The Value of Life

http://blogs.jpost.com/content/value-life

http://blogs.jpost.com/print/5567

My instinctive reaction to Monday’s tragic news was to not write a positive news blog this week.  But why let the terrorists win?  Dry Bones’ cartoon included the line “... we find joy in remembering their lives ...” and Israelis’ love for human life needs to be emphasized even more at this time.

There was positive news recently for three Israeli organizations producing devices to detect early-stage cancer.  First, Israeli biotech Nucleix raised more than $5 million to finance its diagnostic test for early detection of bladder cancer and possibly also colon, lung and prostate cancers.  Secondly, the NaNose cancer detector invented by Israel Technion Institute’s Dr Hossam Haick is now ready to be marketed and has been licensed to Boston’s Alpha Szenszor.  NaNose diagnoses early-stage malignant tumors by analyzing exhaled breath.  Finally, the numbers of tests performed by the MarginProbe breast cancer scanner, developed by Israel’s Dune Medical, have now passed the 1000 mark since the device was launched in 2013.  MarginProbe confirms that the entire malignant tumor has been removed, before the surgeon finishes the operation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALPeKkdtgPg

Haifa’s Technion Institute is also one of Israel’s centers for development of treatments to eradicate cancer altogether.  Technion researchers recently discovered that visible and UV light destroys cancer’s resistance to chemotherapy.  Almost simultaneously, a parallel group of Technion researchers teamed up with others at Germany’s Max Planck Institute to develop minute propellers, with the potential to deliver cancer-killing chemicals directly to tumors without harming healthy cells.

Israel’s cardiologists continue to save lives – and not just Jewish lives. Two Druse brothers from the village of Hurfeish contracted the same genetic disease that weakens the cardiac muscle.  Doctors at Israel’s Schneider Children’s Medical Center transplanted a new heart into Rani in 2011 and have just successfully completed another heart transplant for his brother Dani.  And since the time that Israel’s three teenagers were abducted, Israeli doctors at Save a Child’s Heart (SACH) have saved five Palestinian Arab children at the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon.  Dr. Lior Sasson, SACH chief surgeon said, “children from both sides, shouldn’t be a part of the conflict.”

Israeli cardiovascular devices are an essential component of today’s life-saving medical technology.  Israel’s Itamar Medical manufactures the EndoPAT diagnostic device that measures how well your arteries are working.  Japan’s Nihon Kohden has just announced that it will market EndoPAT to 100,000 doctors in Japan as its flagship product for monitoring the heart and blood vessels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVADCRihl_0

It is also imperative to have a decent quality of life. Israel’s D-Pharm has obtained fast track status from the China's Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) for its DP-VPA epilepsy treatment.  Israeli biotech Intec has announced that its Accordion Levodopa treatment for Parkinson’s disease has met all its safety trial endpoints so that Phase 3 trials on Parkinson’s sufferers can now commence.  Israel’s BrainStorm reported positive interim results of Phase IIa trials of its “NurOwn” stem cell ALS therapy. And two wound clinics at Israeli health organization Maccabi will treat patients with chronic leg ulcers using Vergenix gel developed by Israel’s CollPlant. Vergenix is based on CollPlant’s plant-based collagen.

Financial assistance and expert advice is available to Israeli start-ups if they are saving or improving lives.  Jerusalem NGO Pretense’s A3i (Accelerating Inclusion In Israel) is the world’s first support incubator, exclusively for startups developing products and services for people with special needs. A3i currently supports 13 Israeli companies. Philips and Teva’s new joint support incubator Inspire Healthcare Innovations Ltd will invest in start-ups developing treatments and medical devices.  US pharmaceutical giant Merck will work with Israeli companies on projects researching into life-saving medicines and will match Israel’s financial support to those companies.  Finally, Israel’s Trendlines received the “Best Incubator” award from Israel’s Office of the Chief Scientist. One of Trendlines supported companies, MitrAssist, received Best Start-Up of the Year for its device to treat faulty heart valves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_l7B2yMnA0

