• Mysterious Lightning ‘Superbolts’ Can Be 1,000 Times as Strong as Ordinary Strikes

    October 23, 2023 | BY LORI YOUMSHAJEKIAN | SCIAM
    Not all explosions in the sky are as they seem, especially in the Mediterranean. Enter "superbolts" - the planet's mightiest lightening strikes and a phenomenon that has confounded scientists for years. These bolts pack a staggering 1,000 times more power than typical lighting strikes and, in contrast to standard lightening, they predominantly occur over water, particularly above the Mediterranean Sea. Comprising only one-thousandth of 1 percent of all lightning strikes, superbolts are an exceptionally rare natural occurrence. That is why the recent findings, supported by the BSF, from a team of U.S. and Israeli researchers have captured headlines and generated excitement in the scientific community. Their novel explanation of the origins and mechanics of these baffling lightning phenomena has brought fresh insights to the forefront. The study, published recently by Hebrew University Professors Daniel Rosenfeld and Avichay Efraim, alongside their U.S. counterparts, Professors Joel Thornton and Robert Holzworth from the University of Washington in Seattle in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, revealed a key finding: height matters – as storm clouds get closer to the surface, the lightning bolts grow stronger. This binational research effort, supported by a joint NSF-BSF Atmospheric and Geospace Sci. grant, represents a major step forward in unraveling the complex physics behind these extraordinary lightning events. Read More
  • Brain region identified as key to conscious experience

    July 25, 2023 | By Dr. Prajakta Banik | TECH Explorist
    In the vast realm of neuroscience, the elusive question of where conscious experience resides in the brain has remained a subject of intense inquiry and speculation. Countless studies have delved into the intricate workings of the human brain, attempting to decipher the neural basis of Consciousness. A groundbreaking research emerges, poised to shed new light on this enigmatic phenomenon. In an innovative study supported by the BSF and featured in the scientific journal Cell Reports, a team of scientists, including BSF collaborators Prof. Leon Deouell from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Prof. Robert Knight from the University of California at Berkeley, unveils a remarkable find - a specific brain region that appears to play a pivotal role in sustaining visual images during perception. These findings may offer new ways to assess awareness in coma patients, potentially leading to more effective treatments, and could also pave the way for advanced therapies targeting consciousness-related disorders. Read More
  • Octopuses Redesign Their Own Brain When They Get Chilly

    June 8, 2023 | By Rachel Nuwer | Scientific American
    If you're feeling chilly, you might grab a sweater. But if you're a cephalopod, like an octopus, you actively tweak your own neural signals to stay warm in cold ocean waters. This revelation comes from the collaborative efforts of U.S.-Israel BSF researchers and co-senior authors Dr. Joshua Rosenthal from the Marine Biological Laboratory of Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and Prof. Eli Eisenberg from Tel-Aviv University. Their groundbreaking findings, recently published in the journal Cell unveiled the remarkable ability of these cold-blooded cephalopods to edit their own RNA, a genetic molecule responsible for protein production, in response to temperature changes. The binational research duo is currently in the midst of their third BSF collaboration, supported by an NSF-BSF Integrative and Organismal Systems (IOS) grant, where they are exploring the complexities of temperature acclimation through RNA editing, as demonstrated in this current study. Read More
  • Groundbreaking Israeli research finds treatment for pancreatic cancer

    March 23, 2023 | by Nina Fox | YNet News
    Research led by scientists from Israel’s Hebrew University of Jerusalem may herald significant progress in the study and treatment of pancreatic cancer – one of the deadliest and most violent types of cancer. That's what makes this new BSF-supported study in the journal Nature so exciting: for the first time researchers have identified the mechanism that causes pancreatic tumors to spread, and their discovery could lead to promising treatment options to inhibit metastasis and save countless lives. The multinational study was led by doctoral student Amina Jbara of Prof. Rotem Karni’s research lab at Hebrew University’s Faculty of Medicine in collaboration with Sheba Medical Center and Bar Ilan University in Israel as well as, University of Toronto, Cornell University, and Cold Spring Harbor Labs in New York. Read More
  • Myopia in youth can lead to glaucoma, vision loss, retinal detachment, cataracts – Israeli study

