ILSI-Biomed Israel

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...

The Potential of Smart-phones in Biomedicine

Medical apps for iPhone can be found aplenty, and soon to come are biomedical apps that interact with implants and monitor vital signs. A few weeks ago I received my first iPhone, and ever since I’ve had a blast of a time. This single, tiny device, can take the place of so many other utilities: books, movie and music players and yes – even portable game systems. It all depends on the apps you choose to download to your iPhone, of which there is a wide variety. Of all the applications I ve...

Meet the Speakers: The Future of siRNA

siRNA is one of the molecules of future medicine, with some success at early clinical trials. How will this molecule affect the future of therapeutics? Twelve years ago, a novel mechanism for shutting down genes has been described in a nature paper. The mechanism described made use of molecules called siRNA – Small Inhibitory RNA – whose potential for the development of new therapies for diseases like cancer has been recognized immediately. Last year, Dr. Dan Peer managed to create lip...

The Law of the Ordinary and Contact Lenses against Glaucoma

A new invention in the form of contact lenses against glaucoma, shows how biomedical devices should be designed I like to think about biomedical instruments as bits of magic. Not because they cause wonders and provide instant-cures (though some do), but because the more ordinary and mundane in appearance they are, the better they become – much as in magic tricks. It’s the Law of the Ordinary ™. If you market a device for overcoming seizures, and it looks like a robotic arm-sleeve, the...

OrSense Receives FDA Approval for Non-Invasive Oximetry Monitoring System

OrSense Ltd., developer of monitors for non-invasive measurements of various blood parameters, announced it has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for NBM-200MP, a non-invasive oximetry and low signal oximetry sensor.   Non-invasive pulse oximetry has become a standard of care in the operating and recovery rooms, intensive care units and emergency services, yet it has been known to provide erroneous oxygen saturation readings in situations of low perfusion, low...

ILSI-BioMed Week – the Israeli BioMed Industry’s Largest Annual Event

ILSI Biomed Israel 2010: Cutting-edge technological innovations, industry leaders and an abundance of business opportunities -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Israeli BioMed Industry’s largest annual event is set to be held June 14–16, 2010 in Tel Aviv.  Considered the biggest life sciences conference held outside the USA, ILSI Biomed attracts the world’s leading biotechnology, medicine and medical device entities ------...