To conclude, here are two recent news items that should be an inspiration to everyone that loves life.  Two scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have been selected by the prestigious medical journal Cell for their “40 under 40” list of young world-leading scientists in their field. One of them, Jacob Hanna, is an Israeli-Arab.  His breakthroughs will advance the possibility of the future medical use of stem cells as “spare parts” for damaged cells and tissues.  Jacob comes from a family of doctors. His role model is his uncle Dr Nabil Hanna who developed Rituxan, the first monoclonal antibody approved for the treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Finally, it’s not the $25 million donation that Sheldon and Miriam Adelson donated to develop the medical school at Ariel University that attracted my attention.  It is the fact that the Adelsons were inspired to action after the abduction of the three Israeli teenagers.  As Sheldon poignantly stated, “the medical studies at Ariel University underscore humanity, the desire for life and the value of human life wherever they are.”

I wish the families of the three boys Long Life.

Michael Ordman writes a free weekly newsletter containing positive news stories about Israel.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

For a free subscription, email a request to michael.goodnewsisrael@gmail.com

Seven Weeks (Part 1) - Israeli Medical Treatments

http://blogs.jpost.com/content/seven-weeks-part-1-israeli-medical-treatments

http://blogs.jpost.com/print/5492

I’ve been absent from the blog scene for around seven weeks due to illness – exactly the same amount of time as between the Jewish festival of Passover and the upcoming festival of Shavuot (Pentecost).  During those seven weeks I just about managed to keep track of the recent accomplishments of the Jewish State.  And Israel’s advances with medical treatments during the past seven weeks have been simply amazing.

My jaw dropped when just last week, in clinical trials, a human patient with deficient jawbone received a successful bone transplant using bone grown in the laboratories of Israel’s Bonus BioGroup. The patient’s own fat cells were the original source tissue, which means almost zero chance of rejection by the body’s immune system.  In the laboratories of Israel’s Technion, scientists have engineered muscle tissue containing major blood vessels for repairing damaged abdomens.  A successful transplant was performed in clinical trials, suggesting that full abdominal surgery in humans using laboratory-generated tissue will soon be possible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xevd-oJFI44

 

Full heart transplants are still very risky, and many Israeli innovations reduce their necessity.  Israel’s V Wave has developed an implant-able shunt – a device that treats congestive heart failure patients by reducing pressure on the muscle controlling the blood flow between the heart chambers.  The first patient to receive the shunt is already experiencing an improved condition.  Meanwhile, researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have discovered that the protein Erbin can help prevent the irreversible damage to the heart when it attempts to enlarge itself in the final stage before heart failure.

Several Israeli companies produce devices to protect patients during heart operations. One - Keystone Heart - has just raised the required finance to trial its TriGuard filter. TriGuard protects the brain from blood clots and dangerous material (emboli) released during heart valve replacements and other cardiovascular procedures.  Gardia’s WIRON devices, on the other hand, place filters such as the TriGuard into the arteries prior to those procedures. Surgeons at Poland’s John Paul II hospital have recently completed successful trials of the WIRON. 

There were at least three Israeli-led advances in the fight against cancer during the past seven weeks.  Firstly, in the Research & Development labs of EventusDx, on the outskirts of Jerusalem they have developed a blood test to detect breast cancer.  Secondly, the US Food and Drugs Administration has just approved Teva’s Synribo therapy for home use in treating adults with chronic or accelerated phase Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML).  Finally, the US FDA has also approved the Duet scanning system, developed by Israeli biotech BioView, for the detection of mutations in lung cancer.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwlmGH8pTAw

There was positive news in the past seven weeks for sufferers of three types of brain diseases.  Tel Aviv University researchers discovered a protein that reverses some of the damage caused by Alzheimer’s.  Ben-Gurion University scientists have developed a treatment using Losartan (marketed as Cozaar) that reduces seizures significantly in epilepsy sufferers.  And multiple sclerosis sufferers who experience fatigue (common with the illness) may soon benefit from the vitamin D analog synthesized by Dr Anat Achiron of Israel’s Sheba Medical Center in Tel-Hashomer.

