Yearly Archives: 2020

The researchers include hematological-oncological experts from Schneider Children’s Medical Center and Tel Aviv University, and scientists from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and the University of Glasgow. They discovered that a drug that thwarts the production of fatty acids can block the spread of leukemia to the brain 

(l-r) Professor Shai Izraeli, Dr. Sara Isabel Fernandes, Professor Eyal Gottlieb, Dr. Inbal Mor, Jonatan Fernández García, Ifat Abramovich.

(l-r) Professor Shai Izraeli, Dr. Sara Isabel Fernandes, Professor Eyal Gottlieb, Dr. Inbal Mor, Jonatan Fernández García, Ifat Abramovich.

An international research group from Israel and Scotland has reported in Nature Cancer a breakthrough that may influence the treatment of metastatic leukemia spreading to the brain. The researchers include hematological-oncological experts from Schneider Children’s Medical Center and Tel Aviv University, and scientists from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and the University of Glasgow.

Their research focuses on acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), which is the most common type of cancer among children. Although the recovery rates for this disease are relatively high, the treatment is harsh and accompanied by numerous side effects that can persist years after the patient is cured. 

Since one of the main risks of ALL is that the cancer will metastasize to the brain, children diagnosed with this disease receive a prophylactic treatment that protects the brain from metastasized cells. Currently, this treatment consists of injecting chemotherapy drugs into the spinal fluid, and sometimes also radiation to the skull, which carries the risk of side effects for damaged brain function since these chemotherapy drugs also harm healthy brain cells. For this reason, a worldwide effort is underway to develop more selective treatments that will only affect the leukemia cells and not the brain cells. The current research reveals for the first time that the solution lies in fatty acids. 

Fatty acids are an essential resource for cells, including leukemia cells. Leukemia cells obtain sufficient fatty acids in the bone marrow and blood, but when they travel to the brain in a metastatic process, they reach an area that is very poor in fatty acids. According to the recently published research, in order to continue to thrive and flourish in the brain, the ALL cells develop an ability to produce fatty acids on their own. 

Based on these findings, the researchers infer that treating the patient with drugs that block the production of fatty acids will prevent the leukemia cells from producing fatty acids and will thereby “starve” them and stop them from flourishing in the brain. Indeed, the use of such drugs in mice has stopped the spread of metastatic leukemia to their brains. 

The drugs used in the current research are still being developed and therefore not yet approved for use in humans. However, the research findings provide hope for more precise treatment that will most likely be less toxic for preventing the spread of leukemia to the brain.

The article is the result of collaboration among the research groups of three scientists. The work was carried out by three young female scientists: Dr. Angela Maria Savino from Professor Shai Izraeli’s lab in the Department of Hematology-Oncology at the Schneider Children’s Medical Center, part of the Clalit Group, and the Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry at Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine; Dr. Sara Isabel Fernandes from the lab of Professor Eyal Gottlieb from the Rappaport Institute and Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology; and Dr. Orianne Olivares from the lab of Professor Christina Halsey at the Wolfson Wohl Cancer Research Centre, University of Glasgow. Part of the research was also carried out in the lab of Professor Michael Kharas at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. 

The research findings are also relevant for several other types of cancer in children and adults in addition to acute lymphoblastic leukemia, since most mortalities from cancer are not caused by the primary tumor but, rather, by the spread of metastasized cells to distant organs. This research, which demonstrates that cancer cells adapt to the organs to which they spread, paves the way for biological treatments that block these adaptation mechanisms, thereby stopping the cancer cells from metastasizing. 

The research is supported by the Chief Scientist of Israel’s Ministry of Science and Technology, the Italian Foundation for Cancer Research (FIRC), the William and Elizabeth Davies Foundation, the Laura and Ike Perlmutter Fund, the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research, the Norman and Sadie Lee Foundation, the Israel Science Foundation, the European Union (the ERA-NET TRASCALL program), the Israel Cancer Research Fund and Cancer Research UK. In addition, the project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement META-CAN No 766214.

Technion Scientists have developed a novel method for rapid and accurate sensing of coronavirus without the need to rely on PCR amplification. The new technique can identify the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in a sample by counting and quantifying the virus’ RNA molecules with single-molecule precision. Sensing is not biased by PCR amplification errors, permitting future development of a more accurate clinical diagnostic technique.    

