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The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology last week signed a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Romania’s Politehnica University of Bucharest, establishing collaboration between the two academic institutions. The MOU will support educational and scientific cooperation, as well as promote student exchange.

Prof. Alon Wolf, Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development, who signed the MOU on behalf of Technion, was part of an Israeli delegation led by President Reuven Rivlin, focusing on strengthening economic and academic ties, including collaborative projects in the fields of smart cities, health and agritech.

Israeli delegation to Romania, led by President Reuven Rivlin (photo: Mark Neiman, GPO)

Politehnica University of Bucharest, which was established 200 years ago, is home to a prestigious engineering school, with over 25,000 students. According to Prof. Wolf, a researcher from the Technion’s Mechanical Engineering Faculty, Politehnica University, much like the Technion, is a beacon of technical excellence, which boasts a cadre of leading alumni in the field of engineering.

Politehnica University Rector Prof. Mihnea Costoiu said: “We have signed a cooperation agreement with Technion, through which we aim to develop courses in areas such as digital health, medical technologies, as well as promote student exchange, internships, opportunities for researchers, and development of joint research projects.”

Prof. Alon Wolf and Prof. Mihnea Costoiu (photo: Politehnica University)

This MOU comes on the heels of an agreement the Technion recently signed with Brazil’s Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, one of Latin America’s largest hospitals, which will support student exchange, collaborative research, and clinical trials.

The Technion mourns the passing of Uzia Galil, founding father of Israeli high-tech, Technion alumnus and lifetime friend, supporter, and collaborator of Technion.

“Uzia was a visionary who contributed greatly to the Technion, to industry, and to Israeli society,” said Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan in a Eulogy to him. “He was one of the Technion’s most prominent graduates and a true friend to the Technion.”

The life of Uzia Galil tells the tale of a century, including Israel’s journey from destitution to prosperity and the regenerating power of the innovative spirit embodied by Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. According to Prof. Sivan, Technion graduate Uzia Galil was: “an entrepreneur in every fiber of his being.”

Uzia Galil (1925-2021): “An entrepreneur, in every fiber of his being.”

Uzia Galil was born in 1925 in Bucharest. Fleeing the Nazi takeover of Romania, he arrived at age 16 in British-run Palestine. In 1943 he enrolled at the Technion in electrical engineering, and after his studies – he served in the navy. After postgraduate studies at Purdue University in Indiana, he worked for Motorola on the development of colored television, and then returned to Israel and the navy as head of the electronics R&D department. In 1957 he joined the Technion as a lecturer and became director of the electronics department at the Faculty of Physics. As part of his research in the Technion, he developed complex electronic systems for use in physics.

Alongside his work at the Technion, Galil established “Elron” in 1962, which spawned over 25 technological companies, including Elscint and Zoran. “The Elron company, which Uzia founded, was the first successful realization of entrepreneurship in a science-based industry to grow out of a technical institute in Israel,” said Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan. “Galil was ahead of his time in many areas. He laid the foundations for the Israeli Startup Nation, anticipating the essential combination of technology and medicine in service of mankind.”

Galil was a key initiator of the country’s first industrial park, which today is the flourishing MATAM Scientific Industries Center, home to R&D offices of Intel, Yahoo!, Google, Philips, and Microsoft. With 50 years under its belt and scores of spin-offs numbering tens of thousands of employees, Elron has been one of the pillars of the Israeli economy and its high-tech “miracle.” And Technion graduates were key to its success – not just as engineers but as managers and executives. “If you look at our companies – the engineering teams, the software people – the majority are Technion graduates,” said Galil. He later founded the “Galil Centre for medical informatics and telemedicine” adjacent to the Technion’s Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine in order to harness technology for the benefit of human health through the integration of different technological systems.

In 1977, the Technion awarded Galil an honorary doctorate. In 1980 he became the first Technion graduate to become Chairman of the Board of Governors, a position which he held until 1990. He continued as a member of the Technion Council until his passing. In 1997 Galil received the Technion Medal and was awarded the Israel Prize for his contribution to the development of the Israeli high-tech industry. “His contribution to the Technion as head of the Board of Governors and member of the Technion Council for many years was immense,” said Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan.

