Getting Under the Skin of an Autoimmune Disorder
Supporting actors sometimes steal the show, and in a new study published this week in Cell, researchers, headed by Professor Ido Amit at the Weizmann Institute of Science, showed that...
Mutations in Noncoding DNA Protect the Brain from ALS
Genetic mutations linked to a disease often spell bad news. Mutations in over 25 genes, for example, are associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and they all increase the risk...
Tracking Multiple Genes with Flying Colours
Even fans of black-and-white film cannot deny that colour brought new life to photography and motion pictures – but when it comes to learning what happens inside the body, there’s...
A Noninvasive Test for Gut Inflammation
Today, people suspected of having inflammatory bowel disease are often required to undergo a colonoscopy, an invasive procedure performed under anaesthesia. A new method developed at the Weizmann Institute of...
Muscle Repair Study Could Lead to Better Cultivated Meat
One day the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Professor Eldad Tzahor peered into his lab’s microscope and saw steak. As part of Tzahor’s research into repairing muscle tissue, Dr Tamar Eigler,...
Going Out with a Bang
In the not-so-distant past, the discovery of a supernova – an exploding star – was considered a rare occasion. For example, when Professor Avishay Gal-Yam of the Weizmann Institute’s Particle...
Gut Microbes May Drive Weight Gain after Smoking Cessation
Cigarette smoking, practiced by over a billion people worldwide, is considered a leading cause of disease, accounting for over six million deaths each year. Many people don’t quit smoking, despite...
Insulin-Making Cells Discovered in Foetal Gut
An exclusive ‘licence’ for making insulin in the human body belongs to the beta cells scattered throughout the pancreas. But because beta cells can become scarce or dysfunctional in people...
Bacteria and Plants Fight Alike
A brown blotch on a plant leaf may be a sign that the plant’s defences are hard at work: When a plant is infected by a virus, fungus or bacterium,...
The Weizmann Institute Of Science Receives $50 Million (USD) From The Azrieli Foundation To Help Humanity Unlock The Mysteries Of The Brain
The Weizmann Institute of Science recently announced a lead philanthropic donation of $US50 million from the Azrieli Foundation, to enable catalytic brain research with the establishment of The Azrieli Institute…
Cells and the City
Tracing the evolution of protein maintenance in cellular ‘boroughs’, students of the Weizmann Institute’s Professor Dan Tawfik’s have now published their study following his untimely death. When we contemplate the...
Putting a Super Cork on the Coronavirus
A new therapeutic approach developed by Weizmann Institute scientists could spell new hope in the battle against COVID-19. Even though vaccines may be steering the world toward a post-pandemic normal,...
When the Brain’s GPS Goes Off the Grid
In a new study just published in Nature, Weizmann Institute of Science researchers, in collaboration with colleagues from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, unveiled for the first time how three-dimensional...
‘Emotional COVID-19’: How the Global Pandemic Affected the Mental Well-Being of Israelis
During the six weeks between the end of the first COVID-19 outbreak in Israel and the beginning of the second one (late April to early June of 2020), researchers at...
Disease Signs Are in the Matrix
New research from the Weizmann Institute of Research shows that changes to the extracellular matrix could point to the future development of inflammatory bowel diseases. The morbidity rate of inflammatory...
An Unusual Way to Die
New research that reveals the details of an alternative cell death may lead to new therapies for a variety of diseases. Unlikely causes of death, like lightning, may strike out...
A Natural Food Supplement May Relieve Anxiety
A natural food supplement reduces anxiety in mice, according to a new Weizmann Institute of Science study. The plant-derived substance, beta-sitosterol, was found to produce this effect both on its...
Brain Research Gets a Boost from Mosquitos
Can a protein found in a mosquito lead to a better understanding of the workings of our own brains? Professor Ofer Yizhar and his team in the Weizmann Institute of...
The Triple Threat of Coronavirus
Severe symptoms of COVID-19, leading often to death, are thought to result from the patient’s own acute immune response rather than from damage inflicted directly by the virus. Immense research efforts...
Slow Synchronisation Keeps Heart Cells Beating in Time
If you dance cheek-to-cheek with a partner, your rhythms soon synchronise, so you move smoothly across the floor. Heart cells that beat – cardiomyocytes – are the same. If you...