Professor Amit Meller, Dr. Yana Rozevsky, Dr. Xander van Kooten, Dr. Diana Huttner

The research, which was published in ACS Nano, was led by Professor Amit Meller and carried out by postdoctoral researchers Dr. Yana Rozevsky, Dr. Tal Gilboa, Dr. Xander van Kooten, and staff scientist Dr. Diana Huttner – all of whom are researchers in the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering – and Professor Ulrike Stein and Dr. Dennis Kobelt from the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine and the Charité Hospital in Berlin.

RT-qPCR testing, the most widely used test for COVID-19 today, involves a series of preparatory stages, including collecting the sample from a patient using a swab, “opening” the virus and extracting RNA from it. In the next stage, called reverse transcription (RT), specific ‘target’ RNA sequences are copied to the DNA form. Finally, this DNA is amplified by a polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Millions of copies are made so that enough DNA is present to be detected, finally leading to a diagnosis for COVID-19.

A tiny nanopore device for detecting single biological molecules

RT-qPCR testing requires large quantities of special reagents, expensive laboratory equipment, and highly trained professionals. Moreover, recent studies have shown that test results can change from one day to the next and that the massive amplification process can generate significant errors. For these reasons, worldwide efforts are being devoted to developing faster, more affordable, and more accurate tests. This task is particularly challenging in cases where the “viral load” (the amount of viral RNA) in a sample is low and can evade sensing. 

The new method presented by Prof. Meller’s research group relies on original technologies that the lab has developed in the past two decades, using nanofabricated holes (so-called “nanopores”) to sense single biological molecules. The effectiveness of this technology has already been demonstrated in a number of other biomedical uses. Unlike conventional molecular diagnostics, which require large volumes of samples containing millions of copies of the same molecule, nanopore sensing analyzes individual biological molecules from much smaller samples. A strong electrical field is used to unfold and thread individual DNA molecules through the nanoscopic hole containing electrical or optical sensors. Each molecule that passes through the hole gives a characteristic “signature,” which enables identification and immediate counting of the molecules. This approach opens up the possibility of miniaturizing the diagnostic systems while improving the accuracy and reliability of tests and expanding the cases where amplifying PCR is not efficient or harms the reliability of the test. 

The recently published article presents two applications of this method: identifying RNA molecules that signal the emergence of metastatic cancer and detecting coronavirus RNA. To allow unambiguous sensing, the researchers developed a process that leaves only the relevant ‘target’ molecules intact, while degrading all others.

In the first application, the researchers demonstrated the method’s potential for early detection of metastatic cancer by quantifying the levels of MACC1 – one of the primary genes known to signal the formation of a metastatic state. Thanks to its high degree of sensitivity, the new technique successfully quantified the gene’s expression in cancerous cells at the early stages of illness (known as stages I and II) – a challenge that PCR-based technologies failed to meet. Needless to say, the earlier these genetic biomarkers are discovered, the better the chances of successful treatment.

Illustration of DNA molecules passing through a nanopore one after the other

In the second application, the researchers detected the RNA molecules of the SARS-CoV-2 virus using the same approach. The technique presented in the article is not the first to analyze single molecules; however, unlike previous reports, it circumvents processes in the sample treatment that introduce “noise” and errors into the system. Two of these processes are sample purification, in which many target molecules are inadvertently lost, and DNA amplification, which may lead to errors and faulty diagnoses. According to Prof. Meller, “Our system enables quantifiable sensing of the RNA genetic expression levels using a relatively simple nano-sensor device, without needing to cleanse the sample and with no need for massive amplification processes that may harm the test’s sensitivity and reliability. We have shown that our technology preserves the level of genetic expression of the original RNA molecules throughout the entire process. In this way, we obtain a more precise analysis method, which is essential in both contexts we studied – RNA biomarkers of metastatic cancer and the SARS-CoV-2 virus.”

The recent ACS Nano article is an important milestone for Meller’s research group, but it is definitely not the end of the road. With further work, the nanopore sensing system is expected to become a portable device that will make cumbersome lab equipment unnecessary. Technological and clinical research is continuing at the Technion Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, in collaboration with the BioBank at the Rambam Health Care Campus. At the same time, steps are being taken to commercialize the technology in order to make it available for general use as soon as possible. 

The research is being supported by the European Union (through an ERC grant, as part of the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 program for research in the EU), the Israel Science Foundation (ISF), and the SignGene program which supports doctoral students.

Click here for the paper in ACS Nano.

Lior Arbel’s doctoral dissertation goes beyond typical fields of practice in science and engineering. That’s because at its center stands a new hybrid musical instrument, or more precisely a family of musical instruments he calls “Symbolen.”

