Bacteria Could Provide Us with the Next Antivirals
Bacteria Could Provide Us with the Next Antivirals Virus-fighting viperins, part of the human immune system, turn out to have bacterial counterparts that might boost the fight against human disease By tracking the evolution of what may be our oldest means of fighting...
A New Approach to Tailoring Cancer Therapy: Tapping into Signaling Activities in Cancer Cells
Matching drugs to tumors may lead to personalized treatment and new therapies 16.07.2020 Lung cancer samples: Far left untreated. Lung cancer tissue failed to respond when exposed to a microtubule inhibitor drug (left) or to a drug that enhanced the apoptosis-inducing...
Which Came First?
An experiment in reconstructing primordial proteins solves a long-standing riddle 22.06.2020 The characteristic (HhH)2 fold and its binding to the minor groove of a modern DNA molecule. How did the first ones form? What did the very first proteins look like – those...
Weizmann Institute of Science is Seventh in Top ERC Grants
Around one in two proposals put forward by Institute researchers for some of the most competitive grants receives funding 22.06.2020 The Weizmann Institute of Science is ranked seventh in Europe – and first in Israel – for the total number of research grants obtained...
What Does the “Love Hormone” Do? It’s Complicated
A study of mice in a semi-natural setting shows how the hormone oxytocin can amplify aggression as well as friendliness 15.06.2020 Competition or cooperation? Oxytocin might enhance social cues for both During the pandemic lockdown, as couples have been forced to...
Solving the Riddle: When was Wilson’s Arch, under Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, Built?
Analyzing a handful of charred seeds reveals the ancient builder of an iconic structure in the Western Wall Tunnels 04.06.2020 Wilson's Arch is still partially visible today to visitors to the Western Wall in Jerusalem Who built Wilson’s Arch? It wasn’t Charles...
Paying the Price of Protection
A new model of autoimmune disease may solve some great outstanding riddles, including what causes T cells to attack and why only certain organs get them 19.05.2020 Single-organ autoimmune diseases attack particular organs, eg., the thyroid, adrenals and beta cells in...
How to Neutralize the Coronavirus: Learning from the Body
Making copies of existing antibodies could be fast track to treatment 12.05.2020 A niche within a lymph node in which antibody-forming cells are generated Recovered COVID-19 patients continue to produce coronavirus-neutralizing antibodies, keeping them as a...
Israeli-American-British Labs and Biotech Partner to Speed Coronavirus Drug Development
An international initiative aims to identify compounds that target a key enzyme in the virus's life cycle 04.05.2020 Dr. Nir London of the Weizmann Institute of Science's Organic Chemistry Department is co-leading an ambitious project in collaboration with...
The Self-Synthesizing Ribosome
This cellular factory-on-a-chip could be used to design, produce and test drugs against antibiotic resistant bacteria 20.04.2020 Visual representation of the self-assembly process: Synthesis of proteins and ribosomal RNA from synthetic DNA strands attached to a chip...