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The exhibition “Technion Wisdom” at the main gallery of the central library at Technion merges art, science, technology and education, and opens a window to the enormous range of Technion activities, research projects and breakthroughs. The inspiration behind this exhibition is a passion to show that every subject, especially science, can be presented artistically and aesthetically, and can kindle curiosity in the observer.

The exhibition is designed so that viewers will first try to decipher the works on their own, and then curiosity will lead them to read the texts to find out more about the subject and people portrayed.

Anat Har-Gil, who designed the exhibition, is a multidisciplinary artist who has worked in the Division of Computing and Information Systems at Technion since 1992. Anat studied art, computer programming and curation and has designed and curated several exhibitions at Technion, including “Labscapes”, “Engineers Without Borders (EWB)  – Technion Chapter” and “Technion Then and Now“.

Download photos : https://www.technion.ac.il/en/technion-wisdom-for-download/

 

 

 

Technion Presents: “Science at the Bar” To Mark International Women’s Day

Eight Haifa bars will host leading Technion researchers on Tuesday, March 20, 2018 at 20:00

Flexible aircrafts, artificial intelligence, human-machine interfaces, computer vision, urban planning as an instrument for social change, communication between bacteria, innovative diagnostic methods, and a new look at chemistry studies: eight female researchers from Technion will hold scientific lectures on various topics at eight bars in Haifa, marking International Women’s Day. The lectures, all of which will begin at 20:00, will introduce their audiences to some of the research conducted by female researchers from various faculties at Technion.

Syncopa – Prof. Daniella Raveh of the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering: “Flexible Planes.” Prof. Raveh studies aeroelasticity in aircrafts using advanced computational tools, and other topics related to aircraft design. In her lecture, she will talk about unmanned aircrafts cruising at the edge of the atmosphere; designing lighter, more flexible, and efficient planes; and engineering methods for coping with the challenges posed by elasticity.

Eli’s – Dr. Ofra Amir of the Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management: “People from Mars and Computers from Venus.” Dr. Amir focuses on the connection between artificial intelligence and human-computer interfaces and develops smart systems that support people, in fields including education and health. In her lecture, she will talk about misunderstandings between computers and people, the gap between the tremendous progress in artificial intelligence and Big Data and the fact that computers still do not understand basic human needs, and the possibility of developing computers that will understand us better.

Moonshiner’s – Dr. Meirav Aharon of the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning: “Urban Planning as an (Effective) Instrument for Social Change.” Dr. Aharon explores the connection between society and planning, and one of her recent studies dealt with the influence of the IDF’s “City of Training Bases” on the town of Yeruham and the surrounding area. In her lecture, she will discuss civil disobedience, expressed in economic journalist, on the subject of urban planning. She will present the background of that disobedience, the change she seeks to bring about, and what happens when burning social issues meet urban planning.

Nola Socks – Dr. Naama Geva-Zatorsky of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine: “Communication between Intestinal Bacteria and the Human Body.” Dr. Geva-Zatorsky will discuss the microbiome – the intestinal bacteria in a living organism – and talk about an innovative technology she developed, which enables real-time monitoring of the microbiome in order to better understand communication between these bacteria and the physiology of the host organism.

Brown – Dr. Shirly Avargil of the Faculty of Education in Science and Technology: “Thinking Chemistry and About Chemistry.” Dr. Avargil will talk about thinking and learning, meaningful learning in the sciences in general and chemistry in particular, and why we forget what we learned last year and even what we learned for the most recent exam.

Libira – Prof. Miriam Zacksenhouse of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering: “Machine-Brain Interfaces: The Brain behind the Interface.” Prof. Zacksenhouse deals with brain-computer interfaces that enable a direct communication channel between the brain and the external world, so that a cursor can be moved on the computer screen and a robot or prosthesis can be moved without engaging the body. Non-invasive commercial systems already enable communication for the disabled, interfaces for computer games, and remote control. What principles are they based on? Do they read thoughts?

Ha-Be’er – Prof. Esti Segal of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering: “Bacteria, Microchips, and Everything In Between.” Prof. Segal is involved in several fields of research, including innovative cancer treatments, rapid and inexpensive methods for medical diagnosis, and the development of technologies that extend the shelf life of food products. In her lecture, she will talk about technologies she is developing for quick diagnosis of bacterial resistance to antibiotics, in light of the World Health Organization’s forecast that antibiotic resistance will claim about 10 million victims a year by 2050. The technologies developed by Prof. Segal are based on the growth of microbes on tiny silicon chips, which enable optimal adaptation of an antibiotic to a patient.

