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.
Aug 24, 2016...
Credit: Thomas Fuchs
Compared with other bodily excretions, tears are vastly understudied. Collecting the salty drops is tedious – weepy donors are rare, men hardly ever sign up and tears must be “fresh” for their makeup to be properly analyzed. As a result, researchers lack a consensus about the purpose of a basic human behavior. Is crying a primal way to communicate that many species share, as some chemists hypothesize? Or is it, as psychologists have put forth, a uniquely human key to social bonding? Israeli neurobiologist Noam Sobel has a plan to advance the field: he has perfected a way to flash-freeze tears and is now working to create a “tear bank” for researchers around the world.
Oct 24, 2019... Evogene Ltd. (Nasdaq: EVGN; TASE:EVGN) biopharmaceutical unit Biomica, which is developing innovative microbiome-based therapeutics, has announced a collaboration with the Weizmann Institute of Science to develop a selective treatment against antibiotic resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus infection. This microbiome focused approach aims to target a specific microbe while maintaining the microbiome of the patients’ gut. The company has in-licensed Prof. Ada Yonath’s, Nobel Prize laureate, work and discoveries in high-resolution crystal structure of the large ribosomal subunit of the pathogenic Staphylococcus aureus. The crystal structure originates from pathogenic species, allowing a high degree of specificity, and together with Biomica’s unique computational technology, will enable the design and development of new types of selective, narrow spectrum antibiotics agents. Prof. Yonath’s group will scientifically support Biomica in the development of the technology.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/science-tips-may-2009/
May 05, 2009...
One can have a dream, two can make that dream so real, goes a popular song. Now a Weizmann Institute study has revealed that it takes two to perform an essential form of DNA repair.
Prof. Zvi Livneh of the Weizmann Institute’s Biological Chemistry Department has been studying DNA repair for some two decades: “Considering that the DNA of each cell is damaged about 20,000 times a day by radiation, pollutants, and harmful chemicals produced within the body, it’s obvious that without effective DNA repair, life as we know it could not exist. Most types of damage result in individual mutations – genetic ‘spelling mistakes’ – that are corrected by precise, error-free repair enzymes. Sometimes, however, damage results in more than a mere spelling mistake; it can cause gaps in the DNA, which prevent the DNA molecule from being copied when the cell divides, much like an ink blot or a hole on a book page interferes with reading. So dangerous are these gaps that the cell resorts to a sloppy but efficient repair technique to avoid them: it fills in the missing DNA in an inaccurate fashion. Such repair can save the cell from dying, but it comes at a price: this error-prone mechanism, discovered at the Weizmann Institute and elsewhere about a decade ago, is a major source of mutations.”
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/building-a-better-antibiotic/
Apr 23, 2012...
Prof. Ada Yonath
When harmful bacteria become resistant to medicine, the cost—to both human health and society—is high. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), microbial resistance not only kills people, but also impedes control of infectious diseases, damages trade and economies, and threatens to return us to the pre-antibiotic era.
Drug resistance is a growing problem, as decades of misuse and overuse of antibiotics have resulted in the evolution of bacteria that do not respond to such medicines, leading to a rise in “superbugs” such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
Jul 26, 2006...
Researchers believe they have found a second code in DNA in addition to the genetic code.
The genetic code specifies all the proteins that a cell makes. The second code, superimposed on the first, sets the placement of the nucleosomes, miniature protein spools around which the DNA is looped. The spools both protect and control access to the DNA itself.
The discovery, if confirmed, could open new insights into the higher order control of the genes, like the critical but still mysterious process by which each type of human cell is allowed to activate the genes it needs but cannot access the genes used by other types of cell.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/science-tips-october-2012/
Oct 22, 2012... Not long ago, some unassuming bacteria found themselves at the center of a scientific controversy: a group claimed that these microorganisms, which live in an environment that is rich in the arsenic-based compound arsenate, could take up that arsenate and use it — instead of the phosphate on which all known life on Earth depends. The claim, since disproved, raised another question: How do organisms living with arsenate pick and choose the right substance?
Oct 12, 2015... As we age, our biological clocks tend to wind down – but why? A Weizmann Institute of Science research team has now revealed an intriguing new link between a group of metabolites whose levels drop as our cells age and the functioning of our circadian clocks – mechanisms encoded in our genes that keep time to cycles of day and night. Their results, which appeared in Cell Metabolism, suggest that the substance, which is found in many foods, could help keep our internal timekeepers up to speed.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/shipping-and-packing-proteins/
Dec 08, 2010... The billions of cells in our bodies have to work together and be in constant communication in order to sense and react to changes in their environment. They receive signals from other cells that tell them, for example, how much they need to grow, when to divide, and when to produce the proteins that carry out many of the tasks in the cell. “For all this to work, you need a specialized compartment in the cell where you can control the quality of every single protein the cell produces, package it correctly, and then send it on to its destination outside of the cell,” says Dr. Maya Schuldiner of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Molecular Genetics. She studies this specialized compartment, which is a structure known as the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). “I call it the cell’s shipping and packing department,” she says.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/science-tips-february-2012/
Feb 24, 2012...
The Weizmann Institute is One of Seven “Instruct” Core Centres
Major transformations in biomedical science are on the horizon with the establishment of the world-class Integrated Structural Biology Infrastructure (Instruct) in support of European biomedical research.
The European Strategy Forum of Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) is involved in establishing about 40 such infrastructures, seven of them in biomedical sciences. Instruct is one such biomedical project, whose aim is to provide pan-European user access to state-of-the-art equipment, technologies, and manpower in cellular structural biology. This will allow Europe to maintain a competitive edge and play a leading role in this vital research area.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/toward-an-ultra-personalized-therapy-for-melanoma/
Sep 12, 2018...
T cells (red) attacking melanoma cells (green). The neo-antigen-specific T cells in this image are especially effective at killing cancer cells
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—September 12, 2018—With new immunotherapy treatments for melanoma, recovery rates have risen dramatically – in some cases to around 50%. But they could be much higher. A new study led by researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science showed, in lab dishes and animal studies, that a highly personalized approach could help the immune cells improve their ability to recognize the cancer and kill it. The results of this study were published in Cancer Discovery.