Category Archives: כתבות אמצע

A consortium led by Prof. Hossam Haick of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology has secured an €8 million grant from the European Union, a remarkable achievement given the competitive nature of such funding. Prof. Haick, dean of Undergraduate Studies and faculty member in the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering with a secondary affiliation in the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, spearheads this groundbreaking project titled VOLABIOS.

Prof. Hossam Haick

The project focuses on improving early diagnosis and monitoring of schizophrenia – a chronic condition affecting approximately 1% of the global population (80 million people). Schizophrenia is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide, reducing life expectancy by an average of 10–15 years.

VOLABIOS aims to develop advanced, cost-effective diagnostic tools that improve patient quality of life, reduce diagnostic errors by 30%, and optimize treatment and monitoring processes. Utilizing cutting-edge technologies, including multi-omics (genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and transcriptomics), portable spectrometry, and artificial intelligence, the project seeks to identify chemical and biochemical signals of the disease – non–invasive biomarkers excreted from the human body.

This initiative unites 20 partners from 11 countries across Europe, including Aachen University (Germany), the University of Cambridge (UK), the Greek Ministry of Health, and the French company FIRALIS. Together, they bring expertise in academia, technology, medicine, law, and public policy to drive innovative solutions for early schizophrenia diagnosis and care. The advisory board features renowned experts in the fields of psychiatry, healthcare policy, and decision-making.

Technion Executive Vice President for Research Prof. Noam Adir said, “One of the goals of modern medicine is to develop technologies that will identify human diseases at early stages at high precision. This includes psychiatric diseases, such as Schizophrenia, that are typically difficult to diagnose. Prof Hossam Haick is one of the world’s premiere scientists in the field of disease diagnostics using molecular marker identification methods. In the research described here, Prof. Haick has brought together scientists from academia, government, and industry to merge molecular marker technologies with AI, to significantly improve the speed and accuracy of schizophrenia diagnosis. Importantly, the group believes that their research will lead to a system that will be applicable to mental health providers, worldwide.”
The project will analyze biomarkers derived from various sources in the body. Initial stages include a retrospective analysis of 9 million medical records, including 120,000 related to schizophrenia. This will be followed by a clinical study involving 3,692 patients across six medical centers in Europe and a blind validation study with 1,000 participants to confirm biomarker accuracy and relevance.

VOLABIOS aims not only to enhance medical treatment but also to make advanced diagnostic tools accessible to healthcare systems worldwide. It will create an open knowledge base to support future research and develop new approaches to diagnosing complex mental health disorders.

The leadership team includes Prof. Haick as chair and coordinator, Dr. Yoav Broza, and Ms. Liat Zuri, both of the Technion, as consortium manager and financial and administrative manager, respectively.

About Prof. Hossam Haick
Prof. Hossam Haick, head of the Laboratory for Nanomaterial-Based Devices in the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering at the Technion, is a world-renowned expert in non-invasive disease diagnosis using volatile compound analysis. A paper published last year in the Journal of Cancer Research recognized him as the most-cited researcher globally in this field, highlighting his significant scientific achievements and exceptional contributions to early cancer detection research.

Prof. Haick’s work demonstrates innovative technologies that enable the diagnosis of various cancers. He has also showcased the effectiveness of these technologies in diagnosing additional diseases, including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, tuberculosis, and kidney diseases. His technological developments have received substantial funding from the European Union, including support for a smart patch for tuberculosis monitoring, which earned a multi-national grant from the Gates Foundation.

A pioneer in leading major international scientific consortia, Prof. Haick has spearheaded several influential projects, including:

• LUCIA, focusing on lung cancer risk assessment;
• A-PATCH, developing and clinically testing a smart patch for tuberculosis diagnosis and monitoring;
• SNIFFPHONE, creating miniature systems for disease diagnosis through breath analysis.

His latest consortium, VOLABIOS, marks his first initiative dedicated to brain diseases. This project aims to advance non-invasive diagnostics to new frontiers, revolutionizing the field and paving the way for innovative approaches to mental health care.

According to the committee’s chair, Adv. Sarit Golan, “Advancing the construction plan for a new, state-of-the-art building is great news not only for the Technion, Israel’s leading academic institution but also for the city of Haifa.”

