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/in-the-news/why-the-diet-on-your-soda-may-be-misleading/
Sep 17, 2014...
The artificial sweeteners found in the world’s most popular diet sodas may have a serious unintended consequence, according to a new study.
Calorie counters beware: That diet soda and your own stomach may be conspiring against you.
A study published Wednesday in the journal Nature suggests that consuming artificial sweeteners may increase the risk of elevated blood sugar levels.
When researchers added popular sweeteners – including saccharin and aspartame – to the diets of mice, the balance of bacteria in the gut shifted and blood sugar levels spiked. Similar results occurred in a subset of humans during a follow-up trial.
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.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/immune-system-maintains-brain-health/
Nov 01, 2016...
©ROY SCOTT/GETTY IMAGES
In a dark room in Charlottesville, Virginia, a mouse swims in a small pool, searching for a place to rest. In 12 previous swims, with the help of visual cues and training from an experimenter, the mouse eventually tracked down a platform near the center of the pool. But just a day after its last swim, the animal is spending nearly as much time searching for the platform as it did on its first swim. The discombobulated mouse’s problem? It has no T cells.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/america-2025-precision-rx/
May 02, 2005...
In medicine's DNA age, doctors will make pre-emptive, targeted strikes on disease.
In one way, medicine hasn't changed much over the millennia: Doctors still wait for patients to feel sick before beginning treatment of an illness. Genomics promises to change that. By analyzing an individual's genetic makeup, physicians will be able to intervene early − and more precisely. "Generic treatments for certain diseases will be a thing of the past," says Elias Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health. A malady can look the same in two patients, but be caused by a different series of physiological missteps, he explains. "Treatments will be tailored to your particular genomic background."
Jan 25, 2018...
Phi3T bacteriophages attacking Bacillus subtilis, ROTEM SOREK
Bacteria have been defending themselves from phages—viruses that attack bacterial cells—for billions of years, and unlocking the immune mechanisms they use to protect themselves has led to the development of powerful molecular biology tools such as restriction enzymes and CRISPR-Cas9. Now, researchers report in Science today (January 25) that they have discovered 10 more immune systems that bacteria use to protect themselves against phages and plasmids, opening up the possibility to add new tools to the molecular biology toolbox.
Sep 06, 2018...
Probiotics, hailed by some as a cure for all kinds of digestive ailments and recommended by many GPs alongside antibiotics, may not be as universally beneficial for gut health as previously thought.
The gut microbiome is the sum total of all the micro-organisms living in a person’s gut, and has been shown to play a huge role in human health. New research has found probiotics – usually taken as supplements or in foods such as yoghurt, kimchi or kefir – can hinder a patient’s gut microbiome from returning to normal after a course of antibiotics, and that different people respond to probiotics in dramatically different ways.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/artificial-sweeteners-may-lead-to-diabetes/
Sep 18, 2014...
Artificial sweeteners may set the stage for diabetes in some people by hampering the way their bodies handle sugar, according to results of a study released Wednesday by the journal "Nature."(Photo: Jenny Kane, AP)
Reaching for artificial sweeteners to avoid sugar may be trading one evil for another, a new study suggests.
For some people, artificial sweeteners may lead to type 2 diabetes as directly as eating sugar does, according to the research, published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/matching-proteins-defeating-disease/
Nov 16, 2016...
Dr. Sarel Fleishman
With dating sites, you can search for a partner who has everything you want, from physical attributes to religious beliefs, education to hobbies, geography to age – and yet finding a mate is challenging for many. Wouldn’t it be nice if the other person could be changed here and there to meet your requirements?
This wish-list technology doesn’t exist yet … for humans. For proteins, it’s another matter, thanks to Dr. Sarel Fleishman at the Weizmann Institute of Science. “I started my career asking, essentially, how do proteins mate?” he says. “They each have knobs and holes that must fit together in a complementary way.”
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/hiv-could-fight-immune-diseases/
Aug 26, 2005...
The mechanism that HIV uses to gag the immune system could be turned against some very different foes: autoimmune diseases such as diabetes, multiple sclerosis and rehumatoid arthritis.
HIV is a master of attack silencing the T-cells that usually alert the immune system at the moment of invasion. But until now, little was known about how it did this.
Irun Cohen and his colleagues at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, and Harvard University reasoned that the mechanism for binding the virus to its target might also disable the T-cell's alarm call. If so, it could be used to inhibit the overactive immune response seen in autoimmune diseases.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/science-tips-september-2014/
Sep 29, 2014... How the brain ages is still largely an open question – in part because this organ is mostly insulated from direct contact with other systems in the body, including the blood and immune systems. In research published recently in Science, Weizmann Institute researchers Prof. Michal Schwartz of the Department of Neurobiology and Dr. Ido Amit of the Department of Immunology found evidence of a unique “signature” that may be the “missing link” between cognitive decline and aging. The scientists believe that this discovery may, in the future, lead to treatments that can slow or reverse cognitive decline in older people.
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