ILSI-Biomed Israel

Researchers from RAMBAM Hospital Fight Parkinson’s Disease with Imagination

A new research from RAMBAM hospital shows that Guided Affective Imagery (דמיון מודרך) can make the tremors of Parkinson's disease go away. The relationship between the mind and the body has never been fully determined. Worse, the field is wide open for charlatans, holistic healers, homeopaths, naturopaths and what-have-you. However, from time to time we get some ‘real’ peer-reviewed scientific papers that offer new insights on the mind-body link. Such a paper was recently published in the...

Human Beta Cells Grown in a Culture

From BioMed Israel Week 2010: A Novel Therapeutic Method Based on the Ability of Stem Cells to Assist in Treating Juvenile Diabetes Will Replace the Insulin Injection Ramot, Tel Aviv University's technology transfer company, will present for the first time a therapeutic approach based on stem cells capability to assist in the treatment of juvenile diabetes, in the Israel BioMed Week 2010, which will be held on the 14th-16th of June in Tel Aviv. The main novelty of the treatment is a br...

Startup Weekly: ProtAb – Antibodies Against Arthritis

ProtAb is a company dedicated to eveloping an antibody for the treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis and other autoimmune diseases such as Crohn's Disease, and has recently raised $4 million. Name: ProtAb CEO: Shira Yair Sector: Biopharma Medical Field: Autoimmune Diseases Est.: 2005 Stage: Late stage pre-clinical, after series A funding Vision: To develop a novel therapeutics for autoimmune diseases, based on the induction of natural anti-inflammatory mechanisms existing in...

A Novel Artificial Pancreas System

An aritifical pancreas system that maintains near-normal glucose levels by injecting both insulin and glucagon was succesfully demonstrated on a small number of patients An artificial pancreas system that closely mimics the body's blood sugar control mechanism was able to maintain near-normal glucose levels without causing hypoglycemia in a small group of patients. The system, combining a blood glucose monitor and insulin pump technology with software that directs administration of insulin an...

Enzymotec: a $20 M Deal with Daiichi Sankyo

Israeli biotech company Enzymotec Ltd., a developer of active pharmaceutical ingredients for nutritional supplements, has signed a major strategic agreement with Daiichi Sankyo Brazil, a subsidiary of Japanese pharmaceutical company Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. (TSE: 4568). Globes, 6 May Enzymotec and Daiichi Sankyo Brazil will launch Enzymotec's product for the reduction of cholesterol and triglycerides, which Daiichi Sankyo Brazil will market. Daiichi Sankyo Brazil focuses on cardiology a...

Antioxidants Cause Genetic Abnormalities?

A new research reveals that high doses of antioxidants cause stem cells to develop genetic abnormalities, paving the way for cancer When people look back on the beginning of the 21st century, they might think this was the time of the antioxidants. Antioxidants supplements are being sold everywhere, usually without a doctor prescription, as a way to halt aging, heart diseases and whatever else is promised on the label. But current research, published online in the medical journal Stem Cells, r...

Medtronic buys ATS: Cardiology Shopping Spree Is Not Over

Last week Medtronic announced its plan to acquire the American ATS Medical for $370 million in cash and debt - an offer that represents a 54 percent premium over ATS Medical’s closing price of $2.54 the day before. The move is supposed to strengthen Medtronic's position in the expanding cardiovascular market. It adds to a series of purchases made by the medical device giant in the last two years, paying a total of more than $2 Billion. In 2009, Medtronic has spent over $1 billion to ...

The Power Solution: Thermoelectric Generators to Sustain Implanted Medical Devices

Efficient thermoelectric generators were recently published as a possibly efficient way to sustain implanted medical devices Let's face it: we're dealing with an aging population. There's no way around this fact, and the obvious implication is that in the future we're going to need better heart pacemakers and better systems for insulin injection. The future seems to be heading towards more sophisticated implantable machinery, be it pacemakers or sustainable drug-release devices inside the bod...

Plastics that Distort DNA Readings

A new research reveals that polypropylene tubes can contaminate solutions in the PCR and distort the DNA spectrometer readings. One year ago, a group of researchers at Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem reported a sharp rise in the diagnoses of a certain metabolic disorder. To those of us who live in Jerusalem, fear not. Other than the Holyland story, nothing really happened in the Israeli capital in the last year. The only change is that the lab at Hadassah changed th...

First worldwide patients treated with anti-adhesion SpineShield

Magen Medical Solutions Ltd., a medical device company developing unique anti-adhesion devices for orthopedic applications, is pleased to announce that it has successfully implanted its first product, the SpineShield, in three patients at a clinical site in Europe. Post-operative adhesion is considered a major cause of failed back surgery. In up to 15% of cases, patients suffer from pain due to spinal adhesion, or scar tissue formation around the spinal cord, which may require a second su...