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Breakthrough in Understanding Brain Function

Pioneering research conducted at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology proves the importance of individualized models for understanding brain function

New research conducted by Prof. Christophe Bernard and Prof. Viktor Jirsa of Aix Marseille Univ, Inserm, Institut de Neurosciences des Systèmes, Marseille, France and Prof. Itamar Kahn of Technion’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine demonstrates the importance of personalized brain models. The research team’s findings show that individual variations in the brain’s structural connectome (map of neural connections) define a specific structural fingerprint with a direct impact on the functional organization of individual brains.

Professor Itamar KahnThe groundbreaking research, “Individual structural features constrain the mouse functional connectome,” was published in PNAS, the official journal of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States. Technion MD/Ph.D. candidate Eyal Bergmann and Université d’Aix-Marseille doctoral student Francesca Melozzi were lead co-authors.

By using a connectome-based model approach, Prof. Kahn and his partners aimed to understand the functional organization of the brain by modeling the brain as a dynamic system,

then studying how the functional architecture rises from the underlying structural skeleton. Taking advantage of mice studies, they systematically investigated the informative content of different structural features in explaining the emergence of the functional ones.

Whole brain dynamics intuitively depend upon the internal wiring of the brain; but to which extent the individual structural connectome constrains the corresponding functional connectome is unknown, even though its importance is uncontested. After acquiring structural MRI data from individual mice, the researchers virtualized their brain networks and simulated in silico functional MRI data. Theoretical results were validated against empirical awake functional MRI data obtained from the same mice. As a result, the researchers were able to demonstrate that individual structural connectomes predict the functional organization of individual brains.

Francesca Melozzi

Eyal Bergmann

While structural MRI is a common non-invasive method that can estimate structural connectivity in individual humans and rodents, it is not as precise as the gold standard connectivity mapping possible in the mouse. Utilizing precise mapping available in mice, the authors identified which missing connections (not measurable with structural MRI) are important for whole brain dynamics in the mouse. The researchers identified that individual variations thus define a specific structural fingerprint with a direct impact upon the functional organization of individual brains, a key feature for personalized medicine.

For the full article in PNAS click here

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Automated System Supplies Continuous Information About Patient’s Health

Researchers from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and China present a hybrid sensing system for the continuous monitoring of health data, integrating artificial intelligence and cloud computing.

Professor Hossam Haick

Researchers at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and China’s Xidian University have presented a comprehensive review of smart systems to provide continuous information on a subject’s health. These systems are based on advanced hybrid sensing, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing. The research has been published in the prestigious journal Chemical Reviews

Much of the review is based on the authors’ research, which is led by Professor Hossam Haick and Dr. Yoav Broza of the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering at Technion and Professor Weiwei Wu of Xidian University in China.

“Wearable monitoring” is an inclusive term for innovative technologies that provide information on a person’s health, based on continuous monitoring of a series of biomarkers. The speedy development of this field is very important news, especially at a time of aging of the population, and the fact that people 60 years of age or older comprise about 13% of all humanity.

However, for various reasons, diagnostic technologies are evolving in different ways, with no deliberate direction and no integration of the various data obtained from them. Such integration is a prerequisite for optimizing diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up. In the absence of such integration, and despite developments in medical diagnosis, in many cases, the diagnosis is made very late. This reduces the ability of the medical system to address the problem successfully. Additionally, preventive medicine – one of the most important approaches in the world of medicine – is not advancing fast enough.

Dr. Yoav Broza

Extending life, which is welcome in and of itself, shifts the center of gravity from serious, short-term illnesses caused by external factors such as infections and injuries that can be healed to long-term, chronic, and incurable illnesses that impair the quality of life over time. Today, nearly 45% of Americans suffer from chronic illnesses, and the need for continuous and integrative monitoring is especially important in this regard.

This is the backdrop to the tireless efforts invested in recent years by Prof. Hossam Haik’s research group. In the current report, the team’s researchers – in collaboration with Prof. Weiwei Wu, who did his postdoctoral fellowship under the guidance of Prof. Haick – present an in-depth and extensive review of innovative sensors that provide quick and cheap diagnostics with minimal invasiveness.

In this review, researchers present a complex system that analyzes, using technological means that include cellular and cloud and Big Data analytics, a series of biomarkers derived from body fluids – blood, tears, breath, saliva, urine, brain and spinal fluid, and more. The overall goal of this research activity is to develop hybrid sensing systems that integrate different sensing technologies. For this, a combination of different fields of knowledge is required, including chemistry, electronics, and physics – a combination that takes place in Prof. Haick’s research group.

