"As a country renowned for its thriving economy and passion for new technologies, Israel is home to many outstanding computer scientists and engineers and Google is looking to establish long partnerships with institutes and universities."

It seems that 2005 was the best year for Israel's hi-tech industry since the dot-com implosion in 2000, The New York Times reported Monday, adding that Intel's USD 3.5 billion investment in a new factory in Kirayt Gat is a shining example for the improvement in the industry. According to the Times, the hi-tech industry in Israel has nearly recovered completely from the crisis of 2000, and now attracts major players such as Intel, as well as startups and venture capital companies. Israel boasts more than 70 companies registered at NASDAQ, more than any other country in the world outside the United States.

The hi-tech sector plays a significant role in the Israeli economy, which is expected to grow by 5 percent this year, the Times reported. The technology industry contributed to the modernization and reshaping of the local economy throughout the 1990s, and has built a reputation for itself as a fertile ground for innovative startups, which often relocate to the U.S.

In 2000, both the collapse of the industry and the outbreak of the intifada affected Israel. For several years Israeli VCs refrained from even holding their annual meetings, because overseas investors were reluctant to attend. However, the Times states that the situation has dramatically changed in the last years, and that investors are now returning to Israel.

According to the central Bureau of Statistics, the number of hi-tech employees in Israel hit a record of more than 66,000 workers in 2000, and then dropped to 53,000 between 2001and 2003. The number has gradually increased, and it now stands at 61,000. Exports of the hi-tech sector totaled USD 13 billion in 2005, which represent 40 percent of all Israeli exports.

ISRAELI MEDICAL ADVANCES RECEIVE FDA APPROVAL (12/1)
Israel’s national news organization, ARUTZ 7, has announced that two Israeli medical innovations have been cleared by the American FDA and will soon be available on the global market. One improves laser eye surgery and the other simplifies removing tumors.

The Israeli laser technology company, Lumenis, has announced that its new Novus 3000 ophthalmic treatment device has been approved by the FDA. The device allows ophthalmologists to use the new laser to treat several retinal conditions that can lead to vision loss and blindness – including proliferative diabetic retinopathy, retinal tears and detachment, premature retinopathy, and retinal vein occlusion.

"Lumenis has provided the ophthalmic industry with innovative technology since 1970, when we introduced the world's first laser photocoagulator," Lumenis President and CEO Avner Raz told Israel21c.org. "Worldwide, estimates suggest over 30 million people suffer from these conditions, and as the population ages these numbers are expected to climb. With the addition of our Novus 3000, we once again demonstrate our commitment to helping patients and their ophthalmologists protect and preserve eyesight."

Galil Medical, another Israeli company, has announced that its CryoHit product family has received FDA approval. The devices are critical to the treatment of breast fibroadenoma.

Fibroadenoma is the most common benign breast tumor in women under 40, affecting millions of women worldwide. These tumors have traditionally been removed through a surgical excision under local anesthesia in an operating theater. With Galil's minimally invasive new product line, the procedure can be performed at a local clinic, resulting in short recovery and much less of a chance of scarring.

The procedure involves the application of sub-zero temperatures to freeze the tumors, using needles capable of creating ice-balls of diverse sizes and shapes to match the shape of the tumor exactly.

Galil's cryotherapy technology is already widely used worldwide for the treatment of prostate, kidney cancer, and liver cancer.

According to ARUTZ SHEVA, the Tnufa ("momentum") committee, which is headed by Chief Scientist Dr. Eli Opper, has approved a preliminary research and development program aimed at advancing the development of an innovative technology for barriers against floods like the ones that followed Hurricane Katrina, according to a Globes Business report. The technology will make it possible to speedily build anti-flood barriers of any length and height necessary to protect a population center from the kind of massive flooding that destroyed thousands of homes in New Orleans.

The committee has also approved a preliminary Research and Development program for the development of a small personal water purification system, to be used by those stranded during disasters. Many died of thirst or from drinking contaminated water followed the U.S. hurricane.

ISRAELI DEVICE GOES STRAIGHT TO THE BONE (7/31)
Whether on the battlefield or in the emergency room, when first responders arrive to treat a critically injured patient, they sometimes cannot administer vitally needed intravenous fluid. Either the veins have collapsed or in the cases when blood pressure is low, such as heart attacks or unconsciousness, veins contract and are hard to find.

American emergency personnel serving in Iraq and Afghanistan know this as well as anyone, which is why they've come to rely on a novel Israeli-made device - WaisMed's Bone Injection Gun (BIG) which enables a medic to bypass the veins and penetrate the tibia within seconds to inject saline or medications into the marrow.

According to ISRAEL21C, the BIG is the world's first automatic intraosseous (IO) infusion device, and was invented by Dr. Marc Waisman - an orthopedic surgeon. Not quite a needle, the device is described by WaisMed's CEO Mickey Flint as "a simple tube with a trigger that is released."

This "simple tube" is saving lives around the world. It is being used throughout the American military - not only by many units in Iraq and Afghanistan - but also by the CIA, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services. Other customers include American hospitals, emergency medical service providers and fire departments.

ICHILOV MEDICAL CENTER
DEVELOPS UNIQUE SKIN CANCER THERAPY (6/29)
The Ichilov Medical Center in Tel Aviv released study results this week indicating skin cancer could be treated by injecting cancer cells with healthy skin cells, YNET reported. The results were released to coincide with Skin Cancer Awareness week. The one-of-a-kind treatment, called Photodynamic Therapy, is successful in about 85 percent of the time and does not require further surgery.

The treatment is administered in two phases. During the first stage, the cancerous skin is smeared with a special cream, high in AMINO acidity. After applying the cream, an absorbent substance is applied to the cancerous cells.

In the second stage, the affected area is exposed to low wattage red light for several minutes. This light creates a Photodynamic reaction by which the skin works the absorbed substance into the cells, while the oxygen creates free radicals. The oxygen then destroys the cancerous cells. Most of the time, there are no side affects except for slight stinging, burning or pain.

Photodynamic Therapy can be used for non-melanoma skin cancers. Each year, 10,000 new cases of skin cancer are reported.

LESS "OUCH" FROM DONATING
BLOOD, THANKS TO ISRAELI INNOVATION (6/15)
If the painful pinprick in your finger to determine if you are anemic has kept you from donating blood, you may no longer have an excuse: Israel’s Magen David Adom (Israel’s equivalent to the Red Cross) announced that it has begun to use a noninvasive, Israeli-developed device worn on the finger for a few seconds to determine hemoglobin levels.

According to THE JERUSALEM POST, MDA made the announcement to coincide with International Blood Donors Day on June 14.

Many would-be blood donors have complained about discomfort from the pinprick carried out before the pint of blood is taken; the pinprick is more painful than the insertion of a needle into a vein to remove the blood. The new device, based on a ring-shaped sensor, is called NBM-100.

The device, developed and manufactured by the company OrSense and MDA's blood services, calculates the level of hemoglobin by combining an optical reading with pressure on the finger. Test results indicate that it has been proven to produce very accurate results. "We are sure that testing for hemoglobin without a pinprick will significantly improve the experience of donating blood," said MDA blood services director Professor Eilat Shinar.

