The Falling Walls competition, which aims to honor outstanding researchers from around the world, was held online last week and Amit Rimon, a top track student at the Faculty of Medicine at the Hebrew University, was among the 98 researchers and entrepreneurs who qualified for the finals out of about 1500 contestants from around the world. Amit won the national Falling Walls competition and qualified for the world finals in the "rising talent" category for his contribution in developing solutions to deal with antibiotic-resistant bacteria - but he did not win. Amit's project is a joint effort between him and Dr. Ronan Hazan from the Faculty of Dentistry at the Hebrew University and Prof. Ran Nir Paz from the Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital. The national competition is held by the JLM Impact consortium, which is jointly led by Huji Innovate - the innovation and entrepreneurship center of the Hebrew University, the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, and Azrieli Academic College of Engineering.
Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is a significant morbidity factor, which leads to the death of thousands of people every year. Phages, with which Amit and the members of her laboratory are involved in their research, are genetically engineered viruses that do not harm humans, but when introduced into the body, attack the harmful bacteria and kill them - even those against which antibiotics are ineffective. Sometimes, it is the patients' only chance to beat their disease and stay alive. "We are currently maintaining a phage bank, which contains over 300 different phages that are active against 25 bacteria that often develop resistance to antibiotics," explained Amit and added "as part of our research, we perform clinical treatments on patients with COMPASSION, this means that there are no other solutions that can be offered to them for recovery. So far we have treated five patients for whom medicine had nothing to offer at all, and now we are treating a cat. Most of them recovered as a result of the phages treatment."
Amit, Dr. Hazan, Prof. Nir-Paz and their teams are one of the only groups in the world that research phage treatments and perform the entire medical procedure that begins with locating and cleaning the phages and ends with the treatment of patients. As a result, the phages produced by Amit have already been sent to various treatments around the world, from Belgium to Australia.
The Falling Walls Foundation and Berlin Science Week united this year for a large-scale international innovation conference, which includes pioneers from academic institutions from all over the world in the fields of experimental science, politics, arts and civil society. The conference cherishes groundbreaking ideas and researchers and brings researchers together in order to promote collaboration and action.
