About Us
Founded in 1944, the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science develops philanthropic support for the Weizmann Institute in Israel, and advances its mission of science for the future of humanity.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/brain-research-gets-a-boost-from-mosquitos/
May 11, 2021... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—May 11, 2021—Can a protein found in a mosquito lead to a better understanding of the workings of our own brains? Prof. Ofer Yizhar and his team in the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Neurobiology took a light-sensitive protein derived from mosquitos and used it to devise an improved method for investigating the messages that are passed from neuron to neuron in the brains of mice. This method, reported in Neuron, could potentially help scientists solve age-old cerebral mysteries and pave the way for new and improved therapies to treat neurological and psychiatric conditions.
May 11, 2021...
Israeli scientists have developed a way to switch off connectors that link different parts of the brain, in an advance they say could prove key to treating neurological disorders like epilepsy.
The innovation, which relies on a light-sensitive protein from mosquitos, was reported on Tuesday in the peer-reviewed journal Neuron. The breakthrough has been discussed in medical circles for several weeks, and dozens of neurobiology teams around the world are already ordering the protein and using the protocol in their own labs.
May 27, 2021...
The Bat-Tunnel: A Unique Setup for the Study of the Neural Basis of Navigation
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—May 27, 2021—The brain is often likened to a computer: neurons organized in complex circuits serving as its hardware; its software a plethora of codes that govern the neurons’ behavior. But sometimes the brain performs exceptionally well even when its hardware seems inadequate for the task; for example, the puzzle of how we and other mammals manage to navigate large-scale environments even though the brain’s spatial perception circuits are seemingly suited to representing much smaller areas. A team of researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science, led by Prof. Nachum Ulanovsky of the Department of Neurobiology, tackled this riddle by thinking outside the experimental box. By combining an unusual research model – fruit bats – with an unusual setting – a 200-meter-long (about one-eighth of a mile) Bat-Tunnel – the team successfully revealed a novel neuronal code for spatial perception. The finding was reported in Science.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/june-is-alzheimer-s-brain-awareness-month/
Jun 07, 2021...
Despite decades of research, we don’t know much about the brain. It is as strange as the deep sea, as complex as a computer, as mysterious as the universe – and it makes us who we are, as humans and individuals.
Understanding this most complex of organs is more important now than ever: lifespans are increasing and, thus, so are age-related conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s; awareness of mental illness is rising, as is the need for effective treatments; rates of autism are still going up. Fortunately, technological advances over the past several years are, for the first time, allowing scientists to study the brain at a level of detail never before possible.
Nov 09, 2021... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—November 9, 2021—The Weizmann Institute of Science is thrilled to announce a lead philanthropic donation of $50 million (USD) from the Azrieli Foundation. The historic gift will enable catalytic brain research with the establishment of The Azrieli Institute for Brain and Neural Sciences. The donation is among the largest of its kind for the Foundation. The Azrieli Foundation is a longstanding supporter of research at the Weizmann Institute, and this generous donation adds to its past philanthropic investments of nearly $30 million in Weizmann research facilities and faculty and student fellowships.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/a-new-way-to-measure-creativity/
Apr 07, 2022... Creativity is crucial—at the heart of human endeavors ranging from art to entrepreneurship. It’s also notoriously hard to study. Usually in psychological tests we see whether people produce a particular predetermined response to a particular question. The essence of creativity, however, is to spontaneously make something new, something no one could predict beforehand. The few measures of creativity we have are more than 50 years old, and they are hard to score and often unreliable.
May 25, 2022...
REHOVOT, ISRAEL – May 25 2022 – Our family origins tend to shape our future in many ways. A Weizmann Institute of Science study, published today in Nature, found that the same holds true for blood vessels. The researchers discovered blood vessels forming from unexpected progenitors and went on to show that this unusual origin determines the vessels’ future function.
“We found that blood vessels must derive from the right source in order to function properly – it’s as if they remember where they came from,” says team leader Prof. Karina Yaniv.
May 31, 2022... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—May 31, 2022—Ketamine, a well-known anesthetic used in smaller doses as a party drug, was hailed as a “new hope for depression” in a Time magazine cover story in 2017. Two years later, the arrival of the first ketamine-based antidepressant – the nasal spray esketamine, made by Johnson & Johnson – was applauded as the most exciting development in the treatment of mood disorders in decades. Yet the U.S. Food and Drug Administration still limits the spray’s use. It is mainly given to depressed patients who have not been helped by other therapies – in part, because the new drug’s mechanism of action is insufficiently understood, leading to concerns over its safety.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/neurons-caught-rapidly-switching-gears/
Aug 24, 2022... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—August 24, 2022—Even during such routine tasks as a daily stroll, our brain sometimes needs to shift gears, switching from navigating the city to jumping out of the way of a bike or to crossing the street to greet a friend. These switches pose a challenge: How do the brain’s circuits deal with such dynamic and abrupt changes in behavior? A Weizmann Institute of Science study on bats, published today in Nature, suggests an answer that does not fit the classical thinking about brain function.
Jan 25, 2023...
Researchers have for years tried to discover what determines “resilience to stress,” a term describing the ability to adapt to difficult situations and to overcome adversity. Is it acquired through experience, or is there a tendency to easily recover from stress possibly ingrained in us from a very early age or even from birth?
A new study lead by Prof. Gil Levkowitz of the molecular cell biology and molecular neuroscience departments at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot has revealed an important piece of this puzzle. The study examined zebrafish – small, black-and-white-striped, transparent fish whose natural habitat spans rivers, ponds and rice paddies in Pakistan, Myanmar, Nepal and India.