The science and engineering are well integrated into Arbel’s original invention.

“There is a complex combination of different aspects of physics, electronics, design and more,” explained Arbel. “We use tools and techniques of signal processing, waves, circuit design, mechanical simulations and optimization methods to create a system that will be useful and successful musically and design-wise.”

Symbolen is based on an array of wine glasses, which connect to a stringed instrument by electrical and mechanical means, and produces, mediated by signal processing, unique acoustic effects. The research and development were published in leading conferences and journals dealing with musical acoustics and musical instrument design.

The name of the musical instrument “Symbolen” is derived from two words. The first is “Sym,” from “sympathetic” language – that is, the transfer of energy between two different components in a system in a way that creates a common resonance. The second word is taken from “Bolen-Bolen” – the native name of the Australian bird Superb lyrebird, which mimics various sounds, including the sounds of other birds. According to Arbel, “When I thought of a name of my musical instrument, I realized that the glass system mimics the sounds of other instruments, and through the glasses you can still hear the special hue of the original instrument, whether it be a guitar, piano, etc. In the end, it’s nice that the name Symbolen also includes the world Cymbal – which is half of cymbals.”

The current Symbolen is based on a series of tools he built in recent years, with continuous trials and improvements. Eventually, the sound of the glasses was created as a result of an electrical or mechanical coupling, which greatly enriches the sounds of the glasses compared to a normal sound generated by a click. In the demos, the instrument is connected to Arbel’s classical guitar, but it can act under the influence of other instruments.

Arbel explained that he got the inspiration for the development from Indian musical instruments, such as the sitar and sarangi, which act on a sympathetic effect, that is the activation of a certain element through touch with another element. “These instruments are based on operating strings without contact with them, and I realized that it can be extended from strings to other instruments.”

Arbel learned the techniques for combining technologies with traditional instruments from modern musical instruments, such as the “chameleon guitar” developed at MIT, which allows for the replacement of its resonator board, and the “hydraulophone,” an organ that operates on water flow. Eventually, Arbel arrived at the array of wine glasses. Why? “Because there is a wide and available range of glasses, so that to produce vibration and sound requires little energy, and since I was interested in the unique effect that they add to the sound of my guitar.”

Each glass of wine has its own self-frequency, and if we make a sound next to it with the same frequency it will start to shake and produce a sound on its own. And so, in the Symbolen, each glass vibrates when the sound of the guitar sounding matches its own frequency. By filling the glasses with water, and using various means such as electromagnet, signal processing and magnetic pendulum, Arbel affects the self-frequency of the glass and the sound emanating from it. He has performed with the Symbolen several times in Israel and France and hopes that his prototype will serve as a basis for the development of new sympathetic tools.

Arbel completed his bachelor’s degree at the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Technion and will soon complete his Ph.D. there (in a direct track). His supervisors are Professor Yoav Schechner from the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Dr. Noam Amir from the School of Communication Disorders at Tel Aviv University. He is also conducting his research as part of the Technion’s Industrial Design track headed by Professor Ezri Tarazi.

Intel’s Rising Star Faculty Award program selected 10 university faculty members who show great promise in developing future computing technologies. From projects such as a novel cloud system stack, to ultra-low power computing and memory platforms, to artificially intelligent (AI) systems that learn on the fly, these researchers are building advanced technologies today.

The program promotes the careers of faculty members who are early in their academic research careers and who show great promise as future academic leaders in disruptive computing technologies. The program also fosters long-term collaborative relationships with senior technical leaders at Intel.

The awards were given based on progressive research in computer science, engineering and social science in support of the global digital transition in the following areas: software, security, interconnect, memory, architecture, and process.

Faculty members who work at the following universities received Rising Star awards: Cornell University, Georgia Tech, Stanford University, Technion, University of California at San Diego, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, University of Texas at Austin, and University of Washington.

Ten assistant professors received Intel’s Rising Star Faculty Awards: (from top row, left): Asif Khan of Georgia Tech, Chelsea Finn of Stanford University, Hannaneh Hajishirzi of University of Washington, Baris Kasikci of University of Michigan, Daniel Soudry of Technion, Nadia Polikarpova of UC San Diego, Jaydeep Kulkarni of UT Austin, Bo Li of UI Urbana-Champaign, Hamed Hassani of University of Pennsylvania, and Christina Delimitrou of Cornell University.

Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering Daniel Soudry’s contributions address the core challenge of making deep learning more efficient in terms of computational resources. Despite the impressive progress made using artificial neural nets, they are still far behind the capabilities of biological neural nets in most areas — even the simplest fly is far more resourceful than the most advanced robots. Soudry’s novel approach relies on accurate models with low numerical precision. Decreasing the numerical precision of the neural network model is a simple and effective way to improve their resource efficiency. Nearly all recent deep learning related hardware relies heavily on lower precision math. The benefits are a reduction in the memory required to store the neural network, reduction in chip area, and a drastic improvement in energy efficiency.

H2PRO is a startup company that produces hydrogen using green energy based on an innovative technology invented at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The company is one of just five chosen as finalists in a prestigious competition organized by Royal Dutch Shell. It is the youngest company on the list, and the only one from Israel. There were several elimination rounds during the competition, called New Energy Challenge, and organizers recently announced the five finalists have all been designated for investment and scale-up.

H2PRO’s innovative technology heralds a new era of green hydrogen production by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using electrical power. Traditional electrolysis produces hydrogen and oxygen simultaneously, which requires a membrane to separate them. The use of a membrane makes the system and the process significantly more expensive. Green hydrogen is an alternative fuel that can replace oil and natural gas in the long term. It plays a critical role in the reduction of polluting vehicle emissions, as well as in clean production of materials and chemicals, heating and storing renewable energy. 

From left to right: Dr. Avigail Landman, Prof. Gideon Grader, Prof. Avner Rothschild and Dr. Hen Dotan

From left to right: Dr. Avigail Landman, Prof. Gideon Grader, Prof. Avner Rothschild and Dr. Hen Dotan

The new technology renders the membrane unnecessary, since the two gases are produced at different stages. Furthermore, this technology increases energy efficiency by 20-25% compared to the alternatives, significantly improves the safety of the production process, reduces the cost of building the system to approximately one half, and increases the pressure of the produced hydrogen, thereby reducing the cost of downstream hydrogen compression.

H2PRO was founded in 2019 by Technion researchers Prof. Gideon Grader (Chemical Engineering), Prof. Avner Rothschild and Dr. Hen Dotan (Materials Science and Engineering), in collaboration with the founders of Viber, headed by entrepreneur Talmon Marco. The company received an exclusive license to commercialize the technology from T3, Technion’s technology transfer unit. To date, it has raised capital from Hyundai, Sumitomo and Bazan, and from private investors and funds. The research that led to the establishment of H2PRO was supported by the Nancy and Stephen Grand Technion Energy Program (GTEP), a donation by Ed Satell, the Adelis Foundation, Israel’s Ministry of Energy and the European Commission (the EU’s 2020 program). The research was conducted together with Dr. Avigail Landman, who was a PhD student of both Prof. Rothschild and Prof. Grader.

 

Technion-Israel Institute of Technology Students have developed a lifesaving application that detects strokes at early stages; they won 2nd place in an international medical technology competition

A team of students from the Technion and the University of Missouri won 2nd place at MedHacks – a hackathon for developing medical technologies hosted by Johns Hopkins University. They were awarded for developing the Scan&Sound application, which detects strokes at early stages and alerts the victims. MedHacks is the largest hackathon in the U.S. for developing medical technologies. This year, more than 1,000 people participated, including students, doctors, engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs from all over the world. The event was a collaboration between Johns Hopkins University and MLH – Major League Hacking, which organizes hundreds of student hackathons every year, and was funded by various entities, including Google Cloud.

The Scan&Sound team is comprised of four Technion students and alumni: Hadas Braude, a 6th-year student in the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine; Sean Heilbronn-Doron, a 4th year student in the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine; Shunit Polinsky, a Master’s student in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering; and Ron Liraz, an alumnus who received a Master’s degree from the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering. The fifth student on the team was Leeore Levinstein, a 3rd year medical student at the University of Missouri. 

One in four people in the United States experiences the clinical phenomenon known as a stroke at one point in their lives. There are many different levels of severity, ranging from a stroke that one is not even aware of experiencing to an event that results in serious cognitive and motor impairments, and even death. In addition to personal harm, strokes also incur enormous financial expenses for the individual, the health system, and the country. As a result, there is a great deal of motivation to develop methods to identify strokes at the early stages when treatment is more effective. 

Scan&Sound won second place in the “Personalized Medicine Using Data-Driven Healthcare” Category. The application detects early, subtle stages of stroke by studying voices and facial expressions and analyzing the data using artificial intelligence. If there is a significant change, the application alerts the user that they are suffering from symptoms that may indicate a stroke and suggests they call predetermined contacts or an emergency call center. 

