Yearly Archives: 2014
29 Research Works by Technion Researchers on Display at the
LABSCAPES – Views through the Microscope Exhibit
Works by 29 Technion researchers are on display at the exhibit “LABSCAPES – Views through the Microscope.”
Looking down a research microscope reveals minute details that cannot be detected by the naked eye, enabling the scientist access to the tiniest reaches of micro and nano-scales. Hidden universes of tiny animals, crystals, cells, bacteria, viruses, and even molecules and single atoms are discovered through the microscope. This fascinating world serves as the source of inspiration for the exhibit.
The images on display were taken through a diverse range of microscopes by Technion researchers working in the different areas of exact sciences, life sciences, engineering, and medicine. Among the works on display are by: 2011 Nobel laureate in chemistry, Professor Dan Shechtman, Technion President, Professor Peretz Lavie, 2014 Israel Prize winner, Professor Mordechai (Moti) Segev, and Dean of the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, Professor Alon Hoffman.
“The exhibit enables us a rare glimpse into the hidden worlds found across campus within the Technion’s research labs,” said Anat Har-Gil, the exhibition curator. “The idea behind “LABSCAPES” is that at first glance the spectacular pictures appear to be something familiar from nature, but upon reading the caption accompanying each image, the viewer discovers that the beautifully landscaped pictures are really something different, unusual and unexpected.”
“The idea for the exhibition came up during a conversation I had with Professor Yoram Reiter from the Faculty of Biology,” continued Har-Gil. “Professor Reiter told me about the street exhibition he saw in Paris, showcasing images taken through a microscope lens that had an uncanny similarity to famous paintings. I really liked the idea and when I started to hunt for materials on microscopic images on the Internet I discovered a whole new world. I searched for an interesting idea that would connect images taken by researchers from different research fields and this is how I came up with the idea for the exhibit ‘LABSCAPES.’”
The images by Technion researchers taken through microscope lenses are part of a fascinating and spectacular exhibit, but beyond the beauty of these impressive works of art lie, first and foremost, their scientific value.
The exhibit is open to the public and is on display at the Gallery located in the foyer of the Technion’s Elyachar Central Library.
Reporters and photographers are invited to the festive opening of the exhibit to be held on Thursday, April 3, 2014, at 11:45, in the presence of Technion President, Professor Peretz Lavie.
Select pictures from ‘LABSCAPES:’
1. BOUQUET OF ROSES
Magnesium hydroxide particles, prepared by a hydrothermal process.
Photographed through a scanning electrons microscopy (SEM).
By: Dana Katz, from the Research Group of Yaron Paz on Photocatalysis and Thin Films, at the Wolfson Department of Chemical Engineering.
2. GALAXY
Electron diffraction with five-fold rotational symmetry from the icosahedral phase.
Photographed through a transmission electron microscope (TEM).
By: Distinguished Professor Dan Shechtman, from the Department Of Materials Science and Engineering.
3. FALL
A network of micro and nano-fluidic channels in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS).
Photographed through an epifluroescence microscope.
By: Merav Karsenty and Nadya Ostromohov, from the Microfluidic Technologies Laboratory headed by Assistant Professor Moran Bercovici, at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.
4. FURROWS
Light patterns that form spontaneously when a light beam passes through a nonlinear medium.
Photographed through an optical microscope.
By: The Research Group of Distinguished Professor Mordechai (Moti) Segev, from the Department of Physics.
Medicine of the Future: British-Israeli Conference at the Technion
The Technion hosts the second BIRAX conference, focusing on collaborative research in regenerative medicine and stem cells
This morning the second BIRAX Regenerative Medicine Conference opened at the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine. The conference is focusing on British and Israeli collaborative research in the field of regenerative medicine and medicine based on stem cells. About 300 people will be attending the conference, over 80 of them from Britain. Among the delegates are recipients of seven large scale groundbreaking joint research projects , which were awarded funding following first call for proposals of the BIRAX Regenerative Medicine Initiative.
