forrest is an internationally-recognized expert in photonics and opto-electronics. He held several key positions at Princeton University and is currently on the faculty of the University of Michigan. He is responsible for several collaborative agreements between Michigan and Israeli universities, and is a distinguished visiting professor of the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering at Technion.
He received the honorary doctorate in recognition of his groundbreaking advances in organic optoelectronics, displays, lighting, optical communications and solar cells; in recognition of his scientific leadership; and in gratitude for his steadfast support of the Technion and the State of Israel.
Prof. Stephen R. Forrest
Prof. Klaus A. Mullen is an internationally recognized chemist specializing in polymer chemistry. In 1995, he designed the first nanographenes, a milestone that led to the development of many modern energy technologies. He served as director of the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research from 1989 to 2016 and is an honorary member of the Israel Chemical Society.
He received the honorary doctorate in recognition of his significant contributions to the field of polymer-forming reactions and to the chemistry and physics of small molecules, graphene, dendrimers and biosynthetic hybrids; in appreciation for his wise and deliberative leadership; and in acknowledgment of his personal and professional accomplishments.
Prof. Klaus A. Mullen
Dr. Andrew Goldenberg and Aviva Goldenberg are distinguished Technion alumni who live in Toronto, Canada. They are Technion Guardians – a title reserved for the most generous supporters. Dr. Goldenberg is an esteemed expert in the field of robotics whose career combined both academia and industry, and he is a professor emeritus of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. Architect Aviva Goldenberg founded her own architectural firm and was a professor and program coordinator of Architectural Technology at Centennial College AAT.
They were recognized for their significant contributions in electrical and computer engineering and in the field of architecture; in tribute to their application of robotics to solutions for real-world problems and for their efforts to promote women in science and technology; and in gratitude for their profound dedication to the Technion, academia and the State of Israel.
Dr. Andrew Goldenberg and Aviva Goldenberg
Dr. Jean-Yves Le Gall has been president of the French Space Agency since 2013. He is inter-ministerial coordinator for satellite navigation programs and chair of the Administrative Board of GSA, the European GNSS Agency, and president of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF). He is actively involved in boosting the ties between the space community in academia and in industry in France and in Israel.
He received the honorary doctorate in acknowledgement of his contributions to the promotion of space research in France, Europe and around the world; and in recognition of his support in strengthening the ties between the academic and industrial space communities in France and in Israel.
Dr. Jean-Yves Le Gall
Baroness Ariane de Rothschild is a senior director of the Edmond de Rothschild Group, and leads the activities of the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation (Caesarea) in Israel. The Foundation contributes extensively to advancing excellence in academia.
She was awarded an honorary doctorate in recognition of her exceptional commitment to international philanthropic causes; in gratitude for her profound dedication to the advancement of higher education in Israel; in admiration for her leadership of the Rothschild Foundation (Caesarea) and for her generous support of the Technion and the State of Israel.
Baroness Ariane de Rothschild
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks is an international religious leader who served as Britain’s Chief Rabbi from 1991 to 2013. Rabbi Sacks has held a number of professorships, including at Yeshiva University and King’s College London. He is the author of several bestsellers, including Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence. In 2005, he was knighted by Her Majesty the Queen and in 2009 was made a Life Peer, taking his seat in the House of Lords.
He received the honorary doctorate in recognition of his lifetime contributions to maintaining Jewish traditional faith and enriching Jewish identity; in admiration of his position as an international religious leader and respected moral voice in the world; and in gratitude for his profound dedication to the State of Israel and the Jewish people.
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
Dr. Robert J. Shillman (“Doctor Bob”) is Chairman of Cognex Corporation, the world’s leading supplier of machine vision systems. Doctor Bob founded Cognex in 1981 with his life’s savings of $86,000; its value is now nearly $10 billion. He received his bachelor’s degree from Northeastern University, and his Master’s and PhD from MIT.
He received the honorary doctorate in tribute to his professional accomplishments, inspired leadership and innovation as the head of an international company; in recognition of his decades-long commitment to the betterment of the Technion, Israel and the world at large; and in admiration for the vision and creativity that mark his commitment and his input.
Technion Computer Science Students Discover Security Breach in Cortana – Microsoft’s Voice-Activated Virtual Assistant
The students, Yuval Ron and Ron Marcovich, supervised by Technion alumnus Amichai Shulman, found a way to access Cortana-locked computers. They immediately reported the vulnerability to Microsoft, which corrected it and are rewarding the students for their goodwill
L-R: Ron Marcovich and Yuval Ron
Yuval Ron and Ron Marcovich, two third-year students in the Computer Science Faculty at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, recently discovered a severe vulnerability in the security of Cortana, Microsoft’s virtual assistant, and promptly reported it to Microsoft’s Bounty Program. The two discovered the problem with Cortana as part of the undergraduate course Information Security Project,taught by Amichai Shulman, Tal Be’ery and Prof. Eli Biham, head of the Technion’s Hiroshi Fujiwara cyber security research center.
