The Technion’s story has been intertwined with Israel’s for more than a century, from laying the foundations for a new nation to shaping its future.
An Israeli startup has bioengineered milk protein to create a wide range of dairy products – using mushrooms and no cows. And, the company says, their products are healthier, greener and cheaper to create. Haifa-based ImaginDairy uses freely available DNA codes for milk proteins to recreate their DNA, the company’s CEO and co-founder Eyal Afergan tells NoCamels. The data is even available on the website of the US government’s National Center for Biotechnology Information. There are two major proteins in milk – whey and casein, Afergan explains. These proteins are present in every single milk-based food. Casein makes up about 80 percent…
Moshe, a computer programmer who suffers from a life-long stutter, tried every kind of treatment to ease the jaw spasms, severe facial twitches and feelings of suffocation he experienced whenever he spoke. But every time he’d step out of a clinic or treatment center, he had no way of preserving the methods he had just been taught to manage his condition. That’s when he decided to use his technological skills to develop an algorithm capable of analyzing and monitoring his speech to ensure he was practicing these various stuttering techniques correctly. Six years later, he joined forces with speech language…
Several years ago, amateur athlete Hemi Re’em was shocked to discover that his coronary arteries were 90 percent blocked despite his seemingly good health. This set him on a path to cofounding Yopi Technologies. Yopi (Your Online Personal Instructor) is a first-of-its-kind, AI-based wearable device that monitors oxygen consumption through electrolytes in the sweat. The goal is to detect heart deterioration and measure overall wellness.
Multiple myeloma is the second most common cancer that impacts blood cells. It primarily affects people in their mid-60s or older. Over time, patients become resistant to current treatment drugs that are initially effective. That’s why UB-Therapeutics, a company founded and run by Technion alumni and faculty, is working on a new drug. Existing drugs target proteasomes, which maintain cellular function. The new drug aims to inhibit proteasome activity in cancer cells by binding to ubiquitin, a small regulatory protein found in most tissues. “By leveraging the cell’s own natural processes, we aim to develop a more selective and effective…
ArtiFascia®, a patch-like dural repair graft, recently obtained approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The device – developed by Nurami Medical, a startup in Haifa co-founded by Technion alumna Nora Nseir Manassa – will revolutionize neurosurgery. Dura mater is the outermost layer of the membrane that surrounds the brain and spinal cord, protecting the central nervous system from physical damage. The resorbable device, made of electrospun nanofibers, promotes tissue regeneration of the dura mater while also preventing cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leaks and bacterial penetration sometimes caused by suture holes during surgery. “The necessity to cover the brain with…
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects an estimated 10% of the world, which is just under 800 million people. According to the US-based National Kidney Foundation, 90% of people affected by the disease don’t know they have it at the early stages, allowing it to progress undetected. In some cases, CKD is caught only at “end stage,” when kidneys are failing and require either a transplant or dialysis — a grueling, weekly procedure to remove waste and excess fluid from the blood. The average survival rate of dialysis patients is five years. Curespec, based in Yehud-Monosson in Israel, claims its unique device, Nephrospec,…
“When we say agriculture, we think green and plants and land, it sounds very sexy. But the reality is that agriculture is one of the major contaminants in the world, both in terms of groundwater contamination and greenhouse gas emissions,” says Rafi Levi. “And fertilizers are the No. 1 contaminant in agriculture.” Levi is the CEO and cofounder of DOTS (Data of the Soil), an Israeli startup bent on helping farmers cut down on the use of excess fertilizers by providing them with real-time monitoring of fertilizer in the soil. This can save them a lot of money and, of course, protect…
An Israeli company that develops medical treatments using helpful bacteria to fight disease is expanding the clinical trial for its drug to battle cancer. The biopharma startup recently opened a second site for its ongoing clinical trial at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv. The first site is located at Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa, northern Israel. Biomica identifies and selects microbes to treat specific diseases that will enhance how the body’s immune system responds. Biomica is a biopharmaceutical startup working to create microbiome-based therapeutics to treat immune-mediated and infectious diseases. The company’s Co-founder and CSO Yehuda Ringel…
Imagine juicy burgers sizzling on the grill, made from beef cells without environmental impact or harm to animals. Or cookies that release nutritious protein as they rise in the oven. Teaming up with the nonprofit think tank the Good Food Institute in Israel, the Technion is establishing the Sustainable Protein Research Center (SPRC) to conduct research to develop and help commercialize forward-looking food technologies like these. Professor Yoav Livney, who helped Technion students create the prizewinning “Algalafel,” a falafel enriched with the microalgae spirulina, is leading the endeavor. At a time when the world is battling the dual challenges of…
Gal Frenkel built a wooden deck and pool in the backyard of his home in central Israel the summer after he had sold luxury wedding/bar mitzvah event planner Sky Productions (opening price for an event: $1 million). Frenkel hosted a few parties there, and after the summer he didn’t think much about his pool and deck. When he went out to look at it the following spring, he was shocked. “The whole area looked old and ruined and faded. I was so disappointed,” he tells ISRAEL21c. “I called the guy who installed the deck and said, ‘Nadav, you really messed it up.’…
Common pedagogical wisdom states that the younger a child begins learning a new language, the easier it is for them to acquire. And adhering to that philosophy, Israeli startup Curiosity Robotics has created a friendly, chatty little robot to teach English as a foreign language to preschoolers. Meet Aico, the charming, smiling artificial intelligence teaching tool that is the product of three years of research at Tel Aviv University’s Curiosity Labs. Aico is programmed to use a teaching method devised by British-Israeli educator Helen Doron, which advocates for children starting to learn a second language as early as three months of age. Curiosity Robotics is a…
An Israeli startup has developed a wearable device that can predict the likelihood of an imminent stroke through changes in the carotid artery’s blood flow, potentially helping early intervention and preventing disablity. Strokes are most commonly caused by a clot blocking the essential supply of blood to the brain, and according to the World Health Organization are the second leading cause of death and the leading cause of disability across the globe. Over 100 million people have experienced a stroke worldwide, with one in four adults experiencing one in their lifetime. And for 50 percent of them, that means some form of…