“Until now, the most reliable diagnostic tools have been radiological diagnostics (such as X-rays, MRIs and CTs), laboratory tests (of urine, blood, etc.), and various microbiological tests, said Prof. Haick.

Professor Weiwei Wu of Xidian University

The problem is that these are expensive methods that require experts to decipher the findings. Technological advances make it possible for us to introduce inexpensive, fast and exact automated methods that collect and analyze a wide range of data. By integrating various technological capabilities, we present a cheap, easy-to-use and effective follow-up tool that will provide practitioners with comprehensive and continuous feedback on the patient’s health.

One of the vital conditions for achieving this goal is the development of highly sensitive and accurate sensors. These, according to Prof. Haick, are inspired by nature.

“Over billions of years, evolution developed excellent and efficient sensors, based, for example, on the interaction among enzymes, receptors, and suction systems like the tongue of the hummingbird,” said Prof. Haick. “Not only have we been inspired by these mechanisms, but we have created even better systems by using engineering, the Internet of Things (IoT), and cloud computing. The bottom line is a complex system that will supply the relevant medical professional with a continuous, comprehensive, and accurate diagnosis in real-time, and recommendations for early and effective treatment.”

Prof. Hossam Haick is the head of the Laboratory for Nanomaterial-Based Devices in the Technion’s Wolfson Department of Chemical Engineering, and a member of the Russell Berrie Nanotechnlogy Institute (RBNI). The present study was carried out with support from the Horizon 2002 of the EU Framework for the VOGAS and A-Patch Consortiums.

For the full article in the journal Chemical Reviews click here

When the ‘winners’ become the ‘losers’: local widespread common birds are declining rapidly while non-native, invasive species are thriving.

Invasive common myna (Acridotheres tristis); photographer: Ehud Fast

Technion-based conservation scientists Dr. Agathe Colléony and Assistant Professor Assaf Shwartz are investigating trends in common bird populations across Israel over the last 15 years. They have shown how invasive alien bird species are thriving and native ones are largely declining. “It’s important to set appropriate management strategies to halt or mitigate the spread of non-native birds, particularly the common myna,” says Dr. Agathe Colléony, who is a post-doctoral student at the Technion Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning.

Assistant Professor Assaf Shwartz

The study found that 75 percent of the most common bird species in Israel have been in decline for the past 15 years, while populations of three non-native invasive alien bird species have been exploding at rates between 250 percent to 843 percent.

Among the bird species rapidly declining are the house sparrow (Passer domesticus), which has declined by 28 percent and the white-spectacled bulbul (Pycnonotus xanthopygos), which has declined by 45 percent).

“It’s worrying that the species we grew up with, are now declining,” says Prof. Schwartz, of the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. “I’m afraid that soon my children won’t be able to see and hear and interact with the sparrow, the bulbul, and the Palestine sunbird, which used to be very widespread across Israel.”

“Almost two decades ago, we started studying the effect of invasive alien birds on local ones. We found that the common mynas outcompete some local cavity nester species such as the house sparrow and also that they demonstrate aggressive behaviors towards other native bird species,” says Prof. Shwartz. This study, published today in Biological Conservation, demonstrates that three invasive bird species are spreading across the country: the common myna (Acridotheres tristis); and two species of parakeets (Psittacula krameria et Myiopsitta monachus).

Dr. Agathe Colléony

“Unfortunately, this study shows that our predictions are now becoming the reality in Israel,” says Prof. Shwartz.

Land-use changes such as urbanization push away many species while favoring few others that thrive in the new environmental conditions. The native common species that were considered “winners” in this process are now “losers”. The ultimate “winners” have been non-native species. Although negative trends appear to be so far limited to human-dominated landscapes (mostly residential areas), there are signs that these effects may soon reach more natural landscapes.

The study flags the importance of setting appropriate management strategies to halt or mitigate the spread of non-native birds. Otherwise, the researchers predict that the bird communities will become increasingly homogenized and dominated by non-native species.

The paper can be accessed here.

The native house sparrow (Passer domesticus); photographer: Ehud Fast

Global Ranking of AI Research: Technion, the only Israeli representative on the list, is ranked in 25th place

According to AI Research Rankings, published at the beginning of December, Technion is ranked in 25th place on the list of the world’s academic institutions leading the field of artificial intelligence research.