Two Israeli brain disease treatments are getting more global exposure.  Japan’s Takeda has signed a deal to commercialize Teva’s rasagiline treatment for Parkinson’s, for use in Japan.  And Professor Dimitrios Karussis will this week present the progress of the Jerusalem trials of BrainStorm’s ALS stem cell treatment to the Joint Congress of European Neurology in Istanbul, Turkey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnwNS4aDI34

Seven weeks has seen many breakthroughs in the understanding of the genetic causes of disease.  Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJ) have demonstrated the molecular basis of Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS).  Other HUJ geneticists have identified the DNA on/off switch that explains why different species of animals can have so many identical genes.  Tel Aviv University scientists have pinpointed the genetic regulator “switch” that was corrupted by the drug thalidomide and caused so many deaths and deformities in babies 57 years ago.  Scientists at Israel’s Bar Ilan University have identified the gene that controls production of probiotic bacteria in the gut that protects against ulcerative colitis. 

Finally, maybe the research of Weizmann Institute graduate Leemor Joshua-Tor will one day prevent many genetic diseases.  She has discovered a protein that can destroy defective genes in the RNA that are responsible for viruses and diseases such as macular degeneration and cancer.

Just some of the latest incredible medical achievements from the Jewish State.  Be well.

Michael Ordman writes a free weekly newsletter containing positive news stories about Israel.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

For a free subscription, email a request to michael.goodnewsisrael@gmail.com

Boycott Israel? Good Grief

http://blogs.jpost.com/content/boycott-israel-good-grief

http://blogs.jpost.com/print/4537

There has been much written recently about BDS (Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions) against Israel following Professor Stephen Hawkings’ decision to cancel his appearance at the Israeli Presidential Conference in June.  My response is to provide an update to members of the BDS club of my previous articles here and here on the stupidity and futility of boycotting the Jewish State.  For my sources to this latest blog, I am using only medical news articles since January 2013 – i.e. the last four and a half months.  The following is just a small selection – a more extensive list will be posted on my blogsite in the next week or so.

Dear BDS member.  By boycotting Israeli treatments and research you will cause the deaths of millions of children from Hepatitis B because they couldn’t have SciGen’s Sci-B-Vac only third-generation Hep B virus vaccine.  You would have to destroy the research by Hadassah Medical Organization that located the gene that causes recurrent life-threatening infections and bone marrow failure in children.  The babies born deformed and blind from ectodermal dysplasia cannot touch the gene therapy that Israel’s Technion has developed.  Children paralysed by the genetic brain disease Peripheral Neuropathy will just have to whistle for the medication developed by doctors at Hadassah Medical Center – except of course that they can’t whistle. 

BDS members obviously have no wish to cure cancer. 

-         You would boycott Hebrew University Professor Alexander Levitzki’s award-winning cancer therapies.

-         You would dispatch Technion’s diagnosis breath test for lung cancer and stomach cancer to the garbage, despite the fact an Israeli Arab invented it.

-         Gamida Cell’s Nicord and StemEx treatments for blood cancers, leukemia and lymphoma are “No No”s.

-         So is Biocancell Therapeutics’s new treatment for bladder cancer.

-         Melanoma (skin cancer) sufferers can forget the successful T-cell treatment at Sheba Medical Center. 

-         You must not treat patients with aggressive cancers if it requires the multi-antibody combination discovered by Israel’s Weizmann Institute.

-         Ban any work on the Hebrew University’s discovery of a mutated protein breast cancer signal. Then when you developed breast cancer your surgeons would just have to cut away healthy flesh with the tumor, as they would not be allowed to use the MarginProbe breast cancer test from Israel’s Dune Medical. 

-         Children will contract kidney cancer because you prohibited Sheba Medical Center’s treatment of the cancer stem cells that fuel the growth of Wilms’ tumors. 

