By Chandrea Serebro
Two Israeli start-ups (Nucleix and Medial EarlySign) are making great strides developing blood tests for diagnosing early stage lung cancer. Now, Savicell, a third, is achieving a 91% success rate. Early detection gives the patient a 50-80% recovery chance. At late stage it is only 4%.
Israeli start-up Scade Medical has patented a prototype scanner to diagnose early stage melanoma. BlueSky is based on DOSI (differential optical spectro-polarimetric imaging) technology invented by Ofir Aharon, whose mother contracted melanoma. It has already saved seven lives.
Israeli start-up Diagnoz.me has a smartphone system that can detect infections from home and send results to your doctor. Diagnoz.me just won the Health 2018 Summit and NIS 3 million in prize money.
Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have discovered that removing damaged cells slows down aging. Damaged cells promote inflammation, common in age-related diseases. Absence of the gene that kills damaged cells causes premature aging. Treatment to destroy these cells, like boosting immunity, slows aging.
International research involving Haifa and Bar Ilan University is finding new ways to fight viruses and cancer. Parallel scientists have discovered the key role of enzyme ADAR1 in the immune system and how it can become a new pathway for eradicating viruses and cancers.
Source for the above stories: Good News from Israel
Israeli start-up Innoviz is taking care of the “eyes” in next-generation autonomous vehicles. Innoviz’s LiDAR sends out pulsed laser beams to measure and monitor a car’s surroundings. BMW is now integrating Innoviz into its autonomous vehicles scheduled to be launched in 2021.
Israel is known for its ability to turn desert into a country with water independence. Now GENNY, a 50-kilogram home and office water generator, uses ambient air to extract and produce between 25 and 30 litres of water a day. One litre of GENNY-made water costs just 2 cents.
Can’t get the technician to commit to fixing your tech devices? TechSee uses cameras and augmented reality to troubleshoot users’ tech problems remotely. Just bought a new router, but don’t know how to set it up? Fire up TechSee’s “Eve” app and point your phone at the router. Eve will identify the model and walk you through installation by demonstrating the steps you need to take on an augmented visual overlay. The company raised $18 million in December.
Don’t panic, mechanic
Engie plugs into a car’s dashboard and helps drivers of “regular” vehicles (you know, the ones we’re driving today) diagnose problems and find the closest mechanic (along with rates) from the app’s mechanic marketplace. Engie can tell you if your car will pass its next air-pollution test or if the engine is running hot. It can even remember where you parked your car.
Handy with computers but hate housework? Foldimate is a robotic laundry folding machine. A ship date is estimated for later this year with a target retail price of $980. You feed your clothes into the top of the machine, which looks a bit like a giant upright printer, and the clothes come out neat and folded. Foldimate adjusts its folding technique based on item size and user preferences.
Pizza, anyone? Flytrex wants to be the FedEx of the drone-delivery world. Its software allows operators to set pick-up and delivery points and see information about weather, topography, and other drones in the air. The service is now operational at the King’s Walk Golf Course in North Dakota where it delivers food and beverages to golfers on-demand, and in Iceland where AHA which uses Flytrex to drop goods in customers’ Reykjavik backyards.
Headaches might soon be a thing of the past. New Israeli neuro-modulation technology by Neurolief brings the world a non-invasive device that is portable and wearable and can offer an over-the-counter alternative to pills or surgery. It stimulates six different nerve branches in the brain that regulate pain and mood, offering relief from pain symptoms. One study of the product conducted last year demonstrated an average 80% reduction in pain symptoms. That’s double the rate for implanted devices and far more than a couple of Tylenols can achieve.
A professor in Jerusalem, Prof. David Naor, is developing a special peptide that could be used to treat a variety of incurable inflammatory diseases such as Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, multiple sclerosis, and neurodegenerative maladies such as Alzheimer’s disease. Naor has spent 10 years researching the synthetic protein which he believes could significantly reverse the damaging effects of inflammatory diseases and Alzheimer’s.
Craving meat? Now you can make your own…Using individual ingredient cartridges of plant proteins, fats, and other ingredients, Jet-Eat aims to print fresh vegan “meat” ready to join the food manufacturing supply chain. Adjusting the fat content and other parameters could yield ersatz ground round, roast, stew beef, or steak. “Our product has to have a high resemblance to meat in many properties. A steak is basically muscle, fat, and blood in a complex structure that influences mouth feel and how it cooks. The flavour profile is connected to how the fat is marbled in the muscle and melts when you cook it,” says founder Ben-Shitrit. “We need to emulate the chemical and physical properties and the structure. We’ve mapped a lot of these elements for our printing process.”