Technion was ranked #29 on a more comprehensive list that included large corporations in addition to universities. On that list, which includes Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and IBM, Technion is ranked before Amazon, University of Pennsylvania, University of Seoul and Johns Hopkins University. Furthermore, Technion is the only Israeli institution (including both academic and non-academic institutions) ranked in the top 40 leading institutions in AI research worldwide.

Israel also earned a place of honor in the new rankings: it is ranked in 2nd place in the per capita publication index, with the U.S. being the only country surpassing Israel in the number of AI research publications per capita.

In recent years, Technion has increased its investment in the field of artificial intelligence – in terms of both funding and human capital. In October 2018, an AI Center was established on campus in partnership with Intel, headed by Prof. Shie Mannor of the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering.

The AI Research Rankings are based on 2,200 publications at the two most prestigious AI research conferences held in 2019: Neural Information Processing Systems and International Conference on Machine Learning.

EMET Prize awarded to Dist. Prof. Moti Segev from the Technion

The 2019 EMET Prize was awarded this week at the Jerusalem Theater by Social Equality Minister Gila Gamliel to 11 researchers, among them Distinguished Professor Moti Segev of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, winner of the EMET Prize in Physics and Space.

The EMET Prize is awarded by the A.M.N. Foundation with the sponsorship of the Prime Minister for academic or professional excellence and achievements with far-reaching impact and for a special contribution to society. Its aim is “to acknowledge those who view excellence as a way of life and the fulfillment of human potential as essential to creating a better world for future generations.”

Dist. Prof. Segev, 60, is the Robert Shillman Chair of the Faculty of Physics, and one of the founders of the Helen Diller Center for Quantum Science, Matter and Engineering. After a B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering he went onto a post-doctorate at Caltech, followed by an appointment as a professor at Princeton University. In 1998 he returned to Israel and to the Technion as a faculty member of the physics department. In 2008, he became a distinguished professor, awarded for outstanding research excellence and reserved for a select few researchers at the Technion.

Dist. Prof. Segev is a groundbreaking physicist in the field of optics and lasers and his scientific work is cited in tens of thousands of scientific articles. Among his awards are the prestigious Quantum Electronics Prize (the most important European award in the field of optics and lasers), which he won in 2007, the Max Born Award from the American Optical Society (2009) and the Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science in 2014. He is a Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) of the United States of America, a member of the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities and a recipient of the Israel Prize in Physics in 2014.

Dist. Prof. Segev spoke at the ceremony on behalf of the EMET laureates and said that: “The small number of faculty members in Israeli academia means that on every faculty member there are about 25 students (undergrads and graduate students). This is the worst numerical ratio in Western society. By comparison, at MIT, Stanford, and Princeton the ratio is 1:12. Therefore, it is important that we increase the faculty members by at least 30%, perhaps by 50%. The question asked is therefore whether we have the human brain pool to select excellent faculty members. The answer is positive: today there are some 1,500 Israelis in academia in the United States. Most of them stayed there after their post-doctorates because they did not have the opportunity to return to Israel. Therefore, we must add positions to allow more researchers to find work at universities in Israel after the postdoctoral studies abroad, and give a chance to more young people, at least 30% more than what we are doing today.”

The research group, headed by Dist. Prof. Segev focuses on experimental and theoretical projects in many fields including photonics, lasers, and quantum electronics. The group is engaged in research of basic scientific aspects that influence other areas of science (beyond photonics) and in the development of applications affecting the world of technology.

This past year (March 2018-Feb 2019), Dist. Prof. Segev reported on seven different works, each of which is groundbreaking, published in two of the world’s leading scientific journals, Nature and Science.

Beyond his personal achievements, Segev is most proud of the success of his doctoral and postdoctoral students, 21 of whom are university professors in Israel and abroad, and many others who hold senior R&D positions in industry. His candidacy for this year’s EMET Prize was submitted by his former students, who are now university professors in Israel.

To young researchers, Dist. Prof. Segev said at the ceremony: “Think beyond the horizon about things that weren’t thought about before you. Have a mind to distinguish between the principal and the subordinate. Have the courage to fight for yours.”