    March 12, 2023 | By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH | The Jerusalem Post
    BSF-supported researchers from the U.S. and Israel have revealed that a lack of exposure to daylight after long hours of study can cause an increase of myopia, or shortsightedness, in children - a trend particularly pervasive among haredi (ultra-Orthodox) boys. Myopia is the most common cause of visual impairment worldwide and its prevalence is only increasing, especially in urban populations in Eastern Asia, the U.S. and in Israel too. In fact, myopia is expected to affect half of the world's population by 2050. The study, published in the prestigious journal Scientific Reports, was conducted by a team of researchers from the optometry department at Hadassah Academic College in Jerusalem, including BSF-grantees Dr. Einat Shneor, Dr. Ravid Doron and Prof. Ariela Gordon Shaag, in collaboration with BSF partner Dr. Lisa Ostrin and her colleagues from the University of Houston. Read More
  • Why bringing up your child as bilingual is best

    February 8, 2023 | Bar-Ilan University | ISRAEL21c, by Abigail Klein Leichman
    Did you know that multilingualism can offer cognitive advantages to children, such as better problem-solving skills and enhanced creativity? That's what Israeli linguistic and brain researchers in the field have discovered, including BSF grantees from Bar-Ilan University, Prof. Sharon Armon-Lotem and Dr. Carmit Altman. Prof. Armon-Lotem is currently working with Dr. Altman, head of the Child Development Program in Bar-Ilan’s Faculty of Education, on a BSF grant in psychology in collaboration with Dr. Maria Adelaida Restrepo from the University of South Florida to determine the best interventions for bilingual children who suffer from Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). As our world becomes increasingly diverse and interconnected, understanding the effects of bilingualism on cognitive development is more important than ever. It's encouraging to see that BSF-supported research is helping us unravel the mysteries of the bilingual brain and unlocking new insights into human cognition. Read More
  • How to reduce the temptation to cheat: Empathy

    January 30, 2023 | University of Rochester, by Sandra Knispel | Science Daily
    Adopting a partner's perspective increases commitment and desire for the partner, while simultaneously decreasing sexual and romantic interest in alternative mates, according to a new study by a team of psychologists. Recently published in in the peer-reviewed academic Journal of Sex Research, Prof. Birnbaum, along with coauthor and BSF partner Prof Harry Reis, a psychology professor at the University of Rochester, concluded that practicing empathy was the key to reducing the temptation to stray from one's partner. The findings suggest that perspective taking discourages people from engaging in behaviors that may hurt their partners and damage their relationship. Read More
  • Peptide blocks damaging ards lung inflammation in mice

    January 18, 2023 | UC IRVINE, by TOM VASICH | FUTURITY
    A new BSF-supported study has found a potential solution to Acute Lung Injury (ALI) and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) - severe lung disorders that make breathing difficult and currently have no targeted medical treatments. Researchers, including BSF grantee Dr. Steven A.N. Goldstein, distinguished professor of pediatrics, physiology & biophysics and pharmaceutical sciences at University of California, Irvine, have developed the C6 peptide, which has shown promising results in reducing inflammation and suppressing the harmful effects of respiratory infections, the leading cause of ALI/ARDS. The results of this study have been published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal iScience Cell Press and have the potential to offer a novel way to treat ALI/ARDS and measurably improve the quality of life for patients struggling with severe lung injury from respiratory diseases such as pneumonia, flu, and COVID-19. Read More
  • Lessons on Human Longevity … From Rockfish

    January 13, 2023 | Harvard Medical School | HMS-News & Research, by Stephane Dutchen
    How can fish shed light on the perennial mystery of human aging? - An international team of scientists, including BSF collaborators Dr. Matthew Harris from Boston Children’s Hospital and Prof. David Karasik from Bar-Ilan University, have found a new biological pathway linked to longer life spans in humans through a study of rockfish, some of the longest-living animals on Earth. With life spans ranging from between 11 to 200 years in over 100 species, rockfish are ideal models to study why some of us live longer than others. In a comparison of 23 rockfish species, the researchers discovered longevity-related genes that correlate to those that are known to affect life spans in humans as well - like insulin signaling, glycogen regulators, sirtuins, and amyloid precursors. The researchers plan to build on their findings with zebrafish models to help us better understand aging and develop new treatments for age-related diseases. Read More
  • Slippery Chaperone: Intestinal Mucus Takes Charge of Copper