“In my life, I always thought ahead. I said – OK, what we’ve done – we’ve done. The question is, what are we going to do tomorrow?” said Galil in December 2007 in a keynote speech at a conference on next-generation medical products. “And here we have to understand what is expected from us, where we can really excel, where we can maintain our position. The first and foremost in my opinion is to clearly identify where our relative advantages are. It is recognized that one of the strongest characteristics of Israel is the innovative power and the desire for knowledge both in academia and in the industry.”

“On behalf of the Technion, I share the family’s grief and offer our sincere condolences,” said Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan.

May his memory be a blessing.

The ambassadors and heads of mission of a dozen Latin American states, including Argentina, Colombia, and Peru, visited the Technion June 9 to hear about its scientific discoveries, contribution to the fight against coronavirus, its Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center, and more.

The delegation also visited the laboratory of Prof. Benjamin Podbilewicz (originally from Mexico), and heard about the research of postdoctoral fellow Dr. Nicolas Brukman, who is from Argentina.

Prof. Podbilewicz’s laboratory studies cell fusion, and the focus of Dr. Nicolas Brukman’s study is the fusion of sperm and egg cells. He presented the study – which could have far-reaching implications on both contraceptives and infertility treatments – to the Latin American delegation, which toured his lab, located at the Emerson Family Life Sciences Building. The ambassadors were also interested in student exchange opportunities.

Prof. Benjamin Podbilewicz presents his lab to ambassadors of Latin American countries

Among the ambassadors were Margarita Eliana Manjarrez Herrera (Colombia), Carlos Daniel Chavez-Taffur Schmidt (Peru), Sergio Daniel Urribarri (Argentina), Adis Arlene Urieta (Panama), and Julissa Anzueto Aguilar (Guatemala). Last month, Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan hosted Gerson Menandro Garcia De Freitas, the Brazilian Ambassador to Israel, who toured the campus.

“Technion is well positioned to develop solutions to the world’s most pressing needs”

Gil Lainer, Director, Division of Public Affairs and Resource Development, welcomed the delegation to the Technion. “We have strong ties with Latin America, and always look to further collaborate,” he said. “The challenges of the 21^st century are global, and the Technion is well positioned to develop solutions to the world’s most pressing needs.”

Most recently, the Technion signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein in Sao Paulo, Brazil, which will support student exchange, clinical trials, and collaborative research projects between the two institutions.

Text by Tatyana Haykin

Can stem cells be identified and monitored in mature tissue? How do our organs cope with both the need for frequent renewal of tissue cells and the need to protect stem cell health in tissue that is exposed to environmental hazards?

Collaboration between two research laboratories in the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion has recently yielded a pair of groundbreaking articles focused on the renewal and morbidity mechanisms in the cornea – the transparent tissue that is essential for vision and which serves as the “skin” of the eye. In a similar fashion to the skin, the cornea cells are constantly shedding and are replenished by new cells originating from stem cells.

Unlike skin, the clear cornea lacks the pigments that protect our skin. As such, it is highly exposed to harmful radiation. This is one of the reasons that corneal stem cells are localized in the limbus, the narrow zone between the transparent cornea and opaque sclera (the white part of the eye). Many properties of these limbal stem cells (LSCs) such as their, prevalence, heterogeneity and molecular signature are largely unknown. This gap of knowledge halts the development of LSC-based therapies to cure blindness. Furthermore, the topic of how stem cells cope with different physiological constraints is a key unanswered question in stem cell biology.

In the first article, published in Cell Stem Cell, two previously unknown stem cell niches were discovered in the cornea. Each niche was found to contain unique stem cell populations that ensure its renewal. The second article, published in eLife, presents the sophisticated control mechanism that protects the cornea by maintaining a balance between cell death and self-renewal in the tissue. The article discusses how the basic properties of stem cells and differentiated cells affect the maintenance of stem cells in a remote, protected area and the cell turnover rate, their “freshness,” and aging. These breakthroughs, which emphasize the importance of interdisciplinary research, were achieved thanks to the collaboration between the research lab of Professor Ruby Shalom-Feuerstein, who specializes in stem cell research, and the lab of Professor Yonatan Savir, who specializes in quantitative biology and biophysics.

