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 benefit of humanity.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/developing-the-next-generation-of-drugs/
Nov 20, 2011... Enzymes—the proteins responsible for chemical reactions in living cells—change their structure at dizzying speeds.This dynamic action makes them very efficient, but it can also make them difficult to study. Prof. Irit Sagi of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Biological Regulation develops new experimental tools and procedures to study shape-shifting enzymes in real time and at the scale of individual atoms.
May 27, 2013...
Prof. Yosef Yarden in his Weizmann lab.
Breast cancer can be curable if it’s caught soon enough—unless it is the “triple negative” type more likely to target young, black or Hispanic women.
Israeli researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot are opening a new window of hope for the daughters and granddaughters of women diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer. The cancer carries a strong genetic link and it is also found in people of Jewish Ashkenazi (Eastern European) ancestry.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/video-gallery/2016-midwest-region-women-for-science-luncheon/
Jun 23, 2016... The Midwest Region hosted the 6th Annual Women for Science Luncheon, an inspiring event honoring women who change lives. The program included a presentation by the Weizmann Institute's Dr. Karina Yaniv, and recognized the 2016 Vision and Impact Award honoree Dr. Janice Feinberg.
Oct 11, 2011...
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, bringing critical attention to what is today the most common form of cancer in women, apart from skin cancers. Most breast cancers begin in the cells that line the milk ducts (ductal carcinoma) or in the milk-producing glands (lobular carcinoma). At the Weizmann Institute of Science, researchers are studying genes and hormones that play a role in these cancers and are developing better diagnostic tools and treatments. Some examples of this research are presented below.
Feb 10, 2014...
Schwartz’s research questions assumptions about the central nervous system.
Imagine being able to inhibit or reverse a universal affliction – brain degeneration – and specific diseases or physical injuries that cause its sudden onset. This is precisely what Prof. Michal Schwartz has spent the last two decades studying, with revolutionary results.
Schwartz is far from the stereotypical “mad scientist.” Pretty and petite, with a cascade of curls, she rushes down the hallway of her office and adjacent laboratory more like a student late for a class than an international award-winning powerhouse whose research has turned pre-existing dogma about the central nervous system on its head.
Jul 18, 2007...
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—July 18, 2007—The Weizmann Institute of Science has instituted a new program aimed at assisting highly talented young women to work toward a career in the natural or exact sciences. The goal of the program is to begin closing the gap between male and female scientists in the highest ranks of academia.
The numbers of women and men completing graduate degrees (M.S. and Ph.D.) in the sciences are close to even. But in Israel, as in the rest of the world, relatively few women end up on the track to academic advancement, and their representation on the higher levels of academic faculties is abysmally low.
Oct 02, 2019... Many expectant mothers are told that breastfeeding will come naturally, but it is often a fraught and confusing experience, especially during the first few weeks after birth. Parents often worry about if their babies are getting enough nutrition or if they are producing enough milk. MyMilk Labs wants to give nursing mothers more information with Mylee, a sensor that scans a few drops of breast milk to get information about its composition and connects to a mobile app. The Israel-based company presented today at Disrupt Battlefield as one of two wild card competitors picked from Startup Alley.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/tough-science/
Oct 12, 2011...
Ada Etil Yonath
X-ray crystallographer currently at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. She won a share of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work on the structure and function of the ribosome. Yonath was born in 1939 in Jerusalem to a poor family. Her father died when she was 11 years old, and Yonath helped support her mother and younger sister. Yonath was the first Israeli woman to win a Nobel prize and the first woman in 45 years to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/double-whammy-for-triple-negative-breast-cancer/
Nov 30, 2016...
Combining two inhibitors (right) was much more effective than either alone in preventing cancer growth.
A promising new combination therapy for a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer has been identified by Weizmann Institute scientists, as was recently reported in the journal Cancer Research. The potential dual-acting therapeutic strategy not only inhibits tumor growth and survival but also circumvents the problem of drug-induced resistance.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/turning-point-soft-skills-sculptor/
Jul 19, 2017... Maya Schuldiner, a yeast biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, won the 2017 European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) Gold Medal award for discovering the functions of proteins that no one had previously studied. She explains how finding her voice helped her to build a productive career, which has included launching and teaching a highly sought-after graduate-level course in soft skills.What have you struggled with most during your career?It didn’t occur to me as a student that one needs to learn more than how to work at the bench — with the possible exception of how to give an interesting talk. It surprised me when I started my lab and realized that most of the technical skills I knew were not that important in this role. The skills I needed were how to recruit the right people, how to pair the right project with the right person, how to write successful grants and how to motivate my students. I worried that if I asked older colleagues about these, they might think less of me.How did you find the answers?I was part of a cohort of 17 people when I started as a professor at the Weizmann Institute in 2008. We set up an early-career principal-investigator group to meet every two weeks and talk through one new skill — from how to write a letter of recommendation to how to fire someone. I started thinking that it would be nice to turn these into lessons for graduate students.How was the class received?The first year, I advertised the course on the Weizmann website. Around 120 people registered — half of the PhD students at Weizmann. I restricted it to 30 people to facilitate discussion. I’m now in my sixth year of teaching the course. I’ve increased the size to 50 students, but consistently get 120 registrants. It shows how hungry students are for this information. In Israel, because of compulsory military training, students are often older and have families with children. A lot want strategies for work–life balance.What strategy did you use to launch your lab?There were two things. I decided to work only with people I really like. I’ve created an environment where there’s a strong feeling of friendship and camaraderie. Second, I took time to find my own scientific voice — my own special way of doing things. The first three years were scary because it took a bit more time than average to start publishing and be productive, but I wanted to find out what made me excited and could be uniquely mine.What do you mean by ‘find your own voice’?It's my way of doing science — what questions I ask, how I ask them and what tools I use to answer them.What worked well and what didn’t?I made a point of putting my students’ and postdocs’ needs ahead of mine, to be the kind of person they can trust to promote their well-being and agendas. Seeing that work made me happy and proud. I made some mistakes hiring people who weren't right for me or the lab. So I've learned to trust my intuition.Do people call you ‘Wonder Woman’ for having three children and a career?I hate it when people phrase it like that. It means that they think only a few people can do it. I don't think that's the case. The only reason I can do this is because of my husband, who is an associate professor also at Weizmann. We share every aspect of our lives. It's not as much about how I am, but how we are as a team.Does the EMBO award validate your strategy?It gives me a sense that the scientific path I’ve chosen is one that people find valuable, which is really moving for me. It comes also after a decade in the lab, when I want to enjoy what I’ve achieved and reflect on what went well and what didn’t. If I want to continue doing interesting things, it’s important to take a breather and really reflect on what to do in the next 10 years.This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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