Hadas Braude, who headed the group, proposed the idea after someone close to her suffered a stroke. On the day it happened, the person met with friends and family, who immediately noticed that something was wrong. They did no=t, however, suspect a stroke.

“As a result,” said Ms. Braude, “the man arrived at the hospital late and missed the ‘treatment window.’ Since then, I haven’t stopped thinking about how to prevent the next incident, and have asked myself how it can be possible that the telephone that is always with us gathers information about us, but cannot detect and warn that something is wrong with us.”

Ms. Braude and Sean Heilbronn-Doron met before this round of competition, when they competed together in the T2Med hackathon hosted by the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion. Following their win at T2Med, the two registered for MedHacks and invited Ron Liraz, a talented and experienced electrical engineer they met at T2Med, to join them. In classic Israeli fashion, the two other members of the unique and diverse trans-Atlantic Scan&Sound team arrived through personal and family contacts.

The hackathon itself was very challenging. Besides the physical distance, the members of the team had to contend with the time difference between Israel and the U.S., as well as navigating classes and other prior commitments. They were able to achieve their goal through effective communication, planning, determination, division of labor and, most importantly, through each member’s personal commitment to the project.

The judges at the competition were extremely impressed with their project and asked the team members – in jest mixed with wonder – not to forget them after they become rich and famous. But Ms. Braude and her friends stress the project’s true goal is to enable people to receive treatment in time and to safeguard brains, identities, and lives. This is, in fact, the motivation that inspired them to establish a technological team and to create partnerships with neurological departments and rehabilitation centers in Israel and the U.S.

A team led by Technion’s Professor Jackie Schiller has uncovered surprising ways the brain learns and adapts skilled movement. The findings hold promise for future treatments of brain disease and disorders.

Survival depends on our ability to move. Whether it be to acquire food, eat, take care of our offspring, or protect ourselves, the coordinated movements we make daily require subconscious adjustments and adaptation to changes in the environment or our bodies. The brain must learn from previous movements and use that information to correct current and future movements. However, little is known about how neurons in the motor cortex – the part of the brain that directs skilled movement – process and apply experience to achieve coordinated and essential skilled movement. 

(l-r) Prof. Jackie Schiller, Prof. Omri Barak, Prof. Ronen Talmon, Maria Lavzin,
Shahar Levy, Dr. Hadas Benisty

A study, published recently in the journal Neuron, addresses research questions that include whether the neurons (nerve cells) register the reward (food), the movement, or both, and how the neurons track positive or negative task outcomes irrespective of actual reward or movement. The study also uncovers new information on the cell-type-specific organization in this part of the brain, and its use for motor control and learning skilled movements.

The researchers used a dexterity task in mice – reaching and grasping for food – and monitored what was happening in the mouse primary motor cortex (M1) where motor plans are being learned and controlled. 

The experimental techniques used were versatile and encompassed biological and computational methods that included imaging, genetic, behavioral, and advanced computational tools. The study was made possible through the collaboration of a multidisciplinary team of Technion researchers led by Professors Jackie Schiller and Omri Barak of the Technion Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and lead students Shahar Levy and Maria Lavzin, together with Professors Ronen Talmon and Ron Meir and postdoc Hadas Benisty from the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Technion. The Technion team also collaborated with Dr. Adam W. Hantman of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, where Prof. Schiller and her student Maria Lavzin spent a sabbatical year and conceived the project to delve into the unknown brain mechanisms that allow a mouse to learn complex movements. 

The team discovered two different neuron populations that reported successful or failed behavior attempts. This indicated a global assessment of motor performance rather than specific kinematic parameters or reward. They also discovered that the task outcome (in this case whether the mouse achieved food) is “remembered” by the neurons and affects the initial state activity of the neurons for the next trial, and that activity in this area of the brain is necessary after the task in order for movement adaptation to occur. 

Prof. Schiller postulates that the use of performance outcome signals task success or failure, rather than specific kinematic parameters or reward, may be a key reason for why the M1 is essential for skilled dexterous behaviors. The researchers also observed that outcome evaluation (carried out by neurons in M1 layer 2–3) is distinct from movement generation (carried out by neurons in M1 layer 5). They theorize that this separation may be beneficial in some way, as it can allow different plasticity rules to operate in different networks. According to Prof. Schiller, just as artificial deep neural networks use layer separation to increase computational efficacy, the evaluation and movement separation in the motor cortex may serve a similar purpose.