L-R: Dr. Aya Amitai-Lange, Professor Ruby Shalom-Feuerstein and Dr. Anna Altshuler

Trace and identify

The study published in Cell Stem Cell was headed by Dr. Anna Altshuler and Dr. Aya Amitai-Lange, of Prof. Shalom-Feuerstein’s lab. They integrated innovative technologies, including RNA sequencing on a single-cell level, and advanced clonal lineage tracing – identification of all “descendants” of a specific cell. The product is an unprecedented atlas that describes the gene signature of limbal stem cells and their complete lineage.

The findings in this atlas show that the limbus accommodates two stem cell populations located in two distinct niches that have not been previously described, and which were coined “outer” and “inner” limbus. The inner limbus contains a population of active LSCs, which divide frequently and routinely renew the cornea. The outer limbus contains a population of quiescent, or dormant, LSCs that rarely divide, whose function is to protect the borders of the cornea, and that serve as an emergency reservoir of stem cells aroused upon injury. Mathematical analysis of clonal growth dynamics in vivo suggested that LSC populations are abundant equipotent cells that follow stochastic rules that fit with neutral competition on a niche that dictates survival or extinction. Finally, the study also discovered a new function of the immune system’s T cells that serve as outer limbus niche cells and control the division frequency and healing process of outer LSCs.

According to Prof. Shalom-Feuerstein, “The traditional dogma did not entail zonation or heterogeneity in the limbus, and viewed LSC as rare cells that are surrounded by abundant short-lived progenitors. The hypothetic scarce entities were never found despite decades of research. This study proposes a new dogma that describes two discrete LSC populations that are widespread in their niche, and it reveals their signature, dynamics, and function. We hope that it will pave the way for a better understanding of the involvement of LSC in corneal blinding pathologies. The atlas of LSC genetic signature and niche components may be translated into optimized LSC purification and growth in our culture dish that is currently quite limited.”

L-R: Medical student Lior Strinkovsky, Professor Yonatan Savir and PhD student Evgeny Havkin

Between mortality and renewal

A key question in stem cell biology is how stem cells can accurately balance cell loss and perfectly tune the development of the tissue and maintain its size and integrity. The second study, which was published in eLife and headed by medical student Lior Strinkovsky and PhD student Evgeny Havkin (both of the Savir lab), focused on this topic. The researchers developed a mathematical model that describes the dynamics of cell renewal in the cornea, and tested various hypotheses and defined the control mechanism that creates a balance between cell renewal in corneal tissue and the death of aging cells. The researchers evaluated different hypotheses by which stem cells could sustain tissue homeostasis and tested their feasibility. The analysis revealed an inherent relation between the lifespan of the corneal cell (the number of times they can divide) and the length at which cells affect each other as they replicate (does a dividing cell out-compete only its nearest neighbor cells or does it affect a larger neighborhood?). One of the implications of these relations is that “short-lived” progenitor cells believed to possess a lifespan of 3-4 divisions might have a 10-20 times larger lifespan than previously believed.

“Many of the tissues in our bodies (such as the cornea and skin) are in a perpetual state of cell death and renewal, and stem cells play a crucial part in the tissues’ capacity to regenerate,” said Prof. Savir. “However, we still do not fully understand how stem cells control the ability to generate new cells so that the tissue retains the right size. Also, the lifespan of ordinary cells has a significant role in maintaining the balance between the number of new cells that are generated and the number of cells that die. Our work paves the way to hypotheses that can easily be tested experimentally”.

A model of the dynamics of corneal tissue renewal by stem cells along the corneal border.

A new perspective of stem cells

The researchers estimate their findings support the understanding that the traditional model of rare stem cells is not valid. The present research findings are of great significance to the understanding of the basic properties of stem cells in different tissues such as skin, muscle, hair follicles, and bone marrow. The researchers hope the revelation of the identity and genetic signature of the limbal stem cells in this study will pave the way to the understanding of development processes of corneal disease and others, in which stem cells in various tissues are damaged, and will also lead to the development of innovative treatments and new technology to repair damaged organs such as the cornea, among other things through the use of drugs that target damaged genetic pathways in stem cells and their interaction with the niche cells that support them.