The device received approval in January by the European drug authorities and is now in the process of undergoing United States Food and Drug Administration licensing.

International Blood Donors Day was set for June 14 to mark the anniversary of the birth of Dr Karl Landsteiner, the scientist who identified human blood types. This year, MDA is also marking its 75th anniversary and the 70th anniversary of the establishment of its Volunteer Blood Donation Society.

CANCER CELLS CAN BE DETECTED AND DESTROYED (6/2)
BioCancell has developed technology for the targeted elimination of cancerous tumors, THE MARKER.COM reported. The development derives from research led by Prof. Avraham Hochberg, who has published 95 articles on the subject. "We have developed a method for detecting cancerous tumors that contain a gene that is found in fetuses, disappears after birth, and reappears in 30 types of cancer," Hochberg said. "The method is so precise that it allows us to see a single cancer cell in tissue, using inexpensive and quick computer technology." BioCancell also has developed a drug for destroying the cancer gene. The drug contains diphtheria toxin, the strongest toxin known to science, and plasmid DNA, which will cause the toxin to attack only the cancer cells that contain the gene, while leaving the surrounding cells unharmed.

ISRAELI THERAPY USES
ADULT STEM CELLS TO TREAT PARKINSON’S DISEASE (3/28)
Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics has developed a novel stem cell therapy to treat Parkinson's Disease - using a patient's own bone marrow stem cells to produce the missing chemical that enables restoration of motor movement, ISRAEL21C reported. The process - which successfully alleviated symptoms of Parkinson's in rats - will be tested on monkeys next year, with human clinical trials scheduled for the following year.

The Tel Aviv-based BrainStorm uses adult stem cells to repair neurological damage. Developed at Tel Aviv University, the company's propriety technology - NurOwn - has been proven capable of generating neuron-like cells derived from human bone marrow. The cells produce dopamine that can them be implanted into the PD patients.

Prof. Eldad Melamed, Head of Neurology of the Rabin Medical Center and member of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, together with Tel Aviv University cell biologist Dr. Daniel Offen and Dr. Yosef Levy, developed NurOwn.

A member of Keinan's team, Prof. Ehud Shapiro, working from the Weizmann Institute of Science, recently received a World Technology Aware for Biotechnology; he was cited for creating a molecular computing device made of DNA and other molecules that is so small that more than a trillion fit into one drop of water.   (This is not a typo even though it seems impossible.)  Prof. Shapiro is attempting to identify types of specific cancers in a test tube, diagnose the cancer, and secure the release of drug molecules in response. Ultimately he hopes to develop biomolecular devices that can be injected directly into the body to detect and prevent or cure disease.

ISRAELI RESEARCH DRAWS PRAISE (3/6)
A major cancer researcher in the U.S., Professor Frederick Alt, is here on a visit right now.  He has voiced praise for Israeli immunology, oncology and biology research, saying, "For such a small country Israel is really amazing.  It's one of the best places in the world to do science, despite its relatively small budgets."

GUSH KATIF PRODUCES BUG-FREE VEGETABLES (3/1)
In its monthly newsletter, BRIDGES FOR PEACE described how bug-free vegetables are being grown in the Gaza. Alei Katif, a company in the Gaza settlement of Kfar Darom, is selling the world’s first guaranteed bug-free produce and, along with other ventures, expects sales to increase by 20% in the coming year. Since Jewish law prohibits observant Jews to ingest bugs, bug-free vegetables are very popular in the religious community. Otherwise, the vegetables have to be soaked for hours or thoroughly checked for bugs.

Eliezer Barat, the company’s CEO, remembers growing up on a moshav [cooperative settlement] when his father’s lettuce was inspected: "To test for bugs, they would take a head of lettuce and shake it over a piece of white paper. If less than four bugs fell out, the crop was considered good; if there were more than four, it was rejected. Today, if we find more than four bugs per dunam [one-fourth of an acre], we reject the crop."

The vegetables are grown in hermetically sealed greenhouses, and workers wear white lab coats. Alei Katif uses 25 delivery trucks and 50 farmers, who harvest from 125 acres of high-tech greenhouses. It has created 250 jobs in Gush Katif and nearby western Negev towns. The surrounding Arabs have profited too by learning many advanced farming techniques from them, but many workers are worried about losing their jobs because of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan.

The venture started 15 years ago, selling mainly to the religious community. Today, they also sell to the general public, and restaurants even advertise that they cook with Gush Katif veggies. Though competitors are now copying the technique, Alei Katif still controls 50% of the market. All profits are either reinvested or go to support the Torah institutions in Gush Katif.

The product, which was code-named Sonoma prior to the launch, features new graphics and audio capabilities, faster processing and greater security features. Intel forecast that the chipset would be available on more than 150 different computer models by year's end. Computer maker Dell has already begun advertising new laptops equipped with the new technology.

Intel has sold more than US $5 billion worth of its Centrino chipsets since they were introduced in March 2003. The technology, designed for laptop computers, came with enhanced wireless Internet connectivity that helped push the WiFi standard to the top of the industry agenda, as well as longer battery life.

Intel's Israeli operations, which include four design centers and a manufacturing facility, lead Intel's R&D for wireless technology. Intel's next major endeavor, a chipset to support the more advanced WiMax standard for wireless Internet, is also being spearheaded here. That technology is expected to be released some time next year.

ISRAELI INNOVATIVE
BANDAGES SAVING AMERICAN LIVES IN IRAQ (1/9)
In the Gulf War in the early 1990s, US soldiers fighting on the Middle Eastern battlefield sometimes found themselves using dressings dated from World War II to patch up their wounds. In the present Iraqi conflict, however, American forces are now using an advanced new bandage, developed in Israel, that can save lives by stopping traumatic hemorrhaging wounds and can also be used as a tourniquet, or a sling.

Described by ISRAEL21C, the new bandage, called the Emergency Bandage, was developed by First Care Products, a tiny four-man Jerusalem start-up. The bandage marks the first major alteration to field dressings since the 1940s, and has already established its worth.

The Emergency Bandage is an elasticized bandage with a non-adhesive bandage pad sewn in. The bandage has a built-in pressure bar, which allows the soldier to twist the bandage around the wound once and then change the direction of the bandage, wrapping it around the limb or body part to create pressure on the wound. Aside from this, the pressure bar also makes bandaging easier. A closure bar at the end of the bandage means that it clips neatly into place and will not slip. The pressure bar also enables a soldier to use the bandage on complicated injuries like the groin and head, which require wrapping in different directions.

The bandage can be put on with one hand, as Molad deftly demonstrates. "It's a very versatile bandage," he says. "It can be applied quickly and easily by an injured soldier or non-medical personnel for immediate hemorrhage control. It saves time in an emergency situation where every second is crucial."

Device inventor Ehud Keinan explains that TATP, unlike conventional explosives, does not give off heat as it is detonated. Keinan and his research partners discovered this is the reason conventional explosives-detection devices cannot recognize it.

"To our surprise, we found that the detonation of this material was caused in a way that all its molecules in a solid state are changed within a fraction of a second to four molecules in a gaseous state," Prof. Keinan notes.