After Dark – Prof. Lihi Zelnik-Manor of the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering: “How Do You Create Virtual Worlds that Feel Real?” The integration of virtual reality into our lives is around the corner, and Prof. Zelnik-Manor will discuss some of the technologies used to create virtual reality that feels real.

The event is sponsored by Prof. Ayellet Tal, Advisor to the Technion President on the Advancement of Women in Science and Engineering.

Reservations are recommended.

Click here for a list of lectures

 

Dr. Naama Geva-Zatorsky of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine is investigating intestinal bacteria and its effect on our bodies

Bacteria in the body plays a critical role in health. Called the microbiota, this ecological community affects us from birth. For example, the microbiota of babies born naturally through the birth canal differs from the microbiota of babies born via C-section.

The microbiota has many different and surprising functions in the animal world. Elephants, for example, eat their feces as it provides a wealth of bacteria not found elsewhere. Squids camouflage themselves using bacteria that produce light, thus concealing their shadow from predators. The microbiome also has a profound effect on us humans, as it’s involved both in maintaining our health as well as in a variety of diseases including diabetes, cancer, and obesity. They even affect our mood.

The microbiota’s effect on the immune system is the focus of Dr. Naama Geva-Zatorsky’s research.

Dr. Geva-Zatorsky, 39, is a new faculty member at the Technion’s Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and the Technion Integrated Cancer Center (TICC). She was born in Moshav Ometz in the Hefer Valley and grew up in “many places around the world.” As a child, even before she knew the meaning of the word biology, she liked to collect leaves and observe snails and other animals in nature. When she began studying biology she discovered that bacteria communicate with each other and the environment. This then became the focus of her scientific research.

“We all know that there are a lot of cells in our bodies, human and non-human in origin,” says Dr. Geva-Zatorsky, “but it is important to understand that the bacteria co-existing within us are very important to our health, and therefore we must learn to live with them in peace. The intestinal bacteria, which are the most abundant and diverse population of bacteria in our body, have a complex relationship with our bodies – a relationship that evolved over eons of co-evolution.”

Her academic career began with a B.Sc at Tel Aviv University and an M.Sc and Ph.D at the Weizmann Institute of Science. In her graduate degrees she studied cancer cell responses to chemotherapeutic drugs and the development of effective anti-cancer drug combinations. Later she entered her current field of study – the effects the microbiome in the digestive tract have on the host’s immune system. During her career path, she received several awards including the international 2012 L’Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science. Prior to joining the Technion, she worked at the Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology at Harvard Medical School. She recently received the Alon Scholarship – a prestigious scholarship designed to facilitate the incorporation of young researchers into Israeli universities. In addition, she was selected as a Horev Fellow in Technion’s Leaders in Science and Technology Program.

In her research, published in Cell, Science, and other leading journals, Dr. Geva-Zatorsky showed that the relationship between the microbiome and the immune system dramatically affects the functions of this system. While in the United States she developed, in her words, “a new method that allows tracking of the microbiota in real-time. This method allows us to ‘live broadcast’ the bacteria communicating amongst themselves and with our bodies.”

With this method, Dr. Geva-Zatorsky studies the communications between the gut bacteria and the cells of our immune system. In mouse model experiments, she demonstrated the importance of over 60 different human intestinal bacteria in the development of the host’s immune system. “When we add the appropriate bacteria to an organism its immune system develops and becomes stronger. This, of course, is reminiscent of the development of an infant’s immune system in response to the presence of bacteria. Our technology allows us to identify the role of each type of bacteria in this process, and the idea is that in the future we will use bacteria to create unique drugs for various types of disruptions in the immune system and for various diseases.”

Pictured: The mouse’s intestinal cells are shown in blue, and the intestinal bacteria are marked with different colors in order to learn about their location in the intestine and their interactions.

A lecture by Dr. Geva-Zatorsky on microbiology

In conjunction with International Women’s Day: 600 High School Students join Tech Women 2018

The event encourages outstanding female students to pursue academic studies in science and engineering.

Doctoral student Adi Hanuka of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering said at the conference: “In order to change the discourse and to encourage female students, I formulate the tests I write using female pronouns.”

From Kibbutz Na’an to Ramat Gan, from Ashdod to Nazareth Illit: Some 600 outstanding female high school students took part in Tech Women 2018 on March 7th, 2018. In it’s third consecutive year, the Technion-sponsored event encourages excellent female students to pursue academic studies in science and engineering. The event was held in conjunction with International Women’s Day, courtesy of the Rosalyn August Girls Empowerment Mission (GEM).