The researchers’ discoveries have furthered medicine’s insight into what happens in the cerebral M1 cortex when learning skilled movement. They plan to continue the research with the hope that the findings will lead to the development of new treatments for brain diseases.

“In the future we would like to find out, for example, which brain pathways are involved in activating these cells and how these signals can be used, in combination with machine-brain interfaces, to improve movement in patients, such as those suffering from Parkinson’s disease,” said Prof. Schiller.

The study was partially supported by the Janelia Visiting Scientific Program, the Collaborative Research Computational Neuroscience (CRCNS) (BSF – NSF / NIH Foundation), Israel Science Foundation (ISF MORASHA, Biomedical Research Program), Adelis Foundation, and Allen and Jewel Prince Center for Neurodegenerative Disorders of the Brain.

Click here for the paper in Neuron

 

Figure: Monitoring outcome is critical for acquiring skilled movements. Levy et al. describe activity in subpopulations of layer 2–3 motor cortex pyramidal neurons that distinctly report outcomes of previous successes and failures independent of kinematics and reward. These signals may serve as reinforcement learning processes involved in maintaining or learning skilled movements.

Figure: Monitoring outcome is critical for acquiring skilled movements. Levy et al. describe activity in subpopulations of layer 2–3 motor cortex pyramidal neurons that distinctly report outcomes of previous successes and failures independent of kinematics and reward. These signals may serve as reinforcement learning processes involved in maintaining or learning skilled movements.

Researchers at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology have developed precise radiation sources that may replace the expensive and cumbersome facilities currently used for such tasks. The suggested apparatus produces controlled radiation with a narrow spectrum that can be tuned with high resolution, at a relatively low energy investment. The findings are likely to lead to breakthroughs in a variety of fields, including the analysis of chemicals and biological materials, medical imaging, X-ray equipment for security screening, and other uses of accurate X-ray sources.

X-ray emission by free electrons impinging on a van der Waals material

Published in the journal Nature Photonics, the study was led by Professor Ido Kaminer and his master’s student Michael Shentcis as part of a collaboration with several research institutes at the Technion: the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering, the Solid State Institute, the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute (RBNI), and the Helen Diller Center for Quantum Science, Matter and Engineering.

The researchers’ paper shows an experimental observation that provides the first proof-of-concept for theoretical models developed over the last decade in a series of constitutive articles. The first article on the subject also appeared in Nature Photonics. Written by Prof. Kaminer during his postdoc at MIT, under the supervision of Prof. Marin Soljacic and Prof. John Joannopoulos, that paper presented theoretically how two-dimensional materials can create X-rays. According to Prof. Kaminer, “that article marked the beginning of a journey towards radiation sources based on the unique physics of two-dimensional materials and their various combinations — heterostructures. We have built on the theoretical breakthrough from that article to develop a series of follow-up articles, and now, we are excited to announce the first experimental observation on the creation of X-ray radiation from such materials, while precisely controlling the radiation parameters.”

Prof. Ido Kaminer

Two-dimensional materials are unique artificial structures that took the scientific community by storm around the year 2004 with the development of graphene by physicists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, who later won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010. Graphene is an artificial structure of a single atomic thickness made from carbon atoms. The first graphene structures were created by the two Nobel laureates by peeling off thin layers of graphite, the “writing material” of the pencil, using duct tape. The two scientists and subsequent researchers discovered that graphene has unique and surprising properties that are different from graphite properties: immense strength, almost complete transparency, electrical conductivity, and light-transmitting capability that allows radiation emission an aspect related to the present article. These unique features make graphene and other two-dimensional materials promising for future generations of chemical and biological sensors, solar cells, semiconductors, monitors, and more.

Another Nobel laureate that should be mentioned before returning to the present study is Johannes Diderik van der Waals, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics exactly one hundred years earlier, in 1910. The materials now named after him – vdW materials – are the focus of Prof. Kaminer’s research. Graphene is also an example of a vdW material, but the new study now finds that other advanced vdW materials are more useful for the purpose of producing X-rays. The Technion researchers have produced different vdW materials and sent electron beams through them at specific angles that led to X-ray emission in a controlled and accurate manner. Furthermore, the researchers demonstrated precise tunability of the radiation spectrum at unprecedented resolution, utilizing the flexibility in designing families of vdW materials.

Michael Shentcis

The new article by the research group contains experimental results and new theory that together provide a proof-of-concept for an innovative application of two-dimensional materials as a compact system that produce controlled and accurate radiation.