The results of this research were published on January 6 in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The co-authors include Yehuda Zeiri of the Dimona Nuclear Research Center and Roni Kosloff and Yossi Almog of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, along with their research students. Keinan is the dean of the faculty of chemistry at Haifa's Technion.

TATP and similar explosives from the peroxide family are widely used by various terrorist organizations across the world, since they are relatively easy to prepare and difficult to detect. The substances are very unstable and dangerous to their manufacturers, resulting in many "work accidents" in pirate labs established by Palestinian militants.

TECHNION RESEARCHERS
MAKE HEADWAY AGAINST ANTHRAX (12/30)
Researchers at The Technion - Israel Institute of Technology have succeeded in developing an innovative antibiotic agent that simultaneously attacks anthrax bacteria and the toxins that they release in the bloodstream of an infected person, GLOBES reported. A description of the development was published in the prestigious journal Angewandte Chemie's international edition.

Prof. Timor Baasov of the Technion Department of Chemistry, together with Prof. Chi-Huey Wong of the Scripps Research Institute Department of Chemistry, developed the inhibiting material, which could serve as a basis for a future drug against anthrax bacteria. The drug attacks not only the bacteria themselves, but also the poisonous protein that they release into the victim's bloodstream. The editor of Angewandte Chemie called the new development a one-two punch and a knockout blow.

For the first time anywhere, scientists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and from Germany have succeeded in producing self-assembled spider web fibers under laboratory conditions, outside of the bodies of spiders. This fiber is significantly stronger than the silk fiber made by silkworms.

The achievement by the research team, described in an article in the current issue of Current Biology, opens the way to commercial development of this spider fiber for numerous industrial applications.

Pegasus, an Israeli technology company, designed the pen. "The first system we developed was a mouse for three-dimensional games," Pegasus cofounder and CEO Gideon Shenholz told Globes. "We decided to switch to an electronic pen at a later stage. The transition required further development, because the technology needed for the electronic pen is more complex than the technology for a 3D mouse. A mouse doesn't require maximal accuracy of movement. In handwriting, missing even the slightest movement will ruin what is being writing, and the signal processing must therefore be at a far higher level."

The electronic pen looks and behaves like a regular pen, with standard refilling and a regular ballpoint that writes on paper. The electronic component installed in the pen is a small ultrasonic transmitter, with two ultrasonic receivers of very strong processing capacity contained in the base unit.

The company also produces a mobile version of the product, which stores the written information for later input. The mobile version is ideal for students who need to sketch during a lecture, doctors writing information during a visit, or law enforcement officials needing to sketch a crime scene.

The technology currently transmits the written data as an image, which therefore cannot be edited by word-processors or email software, but Pegasus is working with other companies that have developed handwriting identification software to make it possible to obtain material from the pen as a typed word document.

NO NEED FOR THE NEEDLE (9/7)
The JERUSALEM POST reports that a portable device that uses ultrasound to deliver medications painlessly, including local anesthesia, through microscopic pores in the skin, has been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration and put on the market.

The device - developed by researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - also offers future applications for continuous and painless testing of blood sugar in diabetics, speedy administration of pain medications to cancer patients, and influenza vaccines to the general public.

Called SonoPrep and manufactured in the U.S., the device - which could eliminate needles from medical practice - has caused a sensation in medical circles, making the front page of the Boston Globe and receiving top billing on American TV. It was developed over two decades by a team that includes Professor Joseph Kost from BGU's department of chemical engineering, and bioengineering Professor Robert Langer at MIT, where Kost did his post-doctoral work. "We developed it to meet a need," Kost explained.

SonoPrep applies ultrasound waves to the skin for 15 seconds, disrupting a protective membrane to allow fluids to enter or exit. The openings permit larger molecules, including those of many drugs, to pass quickly through the skin, which, 24 hours later, returns to normal. Manufactured by Sontra, a company based in Franklin, Massachusetts, the device will sell for US $2,000.

The FDA made it the first approved technology to use ultrasound for quickly anesthetizing the skin.

ISRAELI STUDENT WINS
INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR WATER TECHNOLOGY (8/20)
Ron Neuman, an 18-year-old Israeli, took second prize on Wednesday in an international competition in Stockholm on water-related technologies, HA'ARETZ reported. Neuman, who began researching his project at age 15, developed a genetically engineered bacterium that detects poisons in the water, without the need for expensive laboratory tests.

Neuman said that his research began thanks to the encouragement of Carmela Ben-Zvi, a teacher at the Ohel Shem high school in Ramat Gan, where he studied.

After three years of work, Neuman finally had results. After wining the silver medal in a contest sponsored by NASA in the United States, he entered the Stockholm contest, where students from 26 countries, including the United States, Germany and Japan, competed. The contest usually awards only one prize, which was given this year to three Japanese students. But this year, the judges decided to deviate from this practice and awarded a second-place prize to Neuman, who received it from the hands of Sweden's queen.

Israel is one of the eight countries within the world space community demonstrating significant technological assets on space programs and achievements on global navigation satellite system applications, equipment, user segment and technology.

Israel Aircraft Industries and Israel Military Industries are jointly producing the system, dubbed FlightGuard. It is scheduled to be installed on El Al passenger aircraft.

The researchers first reported the development of their molecular computer, which is built of synthetic DNA and various enzymes, in November 2001. However, Shapiro said, that was "a toy computer that didn't know how to do anything medically or computationally significant. This time, we are demonstrating a real use that could have medical applications."

The computer makes its diagnoses by testing the concentration of mRNA molecules in the surrounding fluid, as changes in the quantity of mRNA often indicate the presence of cancerous cells. Once it detects the existence of a cancer, it performs additional tests to determine what kind of cancer is involved, and then releases the appropriate medication to cause the cancerous cells to self-destruct. It will take many years, perhaps even decades, of additional work before the computer is adapted to be able to function in a living environment, Shapiro said.

HELPING RESEARCHERS SEE BETTER (4/25)
Two new innovative developments at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot will help scientists see their subjects better and thus improve the quality of medical research, according to ARUTZ 7.

One of the Israeli innovations solves a problem researchers have been facing for 50 years, ever since the scanning electron microscope (SEM) was incorporated as a basic research tool. The SEM requires a liquid-vaporizing vacuum, necessitating various complicated procedures to offset the resultant distortion in the samples. Now, however, Weizmann Institute scientists have found a way to view samples of biological materials in their natural, "wet" state. The secret lies in the production of a very thin but tough polymer capsule to enclose the sample, allowing it to withstand the force of the vacuum.

Dr. Ory Zik, who worked on the capsule with Professor Elisha Moses of the Physics of Complex Systems Department, said: "The material for the capsule is a result of advances in the area of semiconductors. We came across it while researching ways to apply automation techniques used in the semiconductor industry to the life sciences' scanning electron microscopes." The development was detailed in the March 9 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In the case of large-scale imaging, as well, Israeli innovation will serve to advance the cause of medical research. A new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method has been developed by Weizmann's Professor Hadassa Degani, allowing scientists to see much greater detail in kidneys than was previously possible.