All the students attending the conference are studying for matriculation in five math units as well as science and technology. The students met with female researchers, faculty members, Technion alumnae, and graduate students. On tour of Technion laboratories, they were introduced to an array of inspiring topics of study and research.

In the Technion’s original class of 1924, the percentage of women was 0.06%: one of the 17 students was female. Over the years – and especially in the past decade – the number of female students at Technion has grown tremendously, reaching an all-time high this year at 40 percent. The rate of female doctoral students is even higher, at 42 percent.

The high school students heard scientific lectures and visited laboratories at eight engineering and scientific faculties at Technion: Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry, and Industrial Engineering and Management (Data Science & Engineering track).

The day was opened by three Technion doctoral students, who shared their stories. “As a child I was curious – I was never satisfied with answers and always asked for detailed explanations. Thankfully, I felt that my curiosity was welcome at home and at school, but when I decided to be a physicist there were people who told me it was a profession for males,” said Efrat Sabach, a doctoral student in the Faculty of Physics. “Obviously this isn’t true, and I’m glad that I didn’t listen to them. After my Bachelor’s degree at Technion I continued to my Master’s and PhD studies, and today I am studying the process of the formation of stars such as our Sun, under the guidance of Prof. Noam Soker. At Technion I received tools and knowledge that will accompany me for the rest of my life. Believe me when I say that even if you are not sure what you want to be when you grow up, Technion is the right place to start.”

“When you think of electrical engineers someone like me probably doesn’t come to mind, but here I am – a woman  and a doctoral student at the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering,” said Adi Hanuka. She told the students about two projects she has conducted in recent years: a tiny particle accelerator that can be used for x-ray and projection devices, and a system for monitoring diseases based on eyelid movements. “During my doctoral studies I spent time at Stanford University in the United States,” Hanuka said. “The people in my research group were surprised to find out that I’m a woman and not a man, and one of them added that girls are supposed to study economics and psychology, not electrical engineering. That’s why I believe it’s not only necessary to educate girls and tell them that they can make their dreams come true, but also to make the boys around us understand that we are not inferior to them in skills and abilities. I tutor students at the Faculty, and when I write tests I always word the questions using feminine pronouns, in order to encourage the students taking the exam – because why always write in the masculine?”

Nitzan Krinsky, a doctoral candidate at the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering at Technion, develops artificial cells that produce anti-cancer drugs within the cancerous tumor. She spoke about her studies in the academic reserve, her military service as a researcher at the Institute of Marine Medicine, about managing projects in the IDF food department, and the decision to leave the army for the sake of academic research at Technion. “At each of these stages I had to show initiative and make appeals in order to move on to the next stage. That’s why it’s important for me to tell you that in order to succeed in fulfilling your dreams you have to do what suits you: take initiative, overcome the challenges, and mostly – don’t be shy.”

 

The Technion congratulates Yehuda and Yehudit (Dita) Bronicki, founders of Ormat Technologies, visionaries, activists, and leaders of Israeli industry, on being named recipients of the Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Industry. The Technion is proud of the Bronicki’s immense contribution to Israeli industry and society.

The Bronickis are longstanding supporters of Technion’s vision of education and entrepreneurship for the next generation of Israel’s technological innovators. In 2006, the couple donated the Bronica Entrepreneurship Center in the Technion’s Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management in order to enrich the Technion’s culture of entrepreneurship while supporting local industry. The center provides assistance to startup companies founded by Technion students and alumni. A unique combination of knowledge-based academic education, practical experience, and ties with industry leaders provides Technion students with the tools to develop their ideas, start their own companies, and promote innovative ideas within large, established corporations. The BizTEC program, operated by the Entrepreneurship Center, has backed more than 130 startups, which raised more than $300 million in investor funding. More recently, Yehuda and Dita Bronicki provided additional scholarships for students developing hardware-based ventures.

Yehuda Bronicki is a member of the Technion Board of Governors and both he and Dita have dedicated countless hours to helping students who are starting out as entrepreneurs.

In 2007, Yehuda and Dita Bronicki received honorary doctorates from the Technion for their contributions to “the development of the high-tech tech industry in Israel and the advancement of innovative technologies for energy production from using renewable resources — from solar power to agricultural waste.”