2019 EMET Prize winners

Dist. Prof. Segev with his past and present students

Distinguished Professor Segev received the Prize from Minister for Social Equality Gila Gamliel

Dist. Prof. Segev (right) with Arie Dobson, CEO of the A.M.N. Foundation

Inspired by the Brain: Researchers at the Technion and TowerJazz have developed technology for adapting commercial transistors to the artificial intelligence era

Researchers at the Technion and TowerJazz have developed a revolutionary technology that can turn TowerJazz’s commercial flash memory components into memristors—devices that contain both memory and computing power. The technology, which was inspired by the operation of the human brain, significantly accelerates the operation of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms.

Prof. Shahar Kvatinsky (on the left) and the doctoral student Loai Danial
Credit: Rami Shlush, Technion Spokesperson Department

Published in the Nature Electronics journal, the research was led by doctoral student Loai Danial and Professor Shahar Kvatinsky of the Andrew & Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Technion, in collaboration with Prof. Yakov Roizin and Dr. Evgeny Pikhay from TowerJazz and Prof. Ramez Daniel of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at the Technion.

From the outset, the ability of computers to solve computational problems has been superior to that of humans. Yet for decades, when it came to identifying images, classifying image attributes and making decisions, computers lagged behind humans. In recent years, artificial intelligence has begun to narrow this gap and has managed to carry out complex operations by means of training based on examples. For the past few decades, vast resources have been devoted to developing artificial intelligence on the software level. This investment has generated a quantum leap in AI effectiveness in many and varied fields, among them medicine, intelligent transportation, robotics and agriculture.

Artificial intelligence is fueled by data, and specifically by extremely large data sets known as big data. For this reason, the major breakthrough in the field of artificial intelligence had to “wait” for dramatic improvements in computing power. Yet hardware lagged behind these rapid developments in software performance, such that the development of hardware that would meet the demands of AI software was delayed for years. Such hardware must work well in terms of speed, low power demand, accuracy, area, and cost. These requirements are very difficult to satisfy with the traditional hardware model based on digital computation.

The digital model limits hardware performance in two main contexts: 1) Digital hardware has difficulty performing many operations in parallel, for it was originally intended to perform a relatively small number of operations. 2) This type of hardware can provide great accuracy only at the cost of extremely high energy and time consumption. As a result, the researchers say innovative hardware is needed that will meet the needs of the artificial intelligence era.

According to Prof. Kvatinsky: “One of the major challenges that AI poses to hardware engineers is how to implement complex algorithms that require a) storage of massive amounts of data in the computer memory, b) rapid retrieval from memory, c) performing many computations in parallel, and d) high accuracy. Standard digital platforms hardware (processors) is not suited for this for the reasons mentioned above.”

This is the background for the new technology described in the article published in Nature Electronics. “Our technology transforms hardware that is digital in nature into a neuromorphic platform—an analog infrastructure of sorts that resembles the human brain,” said Prof. Kvatinsky. “Just as the brain can perform millions of operations in parallel, our hardware is also capable of performing many operations in parallel, thus accelerating all associated operations.”

Doctoral student Loai Danial goes on to explain: “I am personally interested in neuromorphic computations, both as a computer engineering student and as someone who lost his father to a rare neurological disease. The brain has always served as an inspiration for computational systems, and my challenge is to use engineering tools to understand the computational mechanism of brain operations. In the current research, we showed that an electrical chip based on standard commercial technology has two critical abilities: associative memory that, like the brain, operates based on features rather than index searching, and the ability to learn.”

Associative memory, which is familiar to us from human thought, means, for example, that when we see eyes we do not search some clause in an index of items to find a match for an eye but rather identify the eye associatively. This mechanism is rapid, efficient and energy-saving. Moreover, as with the brain, the system’s ability to learn improves as the links between the synapses and the nerve cells change and are updated.

According to Prof. Roizin of TowerJazz: “The new technology is easy to implement and transforms TowerJazz’s transistors, originally designed to store data only, into memristors—units that contain not only memory but also computing ability. Because the memristors are situated on existing TowerJazz transistors, they immediately interface with all the devices the transistors work with. The new technology has been tested under real conditions, demonstrating that it can be implemented in building neural hardware networks, thus significantly improving the performance of commercial artificial intelligence systems. Like the brain, the improved system excels in its ability to store data over the long term and in its very low energy consumption.”

According to Prof. Ramez Daniel, formerly an electrical engineer at TowerJazz and now a member of the Technion Faculty of Biomedical Engineering: “The computing power of the improved device stems from its ability to function in the sub-conduction area, or to put it more simply, in a way that resembles natural biological mechanisms. As a result, we have achieved high efficiency with low output, similar to mechanisms that developed in nature over billions of years of evolution.”