Standard hospital MRI scanners, used to view many organs of the body, work by imaging water molecules in the body. In waterlogged kidneys, however, the image does not clearly distinguish between different functional parts. Professor Degani and her lab team have now found a way to see into the kidneys using sodium ion scans. Their method takes advantage of the fact that kidneys filter blood by employing a gradient - a rising concentration of sodium - from the outer layer toward the center, where levels reach up to five times the norm. The Israeli scientists enlisted the help of Dr. Joel Mispelter from the Institut Curie in France to help them build the special accessory needed to detect the sodium. Working at a high resolution allowed them to pick up the fine details of changing sodium concentration, particularly localized variations in the sodium gradient, thus obtaining a more complete picture of kidney function and architecture.

"The method is so logical, it's a wonder it had not been applied before," Professor Degani commented.

ISRAELI TECHNOLOGY POWERS WORLD'S LIBRARIES (4/20)
The academic libraries in many top American universities and colleges are powered by Israeli technology. The "Aleph" system developed by the Israeli company Ex Libris is also used in national banking institutions around the world.

According to a recent story reported by ARUTZ 7, Aleph permits libraries to order and receive stock, set up and control budgets, catalog and display books, maintain an inventory, conduct searches, locate books, and manage circulation. Libraries currently equipped with the Aleph system include Harvard University, the University of California, the British Library, the China National Library, and the Historical Department of the French Army, which selected the Aleph 500 integrated system for its scientific library. The European Central Bank, Banca d`Italia, the National Bank of Belgium, the Central Bank of Iceland, and others use the banking version of Aleph.

The development of Ex Libris's prized system began back in 1980 when a team of librarians, systems analysts, and computer programmers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem set out to create an automated library system for the university that would be efficient, user-friendly, and multilingual. The result was Aleph, which stands for Automated Library Expandable Program. Following implementation in most of Israel's universities, veteran Israeli software expert Azriel Morag was hired to translate the concept into a commercial reality. Today, Ex Libris has grown into a multinational company and a world leader in library and information management systems, with its language-customized systems used by more than 3 million people at about 1,300 sites in 50 countries on 6 continents in 20 interface languages.

FATHERS OF ISRAELI
FERTILITY TECHNIQUE CELEBRATE 101 BABIES (1/29)
A hundred and one healthy Israeli babies have been born in the past four years thanks to a fertility technique developed and used exclusively at Bar-Ilan University, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. The technique consists of magnifying sperm up to 6,000 times and determining the fittest sperm to fertilize an ovum.

According to Prof. Benjamin Bartoov, director of BIU's male infertility clinic, the pregnancy rate of the technique is about 48 percent, and the "take home baby" rate 40 percent - double that resulting from ordinary sperm injection into human eggs.

Yitzhak and Rania Altif tried unsuccessfully to conceive for five years, and were about to lose hope when they turned to the male infertility clinic as a last resort. Bartoov and his colleagues quickly identified the young couple's problem and enabled Rania to finally to become pregnant. The couple's bouncing baby girl, Roan, became the 100th baby born using the technique.

ISRAELI SATALLITE TO EXPLORE MOON (1/28)
Israel and India will cooperate in launching a satellite to orbit the moon, thus joining the exclusive club of space powers exploring the moon, MA'ARIV reported. Minister of Science Modi Zandberg said that India had initiated the project last December. "India is planning to launch its first satellite ever to the moon, in 2008," Zandberg explained. "It proposed that we participate in the project, and that we be partners in launching [the satellite] and in exploring the moon."

The new material, known for now as Gelrin, is comprised of Fibrin and the polyethylene, Glycol. Fibrin is a protein produced in blood plasma and serves as a central element in the blood clotting process; the Glycol is a transparent plastic material.

MOLECULES AT WORK (1/14)
According to ARUTZ 7, Israeli scientists have developed a method to produce video footage of enzyme molecules at work. The pioneering method, made public in Nature Structural Biology, has been hailed as the first of its kind, and a potentially important tool for biophysicists.

Until now, scientists studying the workings of ultra-microscopic forms have had to rely on the laboratory equivalents of still photos. Now, Prof. Irit Sagi and her Weizmann Institute Structural Biology Department team have developed a method to track and produce animated clips so fine that the scientists can see the movements of individual atoms within the molecule.

The complex enzyme process captured by the Weizmann scientists takes place in a tiny fraction of a second. To obtain the live-action footage, Sagi and her team use a technique akin to stop-action photography, but on an infinitely smaller scale. They literally freeze the process at certain stages, using advanced methods of chemical analysis to determine the exact molecular layout at each stage. The most difficult part, according to Sagi, was figuring out the correct time frames to enable the viewing of each phase of enzyme activity clearly. She compares it to attempting to capture on film the swirling of syrup being mixed into cake batter; one has to gauge at what points individual stages of the process will be most visible.

This method, says Sagi, represents more than a major breakthrough in the techniques used to understand enzyme activity. It changes the whole paradigm of drug formulation. Now we can precisely identify which parts of the molecule are the active regions (those which directly perform tasks) and the exact permutations of these molecular segments throughout the whole process. New synthetic drugs can be designed to target specific actions or critical configurations and Sagi's team is doing just that for an enzyme family known to play a role in cancer metastasis.

ISRAELI SCIENTISTS
MAKE COLON CANCER CELL BREAKTHROUGH (1/12)
Scientists at the Weizmann Institute have succeeded in reversing the ability of colon cancer cells to enter the blood stream and spread to other parts of the body, ISRAEL21C reported.

The findings, published in the Nov. 24 issue of The Journal of Cell Biology, uncover a key process involved in the metastasis of colon cancer cells and raise hopes that specific drugs might be devised to prevent, or reverse, the invasive behavior of metastatic colon cancer cells.

Colon cancer is the second most prevalent type of cancer in men and third in women in the Western world, killing 30,000 people annually. It is lethal largely because tumor cells easily migrate to other parts of the body.

The researchers, headed by Prof. Avri Ben-Ze'ev of the Molecular Cell Biology Department, have confirmed that the invasive behavior of colon cancer cells results from the malfunction of adhesion-related ("cell-gluing") mechanisms including beta-catenin. This can lead to cells breaking loose from tissue and migrating to form another tumor in another part of the colon, and can result in rival e-cadherin molecules being overwhelmed by beta-catenin, activating a cancerous gene known as Slug. The researchers found that by supplementing e-cadherin molecules in parts of the colon they can subsequently reverse the process and make the cells stick together again.

"The fact that the invasive process in colon cancer can be reversed is surprising," Ben-Ze'ev said. "It offers hope of reversing the metastatic process or even preventing it in the future by designing a drug that targets Slug."

TECHNION SCIENTISTS PLAY ROLE IN MARS IMAGES (1/7)
Research carried out by scientists at the Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa has enabled the transmission of pictures from the Mars Rover Spirit, according to Hewlett Packard Labs, which was responsible for the image transmissions, HA'ARETZ reported. The image-compression algorithm was developed by Gadi Sarousi, the director of the Information Theory Research group at HP Labs, along with Marcelo Weinberger and Guillermo Shapiro.

MindGuard Medical Devices is about to start clinical trials on their device called the Diverter, which has already been proven in animal tests to divert the blood clots that cause a stroke away from the sensitive brain area to other safe areas.