The new building, named after Nancy and Stephen Grand, one of Technion’s major benefactors, will address the needs of the Department of Aerospace Engineering. The department is the only one of its kind in Israel and has experienced continuous growth in recent years. It trains most engineers in Israel’s aerospace and aviation industries, and its graduates hold senior positions in the field. The academic department will be named after Stephen B. Klein.

Rendering: Kimmel Eshkolot Architects Ltd.

The department was established in the early days of the State of Israel at the initiative of the first president of the Technion, Yaakov Dori, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, and the Technion’s vice president Prof. Sydney Goldstein, recognizing the need for a strong aviation and space industry in the young state of Israel. Indeed, department alumni are leaders in these industries and maintain close collaboration with researchers across a wide range of fields.

In January 2024, department alumna Prof. Daniela Raveh assumed the role of Dean of the Department, leading it through advanced growth and development processes.

In recent years, the department has grown in terms of research scope, the number of faculty members, and the number of students, necessitating a modern facility suited to the needs of the 21st century. The new building will be constructed next to the historic department building, blending innovation with conservation.

The eight-story structure will cover a total area of 7,200 square meters and house advanced laboratories and research infrastructure. The project will adhere to high environmental standards and harmonize architecturally with the surrounding landscape and historic buildings. The entrance area of the new building will be integrated with the renovated teaching area of the old building.

The new building will allow the department to recruit new faculty and researchers, initiate new areas of research and teaching, expand its activities in research and development, and maintain its international status in engineering research and education. It will also significantly increase the number of students at all degree levels and improve teaching and research infrastructure.

The department opened the 2024-2025 academic year with a sharp increase in the number of new students beginning their studies at the Technion. This represents a 25% increase compared to the previous year (2023-2024) and a 40% increase compared to the 2022-2023 academic year.

In October, against the backdrop of heightened tension in the North, the Technion held an international online student conference on “Leadership in Times of Crisis.” The conference was initiated by a group of MBA students – Tohar Daniel, Rotem Spier, Gal Forkosh, and Noa Seidenwar – together with Prof. Miriam Erez, associate dean of the MBA Program. The conference was held as part of a partnership between the Technion’s Davidson MBA Program and GNAM – a global network of business established by Yale School of Management, connecting MBA students in the Faculty of Data and Decision Sciences at the Technion with their peers at leading universities worldwide.

Prof. Erez, an Israel Prize laureate, has led the GNAM (Global Network for Advanced Management) program at the Technion since its inception in 2016. “As part of the program, students from 14 business schools come to the Technion, and some of our MBA students spend a week at one of these schools,” she said. “This year, Technion students did travel abroad, but the event scheduled to take place at the Technion in March 2024 was postponed due to the war. Our MBA students worked hard to organize an event at the Technion that would showcase the best of Israel during a time of crisis. This initiative was theirs, and they led the organization and guest speakers.”

Screenshot from the conference

The Technion conference took place online this year from October 13-18, with 43 students from 14 business schools participating. Lecturers from the Faculty of Data and Decision Sciences and other Technion faculties participated, including Nobel laureate Prof. Dan Shechtman, alongside guest speakers and leading figures in Israel’s industry. Notable participants included Technion graduate and entrepreneur Eyal Waldman; Ofer Doron, who leads the Beresheet spacecraft initiative; Paralympic athlete Moran Samuel; Paris Paralympics gold medal winner Uri Lahav, co-founder of Outbrain and founder of a logistical support project for evacuees in Eilat; and Amichai Bar-Nir, the outgoing CEO of Top-Gum in Sderot, which specializes in dietary supplements.

Screenshot from the conference

Among the faculty lecturers, Dr. Noa Zychlinski presented her research on hybrid hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, Prof. Ido Erev spoke about decision-making during crises, Dr. Shelly Lev-Koren discussed multicultural virtual teams (and facilitated the teamwork with each team composed of students from different countries), and Prof. Erez lectured on managing organizations in times of crisis. Dr. Zohar Rubinstein from Tel Aviv University and his son Eran Rubinstein, who earned his MBA from the Technion, spoke on national resilience – their field of expertise.