Yehuda Bronicki grew up in Drohobych, a city not far from Lviv in present-day Ukraine. He met Dita, a native of the Borochov neighborhood in Givatayim, in the early 1960s at the traditional Jerusalem March. Together they founded Ormat Technologies in 1965, which developed electricity generation turbines and other energy innovations. According to Yehuda, “at the time, everyone was talking about the fact that Israel had no oil and needed energy, so my wife Dita and I sold our apartment in Jerusalem and started Ormat.” The couple played a major role in nurturing the generations of technology entrepreneurs that helped Israel become the Startup Nation. They built Ormat into a global company that now employs 1,200 people and is valued at over $.5 billion.

 

Heba Abbud of Shefar’am began her studies at the Technion at the age of 16 because high school bored her.

In the middle of 9^th grade, Heba Abbud approached her math teacher to inform him that she had finished learning all of the material for the five-unit matriculation exam. After confirming that this was indeed the case, her teacher obtained special approval from the Ministry of Education for Heba to take the 5-unit math and physics matriculation exams at the end of 9^th grade. In 10^th grade, she completed the remaining matriculation exams in an external studies program, scored a 738 on her psychometric exam, and began studying at the Technion – not in a Youth Science program, but as a regular student in the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering.

The Technion made no concessions in the acceptance process, but allowing her to begin her academic studies at such a young age (16) required special approvals, which Heba obtained with the personal help of Israel’s Minister of Education Naftali Bennett and Abdallah Hatib, Director of the Arab Sector Education. In a personal conversation, Mr. Bennett went so far as to call Heba “The next Einstein of Israel.”

Heba Abbud was born in Shefar’am in 2000 and studied at the El Oskofia Catholic school. When she was an eight grader, Heba was identified for outstanding capabilities by school Principal Farouk Farhud. In parallel to her junior high school and high school studies, she participated in Youth Science activities at the Technion and in the “Computational Science” Physics program at the Davidson Institute.

Even though her studies at the Technion aren’t overly difficult for her, after 7 consecutive years, she stopped learning ballet, because, she says, “the bottom line is that you have to put in many hours here.”

Last year, she was already awarded an “Excellence Award” by the president of the Technion, and this year, was accepted to the Excellence program at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. The EMET Excellence Program (electronics, computers and communications) was designed to motivate excelling students to realize their capacities, to perform research during their undergraduate degree, and to nurture qualifications that will later service them in the academia and industry. Each student is accompanied by a personal advisor from the research staff and can, to a certain degree, tailor his/her own curriculum. In the framework of this program, Heba Abbud participates in the ongoing research in the laboratory of Associate Professor Shahar Kvatinsky. As far as she is concerned, the future is also in academia.

Prof. Hossam Haick delivers Technion UK’s Ron Arad lecture on Cancer Sniffing Nose

LONDON, 6 March 2018 – Technion UK is proud to host the Ron Arad lecture in London. Presenting at the Royal College of Physicians, Professor Hossam Haick from the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute at the Technion in Israel and an expert in the field of nanotechnology and non-invasive disease diagnosis, delivered a lecture on the developments into his pioneering research into nanoarrays that he is using to identify disease biomarkers as a novel diagnostic tool.

Every disease has a unique signature, known as what we call a ‘breath print’.

Prof. Haick is an Israeli-Christian Arab scientist and engineer and is the pioneer of the Electronic Nose – a medical device that can sniff out 17 specific diseases in a person’s breath, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Tuberculous, Diabetes and Lung Cancer. As an active innovative scientist, he has attracted the attentions of the world’s billionaires such as Bill Gates and he has been in collaboration with Bill and Melinda Gates foundation in the diagnostics of diseases.

At the lecture, Prof. Haick said, “Every disease has a unique signature, known as what we call a ‘breath print’. The challenge is to bring the best science we have proven into reality by developing a smaller device that captures all the components of a disease that appear in the breath.’

Prof. Haick continued to demonstrate how current advances in his research has the potential to identify diseases though sensors in mobile phones and wearable technology. From analysing 3700 volunteers, the technology under development at The Technion also has the potential to predict the occurrence of cancer in the future, based on results of healthy people that are currently under the diagnosis with the breath analysis.

He continued, “We cannot develop this technology in Israel without developing the best science. The integration between the software, machine learning and academic intelligence will make a critical change in the early detection and prevention of cancerous diseases.”

Daniel Peltz OBE, Chairman of Technion UK said, “We’re delighted to welcome Prof. Haick to London to showcase this latest progressive innovation in cancer research from The Technion.’

