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“Continuously pursuing Tikkun Olam”

Technion confers Honorary Fellowships on six eminent figures from Israel and abroad

Sunday, June 11, 2018: Technion held its annual ceremony awarding Honorary Fellowships. This year’s honorees were Dr. Hiroshi Fujiwara from Japan, Dr. Moshe Marom from Israel, Rona Ramon from Israel, Dr. Martin and Grace Rosman from the U.S. and Les Seskin from the U.S.

Les Seskin spoke on behalf of the Fellowship recipients, saying, “As an engineering graduate, I understand how stressful an engineering program can be, and that is why I applaud Technion services that contribute to a well-rounded and motivated graduate. Services such as student tutoring, counseling  and modern on-campus dorms. I have no doubt that my path would have been far smoother had it included even some of the amazing programs, facilities, and personnel that exist at the Technion. I take great joy and satisfaction in knowing that my support and work for the Technion will benefit great minds of future generations.”

The ceremony took place on the first day of Technion’s annual Board of Governors meeting. Prof. Marcelle Machluf, Dean of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, was the MC. Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie said at the start of the ceremony: “I don’t know any university in the world that has filled such a central role in the life of the country and the nation. For us, this is a source of great joy and pride.” Prof. Lavie described Technion’s history prior to the founding of the State as well as in the last 70 years, and thanked the friends of Technion around the world, without whom Technion would not be able to position itself at the forefront of the world’s universities.

Dr. Hiroshi Fujiwara, who received the title of Honorary Fellow of Technion during the ceremony, opened his speech by blessing the State of Israel on the 70^th anniversary of its founding, and asserted that, “Receiving this honor today at Technion moves me more than when I received my PhD degree from the University of Tokyo.” Exactly one year ago, during the 2017 Board of Governors meeting, Dr. Fujiwara announced the first Japanese contribution to Technion. As a result, the Fujiwara Research Center was founded, which aims to position Technion as a leader in the field of cyber.

Dr. Fujiwara is one of the most prominent figures in the field of Internet in Japan. He is the Chair, President and CEO of BroadBand Tower, a pioneer in the specialty Internet data center (iDC) business. In his speech, he said: “I dreamed of becoming an astrophysicist; I was attracted to Computer Science R&D, and these days I am an entrepreneur – and this too may change. Technion also changes constantly, in accordance with worldwide changes. The world is facing enormous new challenges, and I trust Technion to know how to properly contend with them and to continuously pursue Tikkun Olam.”

During the ceremony, Technion’s new campaign to raise $1.8 billion by 2024 was announced. The funds will be used for improving research infrastructure and to recruit new faculty members in order to secure Technion’s standing as a global leader. The campaign was presented by Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie, VP for External Relations and Resource Development Prof. Boaz Golany, President of the American Technion Society Zahava Bar-Nir and Technion alumnus Zohar Zisapel. The ceremony concluded with a performance by David Broza.

Prof. Carla J. Shatz and Prof. Tobin J. Marks received the 2017 Harvey Prize at a festive ceremony at Technion honoring the two outstanding scientists

The prestigious Harvey Prize was conferred upon two highly distinguished scientists, Prof. Carla J. Shatz and Prof. Tobin J. Marks, at a ceremony at Technion on Sunday, June 10^th.

The Harvey Prize has been awarded by Technion each year since 1971 to outstanding individuals in the fields of science and technology. The prize, which was established by the late Leo M. Harvey of Los Angeles, is awarded to trailblazing scholars and scientists from around the world irrespective of nationality, race, religion or gender.

At this year’s ceremony, which took place during Technion’s annual Board of Governors meeting, Profs. Shatz and Marks received the prize from Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie.  Prof. Lavie described the two laureates as “being blessed with creativity” and told the audience that this year’s winners conformed to the high standards set by previous Harvey Prize recipients in that they “have made breakthroughs in science and technology that truly contribute to the progress of humanity.”

Prof. Tobin Marks is a professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Applied Physics, Chemical and Biological Engineering at Northwestern University, Illinois, USA. He received the Harvey Prize “in recognition of his groundbreaking research in the areas of catalysis, organo-f-element chemistry, electronic and photonic materials, and coordination chemistry, which have strongly impacted contemporary science.” Prof. Marks has published 1,260 peer-reviewed articles and holds 265 U.S. patents.