    December 1, 2022 | Weizmann Institute of Science | Weizmann Wonder Wander -Science news and culture
    Why do we need copper in our bloodstream? - The naturally occurring metal helps our bodies produce energy, break down and absorb iron, create connective tissue and build new blood cells, collagen and even brain neurotransmitters. How do we get copper to the cells that need them? - That's the tricky part, and it's where four-time BSF-grantee Prof. Deborah Fass from the Weizmann Institute of Science and her current U.S. collaborators, Prof. Katherine Franz from Duke University and Dr. Kelly Chacon from Reed College, have shed some light in their new study published in the peer-reviewed Cell science journal, along with an additional team of U.S. and Israeli researchers. In fact, their findings could have important implications for diseases triggered by dysfunctional copper metabolism, where too much or too little copper in the body can have life-threatening and often tragic consequences, as seen in Wilson's disease or Menkes Syndrome. Read More
  • Ancient DNA from the teeth of 14th-century Ashkenazi Jews in Germany already included genetic variations common in modern Jews

    November 30, 2022 | Hebrew University of Jerusalem/Harvard University | The Conversation/ by Shai Carmi & David Reich
    The largest study to date of ancient DNA from Jewish individuals reveals unexpected genetic subgroups in medieval German Ashkenazi Jews and sheds light on the “founder event” in which a small population gave rise to most present-day Ashkenazi Jews. The findings, spearheaded by geneticists from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Harvard Medical School, were published in the prestigious Cell science journal. This landmark study in Erfurt, Germany is based on the remains of 33 individuals who were buried in the city's medieval 14th century cemetery, which was undergoing a rescue excavation before its imminent conversion into a municipal parking garage. With special permission from the local rabbi, researchers were able to successfully extract DNA from the collected teeth to reveal the multiple and genetically distinct origins of Erfurt's Jews - one subgroup with greater Middle Eastern ancestry and another from Eastern and Central Europe. What is remarkable is that the modern Ashkenazi Jews who emerged as a mix of these groups, despite their rapid growth in the ensuing seven centuries, resisted outside genetic influences and became more homogeneous with essentially the same collection of DNA sequences. This research was funded in part by an active BSF grant in Population & Evolutionary Genetics. Read More
  • Why do children learn more quickly than adults? New study offers clues

    November 15, 2022 | Brown University | News from Brown
    Why do children learn more quickly than adults? A new study led by BSF grantee Prof. Takeo Watanabe and his team of Brown University neuroscientists has detailed some "revolutionary" findings that can help adults understand why their brain mechanisms make them less efficient learners compared to their earlier selves. In the study, published in the journal Current Biology, researchers explain GABA’s crucial role in helping children process new information and prepare their brains to learn and store even more. GABA is the abbreviation for the neurotransmitter γ-aminobutyric acid. Prof. Watanabe's BSF research with Israeli collaborator Dr. Nitzan Censor from Tel Aviv University studying "human procedural skill learning in different modalities," contributed to the latest published findings. Read More
  • Red-supergiant supernova images reveal secrets of an earlier Universe

    November 9, 2022 | UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA | EurekAlert! AAAS
    For the first time, astronomers have been able to get a detailed look at one of the universe's earliest stars - a former red supergiant about 500 times wider than our Sun that exploded billions of years ago. An international team of scientists, including BSF grantee Prof. Adi Zitrin from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, has actually succeeded in measuring the size of a star from an 11-billion-year-old explosion and is using the results to learn more about the earliest generations of giant stars and and how they differ from those closer to home in our more mature and recent universe. Their research, published in the peer-reviewed science journal Nature and funded in part by a joint NSF/BSF grant, uses sophisticated images from the Hubble Space Telescope to reconstruct the distant supernova and measure how it rapidly cooled and dimmed after its stellar explosion, shifting from ultraviolet into visible light. Read More
  • US and Israel celebrate 50 years of scientific partnership

    September 20, 2022 | BY MIKE WAGENHEIM | JNS-Jewish News Syndicate
    Israel has joined the global "quantum club" with over a billion shekels committed to advancing the next generation of transformational quantum technologies - and the BSF is privileged to play an active role. At BSF's 50th anniversary reception in Washington, D.C., the Foundation was thrilled to sign a much-anticipated agreement with the Israel Ministry of Innovation, Science & Technology providing BSF with the responsibility of administering a 20 million NIS allocation for joint U.S.-Israel collaborations in basic quantum science research. Together with the NSF, BSF will be bringing together the best minds in quantum science from the U.S. and Israel to try and solve the mysteries of a promising but puzzling field and bring life-enhancing futuristic applications to both countries and beyond. Read More
  • Why is lightning less frequent at sea than on land? Israel-led study clears the air