“Technion students undertake scientific research which is powering Israel’s rapid high-tech growth; our students are brilliant at challenging, creating and inventing – skills which the Prof. Haick exemplifies. The marvellous technology and advancement in non-invasive disease detection, discoveries in nanotechnology to help detect disease from someone’s breath is the future of disease detection.”

For more information about The Technion visit www.technionuk.org

 

First Israeli in the International Organization for Science Education Research: Prof. Tali Tal from Technion

Prof. Tali Tal of the Faculty of Education in Science and Technology has been elected President Elect of NARST, the National Association for Research in Science Teaching. It is the world’s most influential organization in this field and is made up of about 2,500 researchers from around the world.

Prof. Tal holds a B.Sc in biology and an M.Sc in plant ecology. “For many years I worked for the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel,” she says. “During my military service I guided groups of students. After completing my Master’s I became acutely aware that our methods of guidance and instruction at SPNI were not aligned to our student audience. Until then, I had wanted and expected students to learn ecology and other field subjects during an educational field trip in nature, to understand characteristics of the vegetation in the Upper Galilee, and to internalize the differences between a forest and shrub habitats. Thanks to my studies, I learned that rather than “delivering knowledge” and having students remember names of trees and flowers, it is necessary to develop their thinking, and enrich their experience outside the classroom and make it so enjoyable that they will want to repeat it.”

Since then, that is, during and after her PhD, Prof. Tal has focused on environmental and science education outside the classroom. “I discovered that it was in museums, zoos, botanical gardens, and the school’s nearby environment that students experienced meaningful learning – often more meaningful than from regular classroom teaching.  Out-of-school learning environments enable interdisciplinary learning in everyday contexts.

In recent years, Tal is focusing on field-based inquiry learning that enhances sophisticated thinking in multiple disciplines. A group of teachers Tal instructed in collaboration with the archeologist Dr. Mordechai Aviam, participated in an archeological investigation in which a magnificent Byzantine mosaic floor with an inscription and perfect peacock was found. This interdisciplinary work was funded by two ISF grants.

Prof. Tal has exported her approach to teacher professional development through outdoor inquiry to Michigan State University, where she works with researchers from the CREATE for STEM institute and the W.K Kellogg Biological Station.

Recently, Tal is part of a group of researchers from the University of Haifa and the Technion who were granted by ISF and the Ministry of Education, an “Excellence Center” for developing meaningful learning through citizen science. “Taking Citizen Science to School” collaborate with scientists, educators and various organizations to support learning through student engagement in real scientific endeavors.

Prof. Tal is the first Israeli to be elected to the board of directors of NARST, about three years ago, and her term as president elect will begin in March 2018.

Six “astronauts” have entered a structure designed by Technion students in order to simulate life on Mars. The building was erected near the town of Mitzpeh Ramon as a first step in the establishment of a space simulation center.

Technion students designed a construction to help simulate human life on Mars as part of a unique course held at Technion’s Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, led by architects Moshe Zagai and Alon Shikar. The building, named HAB01, was built in Mitzpeh Ramon at the 13th Ilan Ramon International Space Conference. Last week six “astronauts” including Zagai and Shikar entered it in order to learn about life under Mars-like conditions and perform various experiments.

Mars has always aroused great curiosity amongst mankind. In the ‘60s, the Mariner 4 spacecraft photographed Mars, and since then many more voyages have been conducted. Furthermore, many believe that Mars will be the next location of human habitation in space, and the likes of NASA and SpaceX are preparing to land the first expedition on the Red Planet.

However, conditions on Mars are not friendly to humans: remarkably low temperatures (around 60 degrees below zero), strong ultraviolet radiation, and an atmosphere low in oxygen. These require serious preparation and a thorough understanding of the potential future living conditions on Mars.

The special course that was held at Technion focused on construction on Mars, and its main goal was to design a structure to house ten people. The course facilitator, Alon Shikar, said that the project requires in-depth understanding of sociological, psychological, technical, and functional aspects. Due to the complexity of the project, which took place within the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, students from other Technion faculties were also invited to the course, including Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace Engineering.

The building, designed in cooperation with the Davidson Institute of Science Education of the Weizmann Institute of Science, is the first step in establishing a space simulation center near the Ramon Crater.

Are you ready for €60,000 equity-free funding?

EIT FAN is a new EU funded multi-location accelerator programme delivered across Europe. Over a 4 month acceleration period, start-ups will have access to a buffet of tools, connections, mentors and expertise to help them to succeed. With the 3 best start-ups receiving €60,000 each in equity-free cash prizes.