Technion President, Professor Peretz Lavie, conveyed that in 1997, when he served as the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Professor Joseph Itzkovitz requested funding for the amount of $10,000 to bring Professor James Thomson from the University of Wisconsin. “Professor Itzkovitz explained that he was a leading stem cell researcher. At the time this research sounded to me like science fiction, but I agreed to his request. Professor Thomson came to the conference and the rest, as they say, is history– stem cell research has evolved into a key area in medicine, and a field with enormous potential. I’m so glad that I had the opportunity to play a small role in promoting this important field – by allocating $10,000 of the Faculty’s budget. Today, Technion researchers play a major role in this research area.”
דיקן הפקולטה לרפואה ע”ש רפפורט, פרופסור אליעזר שלו
“Without a doubt, we are living in a fascinating age,” said Professor Eliezer Shalev, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. “Medicine is changing and evolving right before our eyes. Regenerative medicine is one of the most important areas of medicine, and it gives new hope to patients that until now had no cure for their ailments. Regenerative medicine offers compensation for the deterioration of bodily functions within a lifetime, and is of great importance in view of today’s aging population and the shortage of organs for transplantation. It may also help reduce animal testing.”
“It is a great privilege to hold this joint conference here,” said Matthew Gould, the British Ambassador to Israel, and one of the key founding figures of the BIRAX Regenerative Medicine program. “For me this is much more than a conference focused on regenerative medicine; it’s a wonderful model of scientific collaboration and exchange between countries. This is how I would like to see the relationship between Britain and Israel: bound by positive and fruitful connections, and founded on excellence stemming from both countries in specific scientific areas. The Government of Israel and the Government of Britain are seriously committed for this type of cooperation at BIRAX conferences, and British leaders voiced this sentiment during their visits to Israel: William Hague, the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, at his visit a year ago; our Prime Minister, David Cameron, at his visit two weeks ago; and David Willetts, the Minister for Universities and Science who is with us today at the conference.”
Britain’s Minister of Science and Universities, David Willetts opened the conference by saying that this is his second visit to Israel. “I’ve been in Israel for almost a week along with a delegation of senior representatives from leading British universities. BIRAX is a wonderful way to promote scientific exchange between our two countries, and through its framework we advance research of global significance, which carry considerable British and Israeli contributions. We invest in different fields, such as energy and advanced materials, but most of our focus is on life sciences, in which we invest hundreds of millions of pounds.”
Professor Saul Tendler, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at the University of Nottingham , has visited Israel a number of times, as he has been involved in long term scientific cooperation with Professor Ehud Gazit from Tel Aviv University. In an exclusive interview Professor Tendler said that no British university has ever boycotted Israel and that top universities from the countries are interacting. “ “In reality, talks of boycotts are baseless, there they may be academics here and there who choose not to work with Israel, just as there are those who refuse to work with China.”
Professor Paul Curran, Paul Curran, Vice-Chancellor , City University , added that, “In the five years I’ve served as the university president there have been no anti-Semitic nor anti-Israel incident. As part of the ‘Olive Tree Scholarship we bring students from Israel and Palestine to City university where they take part in discussions sometimes hosted by journalists from theBBC,. Unfortunately, the media focuses on the negative,.”
In connection with British-Israeli exchange Professor Curran said that, “We are two small countries who are very strong in science, and therefore cooperation is not accidental. When our Prime Minister, David Cameron, visited here two weeks ago, the first thing he did was to sign a cooperation agreement between our two countries.”
“The number of Israeli students in the UK has been declining, and it is important for us to alter this trend. We hope that BIRAX will help reverse this trend and that more students from Israel will choose to study in the UK..”
In the photos: Dean of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Professor Eliezer Shalev. Photographed by: Avishag Shaar-Yeshuv.
A $4 Million Investment:
Technion established the most advanced Center for Structural Biology in the country
The Lorry I. Lokey Interdisciplinary Center for Life Sciences and Engineering, together with the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute at the Technion, invested $4 million for the establishment of the Technion Center for Structural Biology (TCSB), the most advanced of its kind in the Middle East. The head of the new center, Dr. Hay Dvir, said that this is a quantum leap in the field of structural biology in Israel, and will allow for more extensive interdisciplinary biomedical research at the Technion. He emphasized that, “The State-of-the-art Macromolecular Crystallography instrumentation at TCSB allows for biological research at the atomic level, which has thus far been mostly studied at a few billion-dollars facilities abroad.”