Cortana is a virtual assistant that allows users to operate their computer, smartphone or smartwatch using voice commands. Microsoft’s Israel-based R&D center was involved in the program’s original development before it was unveiled at Microsoft’s global developers’ conference in 2014.
In recent semesters, a number of student teams in the Technion Computer Science Faculty have worked on projects involving the security of virtual assistants. This past April, students Marcovich and Ron succeeded in breaching Cortana. They were able to take control of a locked computer and download an external file, enabling them to control all of the computer’s operations. They reported their findings to Microsoft, who were very grateful and immediately started working with them on a patch to protect against this form of attack. As of yesterday, the vulnerability has been repaired and it is no longer possible to access locked computers using Cortana in this way. Ron and Marcovich will receive a reward from Microsoft’s Bounty Program, and this August they will travel to the cyber security conference ‘Black Hat USA 2018’ in Las Vegas, where they will present the Cortana vulnerability.
The students’ discovery was groundbreaking since it was the first time that voice interface was used to bypass security features in such a dangerous manner, enabling people who are not technologically savvy to breach computer security and obtain complete access to a locked computer. According to Shulman, this is the second time a security vulnerability of this sort has been discovered but this one is the most dramatic. The same vulnerability was reported independently to Microsoft by Cedric Cochin from McAfee
In a festive ceremony, Technion inaugurated the ground station for the Adelis-SAMSON nanosatellite project
The ceremony took place on June 11 at Technion’s Asher Space Research Institute
A ground station for satellite missions has been built at Technion for the Adelis-SAMSON project, to be launched into space at the end of 2018 by a Dutch company that specializes in launching nanosatellites, with the support of the Adelis Foundation and the Israeli Space Agency of the Ministry of Science and Technology. Following the launch, the nanosatellites will be monitored by Technion’s ground station, which will monitor the satellites’ activities and receive transmitted data.
Mrs. Rebecca Boukhris, Director of the Adelis Foundation, said during the inauguration ceremony that, “At the end of 2014 we signed an agreement with Technion, and within one year NASA completed the agreement with the Israeli Space Agency. The Adelis-SAMSON project provides Technion and Israel with an opportunity to cross borders and initiate a new technological revolution, and we are proud to be among the pioneers of this project.”
Prof. Boaz Golany, Technion’s Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development, said that, “Israel is a small country with few resources, and it has no choice other than to rely on human capital – its most important resource. The only way to do this is by investing in higher education and academic research. Technion has pursued this goal by relentlessly striving to expand human knowledge, while seeking to solve the problems on Israel’s doorstep.”
The Adelis-SAMSON project was developed in recent years by a team of scientists headed by Prof. Pini Gurfil, director of the Asher Space Research Institute and a member of Technion’s Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, with the support of the Adelis Foundation and the Israeli Space Agency of the Ministry of Science and Technology. The project intends to prove that a swarm of satellites can orbit for one year in a controlled formation at an altitude of 600 km. The project will entail launching three nanosatellites into space that will operate autonomously, without human intervention. The satellites will receive signals from Earth and will calculate the location of the transmission’s source for the purpose of search and rescue operations, remote sensing and environmental monitoring. The size of each satellite will be 10x20x30 cm., approximately the size of a shoe box, and will weigh around 8 kg. The satellites will be fitted with measuring devices, antennas, computer systems, control systems and navigation devices. The software and algorithms that will operate the flight were developed in the Technion Distributed Space Systems Lab.
The new ground station is located in the Asher Space Research Institute and was funded by the Adelis Foundation. It includes antennas for tracking and satellite communication and a ground station with an extensive computing system. The antennas were manufactured by the Israeli company Orbit, and they include a large 4-meter diameter dish antenna. The ground station will communicate with the satellites using three different frequencies (S-Band, VHF and UHF) simultaneously. Furthermore, the ground station will enable both the reception of signals transmitted from the satellites to Earth and signals transmitted between the satellites themselves.
“The proximity between the satellites creates a complex technological challenge for monitoring them from Earth,” explains Prof. Gurfil. “The ground station will enable automatic shifting of the communication beam between the ground and the satellites by turning the antennas towards each of the satellites that pass over the station, and all this without human intervention. In the future, it will be possible to monitor a larger number of satellites at the same time.”