Prof. Marks professed to being deeply honored by the Harvey Prize, especially given the fact that former winners were so illustrious. In fact, several of them later received a Nobel Prize. Addressing the audience, Prof. Marks said that he was especially thrilled to accept the Harvey Prize given the close connection between Israel and the world of Chemistry. He cited both Fritz Haber, the Nobel Prize winning chemist who died on his way to Mandatory Palestine in 1934, and Chaim Weizmann, the Zionist leader who was also a world-renowned chemist, and asserted that, “the success of this nation has close connections to Chemistry.”

Marks also reminisced about his first trip to Israel in 1986, when he spent a month as a young lecturer at Technion. “That visit was transformative. It’s amazing how the country has changed. At the time, the ‘Start-Up Nation’ mainly referred to trying to start up all the old cars people had. Since then, I have felt a strong bond between myself and Israel.”

The second honoree, Prof. Carla J. Shatz, is a professor of Biology and Neurobiology at Stanford University, California, USA. She has devoted her extensive research career to understanding the interplay between genes and environment that shapes brain circuits. Among other achievements, her studies of the visual system have influenced neuroscience research and human health. She was awarded the Harvey Prize “in recognition of her discoveries concerning the emergence and function of brain circuits for vision,” and the therapeutic implications of her findings on the treatment of memory loss.

Upon receiving the prize, Prof. Shatz stressed that she “wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for the support of so many people.” In particular, she thanked her parents, who taught her “to think independently,” and her ‘scientific parents,’ the Nobel Prize laureates at Harvard who invited her to join their lab at a time when there were few women in the field. “Thanks to them, I learned the joy, excitement and fun of Science,” she insisted. Prof. Shatz also reminisced about her late grandmother, who experienced a stroke 50 years ago and who is largely responsible for her interest in neuroscience.

“There were many amazing developments in the last century,” Prof. Shatz concluded, “and now we are facing the ultimate challenge – how do we synthesize everything we have deconstructed? New synergies must be created by all disciplines. There’s still so much to discover.”

 

Israel’s Technion Launches Unprecedented $1.8 Billion Campaign to Support University’s World-Changing Innovation

HAIFA, ISRAEL (June 10, 2018) — The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology has kicked off a global $1.8 billion, ten-year fundraising campaign—the largest and most ambitious initiative of its kind ever launched by an Israeli university. The campaign will raise support for world-changing, life-saving innovation, and better prepare for the challenges and opportunities the digital revolution brings with it, and which are expected to be at the focus of global attention well into the second half of the 21st century.

 

 

The unprecedented effort was officially launched at the June 2018 Technion Board of Governors meeting, and will conclude in 2024, the centennial of the first Technion class. The campaign will deliver funding that amplifies the Technion’s outsized impact in sectors including the environment, sustainability, alternative energy and water conservation; health and medicine; artificial intelligence, information, and communication; quantum science, matter, and engineering; and advancing Israel security, leadership, and diversity.

Through the campaign, the Haifa, Israel-based Technion—Israel’s first university—will fund crucial areas of need such as fellowships and other student support, faculty recruitment and retention, research infrastructure, and capital projects.

“This campaign is truly global in nature,” said Prof. Peretz Lavie, President of the Technion. “Not only does it involve our societies around the world—including the UK, Canada, Switzerland, Australia, France, Israel, and the U.S.—but it will result in global benefits, such as better quality in soil, water, and air, easy-to-use sources for clean and renewable energy, engineering aid to developing countries, advancing breakthroughs in fighting cancer, and much, much more.”

“We live in the era of social entrepreneurship, when top philanthropists seek to maximize the return on investment for every single gift,” said Jeffrey Richard, CEO of the American Technion Society, whose donors have provided more than $2.5 billion for the Technion since 1940. “It is important that potential donors understand just how far their money goes at the Technion.”

The Technion has earned international recognition for its research in a myriad of fields, including regenerative medicine, aerospace, computer science, quantum engineering, nanotechnology, biotechnology, the life sciences and more. The institution has signed memoranda of understanding with more than 200 universities and research frameworks abroad, and last year inaugurated the Guangdong Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Israel’s first university campus in China, and celebrated the move of the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute to its permanent home, the new Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island in New York.