Structural biology is a branch of life science that aims to understand the function of biological macromolecules – such as the tens of thousands of different proteins responsible for most of the biochemical processes in the living organism – by decoding their unique three-dimensional structure. “The difficulty lies in the tiny dimensions of these molecules which cannot be resolved by visible light rays and thus are invisible by definition.”
X-ray crystallography is the most powerful technique for high resolutions studies of biological molecules since the wavelength of X-rays is short enough to allow distinction of inter-atomic bonds. The TCSB is equipped with a “diffractometer” to illuminate crystals and measure the X-rays they scatter. “By identifying the unique scattering of each crystal, we hope to unravel the molecular structure that gave rise to its crystal,” explains Dr. Dvir. “Our ability to ‘see’ invisible objects is not only exciting and highly informative in itself, but also of tremendous medical importance when it comes to looking at interaction between a drug and its destination target in the body” he added.
The process of solving a three-dimensional structure can be time consuming and challenging, and its success depends on the brightness of the X-ray source among other things. The substantial improvement in the brightness of X-rays produced at TCSB now allows in-house high-resolution structure determination without having to rely on external sources such as synchrotron facilities located in several places around the world.
The Center is also equipped with advanced robotic systems for crystallization of biological macromolecules, as well as high-end microscopic imaging for tracking crystal growth.
The inauguration of TCSB took place on March 3, 2014 in the presence of the guest of honor, Professor Ada Yonath, the 2009 Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry.
In the photo: Dr. Hay Dvir at the new Center for Structural Biology.
Photo taken by: The Technion’s Spokesperson’s Office
“Eureka-DMA” software makes detecting genetic components of disease, faster and easier
HAIFA, ISRAEL and NEW YORK (March 11, 2014) – Microarray analysis – a complex technology commonly used in many applications such as discovering genes, disease diagnosis, drug development and toxicological research – has just become easier and more user-friendly. A new advanced software program called Eureka-DMA provides a cost-free, graphical interface that allows bioinformaticians and bench-biologists alike to initiate analyses, and to investigate the data produced by microarrays. The program was developed by Ph.D. student Sagi Abelson of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel.
DNA microarray analysis, a high-speed method by which the expression of thousands of genes can be analyzed simultaneously, was invented in the late 1980s and developed in the 1990s. Genetic researchers used a glass slide with tiny dots of copies of DNA to test match genes they were trying to identify. Because the array of dots was so small, it was called a “microarray.” There is a strong correlation between the field of molecular biology and medical research, and microarray technology is used routinely in the area of cancer research and other epidemiology studies. Many research groups apply it to detect genetic variations between biological samples and information about aberrant gene expression levels can be used in what is called “personalized medicine.” This includes customized approaches to medical care, including finding new drugs for gene targets where diseases have genetic causes and potential cures are based on an individual’s aberrant gene’s signal.
An article written by Abelson published in the current issue of BMC Bioinformatics (2014,15:53) describes the new software tool and provides examples of its uses.
“Eureka-DMA combines simplicity of operation and ease of data management with the rapid execution of multiple task analyses,” says Abelson. “This ability can help researchers who have less experience in bioinformatics to transform the high throughput data they generate into meaningful and understandable information.”
Eureka-DMA has a distinct advantage over other software programs that only work “behind the scenes” and provide only a final output. It provides users with an understanding of how their actions influence the outcome throughout all the data elucidation steps, keeping them connected to the data, and enabling them to reach optimal conclusions.
“It is very gratifying to see the insightful initiative of Sagi Abelson, a leading ‘out-of-the-box’ thoughtful Technion doctorate student whom I have had the privilege of supervising,” said Prof. Karl Skorecki, the Director of the Rappaport Family Institute for Research in the Medical Sciences at the Technion Faculty of Medicine and Director of Medical and Research Development at the Rambam Health Care Campus. “Over and above his outstanding PhD thesis research project on cancer stem cells, Sagi has developed – on his own – a user-friendly computer-based graphical interface for health and biological research studies. Eureka-DMA enables users to easily interpret massive DNA expression data outputs, empowering researchers (and in the future, clinicians) to generate new testable hypotheses with great intuitive ease, and to examine complex genetic expression signatures of genes that provide information relevant to health and disease conditions. This was enabled by combining outstanding insight and expertise in biological and computer sciences, demonstrating the unique multidisciplinary strengths and intellectual freedom that fosters creative innovation at the Technion.”