Click here for the paper in Cell Stem Cell

Click here for the paper in eLife

The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology announced today that the Master of Business Administration program has been named The William Davidson Master of Business Administration Program in honor of American business leader and philanthropist William “Bill” Davidson (1922-2009). The announcement was made by Technion President, Professor Uri Sivan, during a joint meeting between Technion leadership and the Board of Directors of the William Davidson Foundation.

“William Davidson’s outstanding achievements and legacy have made him a source of inspiration for those seeking to become entrepreneurs and innovators themselves,” said President Sivan. “I cannot think of a better program to bear his name than the one for the Technion MBA,” he concluded.

William “Bill” Davidson was a quiet man of immense influence in business, professional sports, and the Jewish community. He learned at an early age the importance of helping others through charitable giving and made it a lifelong practice.

An outstanding industrialist and innovator who transformed a small, family company into a leading worldwide glass and plastics manufacturing enterprise, Mr. Davidson was a life-long supporter of the State of Israel and a Technion Guardian, a designation reserved for those who have reached the highest level of support of the institution. As a proponent of experiential business education, Mr. Davidson viewed the Technion’s role in training future leaders as important to securing Israel’s economic future. In a particularly visionary statement in 1997, he said “Israel has a critical need to equip its technological ‘pioneers’ with the skills necessary to translate successes in the lab into an edge in the global competition for markets, customers, and capital.”

“We are honored that the Technion is naming their MBA program after Bill Davidson, who believed that for Israel and its economy to remain strong and dynamic, the country needed bright, entrepreneurial business leaders with an understanding of global trends and markets,” said Darin McKeever, President, and CEO of the William Davidson Foundation. “The Technion’s approach of integrating training in engineering, science, and technology with a strong business education can help to create the kind of leaders Israeli businesses need today,” he added.

The Technion MBA program is unique in its focus on entrepreneurship, innovation, and technological management, which are core strengths at Technion.

The Technion MBA program is unique in its focus on entrepreneurship, innovation, and technological management. The prestigious program enjoys several unique advantages, including the Technion’s rich ecosystem of faculty and applied research centers, as well as a network of international partnerships with leading management institutions. The program offers four specialization tracks, which allow students to deepen their knowledge and expertise in key aspects of technology business and management: big data and business intelligence; innovation and entrepreneurship; the “Azrieli start-up” track, which combines MBA studies with a supportive environment for establishing and developing technology ventures; and a new Life Sciences MBA track, which will allow students from life sciences fields to specialize in managing and leading life science organizations and ventures.

Students in the Technion MBA program have strong academic backgrounds and rich and diverse professional experiences, working in technology and knowledge-driven companies. This diversity and excellence play an important role in the program, which fosters mutual learning and collaboration. Among the MBA program’s alumni are Moovit founders Yaron Evron and Roy Bick and Alcobra founder Dr. Yaron Danieli.

The William Davidson Foundation is a private family foundation, established in 2005, that honors its founder and continues his lifelong commitment to philanthropy, advancing for future generations the economic, cultural, and civic vitality of Southeast Michigan, the State of Israel, and the Jewish community. For more information, visit williamdavidson.org

In a new article, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology scientists document findings that could significantly improve the resolution of telescopes. The research, which was performed by Ph. D. student Gal Gumpel and supervised by Dr. Erez Ribak from the Technion Department of Physics, was published in the Journal of the Optical Society of America B, in a feature issue on Astrophotonics.

Dr. Erez Ribak

The resolution of a telescope – how sharp its images are – is the smallest angle between two observed objects, where they can still be visibly separated. The resolution limit is set by diffraction: light rays diffract and scatter around objects in their path, in this case, the telescope mirror, as they travel to the focal plane, where the detector (camera) is. The original angle of the light is blurred, causing the observed object, in this case, a star, to look like a fuzzy spot. Thus, two nearby stars will look like overlapping fuzzy spots, which we cannot distinguish anymore.

There are two basic ways to reduce diffraction and improve resolution, as set by the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics. One is the reduction of the wavelength, for example by illuminating the object with blue light, instead of red; the other is to increase the telescope aperture. Since in astronomy we observe natural light that is out of our control, we cannot reduce the wavelength, but we can increase the telescope aperture. Indeed, the giant telescopes being built in recent decades provide very high resolution. In mid-sized telescopes or space telescopes, limited by launcher volume, the resolution is still an issue.