    August 9, 2022 | By SUE SURKES | The Times of Israel
    Lightning bolts are a common natural phenomenon. Around the world, there are an astounding 100 strikes every single second. But why do the vast majority (over 90 percent!) of these powerful electric bolts strike over land and not over sea, where most of the Earth's rain actually falls? - Hebrew University atmospheric scientist and four-time BSF grantee Prof. Daniel Rosenfeld, along with U.S. BSF partner Prof. Joel Thornton from the University of Washington and a team of international researchers, may have finally solved this dilemma with their headline-grabbing findings recently published in Nature Communications. Prof. Rosenfeld and his world-class team used advanced satellite imagery to track clouds over land and sea. This was combined with lightning measurements from the Worldwide Lightning Location Network (WLLN) and detailed data quantifying aerosol particles in the clouds. His fourth BSF-funded research grant in Atmospheric, Ocean & Earth Sciences is his first in collaboration with the U.S National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences Division. Read More
  • Research probes how people control unwanted thoughts

    July 14, 2022 | PLOS | EurekAlert! AAAS
    You know that intrusive, repetitive chatter in your head that only gets louder the more you try to repress it? According to a recent study by Israeli scientists at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, avoiding the associations that trigger those disturbing thought loops could be the key to quieting them. In a new peer-reviewed study published in PLOS Computational Biology, BSF-funded researcher Dr. Eran Eldar and Eldar Lab alumnus Isaac Fradkin, PhD found that instead of reactively rejecting unwanted thoughts, which often serves to simply reinforce them, it was more effective to deploy "proactive thinking" - a mechanism that prevents the thought from coming to mind before it becomes consciously entrenched. Dr. Eldar's research benefitted from a joint NSF/BSF/NIH Computational Neuroscience (CRCNS) grant in collaboration with Prof. Gal Shoval from the Geha Psychiatric Hospital in Israel, Prof. Yael Niv from Princeton University and Prof. Catherine Hartley from New York University, where the binational team is focusing on: Computational Phenotyping of Decision Making in Adolescent Psychopathology. Read More
  • TAU research finds clues to the mystery of consciousness in new brain study

    July 12, 2022 | American Friends of Tel Aviv University | AFTAU TAU NEWS / MEDICINE & HEALTH
    What is the secret of consciousness? That is the question NSF/BSF-funded scientists are trying to answer in a new study published this month in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Nature Neuroscience. The team of outstanding scientists from Tel Aviv University, co-supervised by NSF/BSF collaborators Dr. Yuval Nir from the School of Medicine, the Sagol School of Neuroscience, and the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Prof. Itzhak Fried from the UCLA Medical Center, have discovered important new insights into the elusive "X-factor" of human brain activity, that allows us to be vigilant towards our surroundings when we are awake and blissfully unaware of sensory input during our soundest of sleep. In their fascinating NSF/BSF research, their second BSF-funded collaboration, the two scientists set out to find out how exactly sleep helps learning and memory by conducting unique studies of both healthy volunteers at Dr. Nir's Tel Aviv sleep lab and epilepsy patients at the UCLA medical center, where Prof. Fried heads the epilepsy surgery program. Read More
  • Researchers Develop Stable Fibers Utilizing Boron Nitride Nanotubes

    June 24, 2022 | RICE UNIVERSITY | AZO Nano | News | Nanomaterials
    What is 10,000 times thinner than a human hair, resists heat of up to 900 degrees Celsius and is 100 times stronger than steel but only 1/6 its weight? A super flexible, but robust material called boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs), with potential applications in a range of industries as diverse as aviation, mining, medicine and even space travel. The problem is that BNNTs are difficult to manufacture. Until the recent study by U.S. and Israeli scientists published in Nature Communications last month, BNNTs could not be synthesized in high enough quantity and quality to make them practically scalable. Now, two-time BSF grantees, Prof. Yeshayahu Talmon, professor emeritus of chemical engineering at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa and Dr. Matteo Pasquali, professor of chemistry and materials science and nanoengineering at Rice University, along with an impressive team of researchers from both countries, have simplified the process of manufacturing the highly valuable BNNTs, a material that is similar but even better than carbon nanotubes, and could realize the transformational potential of these tiny tubes. Read More
  • Tangle no more, nanotubes