-         Finally your worst nightmare is to be injected with Weizmann Institute’s microscopic device that searches the body for genetic malfunctions in the cells. 

BDS members have no heart, no brain and no spine, otherwise why would they want to boycott Israeli cardiology, neurology and spinal treatments? 

Heartless BDS members would need to avoid

-         Lev-El Diagnostics’ heart monitor algorithm that identifies heart disease in one hour instead of two days.

-         Enopace Biomedical’s endovascular micro-stimulator, which acts as a pacemaker for the arteries. 

-         Or Dr. Shai Efrati, of Tel Aviv University, whose Oxygen enrichment therapy improves stroke patients even 3 years after their last attack. 

-         And they would never use one of InspireMD’s new self-expanding stroke-preventing stents.

Brainless BDS activists can ignore Israel’s latest neurological discoveries and innovations such as:

-         How regulating the protein Calphotin can prevent Alzheimer’s disease

-         Why the sugar substitute mannitol protects the brain against Parkinson’s

-         Deep Brain Stimulation which treats Parkinson’s disease and helps smokers to quit

-         The pre-natal diagnostic tool for prevention of genetic mental retardation

-         BioControl Medical’s system that reduces epileptic episodes by half.

-         Alcobra’s ADHD medication, which is safer than Ritalin and has few side effects.

-         And certainly Weizmann’s research into how the brain repairs itself.

Spineless BDS bigots will have to forgo

-         Argo Medical’s ReWalk exoskeleton for paraplegics, for which Version 2 was shown to US President Obama; IDF paraplegic Radi Kaiuf used it to complete the Tel Aviv 10km race in less than 4 hours.

-         Mazor Robotics’s robotic spinal surgery which has just been approved for sale in Australia

-         Premia Spine’s artificial titanium joint that restores mobility to sufferers of spinal degeneration

-         Bonus Biogroup, which is generating new bones from a patients’ own fat cells.

-         Cartilage regeneration from a CartiHeal Agili-C implant

-         Diagnosis of walking problems using SensoGo’s gait analysis device

Finally, I can understand that you BDS people have no feelings for humanity.  But surely you must care for animals?  So please don’t boycott the first vaccine effective against canine monocytic ehrlichiosis (CME), a sometimes fatal tick-borne disease in dogs.  I realise that two Hebrew University veterinary scientists developed it, but you can’t let a poor animal suffer, can you?

Next week, I will post a feature on some of the Palestinian Arabs, Syrians, Iraqis etc. who have benefited from not boycotting Israel.

Michael Ordman writes a free weekly newsletter containing Good News stories about Israel.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

For a free subscription, email a request to michael.goodnewsisrael@gmail.com

Reporting the Inside Story

Reporting the Inside Story

16/1/13

http://blogs.jpost.com/content/reporting-inside-story

http://blogs.jpost.com/print/4204

An accurate picture of life in Israel cannot be constructed by focusing only on biased negative reporting and superficial analysis.  It requires looking under the skin at what really goes on inside the Jewish State. 

Starting inside the human body, Israel’s BioControl Medical has implanted its FitNeS vagus nerve stimulation system into epileptics and reduced fits by 50%, with no side effects.  Meanwhile, Israeli biotech Enlivex has developed a treatment called ApoCell that triggers a response from the immune system to reduce adverse reactions during bone marrow transplants.  It prevents Graft vs Host Disease (GVHD), which affects around 70% of transplant patients.  Also inside the Jewish State, a biotech comprising Israel’s minorities is successfully producing innovative products to guide neurosurgeons to the required location in the brain.  Alpha Omega is a Nazareth company of Christian and Muslim Arab graduates of Israeli universities.