Technion researchers Eric Herbelin, Nicolas Wainstein, Vasu Gupta and Nimrod Wald from Prof. Kvatinsky’s research group participated in the research.

This research was supported by the Planning and Budgeting Committee (PBC), the KAMIN grant from the Israel Innovation Authority, the Andrew Viterbi and Erna Finci Viterbi Scholarship for Graduate Students and the European Research Council (ERC) starting grant. Recently, Loai Danial presented this research at the Nature Conference in China and was awarded the prize for the best paper award at the conference.

About the research participants:

Prof. Shahar Kvatinsky completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his doctorate at the Technion and worked at Intel in circuit design. After completing a post-doctorate at Stanford University, he returned to the Technion as a member of the Andrew & Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering. Over the years he has won many prizes, among them the Wolf Foundation’s Krill Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research, the Viterbi Fellowship, the Jacobs Fellowship, and the ERC starting grant, as well as seven awards for excellence in teaching.

Loai Danial completed his bachelor’s degree at the Technion and worked at the IBM research laboratories in Haifa from 2013-2016. Today he is working on his doctorate (direct Ph.D. track) under the supervision of Prof. Kvatinsky. He was awarded the Herschel Rich Prize for technological innovation, the Andrew Viterbi and Erna Finci Viterbi scholarship for graduate students and the Planning and Budgeting Committee (PBC) scholarship for doctoral students from the Arab sector.

Prof. Yakov Roizin is the TowerJazz Fellow and Director of Emerging Technologies, and a visiting professor at both the Technion and Tel Aviv University. He has 40 years of semiconductor device and technology development experience, and has, for the past 23 years, been with TowerJazz developing specialty CMOS technologies and novel semiconductor devices. Prof. Roizin is the author of more than 200 research papers and holds more than 50 USA patents in the field of semiconductor devices and technologies.

Dr. Evgeny Pikhay received his B.Sc. from the Technion, M.Sc. from Tel Aviv University and Ph.D. from the Technion. He is the Principal Device Engineer at TowerJazz, and has 15 years of experience in developing CMOS devices, including embedded NVM, solar cells, sensors of ionizing radiation. Dr. Pikhay is the author of more than 40 papers and patents.

Prof. Ramez Daniel completed a bachelor’s degree in the Andrew & Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Technion and a master’s degree in electronics and electrical engineering at Tel-Aviv. He then began working in industry. After eight years of working at TowerJazz, he left to pursue his doctorate and subsequently a post-doctorate at MIT, where he built the first biological computer inside a bacterium. Today he heads the Laboratory for Synthetic Biology in the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at the Technion.

For the full article in Nature Electronics click here

Photo Credits: Rami Shlush, Technion Spokesperson Department

Distinguished Professor Moti Segev from the Faculty of Physics at the Technion will receive the 2019 EMET Prize in the field of Physics and Space, tomorrow, December 9th. The prize is sponsored by the Prime Minister for academic or professional excellence and achievements with far-reaching impact and for a special contribution to society.

Distinguished Prof. Mordechai (Moti) Segev of the Faculty of Physics at Technion

Dist. Prof. Segev, 60, is the Robert Shillman Chair of the Faculty of Physics, and a founder of the Helen Diller Center for Quantum Science, Matter and Engineering at Technion. He was born in Romania and immigrated to Israel aged three. He grew up in Haifa before serving in the IDF as an infantry officer and later as a reserve commander of a reconnaissance unit for many years. After his army service, Segev completed his bachelor’s and direct-track doctoral degree at Technion in the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering. Following a post-doctorate at the California Institute of Technology, he was appointed assistant professor at Princeton University in 1994, went up the ranks to associate professor and full professor within 4.5 years. In 1998 he returned to Israel and to Technion as a faculty member. In 2009, he was made a Technion distinguished professor.

Prof. Segev is a trailblazing physicist in the field of optics and lasers and his work is cited in tens of thousands of scientific publications. Among his honors are the prestigious Quantum Electronics Prize of the European Physics Society (2007), the Max Born Award of the American Optical Society (2009), the Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science of the American Physical Society (2014), and the Israel Prize in Physics (2014). He is a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) of the USA and a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

His group focuses on experimental and theoretical research projects in numerous fields including photonics, lasers and quantum electronics. The group is engaged in basic research that influences other areas of science beyond photonics, and in the development of applications that impact the world of technology.