The experiment performed at the Technion is based on the amplification of photons (light particles). When a photon, arriving from a star, crosses the telescope aperture, it reaches a light amplifier, a medium of atoms, which responds by stimulating the emission of many additional photons. These stimulated photons are identical to the original photon, both in direction and in wavelength. These daughter photons also obey the initial diffraction limit, but by their mere number, they allow for a better measurement of the angle at which the original, astronomical photon has crossed the telescope aperture. This is an improvement on direct detection, which is based only on the original photon (without an amplifier), improves the resolution of the telescope without increasing its size.

Ph.D. student Gal Gumpel

Such light amplification has been disfavored because the stimulated emission is also accompanied by constant spontaneous emission by the same atoms. The copious spontaneous photons are emitted in all directions, unlike the stimulated ones, creating a bright background, and reducing the achieved increase in resolution. As a result, Gumpel and Ribak had to separately measure also the spontaneous photons. In the lab experiment, they blocked the “star” light part of the time, thus measuring only the background, while the rest of the time served to measure both stimulated and spontaneous photons. The image of the object was obtained by subtraction of the background image from the combined image, leaving only the clean image of the source. This is the first time such an experiment is performed with white light since most light amplifiers (such as those in lasers) operate only at one wavelength.

According to the researchers, “one of the possible drawbacks of the method is the loss of sensitivity in the final images, but this is a worthy price to pay for the increased resolution. Moreover, the loss of sensitivity can be overcome partially by increasing the exposure times, namely the observation period.”

Click here for the paper in Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Figure 1: From left to right: astronomical photons (white light particles), emitted by a star, pass the telescope aperture and reach a light amplifier containing atoms. An atom hit by a photon emits a larger number of identical stimulated photons (marked in green) that hit the telescope detector at a higher precision than that of the original stellar photon. At the same time, the amplifier emits spontaneous photons (marked in red) which scatter in all directions and hit the detector in such a quantity so as to create a constant background, hiding the stellar amplified photons. To overcome this limitation the researchers measured the average spontaneous emission by blocking the stellar light and taking a picture of the background alone. By subtraction of that background from a picture with the star light, they were able to reconstruct the image of the star at high resolution.

A singular, heartwarming visit took place at the Technion on Sunday, May 30, 2021 – a first visit of the Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to Israel, H.E Mohamed Al Khaja. The Ambassador’s entourage met with Technion President Professor Uri Sivan, Executive Vice President for Research, Professor Koby Rubinstein, and Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development, Professor Alon Wolf.

UAE Ambassador, H.E Mohamed Al Khaja (left) with Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan

UAE’s Ambassador, H.E Mohamed Al Khaja holds a degree in political science from Northeastern University in Boston and an MBA from Vienna University of Economics and Business. For the past decade, H.E served as Chief of Staff to the UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs. Ambassador Al Khaja, 41, was sworn into his position in February 2021.

Technion President Sivan said at his meeting with the Ambassador: “The Technion is one of the few universities in the world that have had a significant impact and have transformed the economy of an entire country. It is thanks to Technion alumni that Israel established a highly developed, knowledge-intensive industry. The Abraham Accords with the UAE have opened up extensive opportunities for regional collaboration. Medicine, health, and science are subjects that connect people, and are delighted to be a party to research and academic collaborations with universities in the Emirates.”

Taking a close look at the Technion Nano Bible: the Ambassador with Prof. Alon Wolf on a tour of the Technion Visitors Center.

The visit began with a tour of the David and Janet Polak Visitors Center, led by Technion Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development, Prof. Wolf, who presented to the Ambassador the research and technology discoveries and breakthroughs achieved by Technion researchers, including the discoveries of the Technion’s Nobel Laureates, which led to the establishment of groundbreaking tech companies. Two of these companies are Mazor Robotics, which was founded on the basis of technology developed by Professor Emeritus Moshe Shoham of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, and Novocure, founded by Professor Emeritus Yoram Palti of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine on the basis of his technology.

Executive Vice President for Research, Prof. Rubinstein, presented the Technion’s diverse research to the Ambassador, as well as its numerous successful technology transfers. “In the past year alone,” he said, “the Technion founded 15 new startups – a huge increase compared to prior years.”