Ambassador Ronald S. Lauder has accepted the Technion’s invitation to serve as an honorary chair of the Technion Global Campaign. In October, Ronald and Jo Carole Lauder will host a special event at their home in New York to launch the Technion campaign in the United States. The event will be attended by the President of the Technion, friends of the Technion in New York and personal friends of the Lauder family.

“I feel a profound sense of commitment and responsibility to the Technion, Israel’s first and best school of engineering, the professional breeding house for so many of us, and the institution that has addressed – and that will continue to address – so many of the world’s challenges,” said Zohar Zisapel, the Israeli Chair of the Technion Global Campaign. “I’m honored to be a part of the Technion’s Global Campaign Committee, and to help ensure the future of this unique institution to the benefit of millions around the globe.”

“The standard practice of campaign communications among leading US universities is to soft launch the campaign and then make it public once one third of the campaign goal is secured,” said Prof. Boaz Golany, Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development at Technion. “When we launched the quiet phase of the campaign in October 2014, we estimated it would take four years to cross that threshold. We were glad to discover we were wrong. Thanks to the vision and generosity of our friends worldwide, we are already at a point in which we’ve raised more than 40% of our total goal of $1.8 billion.”  

 

A New System for Delivering Anticancer Drugs to Pediatric Tumors

HAIFA, ISRAEL and NEW YORK (June 4, 2018) – In most of the Western World, cancer is the primary cause of death in children over the age of one. Existing treatments for adult cancer patients are not particularly effective for children. This is because chemotherapeutic drugs have different effects on children’s physiology, which is quite dissimilar from adult physiology. A child’s cancer cells differ in aspects that include genetic characteristics, growth patterns, and developmental pathways, and conventional chemotherapy can cause particularly severe damage to an ill child.

The transport of drugs using nanoparticles is a very promising technology expected to change the face of medicine. It is particularly relevant for transferring anti-cancer drugs into the tumor. But despite extensive research and developments, the implementation of such technology for children with cancer has not been widely studied to date. This is due in part to restrictions on child participation in clinical trials and variances in the physiology of children at different ages.

But a new system for the transport of anti-cancer drugs, developed at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology offers hope and a glimpse of things to come. The system – which slows tumor growth and prolongs life expectancy in mice by 42% – was developed by Prof. Alejandro Sosnik of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering together with graduate student Alex Bukchin and conducted in collaboration with the research group of Dr. Angel Carcaboso from the Hospital Sant Joan de Deu-Barcelona. The study was published in the Journal of Controlled Release.

The development led by Prof. Sosnik is based on the selective transport of the chemotherapeutic drug Dasatinib via nanoscale packaging. This packaging directs the drug mainly to the cancer cells, thereby greatly reducing the exposure of other organs to the drug, and significantly reducing toxicity.

Dasatinib is an approved drug sold throughout the world. It inhibits a tyrosine kinase, an enzyme that acts like a switch for activating and deactivating various cellular processes. One of these processes is cell growth and division, so a mutation in a tyrosine kinase can lead to uncontrolled cell division – that is, a cancerous tumor.

Currently administered in the form of tablets, Dasatinib inhibits the tyrosine kinase and stops cancer growth. However, the drug is released in an untargeted way in the patient’s body, which causes it to affect healthy cells as well.

The technology developed by Prof. Sosnik and his team is intended to prevent this phenomenon by transporting the drug to cancer cells alone, thus maximizing its efficiency without harming healthy tissues. The transporter is made up of polymer micelles, nanostructures created by the self-assembly of polymers in water and considered to be an excellent method for transporting drugs, in part due to their tiny size (10 to 300 nanometers). The major innovation in Prof. Sosnik’s research is the addition of sugar to the nanoplatform. The cancer cell identifies the sugar and intakes the delivery system, releasing the drug inside the cell and inhibiting the enzyme activity.

In the lab experiment carried out by Prof. Sosnik’s research group, the efficacy of the new delivery system reduced the dosage of the drug needed to kill sarcoma cells – a cancerous tumor of muscles and bones which accounts for about 10% of tumors in children – in vitro by about 90%.