Mindguard's founder Dr. Ofer Yodfat developed the novel approach behind the Diverter while working in the emergency room at Tel Hashomer Hospital in Tel Aviv six years ago. He decided that instead of trying to treat a stroke, which happens when there is a sudden interruption in the supply of blood to the brain, he would try to prevent the stroke from happening altogether.

"We've succeeded in proving that electronics based on DNA is not fictional," said Professor Erez Braun of the Technion's physics department, who led the research team. Braun explained that assembling the transistor was part of a six-year project. "Our goal is to take advantage of the natural characteristics of the DNA molecules, so the encoded information enables a self-assembling transistor," he indicated. The achievement is especially impressive considering that until now, scientists in the world had managed to produce a molecular electronic transistor only by accident.

Braun said that creating a basic logic circuit that assembles itself from proteins and carbon tubes is the first step toward building more sophisticated electric circuits and electronic systems. "Now we will try to produce more complex circuits and networks of transistors made of DNA and get another DNA molecule to be responsible for switching the transistors, rather than the silicon bedding through which the electric current is now transferred. If we succeed in doing that, that will be real progress, " Braun concluded.

NOSE DROPS REPAIR CYSTIC FIBROSIS GENE (11/18)
Using antibiotic nasal drops commonly used for eye infections, Israeli researchers have managed to repair a form of the mutant gene that causes the inherited lung disease cystic fibrosis (CF). Their findings, reported in the JERUSALEM POST, have aroused considerable scientific interest since it was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, could be applied to other genetic disorders, including muscular dystrophy, Hurler's syndrome, and various types of hemophilia and cancer, say Dr. Michael Wilschanski and Prof. Eitan Kerem, who headed the team. Experts in the field have called their accomplishment a "major breakthrough" in the treatment of CF.

The team, formerly of Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem and now of Hadassah-University Hospital on Jerusalem's Mount Scopus, completed a small but successful pilot study on only nine patients nearly four years ago; this was the first time that researchers were able to cause the repair of a genetic mutation that causes CF. But the current study is larger and, more persuasively, a randomized, double-blind controlled study.

The technology is based on the principle of an antibody-antigen reaction. If the SARS virus is present, the patient's body develops antibodies, which can be detected using the antigen - synthetic segments of proteins deriving from the virus itself.

The company hopes to start marketing the kit in China and Southeast Asia within months, and if FDA approval is granted, to take the product to the American market. BioShaf is also working on establishing a joint venture to develop an immunization against SARS.

The mutation alters the Cholestryl Ester Transfer Protein (CETP), an enzyme involved in regulating lipoproteins and their particle size. Compared with a control group representative of the general population, centenarians were three times as likely to have the mutation (24.8 percent of centenarians had it vs. 8.6 percent of controls) and the centenarians' offspring were twice as likely to have it. "This is the first gene that was associated with longevity," says Barzilai. "I think there will be more."

Barzilai notes that many studies have looked at the risk factors associated with developing age-related diseases. "But to date," he noted, "little effort has been made to identify the reasons for longevity in exceptionally old people or, more specifically, their absence of disease. In studying these centenarians and their offspring, we hoped to learn what factors diminish their risk for diseases that affect the general population at a much younger age. We don't have all the answers for why some people live healthily into their tenth and eleventh decades, but our findings bring us a step closer to understanding the role that genes play in longevity."

The next step for the researchers is to try to develop drugs that mimic the effects of the CETP gene mutation and, ultimately, to test them on people who lack the mutation. "In this way, we can focus on preventing or delaying the onset of age-related diseases, which can help give people a better quality of life as they get older," Barzilai noted.

NEW METHOD DETERMINES IF FRUIT IS RIPE FOR PICKING (10/8)
Mathematical formulas-using the amount of sugar in fruits and vegetables and their degree of firmness, the amount of light they absorb, and the light they reflect-have been developed by Israeli and European scientists and farmers to determine when produce is ready for picking. The new technique, reported in the JERUSALM POST, can be used instead of taking samples of fruits and vegetables to determine their ripeness.

The Northern Research & Development Center worked with the Golan Fruits Packing Center as part of the European Community's Fifth Framework Program to determine when produce is ripe without first picking it. Until this development, every type of produce had to be sampled separately.

The innovative device, whose prototype will be completed next spring, will be able to take an apple and determine when it is ready for picking. Since many packing houses here and abroad use digital imaging to sort apples according to the way they look (size, shape, and color), the new technology can be integrated with the video system and provide much more accurate sorting.

The machine consists of a mobile platform on which are mounted an image-processing system, air blowers and a mechanical arm with a gripper attached. Tractor power pulls the platform through the field while cameras take pictures that the system analyzes. The air blowers ruffle the foliage to expose the fruit. When the harvester sights a melon bigger than a certain size -- and therefore presumed to be ripe -- it extends the gripper to grab the fruit and lift it off the ground. Onboard software evaluates the image's shape, brightness, and texture to locate the melons. Knives connected to the gripper slash the stalk, and the gripper places the melon on a conveyor belt.

The harvester, named "Vip Romper", guides itself down rows of maturing melon plants with only occasional human steering corrections.

In field tests, "Vip Romper" correctly identified melons ripe for picking 85% of the time. Prof. Yael Edan of Ben Gurion University said that she estimates a two-armed version could attain a picking rate of one and a half seconds per melon.

START-UP COMPANY TAKES
VOICE ANALYSIS TECHNOLOGY TO THE NEXT LEVEL (8/28)
Israeli scientists have developed software that analyzes the voice of a person talking on the phone and can then determine the speakers' feelings at the time of the conversation, MA'ARIV reported. The new software, also known as "the love detector," was developed by A.I. Sense, a part of Nemesysco Ltd, a 3-year-old start up company that specializes in developing products based on voice analysis technology.

The new product can analyze different layers in the human voice, thus providing an in-depth view into the person's range of emotions. The technology works according to the following mechanism: A microphone or the phone line is connected through a special device to a computer which displays the data results on the screen using red hearts.

The company's Executive Director Amir Liberman explained that the software could possibly serve other goals such as assist information operators and provide additional tools during psychiatric evaluations. Liberman also stated that the software results had an accuracy rate of 90 percent.

Nemesysco's voice analysis technology is currently in use by some intelligence agencies and police units.

ISRAELI TEAM
HELPS DEVELOP 'SPERM-WASHING' TREATMENT
ENABLING HIV CARRIERS TO SAFELY FATHER CHILDREN (8/25)
Israeli medical staff, in conjunction with medical centers across Europe, has successfully developed a 'sperm-washing' treatment, which enables HIV carriers to father children safely, ISRAEL21C reported. Dr. Margalit Lorver, deputy director of the Haifa's Rambam Hospital's Immunology, Allergy and AIDS Institute, who headed the project in Israel, explained that the new technology used centrifugal force to separate healthy sperm cells from non-sperm cells and from seminal fluids, which can carry the virus. The process allows the infected semen to be "washed clean," leaving behind only HIV-free semen. The final sample of sperm is tested for HIV and then inseminated into the female partner. Lorver said that successful application of the new treatment would keep couples, in which the male partner is an HIV carrier, from having to rely on anonymous sperm donors as they did in the past.