    April 27, 2022 | RICE UNIVERSITY | EurikAlert!
    Rice University scientists in collaboration with the Technion Center for Electron Microscopy of Soft Matter, have come up with just the sauce, an acid-based solvent that simplifies carbon nanotube processing in a way that’s easier to scale up for industrial applications. Read More
  • Researchers offer new treatment protocol for advanced head and neck cancer

    March 28, 2022 | Ben-Gurion University of the Negev | Science Daily
    While current treatment for advanced head and neck cancer (HNC) is largely ineffective, new research supported in part by BSF and led by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev scientists, may provide hope to the more than 40% of HNC patients who suffer from a particularly aggressive form of the disease. The treatment, which uses both a targeted drug and immunotherapy following a certain sequence and within a specific time frame, blocks a signaling pathway that suppresses the immune system and keeps it from fighting tumor cells. These findings were recently published in the open-access, peer-reviewed Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer. Read More
  • Why does chemotherapy sometimes lead to metastasis?

    March 10, 2022 | The Technion - Israel Institute of Technology | ISRAEL21c, by Abigail Klein Leichman
    What happens when a successful treatment of cancer cells in one area of the body is actually the cause of their spread to another? It's not that unusual. About 30% of conventionally treated early stage breast cancer patients go on to develop secondary malignant growths, or metastasis, within a few months or years. And metastasis remains the main cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide including in breast cancer. BSF-funded researchers in Israel and North Carolina are trying to understand what causes this proliferation of cancer cells in secondary sites, even after a successful treatment of the primary tumor, and to find ways to inhibit the spread. Their study, led by Israeli Prof. Yuval Shaked at the Department of Cell Biology and Cancer Science at the Technion - The Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, was published recently in Cancer Research and selected to feature as the cover story. Read More
  • Scientists design nanoparticles that communicate with cancer cells

    October 21, 2021 | ADVANCED SCIENCE RESEARCH CENTER, GC/CUNY | EurekAlert! AAAS
    A multi-institutional research team led by investigators from CUNY ASRC Nanoscience Initiative, has designed nanoparticles that can communicate with and slow the development of cancer cells. The work -- detailed in a newly published paper in Advanced Materials -- has uncovered a novel framework for the potential development of drug-free cancer therapies. Read More
  • Electric brain stimulation may prevent falls in the elderly

    October 9, 2021 | Tel-Aviv University | The Jerusalem Post, by By STAFF
    Binational team of researchers from Tel Aviv University Medical School and Harvard Medical School examined the effects of non-invasive, gentle brain stimulation on the capability of older adults to walk or stand while simultaneously carrying out a cognitive task, a common dual-task situation that can determine their overall functionality. According to Prof. Hausdorff from TAU, this study, funded by a BSF grant, demonstrated that a low-level, gentle stimulation of a specific cognitive area of the brain can improve the performance of older adults when they carry out the double task of walking or standing in place while at the same time performing a cognitive task, at least within the immediate time range. “This therapy method is entirely safe, and we hope that, in time, patients will be capable of treating themselves in their own homes.” Read More
  • Israeli Scientists Improve Surgical Needle’s Journey to its Target

    October 8, 2021 | The Technion - Israel Institute of Technology | Jewish Press.com, by Hana Levi Julian
    The Technion's Dr. Oren Salzman and Prof. Ron Alterovitz and Mengyu Fu of UNC developed an algorithm to safely steer surgical needles along computer-mapped trajectories. The researchers announced the development at the recently held virtual 2021 Robotics: Science and Systems Conference. The development presented by the researchers at the conference illustrates the importance of computer science in solving problems related to medicine and biomedical engineering. Read More
  • Researchers simulate an acute decline in exercise, as many experienced during COVID19 lockdowns, to study its metabolic consequences