The efficacy of the delivery system was also demonstrated in vivo using cancer models in mice developed by the Spanish group using tumor biopsies of pediatric patients. The delivery system significantly improved the accumulation of the drug into the tumor environment. Moreover, the use of this nanotechnology platform led to a dramatic prolongation (42%) of the median lifespan of mice from 19 days (in the control group) to 27 days.

In both the lab and animal experiments (unlike the conventional administration of this drug by swallowing) the injection of Dasatinib using the new delivery system leads to its accumulation mainly in the tumor. This means that the efficacy of the drug increases while healthy tissues are not affected, thus avoiding the various side effects of many chemotherapies.

The article in the Journal of Controlled Release summarizes a three-year study that led to the first success in delivering Dasatinib with the help of these nanoparticles, and the first demonstration of the particles accumulating in the tumor in the patient’s tissue, in a model of pediatric cancer in experimental animals. The research was supported by Technion as well as grants from the European Commission (#612765-MC-NANOTAR and #PIRG-08-GA-2010-276998).

Prof. Sosnik, who leads the joint curriculum of the Technion Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Faculty of Biology, focuses on developing special treatments for children with cancer.

“The target audience is very physiologically fragmented and therefore less economically viable for pharmaceutical companies, he said. “The differences between children of different ages are great, and drug companies do not want to invest in research and development for such narrow age ranges. A child’s physiology is very different from that of an adult, so the tumor develops differently. The effects of drugs on the tumor are also not the same. In addition, clinical trials are rarely conducted on children for obvious reasons. I hope that the delivery system we have developed will improve the situation and serve to deliver a broad spectrum of anti-cancer drugs.”

Prof. Sosnik is part of the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute (RBNI) and recently joined the Technion Integrative Cancer Center (TICC) as affiliated engineering faculty member.

 

Technion celebrates 70 years of Israeli innovation with this commemorative 2018 edition of the President’s Report.

Please Welcome Technion’s 216 Newest Doctors

On Monday, May 28, the Technion held its annual doctoral degree ceremony, commenced by Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie and Prof. Dan Givoli, Dean of the Graduate School. Prof. Aviad Shapira of the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, who was master of ceremonies, had also been the advisor to the oldest doctor at the ceremony: Albert Ben-David, 74, who had also completed both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Technion.

“The research and academic achievements of faculty members and students place the Technion at the center of the Start-Up Nation; the Technion’s vision has always been consistent with the development of the State of Israel. Technion’s PhD graduates hold key positions in all industries in the State of Israel, and have a central role in transforming the State of Israel into a global technological powerhouse,” said President Prof. Lavie.

“You are a very important resource for maintaining the high standard of research that the Technion is known for all over the world and is proud of,” said Prof. Givoli. “You and your advisors are the Technion’s research foundation.”

Doctoral degrees were awarded to 216 graduates, 43 percent of whom were women. Most graduates are native-born Israelis, with other originating from Italy, Georgia, South Africa, South Korea, Lithuania, China, and countries of the former Soviet Union. The largest age bracket was 30-40, while the youngest graduate was 25 years old.

“The Technion was a second home and a friendly environment when I needed them most,” Dr. Cohen said. “What characterizes this wonderful institution is that while it consistently crosses boundaries, it is careful to preserve its warmth and humanity – and that is exactly how it represents Israeli society,” said Dr. Dvora Cohen on behalf of the graduates., Dr. Cohen completed her doctorate at the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering under the guidance of Prof. Yonina Eldar. She immigrated from France alone at age 18, and began studies at Technion within a few months.

The doctoral dissertations presented by the graduates reflect the variety of fields studied at the Technion. Examples of research conducted by the new doctors include: motor markers of ADHD; the relationship between speed of travel, road characteristics, and motor vehicle accidents; harvesting fruit using a robot; cloud network sharing; optical accelerators; transporting drugs through the body using nanoparticles; the interaction between intestinal bacteria and the immune system; evolution of bacteria in real-time; damage caused by smoking; converting solar energy using spinach leaves; and inspecting movement in animals.