Browzwear's "V-Stitcher" is a computer simulation program that allows apparel designers, manufacturers and retailers to see their collections in an accurate and realistic way at an early stage in the design process. Designers can fit their collection to a number of lifelike models, in a variety of shapes and sizes. Using the program the designer can see what a garment looks like and how it fits the body. Virtual fabric swatches can be dragged and dropped onto the virtual garment, and stitch types, buttons and trims changed. The program shows fabric transparency and can also simulate layers of clothing.

The software enables designers to input two-dimensional patterns for men, women, and children, from virtually any CAD system, along with instructions as to which seams are sewn together and how. These virtual patterns are then put together as a 3D image on the model. "Today all solid objects use computer aided design," Yanir Farber, the president of Browzwear, said. "In the garment business, however, people still rely on traditional methods because designing a garment is so problematic. A shirt will look completely different if the fabric is different, or if the person is thin or fat."

Browzwear was founded in 2000 with seed money of $600,000 from Israeli clothing manufacturer Delta Galil, Internet guru, Yossi Vardi (the founder of Mirabilis), and a group of private investors led by entrepreneur Menachem Einan. Initially the company began developing a product called C-Me - a virtual fitting room for people wishing to buy clothes online.

NEW ISRAELI DEVICE ENABLES
PATIENTS TO DIAGNOSE HEART ATTACK FROM HOME (8/11)
Israeli firm SHL Telemedicine has manufactured a new device called the Telemarker, which allows patients with chest pain to administer a simple blood test at home and thereby accurately determine whether the discomfort they are feeling is really a heart attack or not without making a trip to the emergency room, ISRAEL21C reported.

The device automatically pricks the patient's skin for a blood sample, and carries out a test for two proteins - myoglobin and troponin. These proteins, normally found inside cells, are released into the blood when cells cease functioning, as in the case of a heart attack. After 20 minutes, the device photographs the results and broadcasts them via modem to a monitoring center maintained by SHL, a physician's office or hospital, where they can be analyzed in real time. This data, combined with the information provided by existing SHL devices, can offer the medical team at the center the three main parameters required for the diagnosis of a heart attack: a clinical picture, an EKG reading and a blood test for cardiac markers.

Erez Alroy, Co-President of SHL Telemedicine said that the product allowed the subscribers "to benefit from technological advantages that assist in saving lives and improve peace of mind." The Telemarker, he noted, could help end users get "a more focused emergency treatment" in times when they most needed it, when other tools might fail to supply clear indications as to their situation.

According to Alroy, the product will not only be attractive to users, but to health care institutions as well. Use of the device will lower the number of previously unavoidable false hospitalizations, leading to a higher quality of life for patients, and ease a major financial burden on health care authorities.

The average watermelon contains 54 calories per 4 oz (112 gram). The new variety has 20 to 40 percent less calories, Wolf said. The calories in a watermelon come from the sugar content, with each melon containing three separate types of sugars - sucrose, glucose and fructose. To create the diet melon, researchers isolated a variety whose sugar content is composed mostly of fructose. "Fructose is the sweetest kind of sugar and so you need less sugar to make the melon sweet, hence less calories," he said.

Wolf said that his team had found natural varieties of wild melons growing in the Sinai desert and North Africa with the high fructose percentage; however, these fruits were bitter. "Our challenge was to make them sweet," Wolf said, noting that this was achieved through normal methods of cultivation and not genetic modification. Wolf could not say when the diet melons would reach the markets.

PROMISING TREATMENT
DEVELOPED FOR SPINAL CORD INJURIES (8/4)
A revolutionary experimental therapy for spinal cord injuries is being developed by Proneuron Biotechnologies, Inc based on discoveries made in Israel at the Weizmann Institute of Science, ISRAEL 21C reported. Proneuron's treatment involves isolation of macrophages from the patient's blood, processing in the laboratory and then injection of the cells into the spinal cord in the vicinity of the area of damage. The treatment, which must be provided within 14 days of spinal cord injury, requires a surgical procedure to open the spine for the injection of the macrophage cells into the spinal cord.

The therapy, which recently completed Phase I FDA approved clinical studies, demonstrated preliminary promising results with the first eight patients who were flown to Israel for treatment and follow up from around the world. All had suffered a spinal cord injury in the previous 2 weeks and as a result had lost completely the motor and sensory nerve function below the level of the injury. As a result of the treatment, three of the eight individuals experienced some recovery of both sensation and voluntary movement in their trunk and legs; recovery of this extent is very rare in patients with similar injuries. With these results, the company is expecting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve plans for Phase II testing of the therapy to begin in late summer in the United States.

"It tells you something. Doctors from all over the world sent their patients to Israel for a month - in the middle of this conflict - and the families of the patients also came. From a patient perspective - there are no clinical alternatives," said Dr. David Snyder, Vice-President of Clinical Development at Proneuron.

During his fact-finding visit here last week regarding Israel's work in the field of spinal cord injury therapy, American actor Christopher Reeve met with the directors of Proneuron and with American and Israeli patients who were involved in the trials and who had regained partial movement. He expressed amazement at the technology and the results and according to Snyder, said it was incredible he was speaking to patients that had received therapy and who had been helped.

ISRAEL DEVELOPS
ONE OF THE WORLD'S MOST ADVANCED MISSILES (7/31)
Recent breakthroughs, as well as "significant milestones" in the testing of Python-5, bring Israel inches away from being the mother of the most advanced air-to-air missile in the world, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. Rafael, the government-owned Israel Armament Development Authority, has announced that recent testing of the Python-5 has proved to be incredibly promising: the Python-5 will be ready for operation by 2005, and upon its completion will make Israel the owner and producer of the most sophisticated air-to-air missile in history. The Python 5 exhibits both an enhancement of the features of the Python-4 as well new and innovative features. The new missile thus promises not only sharper target recognition but also a "full attack envelop" - meaning, the pilot can destroy aircraft on his tail without needing to turn his jet around. "An enemy fighter jet has a very slim chance of surviving the launch of a Python-5," said Col. Naftali Maimon. The Python-5 was designed for aerial dogfights. When launched, the missile goes idle after a millisecond of flight so as not to overshoot its mark, at which point the Python-5 lock on to its target and then matches it move for move. "It will outmaneuver any plane," Maimon said.

The recent developments of "Spike" and "Spice" - two other impressive missile devices - also point at Israel's technological success and superiority. "Spike," sports a dual, or "tandem" HEAT (high-energy anti tank) warhead - delivering a lethal one-two punch against the most sophisticated of armor. The armed forces of Holland, Romania, and Finland have already bought the missile system. "Spice" is an air-to-surface precision-guided munitions. When launched from the wing of a fighter aircraft, the Spice will plow into a pre-programmed target at speeds reaching up to Mach 9. "The Spice is a revolution in air-to-ground warfare," said Alon Amitay, the business development manager of the project. The new missile even surpasses the GPS-guided bombs that starred in the recent war in Iraq.

CHRISTOPHER REEVE VISITS
ISRAEL IN HIS QUEST FOR PARALYSIS TREATMENT (7/28)
Calling Israel the "world center" for research on paralysis treatment, Christopher Reeve set off for his first visit to the country this week, ISRAEL 21C reported. Over the course of his visit, Reeve will learn about Israeli advancements in the field of stem cell research related to paralysis and spinal cord injuries. The theater and film actor, who portrayed 'Superman', suffered a horseback-riding accident in 1995 during an equestrian event that left him paralyzed from the neck down.