    October 6, 2021 | BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY OF THE NEGEV | EurekAlert! AAAS
    Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev and Soroka University Medical Center Researchers Simulate an Acute Decline in Exercise, as Many Experienced During COVID19 Lockdowns, to Study its Metabolic Consequences. Their findings, recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Physiological Reports, concluded that while less energy was spent by the mice, the mice still ate similar amounts of food as when the running wheel was present, which resulted in slowed metabolism. "Our study provides a possible explanation as to how lockdowns may have induced weight gain," said BGU researcher Assaf Rudich. Read More
  • Understanding hearing loss from noise damage through gene expression changes

    September 29, 2021 | University of Maryland School of Medicine | Newswise.com
    A collaborative team of researchers from University of Maryland School of Medicine and Tel-Aviv University has published an online interactive atlas representing the changes in the levels of RNA made in the different cell types of ears of mice, after damage due to loud noise. From this analysis, the research teams identified a handful of drug candidates that may be able to prevent or treat the damage, and ultimately preserve hearing. Findings suggest several FDA-approved drugs, such as a common diabetes medication and anesthetics, could protect from noise-related hearing loss. Read More
  • This is What it Looks Like When a Black Hole Snacks on a Star

    September 16, 2021 | University of Arizona | Univ of Arizona News, by Daniel Stolte
    Analyzing observations of an X-ray flare and fitting the data with theoretical models, a team of astronomers from University of Arizona and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, documented a fatal encounter between an unlucky star and an intermediate-mass black hole. In a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal, the researchers use the X-rays emitted by a tidal disruption event known as J2150 to make the first measurements of both the black hole's mass and spin. Read More
  • Eosinophils play a role in the battle against cancer metastases, study finds

    September 13, 2021 | Tel-Aviv University | Medical Science News
    A new study at Tel Aviv University found that eosinophils - a type of white blood cells - are recruited to the battle against cancer metastases in the lungs. According to the researchers, these white blood cells produce destructive proteins of their own, while at the same time summoning the immune system's cancer-fighting T-cells. The researchers believe that their findings can contribute to the development of innovative approaches to cancer immunotherapy treatments, based upon the collaboration between T-cells and eosinophils. The findings were recently published in Cancer Research. Read More
  • Recordings of the magnetic field from 9,000 years ago teach us about the magnetic field today

    August 16, 2021 | Tel-Aviv University | Phys. ORG
    International research, conducted under the leadership of Prof. Erez Ben-Yosef of the Jacob M. Alkow Department of Archeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University and Prof. Lisa Tauxe, head of the Paleomagnetic Laboratory at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, in collaboration with other researchers from the University of California at San Diego, Rome and Jordan, was published recently in the journal PNAS. This research, carried out with the support of the BSF, uncovered findings regarding the magnetic field that prevailed in the Middle East between approximately 10,000 and 8,000 years ago. "This is the first time that burnt flints from prehistoric sites are being used to reconstruct the magnetic field from their time period.", remarks Prof. Erez Ben-Yosef. Read More
  • Scientists identify for the first time live immune cells in a coral and sea anemone

    August 16, 2021 | University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Sci | U Miami - News & Events, by Diana Udel
    A new study, supported by NSF/BSF joint program, led by scientists at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and the Ben Gurion University of the Negev has identified specialized immune cells in the cauliflower coral and starlet sea anemone that can help fight infection. The findings are important to better understand how reef-building corals and other reef animals protect themselves from foreign invaders like bacteria and viruses found in and around coral reefs. Read More
  • Study reveals missing link between high-fat diet, microbiota and heart disease

    August 12, 2021 | Vanderbilt University Medical Center | Science Daily
    A high-fat diet disrupts the biology of the gut's inner lining and its microbial communities and promotes the production of a metabolite that may contribute to heart disease, according to a new study published recently in the journal Science. The collaborating research teams found that a high-fat diet causes inflammation and damages intestinal epithelial cells in animal models. Read More
  • High-ranking hyena mothers pass their social networks to their cubs

    July 15, 2021 | UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA | EurikAlert!
    How important is it to listen to your mother? If you're a spotted hyena, your social standing and even survival could depend on it. That's what biologists Dr. Amiyaal Ilany from Bar-Ilan University and Dr. Erol Akcay from University of Pennsylvania discovered in a new BSF-supported study published in the journal Science recently. Using 27 years of detailed data on hyena social interactions, a team of biologists nailed down a pattern of social network inheritance and its implications for social structure, rank, and survival. Read More
  • Trained Viruses Prove More Effective at Fighting Antibiotic Resistance