Technion Family

Anat and Kfir Lev-Ari, 34, received PhD degrees for their research at the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering. They were friends in junior high school in Kfar-Saba, but became a couple at the Technion. As Anat and Kfir sat on the stage, their sons, Adam and twins Eitan and Liam, watched them – all three were born during their parents’ doctoral studies.

Anat and Kfir earned all their academic degrees at the Technion. Anat completed her bachelor’s and master’s degree in mathematics on the topics of statistics and performance research, and her doctorate, on the control and optimization of queuing systems, was supervised by Prof. Rami Atar. Kfir completed his bachelor’s degree in computer science (software engineering) and then worked at Zoran, a high-tech company, and at Wanova, a start-up. He then enrolled for a master’s degree and continued to a direct PhD track under the guidance of Prof. Idit Keidar, on the assembly of distributed systems.

“The bachelor’s degree was challenging in terms of learning and exams,” he says, “but the doctorate was difficult in a different way: having to think outside the box, be creative, and present something new. During a doctorate, no one is constantly watching you and pointing out where you went wrong; you’re the one who must prove that you are progressing correctly. Fortunately, I had an excellent advisor who helped me see things in the correct proportions and gave me the freedom to do things my way.”

Over the course of his doctorate, Kfir had summer internships at Yahoo, Google Israel, and Google in the United States. “It was an excellent opportunity for progress. It’s true that you can work as an undergraduate student, but when you come as a doctoral student, you take part in very serious projects and learn a lot.”

In September 2017, Kfir began working for Apple as part of an iCloud research and development team at Apple’s headquarters (Apple Park) in Cupertino, California, where he works on servers and cloud technologies. “Academia is a fascinating place, but in industry, and especially at giant companies like Apple and Google, there are humungous systems with challenges that are very interesting to deal with on both theoretical and practical levels. That is why I decided to go into industry rather than a post-doctoral position.”

 

New technology developed at Technion is expected to significantly increase agricultural yields. This will be achieved using a nanometric transport platform, which until now was applied for medical purposes.

Technion researchers have developed a technology for delivering nutrients to plants which increases the penetration rate of nutrients into plants from 1 to approximately 33 percent. The technology exploits nanoscale delivery platforms which until now were used to transport drugs to specific targets in the patient’s body. The work was published in Scientific Reports and will be presented in Nature Press.

The use of the nanotechnology for targeted drug delivery has been the focus of research activity conducted at the Laboratory for Targeted Drug Delivery and Personalized Medicine Technologies at the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering. The present research repurposes this technology for agricultural use; and is being pursued by laboratory director Prof. Avi Schroeder and graduate student Avishai Karny.

“The constant growth in the world population demands more efficient agricultural technologies, which will produce greater supplies of healthier foods and reduce environmental damage,” said Prof. Schroeder. “The present work provides a new means of delivering essential nutrients without harming the environment.”

The researchers loaded the nutrients into liposomes which are small spheres generated in the laboratory, comprised of a fatty outer layer enveloping the required nutrients. The particles are stable in the plant’s aqueous environment and can penetrate the cells. In addition, the Technion researchers can ‘program’ them to disintegrate and release the load at precisely the location and time of interest, namely, in the roots and leaves. Disintegration occurs in acidic environments or in response to an external signal, such as light waves or heat. The molecules comprising the particles are derived from soy plants and are therefore approved and safe for consumption by both humans and animals.

In the present experiment, the researchers used 100-nanometer liposomes to deliver the nutrients iron and magnesium into both young and adult tomato crops. They demonstrated that the liposomes, which were sprayed in the form of a solution onto the leaves, penetrated the leaves and reached other leaves and roots. Only when reaching the root cells did they disintegrate and release the nutrients. As said, the technology greatly increased the nutrient penetration rate.

In addition to demonstrating the effectivity of this approach as compared to the standard spray method, the researchers also assessed the regulatory limitations associated with the spread of volatile particles.

”Our engineered liposomes are only stable within a short spraying range of up to 2 meters,” explained Prof. Schroeder. “If they travel in the air beyond that distance, they break down into safe materials (phospholipids). We hope that the success of this study will expand the research and development of similar agricultural products, to increase the yield and quality of food crops.”