Israeli start-up Humavox wants to turn the places you normally store your devices – briefcase, backpack, gym bag – into wireless battery chargers.
Humavox’s technology consists of a tiny transmitter that’s embedded into a bag or cup holder and a tiny receiver that’s placed in your phone or wearable. Electricity is sent wirelessly via a standard called near-field radio frequency (RF).
Ground-breaking digital eyewear now under development in Israel projects images only onto the healthy parts of eyes with retinal damage. Israeli company ICI Vision has developed digital eyewear with the potential to give millions of legally blind people the ability to see. The “enhanced vision engine” combines artificial intelligence, eye-tracking software, computer vision, and other software and hardware, including a built-in 3D camera, to fill in the gaps from loss of vision and optimise the image in front of the user’s eyes.
The eyewear is personalised to each user through eye mapping, a procedure that establishes the location of healthy retinal cells.
Intellithings is innovating with RoomME, a personalised automation solution for smart homes. Install RoomMe in a selected space and its Bluetooth tech identifies who’s in the room based on their smartphone. RoomMe then automatically adjusts lights, thermostats, and other devices to pre-set preferences.
Can’t get to the game? VR system teleports you to the stadium.
Through the magic of augmented and virtual reality technologies under development at Israeli start-up Texel, anyone with a VR headset can “teleport” to experience the sights, sounds, and smells of the stadium with fellow fans in 360 degrees and 8K resolution — no matter where they actually are. Content owners and broadcasters can use Texel to offer virtual seats enabling fans to experience the game as if they were there, including the social aspect. Insights into viewing habits enable the client to provide a personalised content mix.
Source for the above stories: Israel 21c
CannabiDose, a Kfar Saba-based start-up, develops oral delivery systems for medical cannabis-based products including oils, liquids, and ointments. Its two systems are the CannaDose, a pocket-sized device that looks similar to an asthma inhaler and that delivers controlled, accurate doses, and the CannaMist Sport, which provides a controlled dose of cannabinoids in a fine, measured mist for sports enthusiasts and professional athletes. CannabiDose’s products and solutions “support the usability, delivery, manufacturing, storage, and transportation of medical cannabis,” the company says.
SodaStream is taking green matters into its own hands, launching a new initiative to rid the waters of plastic waste, only nine percent of which is recycled. SodaStream recently launched ‘Holy Turtle’ – a massive contraption designed to clean plastic waste from open waters as part of an ambitious clean-up operation. The ‘Holy Turtle’ is a 300-metre-long floating unit designed to be gently towed by two marine vessels in open waters, SodaStream said in a statement, adding that the device was “uniquely engineered to capture floating waste while its large vent holes act to protect wildlife”. The design was inspired by oil spill containment systems.
Source for the above stories: http://nocamels.com/
Now there is a backpack that transforms into a bulletproof vest in less than 2 seconds. Following recent shooting incidents in schools and universities in the US, MASADA has decided to develop a highly-awaited protective solution for students to enhance their protection and boost their confidence. MASADA has developed the Protective Backpack, an armoured backpack, which is innocent looking from the outside, but, when needed, it transforms into a front and back bulletproof vest. The backpack is designed for regular student use, to carry books, laptops, and other staff. The vest part is closed in a separate section of the backpack and it cannot be seen during the daily use of the backpack.
The product weighs less than 3kg.
From www.rafael.co.il
At the peak of the holiday season, Gatwick airport in London was closed for 36 hours due to drone activity in its airspace. Eventually, the British Police used the Drone Dome, developed by Rafael in Israel, the same developers of the Iron Dome, to get them off the ground again. The Drone Dome gives all-round protection against drones within 3-5 kilometres. The system makes it possible to detect threats by way of radar and a signal intelligence component to monitor the signal let off by a drone that is already flying.
From Sheba Medical Centre, www.shebaonline.org
Israeli Neuroscientists have discovered a potential lifesaving drug for Glioblastoma (brain tumour) patients. Neuroscientists at Sheba Medical Centre, Tel Hashomer have discovered a novel new drug that has the potential to cure terminally ill patients suffering from the aggressive brain cancer, which recently took the life of Arizona Senator John McCain. According to medical industry sources, there are over 240 000 new cases of GBM diagnosed worldwide every year. Glioblastoma is the most common and deadly primary brain tumour. Despite extensive research in the field, the results of current treatments are extremely limited and there is no cure for the disease. The neuroscientists have developed a unique drug based on a newly identified pathway which includes thrombin and its receptor PAR1.