Two revealing stories emerged from inside of the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer last week.  Firstly, Sheba scientists have isolated cancer stem cells that fuel kidney cancer in children.  Antibody medication was then used to target specific molecules in those cells and destroyed the tumors without harming any other cells.  But I had to blink hard when I read that US President Obama’s step-grandmother has just undergone emergency eye treatment at an Israeli hospital, far away from Tel Aviv. Sheba hospital also manages the state-of-the-art “Shalom” La Paz Medical Center in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea and the local staff includes around 100 Israeli doctors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg014tTBofk&feature=player_embedded

Inside the heart of many products you find Israeli technology.  Today, if you buy one of Lenovo’s new Ideapad Ultrabooks, it will include the gesture control features of Israeli startup, eyeSight Mobile Technologies.  With simple hand movements, from a distance of up to 70cm you can control media player, photo gallery, Powerpoint and PDF reader.  And in a further example, Colorado’s Spectranetics has just acquired Israel’s Upstream Peripheral Technologies.  Consequently Spectranetics’ medical lasers will soon come equipped with Upstream’s innovative products that reduce radiation exposure to both doctors and patients.

Many of the foods we put inside us are the product of Israeli technology.  The latest natural herbal pesticide from Israel’s EdenShield doesn’t even harm a fly.  When it is sprayed onto the netting surrounding fruit and vegetables, the bugs smell the aroma of the herb and they turn tail and fly away.  More Israeli innovations will be on display at Arava Open Day at the end of January.  250 companies will demonstrate their products to over 30,000 visitors who will also be entertained with a farmer’s market, kids’ activities, and gala evening concerts from top Israeli stars.  Meanwhile among the visitors to a recent agricultural exhibition were 30 farmers from Gaza who came to purchase Israeli products and learn from the Israelis.

Staying with the food industry, the popular Israeli drinks-maker SodaStream has become extremely successful simply by putting bubbles inside flavored drinks.  It also contributes to the environment by avoiding some of the billions of plastic bottles that we put inside the garbage trucks each year. SodaStream’s latest advert makes this sustainability point very cleverly - however the UK regulators banned it for “denigrating plastic bottle makers”.  Judge for yourself by watching the replacement ad and its original here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE9U4mMqKP4

Some of Israel’s beautiful environmental sites can be found right inside Israel’s capital.  Jerusalem’s Botanical Gardens are literally blooming.  Planned developments for 2013 include a children’s interactive discovery path and an expanded and renovated tropical conservatory.  And I fully expect the Secretary General of the United Nations to “bubble up inside” when he reads that Israel plans to turn the 64 acres of Gazelle Valley in Jerusalem into Israel’s first city wildlife park. 

I’ll finish with some items featuring some of the residents that live inside our tiny little country.  Members of an Ultra-orthodox (haredi) IDF battalion saved the lives of three Palestinian Arabs who were trapped in a car near Nablus in a raging swollen stream during the recent storms.  A left-leaning Israeli newspaper was surprised by evidence of the surge in applications by East Jerusalem Arabs for Israeli ID cards; more Arab students taking the Israeli matriculation exams; more enrolling in Israeli academic institutions; and a rising number of youth volunteering for national service.  Perhaps less surprising was that dozens of the 600 Christians from the Gaza Strip who arrived in Bethlehem to celebrate Christmas have asked to move to Israel.  And then there is Samir – a Muslim Arab who voluntarily enlisted in the IDF.  Samir was born in Syria but now lives in Israel.  “I love the army”, he said proudly.

Lastly, among the 18,000 new immigrants who in 2012 decided to start new lives inside the Jewish State was 100-year-old Moises Lederman from Brazil.  "I'm only sorry I didn't come to Israel earlier on, but better late than never," he said.  But the view of Vivian Hamui from Panama is perhaps even more illuminating.  She finds herself living and studying with Ethiopians, Russians, Spanish, English, Chinese, Americans, Dutch, Venezuelans and many Arab girls.  She doubts if the same situation could occur inside any other Middle East country.

It really helps to have inside information.

Michael Ordman writes a free weekly newsletter containing Good News stories about Israel.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

For a free subscription, email a request to michael.goodnewsisrael@gmail.com

Heading for Another Great Year

http://blogs.jpost.com/content/heading-another-great-year