This past year (March 2018-Feb 2019), Segev published articles on seven groundbreaking research breakthroughs in the world’s leading scientific journals, Nature and Science.

The EMET Prize is awarded annually by the A.M.N. Foundation for the Advancement of Science, Art and Culture in Israel, “for excellence in academic and professional achievements that have far-reaching influence on and significant contribution to society.” The Foundation was created in 1999 by Alberto Moscona Nisim in order “to acknowledge those who view excellence as a way of life and the fulfillment of human potential as essential to creating a better world for future generations.” This year’s prize committee included Prof. Hagit Messer-Yaron, Prof. Jacob Klein and Prof. Nir Shaviv.

https://webcasting.co.il/player/zoog/emet2019/emet_2019.html

Assistant Professor Yaron Fuchs selected as a Young Investigator of the European Molecular Biology Organization

Assistant Professor Fuchs, a member of the Technion Faculty of Biology, researches the role of programmed cell death in physiological processes. His research paves new ways in regenerative medicine and tumor therapy.

Assistant Professor Yaron Fuchs

Assistant Professor Yaron Fuchs of the Technion Faculty of Biology is one of 27 scientists from all over the world selected as Young Investigators by EMBO – the European Molecular Biology Organization. Prof. Fuchs, the only Israeli in the current cycle, was accepted to the prestigious list for his achievements in “harnessing stem cell apoptosis for driving tissue regeneration.”

“Each of the new Young Investigators has demonstrated their ability to carry out research at the highest level, and it is a pleasure to welcome them to the EMBO community,” says EMBO Director Maria Leptin. “The first years as an independent researcher can be a particularly challenging time in a scientist’s career, and we look forward to supporting these twenty-seven researchers in establishing their independent careers.”

Prof. Fuchs deals with planned suicide (apoptosis) in stem cells – unique and relatively rare cells that produce different types of cells and therefore renew different tissues in the body. Over the years, many studies have focused on stem cell self-renewal and differentiation, however the apoptotic mechanism in these cells has barely been explored.

Prof. Fuchs’s research group discovered the role of different apoptotic proteins in different skin and intestinal stem cell populations and demonstrated that the apoptotic process can be harnessed to accelerate tissue healing after injury and reduce scar formation. The group also managed to create mini organs (organoids) in a dish, which can be used for transplantation and drug screening platforms. These discoveries pave the way for more effective treatment of various diseases and improved healing.

EMBO includes the leading researchers who promote excellence in the life sciences in Europe and abroad. The organization’s main goals are to support talented researchers at all stages of their careers, stimulate the exchange of scientific information, and help build a research environment where scientists can achieve their best work. The selected Young Investigators join a four-year program, during which the organization provides them with financial support, important professional relationships, mentorship by veteran researchers from the EMBO community, leadership training and access to the research infrastructure of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany.

The research of Prof. Fuchs paves new ways in regenerative medicine and in treating wounds and cancerous tumors. For his various studies, he received this year’s Krill Prize from the Wolf Foundation, the Daniel Shiran Memorial Prize, and the Science & Sartorius Grand Prize for Regenerative Medicine & Cell Therapy for 2019. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) awarded him the prize for his list of achievements which he described in an article in Science: “The therapeutic promise of apoptosis.”

The Technion mourns the passing of Maj. Gen. (res.) Amos Lapidot, 10th Commander of the Israeli Air Force and President of Technion from 1998-2001.

Maj. Gen. (res.) Lapidot, a native of Kfar Saba, graduated from the Isaeli Air Force pilot’s course with honors in 1954. He later participated as a pilot in Operation Kadesh, as a squadron commander in the Six Day War and as the Hatzor Airbase commander during the Yom Kippur War. From 1987-1982 he was Commander of the Israeli Air Force.

During his tenure as president, he took Technion to new heights: centers of excellence at the university flourished, breakthroughs were made in the discovery of stem cells (Prof. Joseph Itskovitz-Eldor) and in the development of electronic biological devices (Profs. Erez Braun, Yoav Eichen, and Uri Sivan); the magnificent Henry and Marilyn Taub and Family Science and Technology Center was inaugurated; Distinguished Profs. Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover – later Nobel Laureates – won the prestigious Lasker Award; and the Atidim program at Technion was launched, encouraging outstanding high school graduates from the periphery to study for an academic degree.

Maj. Gen. (res.) Lapidot, who held a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Tel Aviv University and a master’s degree from Stanford University, died yesterday at the age of 85.