He also presented the Innovation Center for the Medicine of Tomorrow initiative to the Ambassador – a joint venture between the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, run by the Continuing Education and External Studies Division. “The Technion is unique in its many years of experience in training doctors and engineers,” continued Prof. Rubinstein. “The concept of engineering in service of medicine will greatly benefit the advancement of human health.”

L-R: Oded Raviv, Prof. Zeev Gross, Prof. Eliezer Shalev, Prof. Shulamit Levenberg, Prof. Koby Rubinstein, Ambassador Al Khaja, Prof. Alon Wolf, and Jasim Mohamed Alhosani

“I am very honored to be the Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to Israel, and consider myself as an ambassador of peace and cooperation,” Ambassador Al Khaja said. “We must work together to change the perception of people in the Middle East. The Abraham Accords have brought us all closer and have led us to work together for a better future. The Technion is an esteemed research center with a world reputation, and we will be delighted to collaborate on any research that will contribute to the wellbeing of the residents of the region. We will work together for the progression and success of research collaborations and student exchanges between our countries. Shared science and research will bring our countries and people closer.”

Ambassador Al Khaja said that in his previous position as Chief of Staff to the UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs he was engaged in innovation, technology entrepreneurship, and R&D. “This subject is close to my heart, and I will be happy to further encourage innovation and joint research between the Technion and our country, especially on issues associated with water and food security.”

The researcher behind this discovery is Hanan Abumanhal Masarweh of the Technion’s Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute, who received her Ph.D. from the Technion for her research under the supervision of Prof. Avi Schroeder of the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering.

Baking soda, the simple product that’s available at any supermarket, could revolutionize breast cancer treatment, according to researchers at the Technion who have found that this substance changes the acidity of the cancerous tumor and thus increases the efficacy of chemotherapy.

The researcher behind this intriguing study is Dr. Hanan Abumanhal Masarweh from Umm al-Fahm. In May 2021, she received her Ph.D. from the Technion after completing her B.A. and M.A. at the Hebrew University’s School of Pharmacy in an excellence program called “Medication Science.” As part of her master’s research, she investigated nanotechnology-assisted protein transport through the skin. After completing her master’s degree, she enrolled in doctoral studies at the Technion.

Hanan Abumanhal Masarweh receives her Ph.D. diploma from Technion President Prof. Uri Sivan

In her 2019 study, Masarweh focused on a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer – a version that is produced by a combination of mutations and is therefore relatively resistant to existing treatments. Masarweh and Technion researchers have developed nanometric particles containing baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) that home in on cancerous tumors. In this fashion, they changed the tissue’s acidity and increased its permeability to chemotherapeutic drugs.

“Baking soda will reduce side effects”

Dr. Abumanhal explains that cancerous cells are characterized by a more acidic environment than the one that prevails in the rest of the body’s tissues. This acidity is owed to metabolic changes related to the energy generation pathways in cancer cells. “In healthy cells, too, there is an increase in acidity when rapid energy production is required, but in cancer cells it is the dominant energy-generating pathway; acidity makes cancer cells more aggressive and more metastatic. Introducing baking soda into the method we developed will reduce the necessary drug dosage and therefore could reduce side effects.”

The study showed that the aforementioned treatment, which affects the tumor’s environment, intensifies the anti-cancer activity of chemotherapy drugs. The study also shows the positive effects of a combined treatment, which attacks several components at the same time and weakens the tumor environment.

“Suffocating” the tumor

The innovation of her doctoral research is not limited to the original use of baking soda but includes a more comprehensive view of the cancerous tumor and, more importantly, its environment.

“Many studies show and emphasize the importance of the tumor environment in supporting cancer cells, and in facilitating the cancer cells’ ability to penetrate nearby tissues and metastasize throughout the body,” she says. “In addition, changes in the environment of the cancerous tumor tissue may affect the tumor’s response to treatments and promote the development of resistance to the anti-cancer treatment. Therefore, it is important to develop a synergetic treatment that changes the tumor’s environmental balance and thus ‘suffocates’ it.”