According to Abelson, Eureka-DMA was programmed in MATLAB, a high-level language and interactive environment for numerical computation, visualization, and programming. Advanced users of MATLAB can analyze data, develop algorithms, and create models and applications to explore multiple hypotheses and reach solutions faster than with spreadsheets or traditional software. Eureka-DMA uses many of MATLAB’s toolbox features to provide ways to search for enriched pathways and genetic terms and then combines them with other relevant features.
Raw data input is through Windows Excel or text files. This, says Abelson, spares the user from dealing with multiple and less common microarray files received by different manufacturers. Results can then be exported into a ‘txt’ file format,’ or Windows Excel, making Eureka-DMA a unified and flexible platform for microarray data analysis, interpretation and visualization. It can also be used as a fast validation tool for results obtained by different methods.
Eureka-DMA loads and exports genetic data, “normalizes” raw data, filters non-relevant data, and enables pathway enrichment analysis for mapping genes on cellular pathways. The user can browse through the enriched pathways and create an illustration of the pathway with the differentially expressed genes highlighted.
After identifying the differentially expressed genes, biological meaning is ascribed via the software so that the identification of significant co-clustered genes with similar properties – cellular components, a biological process, or a molecular function – can be achieved.
Eureka-DMA has been tested on a number of data sets in order to assess the program’s capability to deliver meaningful and relevant biological insights regarding the analyzed data. Descriptions of two data sets: an analysis of colorectal tumors of responders and non-responders to chemotherapy, and an analysis of the lung transcriptome in mice infected with influenza A virus – can be found in the full paper published on-line at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2105-15-53.pdf
Eureka-DMA software is freely available for academic users and can be downloaded at http://blue-meduza.org/Eureka-DMA .
Sagi Abelson’s graduate research is supported by the Edward M. Satell Fellowship Fund.
Waterloo, Technion partner to advance research, commercialization
WATERLOO, Ont. (Tuesday, March 18, 2014) – Two of the world’s top innovation universities hope to accelerate breakthroughs in research and commercialization with a new agreement signed during a joint conference in Israel today, Tuesday March 18, 2014.
The agreement between the University of Waterloo and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology brings together some of the top minds in quantum information systems, nanotechnology and water for pure and applied research.
“As two of the world’s top innovation universities, the University of Waterloo and Technion are natural partners,” said Feridun Hamdullahpur, president and vice-chancellor of the University of Waterloo. “This partnership positions both Waterloo and Technion for accelerated progress in the key areas of quantum information systems, nanotechnology, and water. These disciplines will help to shape the future of communities, industries, and everyday life.”
The new partnership agreement will connect students and faculty from both institutions with global markets through technology transfer and commercialization opportunities with industrial partners in Canada and in Israel.
“This partnership between two global innovation leaders puts in place the conditions to support research breakthroughs and new opportunities for commercialization on an international scale,” said George Dixon, vice-president of research at Waterloo. “University of Waterloo and Technion have a history of research collaboration going back almost 20 years.”
Technion President Prof’ Peretz Lavie said: “The agreement between the University of Waterloo and Technion will lead to joint research projects between Israeli and Canadian scientists in areas crucial for making our world a better place. I could not think of a better partner for such projects than the university of Waterloo.”
A joint research conference in Israel to mark the signing featured presentations by some of the world’s top researchers, including Raymond Laflamme, executive director of Waterloo’s Institute for Quantum Computing. A former student of Stephen Hawking, Laflamme is now leading the quest to develop the world’s first quantum computer.
The conference also featured the work of nanotechnology expert Carolyn Ren whose knowledge of Lab-on-a-Chip Technology has the potential to revolutionize medical diagnosis and treatment by making chemical and biomedical diagnosis faster, easier and less expensive. Canada Research Chair in Groundwater Remediation, David Blowes, also presented on his work to find new and better ways stop or reverse contamination caused by mining operations.
The new research partnership will increase international opportunities for undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral student research exchanges, along with joint training and education programs, including dual and joint degree programs. The institutions will also collaborate on applied research projects, workshops, seminars and conferences.
Both universities will provide seed funding for these collaborative efforts, beginning with the joint conference, held at Technion’s main campus in Haifa, Israel.