Israeli and American Researchers Have Successfully Curbed Mesothelioma in Model Animals

HAIFA, ISRAEL and NEW YORK (May 24, 2018) – An international team led by researchers from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and NYU Langone have succeeded in stopping the growth of mesothelioma in model animals by inhibiting the heparanase enzyme.

Mesothelioma is a cancer that develops in the mesothelium – a thin membrane that protects the internal organs of the chest and abdomen. In most cases, the disease is caused by exposure to asbestos. This malignancy is resistant to most anticancer drugs and currently has no effective treatment, so there is a high level of interest in and importance to the joint study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI).

The study was conducted under the guidance of Technion’s Prof. Israel Vlodavsky and his colleague, Prof. Harvey Pass of New York University. The research at Technion was led by Drs. Uri Barash, Moshe Lapidot, and Neta Ilan. Analyzing mesothelioma samples collected by Prof. Pass over the years, the NYU researchers validated the clinical significance of heparanase in the pathogenesis of mesothelioma.

The joint research group (Technion-NYU Langone) found that mesothelioma cancer cells use the heparanase enzyme to break tissue barriers surrounding the developing tumor and attract blood vessels to nourish it. Moreover, the dissolution of the extracellular matrix causes the release of growth-promoting proteins and thus accelerates the development of the tumor. The heparanase secreted by cancer cells and the microenvironment of the tumor triggers a vicious circle in which inflammation and growth strengthen each other.

The researchers succeeded in disrupting this vicious cycle, combating mesothelioma by means of heparanase inhibitors. The study showed, first, that heparanase accelerates the progression of the disease in mesothelioma patients: the greater the amount of heparanase in the patient, the shorter their life expectancy. It also showed, in mouse model experiments, that inhibiting heparanase gene expression inhibits tumor growth. The heparanase inhibitors (PG545 and defibrotide) significantly inhibited tumor growth and greatly extended the survival ability of treated mice. The use of heparanase inhibitors was more effective than conventional chemotherapy such as Cisplatin, currently used to treat this malignancy.

The findings provide some hope for mesothelioma patients around the world, and the researchers will soon be conducting a clinical trial to examine the therapeutic potential of heparanase inhibitors in this deadly disease.

The research was supported by the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Foundation. Prof. Vlodavsky is a member of the Technion Integrated Cancer Center (TICC) at the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, and is the world’s leading expert in the study of the heparanase enzyme. His research endeavor led to the appreciation of this enzyme as a target for cancer therapy, a notion that is supported convincingly in the current mesothelioma study.

Prof. Pass is Director of the Thoracic Surgery Division at the Langone Medical Center in NYU and a member of the Perlmutter Cancer Center. Prof. Pass is a leading physician and investigator of mesothelioma and has been collecting tissue samples from his patients since becoming Head of Thoracic Oncology at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Today, this database contains hundreds of frozen mesothelioma samples, which were used to identify the role of heparanase in mesothelioma.

Click here for the paper in Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI)

Last thursday saw the opening of BizTEC 2018: Israel’s leading technological entrepreneurship program of the Technion.

Technion President, Prof. Peretz Lavie; Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development Prof. Boaz Golani; and Founder of the Ormat group Yehuda Bronicki spoke at the opening ceremony. Together with his wife, Yehuda Bronicki is a key visionary and supporter behind the establishment of the Bronica Entrepreneurship Center at Technion. Bronicki is also a recipient of the 2018 Israel Prize for Industry.

This year, 26 groups were selected out of 120. The program includes prizes of approximately NIS 300,000 and special grants for projects that include the development of hardware. The evening included a panel moderated by Dov Moran, the inventor of the USB drive, in which BizTEC alumni described the value of the process.

Wearable Devices for Early Disease Monitoring and Diagnosis

HAIFA, ISRAEL and NEW YORK (May 17, 2018) – Researchers from the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have developed an integrated system for early diagnosis of diseases using wearable monitors. Able to continuously monitor physiological indicators without disturbing the user, the system can repair itself in the event of a tear or scratch, and receives the energy required for operation from the wearer.

This could help spare patients much pain and suffering, greatly reduce medical expenses, and provide extensive and detailed information for epidemiological studies. The system was presented in a review paper published in Advanced Materials by Technion Professor Hossam Haick and postdoctoral researcher Dr. Weiwei Wu (who is now a professor at Xidian University in China).