“The experiment and the theory we developed to explain it make a significant contribution to the study of light-matter interactions and pave the way for varied applications in X-ray imaging (medical X-ray, for example), X-ray spectroscopy used to characterize materials, and future quantum light sources in the X-ray regime,” said Prof. Kaminer.

Prof. Ido Kaminer joined the Technion faculty in 2018 and is the head of the AdQuanta Research Group and the Robert and Ruth Magid Electronic Beam Dynamics Laboratory, a faculty member at the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering, the Solid State Institute, the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute (RBNI), and the Helen Diller Center for Quantum Science, Matter and Engineering.

The current study was conducted in collaboration with various units at the Technion, including researchers from the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, the Faculty of Material Science and Engineering, and the following international institutions: The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (ICFO), ​​Arizona State University, Technical University of Denmark, and Nanyang Technological University of Singapore.

All the experiments were performed in electron microscopes at the MIKA center for electron microscopy in the Faculty of Material Science and Engineering.

The study was supported by the European Union (ERC grant and H2020 grants), the Israel National Science Foundation (ISF), and the Azrieli Foundation.

Click here for the paper in Nature Photonics

In the picture, from top to bottom: Centered in the system is a levitating drop in the air used by an optical resonator (the green dot is the levitating drop); the drop from above, using a microscope; the drop from a side view (the long line on the right is the optical fiber that penetrates light into the resonator); and a magnification of the drop in a side view.

Physical Review X recently reported on a new optical resonator from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology that is unprecedented in resonance enhancement. Developed by graduate student Jacob Kher-Alden under the supervision of Professor Tal Carmon, the Technion–born resonator has record-breaking capabilities in resonance enhancement.

A resonator is a device that traps waves and enhances or echoes them by reflecting them from wall to wall in a process called resonant enhancement. Today, there are complex and sophisticated resonators of various kinds throughout the world, as well as simple resonators familiar to all of us. Examples of this include the resonator box of a guitar, which enhances the sound produced by the strings, or the body of a flute, which enhances the sound created in the mouthpiece of the instrument. 

The guitar and flute are acoustic resonators in which the sound reverberates between the walls of the resonator. In physics, there are also optical resonators, such as in laser devices. A resonator is, in fact, one of the most important devices in optics: “It’s the transistor of optics,” said Prof. Carmon.

Generally speaking, resonators need at least two mirrors to multiply reflected light (just like at the hairdressing salon). But they can also hold more than two mirrors. For example, three mirrors can be used to reflect the light in a triangular shape, four in a square, and so on. It is also possible to arrange a lot of mirrors in an almost circular shape so that the light circulates. The more mirrors in the ring, the closer the structure becomes that of a perfect circle. 

But this is not the end of the story, as the ring restricts the movement of light to a single plane. The solution is a spherical structure, which allows light to rotate on all planes passing through the center of the circle, regardless of their tilt. In other words, in three-dimensional space.

In the movement from physics to engineering, the question arises of how to produce a resonator as close as possible to a sphere that is clean, smooth, and gives the maximal number of rotations for optimal resonance. It is a challenge that has engaged many research groups and has yielded, among others, a tiny glass resonator in the shape of either a sphere or ring, which is held next to a narrow optical fiber. An example of this was presented by Prof. Carmon two years ago in Nature.

Here, there was still room for improvement, as even the stem that is holding the sphere creates a distortion in its spherical shape. Hence, the desire was born to produce a floating resonator – a resonator not held by any material object.

The world’s first micro-resonator was demonstrated in the 1970s by Arthur Ashkin, winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics, who presented a floating resonator. Despite the achievement, the research direction was soon abandoned. Now, inspired by Ashkin’s pioneering work, the new floating resonator exhibits a resonant enhancement by 10,000,000 circulations of light, compared to about 300 circulations in Ashkin’s resonator.

The Levitating Resonator

In a resonator made of mirror that reflects 99.9999% of light, and in which the light will rotate about a million revolutions or “round trips.” According to Prof. Carmon, “If we take light that has a power of one watt, similar to the light of the flash on a cell phone, and we allow it to rotate back and forth between these mirrors, the light power will be amplified to about a million watts – the power is equal to the electricity consumption of a large neighborhood in Haifa, Israel. We can use the high light output, for example, to stimulate various light-matter interactions at the region between the mirrors.”