“A successful research experience”

“In my undergraduate degree, I realized that I was not only interested in finding the molecule that would cure the disease, but in finding a way to lead the molecule in the most effective way to the target site,” she says. “When I moved up north, I was looking for a laboratory at the Technion that specialized in nanotechnology and pharmacological distribution. That is how I got to Prof. Avi Schroeder of the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering. I enjoyed working in his lab, because I was exposed to new knowledge and had a successful research experience.”

Dr. Hanan Abumanhal Masarweh and Prof. Avi Schroeder of the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering

During this period, Abumanhal won the Baroness Ariane de Rothschild Fellowship for Ph.D. studies – a prestigious scholarship from the Edmond de Rothschild Foundations that supports outstanding Ph.D. students at the beginning of their research career.

Architects Prof. Bracha Chyutin and Prof. Shamay Assif have won the EMET prize for architecture for 2020. Known as Israel’s Nobel Prize, the EMET Prize is awarded for excellence in academic and professional achievements that have had far-reaching influence and have made a significant contribution to Israeli society.

Architect Prof. Shamay Assif

The prestigious awards, to the amount of $1 million, were awarded on Thursday 27th May to eight new laureates, two of whom are Technion faculty members: Prof Shamay Assif and Prof. Bracha Chyutin.

This is the 19th year of the EMET Prize, which is given under the auspices of the Prime Minister’s Office. The award committee is headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Yaakov Turkel.

Architect Prof. Shamay Assif completed a bachelor’s degree at the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning at the Technion and a master’s degree in architecture and urban design at Harvard University. He is a pioneer of the “Israel 100 – Strategic Spatial Planning for Israel in 2048” initiative. The firm of architects he established in the 1990s was involved in, among other things, the master plan for Be’er Sheva, the master plan for Modi’in-Maccabim-Re’ut, and the architectural and scenic development of the Trans-Israel Highway. He was the Tel Aviv-Yafo City Engineer and headed the planning team of the National Outline Plan TMA 35. In 2010 he left his position as head of the Planning Administration at the Ministry of the Interior and was appointed Visiting Professor at the Technion where he is now a faculty member.

Architect Prof. Bracha Chyutin

Architect Prof. Bracha Chyutin, graduated from the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning at the Technion, and co-founded the office of Hayut Architects with her husband, the late Dr. Michael Hayutin, who was a leading Israeli architect in recent decades. Hayutin focused on public construction and was responsible for some of the most prominent buildings in the Israeli urban landscape, including the Polonsky Academy at the Van Leer Institute, the Haifa Court, and the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem. She has won many awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Architects and City Builders in Israel, the Design Award for the Haifa Courthouse, and the Architects Association Award. She also won the Rechter Prize for Architecture three times. She served as a consultant for the master plan of the Technion and a judge in the entrance gate design competition for Technion City. Today, she is a Technion Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning.

Congratulations!

Daniel (Dani) Karavan was born in Tel Aviv in 1930. His father Abraham was the chief landscape architect of Tel Aviv from the 1940s to the 1960s. Karavan’s many architectural innovations include wall reliefs in Israeli courts and research institutions, including the 1966 Jerusalem City of Peace wall relief in the Knesset assembly hall and the environmental sculptures comprising 35 wall reliefs & iron sculptures at the Court of Justice in Tel Aviv.

Israel’s celebrated sculptor the late Dani Karavan at the Honorary Doctorate ceremony in 2009.

In 2009, the Technion awarded Karavan an honorary doctorate. The citation read: “In appreciation for your pioneering achievements and brilliance in the realm of art and environmental sculpture that has brought a heightened awareness of natural and built surroundings to the millions worldwide who have been privileged to view your artistic creations; in recognition of the enhancement of Israel’s prestige on the international scene generated by your art and the understanding, promoted by the many works in which Jewish and Israeli themes and the yearning for peace predominate; in acknowledgment of the importance of art to scientific and technological endeavors; and in gratitude for the hand of friendship you have always extended toward the Technion.”

At the graduation ceremony, Karavan said that: “Among all the scientists and engineers at the Technion, I feel a little unusual, even though I did my first work in cement and concrete and was greatly helped by the advice of Technion staff.”

May he rest in peace.

Monument to the Negev Brigade: one of the works by the late Dani Karavan.