"I am looking forward to visiting Israel to learn more about their cutting edge paralysis research," Reeve said. "Israel is the center of some of the world's leading research. There are many new therapies in the pipeline as well as care strategies being employed that may also benefit millions of people around the world living with paralysis."

Reeve, chairman of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation (CRPF), plans to meet with Israeli doctors and researchers working on remedies for paralysis. He is a strong supporter of stem cell research, which some experts believe may unlock a way of reversing the often-debilitating effects of spinal injuries, and believes a cure for paralysis is close at hand.

Reeve has specifically requested to meet with neuroimmunologist Michal Schwartz of the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot. "Schwartz and some of her colleagues are doing particularly well in treating patients immediately after spinal cord injuries in what is called the acute phase," Reeve said. "If a person can be treated right away, within the first 10 days after the injury, it will have dramatic effect in what their life will be."

During his visit, Reeve is also planning to meet Israelis who have suffered similar injuries as he did, including Ethiopian immigrant Elad Wass who was a victim of a homicide bombing in Netanya, in May. The shrapnel that entered Wassa's abdomen left him paralyzed from the waist down. Wassa expressed a wish to meet the actor in a letter, saying that Reeve provided him with "hope and inspiration."

Additional observations and analyses revealed that this system also contained a real planet that orbited the larger star. This planet completes one revolution approximately every 600 days.

NEW ISRAELI COMPANY
FURTHER EXPANDS ANTI-CANCER TREATMENT (7/1)
A new company, CellFeed Medical, is being founded on the basis of the result of a cancer research carried out by Tel Aviv University human microbiology Prof. Yona Keisari and his colleagues, ISRAEL21C reported. CellFeed Medical is based on Keisari's research over the past five years, which combined stimulation by a low-charge electric field with chemotherapy in an attempt to eliminate malignant tumors. The research team also included Tel Aviv University biophysicist Prof. Rafi Korenstein, and Sheba Medical Center at Tel-Hashomer biophysicist Dr. Yossi Rosenberg.

The three men watched how in five different models of cancerous growths in animals, the growths shrank and disappeared to varying degrees ("averaging 50%"). "Chemotherapy does not cure most tumors; it only retards their growth to some extent. In order to cure and get rid of the tumor, surgery or radiotherapy is currently required. Our treatment is as effective as surgery in eliminating the initial tumor. Its added value is the anti-cancer response it creates, which also affects the metastasis," Keisari declares. The technique has been tested on no fewer than five types of cancer: melanoma, intestinal cancer, carcinoma, prostate cancer, and breast cancer.

What CellFeed Medical - the company's temporary name - is doing now is to look for new combinations with chemotherapy, in order to discover the most effective combination with electric treatment. Keisari explains that the researchers are extending the types of cancer they are treating, and are on the verge of a pre-clinical trial. The start of this trial depends to a great extent on how much capital the company manages to raise. RAMOT University Authority for Applied Research & Industrial Development owns the development rights, and an agreement is in the works to enable the company to conduct a financing round. David Furst, who formerly worked at Israel Phoenix subsidiary Atara Technology Ventures, is "initiating the entrepreneurs into the mysteries of the industry," as Keisari puts it. Furst says the company currently needs $1.5 million "which will be enough for the first stage, creating a prototype of perishable components for starting on phase II clinical trials, plus a little breathing room before the second financing round."

NEGEV TO HOUSE
WORLD'S LARGEST SOLAR POWER STATION (6/17)
The world's largest solar power station is being planned in the Negev, ISRAEL21C reported. The station, which would be the first ever built in Israel, will be based on technologies developed in cooperation with the Ben-Gurion University's National Solar Energy Center, which is part of the Blaustein Institute for Desert Research in Sde Boker.

"Israel is prominent on the world stage for developing solar technology, but until now, we haven't really harnessed that knowledge for our own needs," Prof. David Faiman, director of the Solar Energy Center told ISRAEL21c.

American environmentalists are excited about the prospect of such a project coming into being. "There is intense interest in this sort of 'concentrated solar' technology in parts of the United States, like our desert Southwest, that have similar conditions to the Negev," said Seth Kaplan, senior attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation, who advocates for development of alternative and renewable energy sources. "This project could plot a course for those areas to become major sources of clean energy, allowing them to play a part in efforts to reduce the dangerous emissions from fossil fuel power plants. The U.S. is increasingly looking to Israel for hi-tech innovations. This project shows that this trend extends to rapidly expanding field of alternative energy production."

The station has been approved in principle by the government, and a tentative 1,000-acre site has been selected, but has not yet been budgeted. The plant is planned initially to supply 100 megawatts of power and grow to 500 megawatts, about 5 percent of the country's current generating capacity. When construction is finished in 2012, it should employ some 100 people.

ISRAELI AGRONOMISTS DEVELOP MINI VEGGIES (6/5)
Israeli agronomists have developed an entirely new line of mini-designer vegetables and fruits aimed at creating a new world of bite-size healthy treats, ISRAEL 21C reported.

Bite size zucchinis, baby artichokes, Tinkerbell peppers, cucumbers and personal sized seedless watermelons were all recently on show at the Agro Mashov agricultural expo at the Tel Aviv exhibition fairgrounds. The annual event, which highlights Israeli innovations in cultivation, technologies and crop development, wound up being a showcase for the latest food fashion trend, which is gaining popularity throughout Europe.

Rami Meron, Director of Research and Development at the Vegetable Marketing Board said he hoped the new line would appeal to youth, who he believed did not eat enough vegetables because they lacked a certain sex appeal. Besides the youth as potential target markets for the bite sized produce, Marom cited the single shopper who has no need for a five-pound watermelon or the elderly shopper who cannot carry large quantities from the market.

Herzl Keren, a Vegetable Marketing Board official stressed that the new designer sizes are not the result of any kind of genetic engineering, but the outcome of several years of experimentation and innovation.

The tests are interactive computerized exercises, using standard computer input devices such as the keyboard, mouse or joystick for 'smart' computer games that test specific sets of cognitive and motor functions. They can also be used to diagnose traumatic brain injury, Parkinson's disease, Multiple sclerosis, substance abuse, learning disabilities, and more. The developers emphasize that the results must be interpreted in the context of other data relevant to the patient's condition.

ISRAELI TESTS CAN SPOT CONTAMINATED WATER (5/22)
In an increasingly complicated and dangerous world, the ability to determine the safety of water quickly and efficiently may be - literally - the difference between life and death.

Now, according to THE JERUSALEM POST, a fast and ingenious new way to detect toxic contamination has been developed by researchers at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The method, currently undergoing further development, has particular consequences for countering bioterrorism, but also has less ominous potential implications for medical technologies, pharmaceuticals and industry, plus environmental quality in general.

The work of the research team, headed by Prof. Shimshon Belkin, Chairman of the Environmental Science Division of the Hermann Graduate School of Applied Science, is described in the current issue of Scopus, the university's English-language magazine.