Wearable devices for medical monitoring are gaining momentum, because they provide a convenient and inexpensive platform for the continuous collection of medical information without the need for invasive procedures. Such devices enable early disease

monitoring, before outbreaks, and earlier and more efficient treatment. They can be attached to shirts, jewelry, sweatshirts, watches, shoes, and glasses, and allow the user to go about his or her day without interruption. As a result, such devices are expected to encourage people to be proactive about their health and to reduce avoidance of medical examinations.

“Normal health is characterized by known markers such as 60 to 100 heart beats per minute and 7 to 8 breaths per minute,” said Prof. Haick. “If we detect dramatic changes in the various markers in real time, we can refer the patient to a more comprehensive diagnosis and prevent disease from developing or worsening.”

The system developed at the Technion contains sensors and tools that process the data and transmit it to the authorized medical authority. It combines a series of innovative elements that provide unprecedented monitoring capability:

• A combination of precise sensing and advanced analysis tools
• The energy it requires for operation is derived from the wearer’s body (movements and body heat)
• The device is made of advanced self-healing materials in case of a scratch or cut

The energy derivation and self-repair give the new device a long lifespan, and prevent the need to turn off the system for repair or charging. “This system will not just continuously monitor physiological markers in the wearer. It also aid the long-term collection of extensive information that may be used for epidemiological studies,” said Prof. Haick.

Although the system’s components already exist, a platform that integrates them all has not yet been developed. It requires a complex array of sensors, a tiny and flexible circuit board for measuring the markers, and components that process the information and transfer it to the cloud. All of these are being implemented in the new system being developed by Prof. Haick’s research group.

About the researchers

Prof. Hossam Haick is a faculty member at the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering at Technion and a member of the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute (RBNI). He has been recognized primarily due to developing an innovative, non-invasive system for medical diagnosis based on breath. Prof. Haick heads the SNIFFPHONE consortium, which integrates this system into a cellphone so that the data will be uploaded to the cloud for analysis by qualified medical personnel. In 2016, Prof. Haick published an international study in the scientific journal ACS Nano, which examined the unique diagnostic technology he had developed. The study involved 1,404 patients from 5 countries and confirmed the value of the technology for the early diagnosis of 17 different diseases: lung cancer, bowel cancer, head and neck cancer, ovarian cancer, bladder cancer, prostate cancer, kidney cancer, gastric cancer, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, Parkinson’s (two types), multiple sclerosis, pulmonary hypertension, preeclampsia, and chronic kidney disease. The system diagnoses these diseases with an accuracy of 86% on average.

Dr. Weiwei Wu completed his undergraduate degree in chemistry and a doctorate in physics and materials chemistry at Lanzhou University in China. The present study was conducted while he was a post-doctoral researcher under the direction of Prof. Haick. He is currently a professor at the School of Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology at Xidian University in China.

Click here to the paper in Advanced Materials

 

Umbrella for Future Energy

The 32nd Umbrella Symposium on Energy Conversion and Storage was held at the Technion with the participation of researchers from Jülich Research Centre and from RWTH Aachen University in Germany

In April, the Technion held the 32nd Umbrella Symposium, dedicated to energy research with an emphasis on energy conversion and storage. These conferences are held in collaboration with two German institutions; the Jülich Research Centre and RWTH Aachen University, with the purpose of promoting collaborative research between the three institutions. The latest conference in the series was led by the Grand Technion Energy Program (GTEP) at the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering.

“The Umbrella program is an example of a ‘whole that is larger than the sum of its parts,” said Executive Vice President for Research Prof. Wayne Kaplan. Prof. Sebastian Schmidt, a member of the Jülich Research Centre’s Board of Directors said, “The term umbrella means that the three institutions operate out of a common spirit and common topics. In the last two years, following changes in the conferences’ format, there has been a significant increase in registration. It’s a great success.”

“The Grand Technion Energy Program was established 10 years ago and recently underwent a strategic process to examine possible directions for development for the next ten years,” said Director of GTEP Prof. Yoed Tsur. “This year, as part of the important relationship with the Jülich Research Centre and Aachen University, we awarded a special prize to young researchers from each of the three institutions.”