About the University of Waterloo
In just half a century, the University of Waterloo, located at the heart of Canada’s technology hub, has become one of Canada’s leading comprehensive universities with 35,000 full- and part-time students in undergraduate and graduate programs. Waterloo, as home to the world’s largest post-secondary co-operative education program, embraces its connections to the world and encourages enterprising partnerships in learning, research and discovery. In the next decade, the university is committed to building a better future for Canada and the world by championing innovation and collaboration to create solutions relevant to the needs of today and tomorrow. For more information about Waterloo, please visit www.uwaterloo.ca.
Sealantis Announces Successful Results of First Clinical Trial
Results advance the launch of Seal-V™ in Europe
March 6th, Haifa, Israel – Sealantis Ltd. has announced positive results from its first clinical trial that tested the safety and performance of Seal-V, a vascular sealant that helps rapidly control bleeding during vascular surgery. The results pave the way to a product launch in European markets intended for later this year.
Seal-V works by mechanically sealing areas of potential leakage during surgical reconstruction of large blood vessels including bypass procedures and arterio-venous access for hemodialysis. It is adjunctive to standard surgical procedures for bleeding control.
The results show that the average time to hemostasis (bleeding cessation) using Seal-V was approximately 36 seconds, which demonstrates the benefits in using Seal-V to save blood and time in the operating room. No device related complications or adverse events were reported during the three-month follow-up period.
Seal-V received the CE Mark last July and is currently being used in several clinical centers in Germany, towards the coming product launch.
“Seal-V performed extremely well in the clinical study and consistently demonstrates exceptional performance in current clinical use,” said Sealantis CEO Tomer Fuchs. “We have received positive feedback and increasing interest from surgeons and from the market. Our intention is to make
Seal-V available to vascular surgeons in Europe later this year.”
The product represents a new generation in tissue sealing technology that imitates the properties of algae, giving it an inherent ability to strongly bind to both native blood vessels and synthetic grafts, even in wet and moist conditions. In addition, the protein-free composition relieves Seal-V from risks associated with the use of protein-based sealants.
Sealantis is also developing a pipeline of advanced solutions for a variety of clinical needs. Among them is a gastro-intestinal sealant to prevent leakage of bowel content after surgery, an adhesive for plastic and esthetic surgeries, and innovative adhesive-drug formulations for site-specific drug delivery.
The latest prospective, single-arm, non-randomized clinical trial involved 23 patients and 38 vascular reconstruction sites using various types of graft materials and met all primary and secondary end-points. The study was conducted in three medical centers in Israel.
About Sealantis Ltd.
Sealantis Ltd. develops a proprietary platform of alga-mimetic tissue adhesives, for a variety of applications and clinical needs. The Sealantis adhesives are protein-free and have an extraordinary ability to adhere strongly to internal tissues even in wet environments. These adhesives have applications in surgical leakage control, tissue adhesion and drug delivery. Sealantis was founded in 2010 by the Alfred Mann Institute at the Technion (AMIT) and Prof. Havazelet Bianco-Peled. For more information, visit www.sealantis.co.il.
CONTACT
Tehilla Bar-Yehuda
+972-4-829-1000
“If you just think about the problems that we have to face as humankind over the next 25 years and make a list – you will talk about war, hunger, pollution, clean water, energy,” says Assistant Professor Lilac Amirav, of the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry. “Of all these things, energy is probably the most important – because if you solve the energy crisis, you impact everything.”
A key opening to discovering energy solutions, says Amirav, comes from the recent ability to manipulate the properties of matter at the Nano scale. “In colloidal photosynthesis, we can control the size of the particles – and that is a key that means we can tune most of the nanoparticle properties, for example its band gap. We are reaching that point where we can create almost everything that we can draw on paper – it’s pretty remarkable. It opens the doors of creativity, and it also means we can stop playing and actually design something for a particular task. We are now trying to create materials that will translate sun energy into chemical reaction – direct solar-to-fuel conversions.”
A member of the national I-CORE for Solar Fuels research team orchestrated by the Grand Technion Energy Program, Amirav finished her first degree when she was only 18. She returns to Technion from Berkeley in the US and is presently setting up her multidisciplinary lab.
Assistant Professor Lilac Amirav