The participant group was highly diverse, including the director of Data Science at Mastercard in Utah, USA, a senior manager at Mercedes-Benz, a veterinarian from Chile, and a health manager from an ambulance company in Australia. During the conference, students worked in mixed teams as consulting firms, providing solutions for handling crises in various organizations facing challenges. Prof. Erez stated, “It was impressive and moving to see Technion MBA students working with students from Yale University in the United States and GNAM business schools in Turkey, Ireland, England, Germany, Canada, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, India, Hong Kong, China, and Australia – focused on a shared purpose and leaving politics aside. In the concluding session, we received much praise from the international students, and again I want to emphasize the central role our students played in initiating, organizing, and leading this important event, as well as the excellent logistical and organizational support provided by the administrative staff of the MBA Program, the Faculty of Data and Decision Sciences, and the Faculty Computer Center.”

A new system developed at the Technion is assisting the administration in optimizing the start of the academic year, with a focus on new students. Based on a business intelligence (BI) platform, the system allows relevant parties to manage classroom and lab assignments, allowing new students to study on campus rather than remotely. This helps them form connections with each other, get to know their instructors, and build learning networks.

Students at the Technion

Developed by Moti Yeger, head of Technion Libraries, at the initiative of Senior Vice President Prof. Oded Rabinovitch, the system was implemented with key contributions from Sergey Makhlin, deputy security officer in the Security and Emergency Unit; Revital Broiman from the Central Library; and staff members from the undergraduate teaching department: Nurit Wigotzky, Lina Ashrapov, and Rachel Movsisian.

Recently, Israel’s Home Front Command raised Haifa’s alert level to level 2, which restricts students from attending physical classes at the Technion campus. This alert level has far-reaching implications for the maximum number of people allowed in classrooms, labs, buildings, and on the entire Technion campus. These constraints must also factor in proximity to designated protected spaces, as specified by the Home Front Command.

Given the complexity of these factors, Technion developed a unique system that provides relevant authorities with a dynamic, accurate overview of student assignments to campus spaces and their proximity to protected areas. According to Moti Yeger, “It’s an advanced planning tool based on business intelligence (BI) that provides a dynamic map of spaces where activities – mainly teaching – can take place according to Home Front Command guidelines. One of its advantages is that if the guidelines change, we can update the system, instantly receive an updated map, and assign lectures and labs accordingly.”

Students at the Technion

According to Prof. Oded Rabinovitch, “The strategic decision by the Technion’s administration places new students as the top priority for on-campus learning. These students don’t yet know their peers or professors, and this familiarity is essential for building learning networks and sharing academic challenges. The next priority is for lab work, as hands-on lab experience is irreplaceable, and the Technion is doing its utmost to continue lab activities as usual. For those not assigned to on-campus learning, instructors and teaching assistants will facilitate online learning, whether interactively via Zoom or asynchronously through recordings combined with workshops and digital meetings. Collaboration across the campus, from academic and administrative staff, security units, and especially the students themselves, is essential for successful learning in these complex conditions. And of course, we eagerly await improvements in the situation that will allow a swift and full return to regular campus activity.”

The new system integrates two information sources – a map of protected spaces and a map of teaching classrooms and course assignments. Academic Secretary of Undergraduate Studies Dr. Efrat Nativ-Ronen explained that this integration provides an accurate overview essential for optimal classroom allocation on campus. For the Security and Emergency Unit, the system provides a real-time picture of expected campus occupancy, enabling the unit to ensure these numbers remain within Home Front Command limits. If the system detects an over-allocation, assignments are adjusted in advance.

Signage on campus has been updated to ensure a clear and quick path to protected spaces. A dedicated website has also been set up where students and staff can track course allocations across the campus. These current efforts are part of the continued enhancement of security and safety on campus since the outbreak of the war, including strengthening the security infrastructure, preparing shelters, distributing communication devices, and providing relevant training to various units.

Researchers at the Technion Faculty of Biology have presented findings that could lead to new genetic treatments for cancer and brain diseases. Published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research, the study was led by Ph.D. student Berta Eliad, master’s student Noa Schneider, and their advisor, Associate Professor Ayelet Lamm. The study is a collaboration with the research group of Professor Heather Hundley from Indiana University.

From the left: Dr. Orna Ben-Naim Zgayer, Berta Eliad, Yarden Amichan. At the front Associate Professor Ayelet Lamm.