The process developed by Belkin and his co-workers involves the genetic engineering of bacteria to sense toxicity in water. Two pieces of DNA - a "promoter" that acts as an on-off switch for its neighboring gene, and a gene for a fluorescent protein - are joined and inserted into the bacteria. When the promoter senses danger, the normally inactive gene is turned on, and the bacteria become fluorescent. Thus, the bacteria become "bioreporters;" that is, their activation indicates that there are toxic chemicals in the water being sampled. The researchers hope to develop promoters with the ability to sense a broad spectrum of toxins, and to fluoresce as soon as they detect the slightest trace of undesirable chemicals in the water.

The engineered bacteria will be incorporated into a specialized micro-fluidic biochip, developed at Tel Aviv University by Prof. Yosi Shacham and colleagues. This chip will allow the miniaturization of the test system and its integration as a hand-held device.

This technology is expected to be much quicker and cheaper than the conventional methods for testing water toxicity, some of which are based on observations after fish or crustaceans are exposed to suspect water - a process that involves considerable delay.

Belkin envisions a day when army medics will carry hand-held biosensors able to detect a broad range of toxicants and the level of the danger in any water being tested (the brighter the light, the higher the toxicity). The colors of the lights may also be engineered to indicate the type of toxin detected.

DISCOVERY OFFERS NEW HOPE FOR DIABETICS (5/22)
Researchers at Tel Aviv University have announced the discovery of a new way to generate human insulin-producing cells in tissue culture, HA'ARETZ reported. According to the findings of Prof. Shimon Efrat of TAU and his American collaborators - published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - if a solution can be found to prevent the cells from being rejected by the immune system, these cells could be transplanted to juvenile diabetes sufferers within a few years. The team used stem cells from human fetal liver, which can be easily propagated in tissue culture, and modified the cells by introducing a gene responsible for the embryonic development of insulin-producing cells. The engineered cells produce about a third of the insulin made by insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. When transplanted into diabetic mice, the cells were able to reduce the elevated blood sugar levels and maintain a normal level for a period of several months.

About five percent of the world's population suffers from diabetes, making it a major public health concern. Complications from diabetes include heart disease, strokes, kidney failure, blindness, and limb amputation.

NEW ISRAELI
DEVELOPMENTS UNVEILED AT BIOTECH ISRAEL 2003 (5/20)
Israeli companies unveiled 140 innovations last week at the BioTech Israel 2003 conference in Tel Aviv, ISRAEL21c reported. The developments were made in the fields of biotechnology, nanotechnology, medicine and medical equipment.

Israeli biopharmaceutical start-up, Vascular Biogenics Ltd., has developed a new genetic treatment, GT-111, which can cut off the oxygen supply to cancerous tumors causing them to shrink dramatically, or even disappear completely, without any negative side-effects to the patient. The treatment is based on a genetic charge that destroys the endothelial cells that build the blood vessels and supply oxygen to a cancerous tumor and its metastases. Without oxygen the tumor begins to shrink in size. Unlike current treatments that are based on killing the tumor's cells through chemotherapy, radiation and hormone treatments, and cause severe side effects, VBL's treatment has no side effects because it is not targeted at carcinogenic cells, but at the blood vessels that allow the metastases to grow. The treatment has already been tested successfully in animals and is likely to start clinical trials by the end of this year.

Palsamed, an Israeli incubator company, has developed a botanical based drug that can reduce cholesterol in the bloodstream. It is known that high cholesterol levels play a significant role in the increase of heart disease, strokes and other cardiovascular illnesses. Today, the most common treatment for high cholesterol levels are statin drugs, which, though effective, have major side effects such as memory loss, personality changes and muscle pain. Palsamed's drug compound is derived from edible plants indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean region and has less potential for harmful side effects. The company is now approaching clinical trials of the drug.

Another development was unveiled by the start-up Topimed, which has developed a new medical preparation to treat degenerative skin damage like wrinkles, which result from natural aging and radiation from the sun. The preparation combines the DIK-60 hormone with an active carrier that can deliver the hormone to specific skin targets. It acts on both the dermal and the epidermal cells. According to the company, unlike existing products now on the market, the preparation can heal the internal skin layers and result in improved appearance.

Other developments which were also unveiled at the conference include a system that monitors moles that might indicate melanoma skin cancer, developed by Medvision; a next-generation wound care system developed by Enzy Surge; BioPack's natural insect repellent for food packaging; and an orthopedic device that alleviates pressure exerted on the knees while walking, developed by Granot incubator Ortech.

ISRAELI PRODUCT WILL PROTECT PASSENGER AIRCRAFT (5/12)
The world's first system designed to protect private and passenger aircraft will be on the market by the end of the year. THE MEDIA LINE reports that an agreement has been signed that brings together Israel's premier defense industry firms: Israel Aircraft Industries, its Elta subsidiary, and Israel Military Industries.

The system known as "Flight Guard" will have no competition in a huge market that includes virtually the entire fleet of world-wide commercial passenger carriers and private aircraft as well. Modeled after the military method that deploys decoys that divert heat-seeking missiles away from the aircraft, Flight Guard is triggered by the incoming missile's radar and requires no action by the flight crew. According to Globes financial newspaper, Flight Guard will be shown at the Paris Air Show next month and will be available by the end of the year.

MISSING CARBON DIOXIDE GREENS UP THE DESERT (5/12)
A Weizmann Institute study, as reported on ARUTZ 7, suggests that rising carbon dioxide levels in the world might help upgrade dry environments to valuable forests. In fact, the researchers think that 7 billion tons of unaccounted for carbon dioxide may be the explanation for the expansion of forests into dry areas. A group of scientists, headed by Prof. Dan Yakir of Weizmann Institute's Environmental Sciences and Energy Department, found that the Yatir Forest, planted at the edge of the Negev Desert 35 years ago, is expanding at an unexpected rate. Their findings, published in the current issue of Global Change Biology, suggest that forests in other parts of the globe could also be expanding into arid lands, absorbing carbon dioxide in the process.

What's the connection between carbon dioxide and forest growth? Yakir's team says that the answer might be found in the way plants address one of their eternal dilemmas. Plants need carbon dioxide for photosynthesis - but to obtain it, they must open pores in their leaves, consequently losing large quantities of water to evaporation. The plant must decide which it needs more: water or carbon dioxide. Yakir suggests that the 30% increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide since the start of the industrial revolution eases the plant's dilemma - because the plant needs to open its pores only slightly to receive the necessary amount of carbon dioxide, thus causing it to lose less water. This efficient water preservation technique keeps moisture in the ground, allowing forests to grow in areas that previously were too dry.

By understanding how cells function, it is easier to see how mutations, such as cancer, occur. Traditionally, the method of compiling data on genetic changes is through the use of thousands of small and elaborate experiments that focus on changes within cells in an attempt to gain a picture of the whole process: looking, in a sense, at each piece of the puzzle independently. By using a specially designed computer formula to analyze this data, the researchers were able to recognize patterns that span many related databases. The ability to "mix and match" data sources is what makes the new method so powerful, according to Professor Daphne Koller, a computer scientist at Stanford who worked on the program.

ISRAELI