The "Yade" company of the Weizmann Institute of Science, which promotes industrial applications based on the inventions of the institute's scientists, recently established a joint fund with the international pharmaceutical company "Johnson & Johnson". The foundation, which will operate to finance scientific research by scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science, recently awarded three research grants
Dr. Stefan Jung
blockagesThe prevalence of the wheezing disease, asthma, sometimes reaches the level of an epidemic. But despite many research efforts, the reasons for the occurrence of the disease are still unclear. The risk factors in this area include obesity and environmental factors, such as exposure to certain substances at work, smoking, and allergy-causing substances. At the molecular level, asthma is a complex disease, and it develops as a result of many systems of interactions between cells and different molecules. Recent studies have shown that a significant part of these processes involve small proteins called cytokines, which transmit signals related to an inflammatory reaction to the cells. Dr. Stefan Jung, from the Department of Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science, plans to investigate the possibilities of blocking the connection between one of the chemokines and the unique receptor to which it binds. This type of blockage could, perhaps, lead to the development of a new therapeutic approach in asthma.
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Prof. Ehud Ahisher
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is currently an accepted treatment for movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease and dystonia, a neurological disease characterized by involuntary muscle contractions. This treatment method is successful, but it is still possible to improve the doctors' ability to place the electrical contacts, accurately and efficiently, in the patient's brain. Identifying the exact location to place the tiny contacts is now a difficult challenge for doctors, who invest a lot of time and effort in this. Sometimes they have to put the contacts in and out several times. Developing an effective insertion mechanism may reduce the risk of brain injury and other complications. The group of Prof. Ehud Ahisher from the Department of Neurobiology at the Weizmann Institute of Science plans to develop such a mechanism.
beats
Medicines from the group of cardiac glycosides, such as digoxin, have been used for many years to treat heart diseases. But their use involves many side effects, including heart rhythm disturbances that can cause death. These drugs inhibit the activity of the sodium-potassium pumps
located in the cell membranes of the body in general, and the heart in particular. Moderate blockage of the pumps in the heart muscle cells causes more sodium ions to be transferred from the extracellular fluid into the cells, resulting in an increase in calcium concentration, which causes the heart muscle to contract more strongly. Due to excessive blockage of the pumps (for example, as a result of taking an overdose of the drug from the cardiac glycoside family), the level of calcium in the cells rises too much, which can cause fatal heart rhythm disturbances. Prof. Steve Karlish and his research partners from the Department of Biological Chemistry at the Weizmann Institute of Science have developed a strain of yeast cells that produce large amounts of a certain type of pump, found mainly in heart muscle cells and other muscle cells. In another study, they designed and prepared cardiac glycosides designed to act selectively on the pumps found mainly in the heart. If they manage to improve the level of selectivity of these cardiac glycosides, it may be possible to use them and develop safer drugs based on them for various heart diseases.