The winners are Prof. Matthew Suss from the Technion for the development of devices that combine energy storage and continuous water desalination; Prof. Stefanie Elgeti of Aachen University for modeling wind turbine blades; and Mr. Yasin Emre Durmus of the Jülich Research Centre for the development of silicon-air batteries.

The Director of the Institute for Energy and Climate Research at the Jülich Research Centre, Prof. Lorenz Singheiser, concluded the conference with the statement: “This was a rare opportunity to take a break from ongoing work for discussions, conversations, and an overview of the most advanced research in the field. The German representatives all agree that the conference is a great success.”

Agile Focus Strategy for Startups: Oxymoron or Key Success Factor?

A PhD study done at the Technion’s Industrial Engineering and Management Faculty turns into a practical new book for entrepreneurs and innovators, offering a simple framework for setting a promising strategy based on the successes and mistakes of hundreds of startups.

One of the most common pieces of advice for entrepreneurs is to adopt a ‘laser-sharp’ focus approach, wherein they pursue a single narrow market opportunity in order to make the most out of their scarce resources. And because innovation is often fraught with uncertainty, they must also stay flexible and agile so that they can adapt quickly.

Without a doubt, both focus and flexibility are crucial elements for successful startups. But the two are often contradicting. In fact, a narrow sharp focus may lock the company into one specific direction, and actually hinder its agility. So how, if at all, can entrepreneurs manage this delicate balance?

Dr. Sharon Tal – a marketing lecturer and the former manager of the Technion Entrepreneurship Center – saw startups dealing with this dilemma over and over again when mentoring budding entrepreneurs at the center. Intrigued by this question, her PhD study examined the early strategic choices of startups. In an in-depth research, she interviewed technology entrepreneurs to understand how they choose their market focus and how they manage the trade-off between focus and flexibility.

Her study found that 72% of the companies changed their market focus within the first three years, which illustrates the importance of startups not sacrificing their agility for the sake of sharper focus. In fact, firms that were able to manage both turned out to be the most successful startups in her sample. These companies consciously strived to avoid locking in by keeping a few related market opportunities open. Acknowledging these future options helped them develop their resources and capabilities in a more general manner. It also made their firm more robust to change, without compromising the pursuit of their most promising opportunity. Sharon and her research colleague Prof. Marc Gruber (EPFL, Switzerland) termed this the Agile Focus Strategy.

The researchers say that companies of any size and stage  – from small startups to large enterprises – can embrace this strategic reasoning and adopt an Agile Focus Strategy. They also say it can be accomplished in three clear steps:

1. Identify additional market opportunities that could be suitable as your backup or growth options. A backup option is one you will want to pursue if you are not successful with your current opportunity. A growth option is a market opportunity you will want to pursue once you are successful with your current opportunity.
2. Evaluate the relatedness of these possible options to the market opportunity you are focusing on. Relatedness means that the ability to develop and deliver the product – for both markets – requires relatively similar resources and capabilities. The more related an option is, the more you can leverage your existing competencies to succeed in it. And this is exactly what we want.
3. Pick at least one backup and one growth option to keep open. Keeping an option open means that you invest very few resources and management attention only to monitor it and to make sure not to lock yourself out of this path. So, when you develop your venture’s unique abilities, resources and networks, you keep these options in mind. This is exactly what will keep you flexible and nimble over time.

To help entrepreneurs and innovators design their market opportunity strategy, Sharon and Marc recently launched a new book – Where to Play (Pearson Financial Times). In it, they present a visual, easy-to-apply framework for identifying, evaluating and strategizing market opportunities, in order to get the most value for your innovation. This proven method is based on the successes and mistakes of hundreds of startups. It nicely complements other well-known business tools, including the Business Model Canvas and the Lean Startup Methodology.

In fact, in a recent course done at the MBA program of the Technion, students applied this framework on Technion related inventions with great success. One of the key take aways from this course was that startups can make informed strategic choices that keep them both focused and agile. Without being open to alternative paths while concentrating limited available resources, and without the ability to efficiently handle change or adaptation, they may simply lose the race.