The medicinal mushrooms developed at the Institute of Evolution at Haifa University will be displayed in a unique mushroom museum

Haifa University

The photographed mushrooms have nothing to do with the article. Illustration

The Swiss government recently expressed interest in the medical mushroom species development project that is taking place at the Institute of Evolution at the University of Haifa and invited Prof. Salomon Wasser, who is responsible for the project, to hold a presentation on the topic of medicinal edible mushrooms at the world's first mushroom museum located in the country. Prof. Salomon even received a $20,000 grant from Switzerland to finance the creation of the performance.

Researchers at the Institute of Evolution at the University of Haifa are developing strains of edible medicinal mushrooms for innovative health uses. "Edible mushrooms provide many food components such as proteins, fibers, vitamins and minerals, and many of them are attributed medicinal properties in the field of cancer prevention, improving the immune system, antioxidants, preventing diabetes, lowering cholesterol, improving blood pressure and sexual desire," said Prof. Salomon Wasser. According to him, in light of the extensive knowledge accumulated in the Department of Biotechnology at the University of Haifa, the growing mushroom market year by year and the existence of innovative growing methods, it was decided to open up the mushroom growing industry in Israel to new varieties of edible and medicinal mushrooms, to develop new products such as mushroom food supplements, drinks that include mushroom extracts and industrial enzymes from mushrooms.

Prof. Wasser heads the department of biotechnology and the diversity of species of mushrooms and algae and is considered a world-renowned researcher in the field of taxonomy, mycology, ecology, distribution, physiology and biochemistry of medicinal edible mushrooms. Prof. Wasser has published over 550 scientific publications and 41 books and is the founder and editor-in-chief of three international journals in his fields of activity, including the International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms, the only international journal on medicinal edible mushrooms. In Prof. Vasser's name are registered a dozen patents for unique technologies of growing mushrooms that produce natural substances and under his scepter, at the International Center for Cryptogamous Plants and Mushrooms at the Institute of Evolution at the University of Haifa, a skilled team of researchers, laboratory assistants and graduate students works.

The Institute of Evolution at the University of Haifa hosts extensive research and teaching programs that include: evolutionary biology, the study of species diversity, differentiation and adaptation, theoretical biology and biotechnology. The uniqueness of the institute is in its multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach. The research covers genetic ecology, ecological genomics, molecular evolution, cytogenetics, evolution of sex, genome structure, recombination, and bioinformatics, and the Department of Biotechnology has been working for many years on the study of edible and medicinal mushrooms and cultivates a genetic bank of mushrooms with 1200 varieties from all over the world, the suitable varieties For different food substrates and a wide temperature range.
The Institute of Evolution of the University of Haifa, headed by Prof. Avitar Nebo, was established in 1971 and has twenty research laboratories. There are also multidisciplinary studies in which several laboratories participate and it collaborates with 350 laboratories from 35 countries that form a global network in the field. The institute has a program for doctoral students under the Advanced Studies Authority, and a certified program in the Faculty of Life Sciences. The Institute of Evolution staff includes ten professors, nineteen lecturers and administrative staff, about half of the staff are new immigrants, mainly from Russia.
They know evolution in action

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