Driven by a consortium of EIT Food partners, representing the very best in academic and industry expertise in the food space, and with MassChallenge, the programme supports high impact food-space start-ups to maximise their success.

The EIT FAN will be held across 4 locations in Germany, Israel, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, and will start 18th June 2018.

Are you ready for €60,000 equity-free funding?

For further details click here: http://www.eitfan.eu

 

Best known as Captain Hawkeye Pierce from the hit 1970s television series M*A*S*H, the actor Alan Alda gave a fascinating lecture at Technion on February 21st on a subject about which he is passionate: communicating science to the public.

Alda, who is an expert in this field, established the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University in New York, and conducts seminars all over the U.S. to help scientists improve the way they explain their work to other people.

Many of the techniques Alda uses to teach communication, such as improvisational theater, are rooted in his acting career, and his talent as an actor was also clearly on display during his lecture. Alda, who is 82, had no problem holding the attention of the crowd in the large auditorium despite the lack of PowerPoint slides, proving that he is indeed a master of communication.

During the hour-long lecture, Alda compared interest in Science to the three stages of falling in love (which he invented): attraction, infatuation and commitment. If scientists are able to connect to their listeners in such a way that they achieve commitment and an emotional bond, the listeners will remain engaged in the long-term. Since these are skills that everyone can learn, Alda believes that every scientist can be trained to effectively communicate even the most complex information to a lay public.   

Alda visited Technion as part of the Science Communication Workshop, which he, together with instructors from the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University, delivered to researchers who are members of The Zuckerman STEM Leadership Program founded by Mort Zuckerman. The program promotes joint research by doctoral and postdoctoral researchers in the United States and Israel through scholarships and educational initiatives in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

A second Science Communication Workshop, dedicated to Technion faculty is being held this week. This workshop is funded by The Kavli Foundation, dedicated to advancing science for the benefit of humanity, promoting public understanding of scientific research, and supporting scientists and their work.

New Method Uses Light and Gold Nanoparticles for Highly Targeted, Non-Invasive Drug Delivery

Researchers in the Technion Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering have developed a new drug-release method that uses light for highly targeted, completely non-invasive delivery

HAIFA, ISRAEL (February 25, 2018) – Over the last century, there has been astounding progress in medical science, leading to the development of efficient, effective medications for treating cancer and a wide variety of other diseases. But the random dispersion of drugs throughout the body often lowers their effectiveness and, even worse, damages healthy tissue. A prime example of this is the use of chemotherapy drugs, which work to block cell division, causing hair loss and bowel issues in cancer patients (hair growth and waste elimination both depend on rapid cell turnover).

This has led to a global effort to develop smarter systems for drug delivery that will more effectively target the specific part of the body affected by cancer, bypassing healthy tissue. A recent issue of ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces presents groundbreaking work in the field by the Technion Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering.

Doctoral candidate Alona Shagan and Assistant Professor Boaz Mizrahi have developed a technology that enables drugs to be delivered and released only to the diseased tissue which the drug is targeting. The new method uses a unique polymer coating that contains nanoscale gold particles, in addition to the drug itself. The drug only releases when a light shines on the gold particles, causing the polymeric coating to melt.

“Photo-triggered materials fulfill a vital role in a range of bio-medical applications,” said Shagan. “But despite this enormous potential, these materials are rarely used because of toxins in the polymer coating itself, and damage caused by high-energy (shortwave) light.”

The researchers designed the one-of-a-kind delivery method to release under longwave light (Near-Infrared, NIR). The light warms the gold nanoshells, melting the polymer packaging, and releasing the drug. The primary advantage of NIR light is its ability to penetrate bodily tissues without harming them. 

“We’ve developed a material with varying melting points, allowing us to control it using low intensities,” explains Prof. Mizrahi. “Our system is composed of FDA-approved materials, and we are relatively close to clinical application.”

The researchers believe this new technology can be used for a variety of other applications, such as sealing of internal and external injuries, temporary holding of tissue during surgery, or as biodegradable scaffolds for growing transplant organs. It may even be possible to use the polymer as part of the self-healing process, giving it a wide range of both medical and non-medical applications.

“This article focuses on the concept and material: how we can design the material to fulfill these particular physical and mechanical requirements,” says Prof. Mizrahi. “The next step will include creating particles that include the drugs so that we can test their improved effectiveness using this delivery technology. We’ll discuss that in an upcoming article.”