In fact, a million watts are made up of the same single particle of light that travels back and forth through matter, but the matter does not “know” that it is the same particle of light that moves repeatedly through the matter,  since photons are indistinguishable. It only “feels” the great power. In a device of this type it is also important that the million watts pass through a small cross-sectional area. Indeed, the device developed by Kher-Alden conducts light in 10 million circular trips, in which the light is focused on a beam area 10,000 times smaller than the cross-sectional area of a hair. In doing this, Kher-Alden has achieved a world record in the resonant enhancement of light.

Professor Tal Carmon

The resonator developed by Technion researchers is made of a tiny drop of highly-transparent oil of about 20 microns in diameter – a quarter of the thickness of a strand of hair. Using a technique called ‘optical forceps,’ the drop is held in the air using light. This technique is used to hold the drop in the air without material support – which may damage its spherical shape or soil the drop. According to Prof. Carmon, “This ingenious optical invention, the optical forceps, is used a lot in life sciences, chemistry, micro-flow devices and more, and it is precisely the optical researchers who hardly use it – a bit like the cobbler walking barefoot. In the present study, we show that optical forceps have enormous potential in the field of optical engineering. It is possible, for example, to build an optical circuit using multiple optical forceps that hold many resonators and control the position of the resonators and their shape as needed.”

The tiny dimensions of the drop also improve spherical integrity, because gravity hardly distorts it, since it is marginal in these dimensions relative to the surface-tension forces at the liquid interface which give it a spherical shape. In the unique system developed by Technion researchers, the drop of oil is held by a laser beam and receives the light from another fiber, which also receives the light back after it has passed through the resonator. 

Graduate student Jacob Kher-Alden

Based on the properties of the light returning to the fiber, researchers can know what happened inside the drop. For example, they can turn off the light entering the resonator and examine how long a photon will survive in the resonator before it fades. Based on this data and the speed of light, they can calculate the number of rotations the photon makes (on average) in a drop. The results show a world record in light amplification: 10,000,000 rotations that pass through a cross-sectional area of about a micron squared, increasing the light 10 million times.

Additional participants in the study include Shai Maayani, Mark Douvidzon, Leopoldo Martin from the Technion, and Lev Deych from the Physics Department at Queens College, City University of New York.  The study was conducted as part of the “Circle of Light” Center for Excellence (ICORE) of the National Science Foundation and the Planning and Budgeting Committee; the US-Israel Science Binational Foundation (BSF); the American National Science Foundation (NSF); and Israel Science Foundation (ISF).

Click here for the paper in Physical Review X 

A team of researchers from the Technion Faculty of Chemistry (Prof. Y. Eichen and Dr. G. Parvari) and the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (Prof. D. Rittel and Dr. Y. Rotbaum) have developed and patented the use of a liquid hydrogel in shock protection systems that significantly mitigates the energy transferred to a body or a structure (e.g. explosion, bullet impact), thereby reducing the risks of traumatic internal organ (e.g. brain) injury.

One of the most damaging consequences of traumatic impact is the damage inflicted to the brain and other internal organs. Such trauma (traumatic brain injury) occurs without any significant damage (penetration) to the external structure (such as skull or helmet), and yet the violent elastic accelerations resulting from the shock can be extremely damageable and sometimes lethal.

As of today, the classical protection systems are geared towards defeating the incoming threat by means of strong materials. However, those are the very same materials that conduct the damaging elastic shock energy without mitigating it significantly.

During the past 5 years, a team of Technion researchers (Prof. Y. Eichen and Dr. G. Parvari, Dept. of Chemistry, and Dr. Y. Rotbaum and Prof. D. Rittel, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering) developed and characterized a simple and innocuous hydrogel, basically a mixture of methylcellulose and water of the kind used in the food industry. Call it “magic water”.

It so happens that this family of (so-called inverse freezing) of dilute solutions of hydrogels, in the liquid state, have a tremendous capacity to absorb shock energy, thereby providing the missing link of an efficient protective system. Different kinds of experiments were carried out over the years, some of which quite “realistic” like firing 7.62 mm bullets, or experimenting with explosive charges, and looking for the reduction of damage experienced by the target. The results were both clear and absolutely novel. A thin layer of “magic water” of the kind developed at Technion is a highly potent shock mitigating agent!!! Such a property has never been thought of previously.

This invention has been patented and the field of potential applications is very wide, ranging from bodily armor protection (helmets, boots, flak jackets), components packaging, aeronautical vibrations mitigation, car industry and ….the sky is the limit.

The concept is under accelerated development those days ready for adoption by industry in order to turn the concept into a marketable product.