DNA is effectively the body’s instruction manual for producing proteins, whereas RNA is like a copy of one page from the manual — a recipe for making a specific protein. To make more extensive, more diverse sets of these “protein recipes,” our body uses an RNA editing mechanism. This process changes the RNA sequence, resulting in a changed recipe. RNA editing occurs naturally in cells, but researchers are currently exploring the possibility of directing these processes to repair mutated RNA.

Noa Schneider

One of the most common types of RNA editing found in nature is A-to-I RNA editing. In this process, an enzyme called ADAR changes one of the molecules that make up the RNA, converting it from adenosine (A) to inosine (I). Disruptions in this process can lead to cancer, neurodegenerative disease, and misactivation of the immune system.

Left to right: Assoc. Prof. Ayelet Lamm and Berta Eliad

The Technion researchers examined the ADAR enzyme in C. elegans — a worm commonly used as a model organism in biological research due to its transparency and rapid development. The researchers discovered that in these worms, the ADAR enzyme is found near DNA molecules during cell division and concluded that RNA editing occurs when new RNAs are created. They also discovered that ADAR is expressed in embryos, oocytes and nerve cells, but not in sperm cells or other cells, meaning the mechanism is selective for specific tissues. Furthermore, they discovered a protein that controls the location of the ADAR enzyme within the cell and identified which RNA the ADAR enzyme “prefers” to edit.

According to the researchers, “Our findings show where RNA editing takes place and which factors regulate it, allowing us to understand how RNA editing can be used to repair damaged genes. This study provides new, groundbreaking insights in genetic medicine, which may lead to the development of innovative treatments for severe diseases.”

Read the full article here

Almog Green, a student at the Technion’s Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, placed second in the Acrobatic Gymnastics World Championship held this summer in Portugal. Green trains and competes in the Women’s Pair category. Unlike rhythmic gymnastics, acrobatics involves no equipment – the athletes rely solely on their bodies to perform flips, pyramids, and more, with teamwork being a key component.

Green entered the world of gymnastics at the age of three in a “kids’ class where we did cute little forward rolls,” as she puts it. The head of the acrobatics association at the time, scouting for talented children, spotted her when she was four and told her father she had real potential. “My dad was shocked, but by age six, I joined the Maccabi Dan club, progressing from there to the Israeli National Acrobatic Team and winning the Israeli Championship and international competitions.”

Almog Green (on the floor) and partner Orian Yehudah. Photo credit: Noya Gindes

Almog balanced her 2023-24 training year, which culminated in the World Championship, alongside her first year of studies at the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine. “I knew for a long time that I wanted to study medicine because of the challenge and the opportunity to meet people – both patients and professionals. I love challenges, learning and growth, and this profession suits me perfectly. My mom and older sister are both doctors, and my younger brother is studying medicine in the elite Atuda program.”

She was accepted into the Faculty of Medicine two years ago but decided to defer her studies to prepare for the World Championship. To save time, she started studying biology at Tel Aviv University, then reapplied for medical school and was accepted at both the Technion and Hebrew University. “There was something very appealing about the Technion – the location, the atmosphere, and the people. They also told us we could meet the dean, Prof. Ami Aronheim, before the school year. I met with him and explained that this would be a demanding year, as I’d be preparing for the World Championship in acrobatics. He made it clear that there would be no compromise on academic requirements but assured me the Faculty would be supportive in other ways. For example, if I missed the first exam round due to a competition, I was allowed to take an additional round.”

Reflecting on her first year, she’s very positive – even enthusiastic. “The Faculty exposes students to the real clinical world right from the first year, through courses like anatomy and ‘Clinical Tuesdays.’ It was a fascinating year, and I’m pleased with my grades as well.”

In addition to her studies, she maintained a rigorous training schedule – five sessions a week, each lasting six hours, and even more leading up to competitions. “I knew I had to keep up with my studies during the semester and not leave things for the end, as I wouldn’t have flexibility during exam periods. In the end, I truly enjoyed both worlds – studying and acrobatics. It was challenging, with no shortage of fatigue.”

Green currently trains with the Begin Holon club, through which she won the World Championship at the senior level. “I have six medals from European Championships and three from World Cups, some of them gold, and a medal from the World Championship was my dream. My next goal is the ‘World Games’ – the Olympics for non-Olympic sports, set to take place next year, but that depends on my study workload.”