    July 7, 2021 | University of California San Diego | News(wise)
    Bacteriophage, or “phage,” have become a new source of hope against growing antibiotic resistance. Ignored for decades by western science, phages have become the subject of increasing research attention due to their capability to infect and kill bacterial threats. A new project from laboratory at the University of California San Diego Biological Sciences has provided evidence that phages that undergo special evolutionary training increase their capacity to subdue bacteria. The study which included contributions from researchers at the University of Haifa in Israel and the University of Texas at Austin, is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Read More
  • FAU Teams Up with Technion – Israel Institute of Technology on NSF Grant

    July 1, 2021 | Florida Atlantic University (FAU) | FAU News Desk, BY GISELE GALOUSTIAN
    The U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation is proud to support a new interdisciplinary promising binational collaborative project on aerodynamics by early career scientists at both Technion and FAU. This project will help to advance the understanding of the dynamics of turbulent coherent motions to solve various practical engineering problems. Turbulent flows have a significant influence on the efficient operation of ships, automobiles, and aircraft, as well as on the safe design of buildings, bridges and wind turbines. Dr. Anton Post, the BSF Executive Director, notes the FAU’s commitment to partnering with eminent Israeli universities and that this is the sixth award made out to FAU in recent years. Read More
  • What Makes Us Want More Self Control?

    February 4, 2021 | Bar-Ilan University | BIU - NEWS
    New international study supported by BSF uncovers the elements that drive people to improve self-control ability. In a study led by Israel's Bar-Ilan University, Australia's University of Queensland, and Texas Tech University in the US, researchers sought to discover the elements that drive people to experience greater desire for self-control (DSC). The findings published in APA journal add a missing piece in understanding the processes that govern people's ability to develop better self-control. The study also found that stronger desire for self-control predicted greater willingness to enroll in self-control training, by that highlighting the practical relevance of understanding the bases of this desire. Read More
  • Israeli scientists develop breakthrough gene therapy for child deafness

    December 23, 2020 | Tel-Aviv University | Jerusalem Post, By IDAN ZONSHINE
    A recent BSF-supported study is tackling congenital genetic deafness with a powerhouse U.S.-Israel team of scientists and groundbreaking gene-therapy technology. Led in part by BSF-grantees Prof. Karen Avraham from Tel Aviv University and U.S. collaborator Prof. Jeffrey Hold from Boston Children's Hospital, the new study in the medical journal EMBO Molecular Medicine, details the team's creation of a harmless synthetic virus used to release "normal" genetic material to the inner ear cells, replacing defective genes and enabling functional aural development. This successful study could be an inspiring breakthrough for the thousands of children born with inherited hearing disorders - disabilities that can be treated with soundly-researched scientific innovation. Read More
  • New approach slows or reverses age-related mental decline

    October 26, 2020 | Ben-Gurion University of Negev, UC-Berkeley | ISRAEL21c, by Brian Blum
    Israeli researchers from Ben-Gurion University with their collaborators' team from UC-Berkeley, have taken the first step toward developing a revolutionary new treatment to slow or reverse age-related cognitive decline. Their study, supported by BSF, represent real hope that the deterioration that until now has been considered an inevitable part of aging, can be stopped and even reversed. Read More
  • A Technion student has just smashed the world record for light resonance

    October 5, 2020 | American Technion Society | Jerusalem Post, by DONNA RACHEL EDMUNDS
    Physical Review X recently reported on a new optical resonator from the Technion -- Israel Institute of Technology that is unprecedented in resonance enhancement. This record-breaking scientific invention emerged from an Israeli research lab under the supervision of NSF/BSF-grantee Tal Carmon, associate professor of mechanical engineering at the Technion in Haifa. Prof. Carmon's graduate student, Jacob Kher-Alden, developed an ingenious floating resonator, perhaps one of the most important devices in optics, that sets a world record in light amplification - from 300 circulations in the previous record to an astounding 10 million in the Technion-developed system. Inspired by the work of US physicist and Nobel laureate Dr. Arthur Ashkin, who set the 300-rotation bar, the Technion researchers built a new device using "optical forceps" to hold their resonator in place and allow for optimal light circulation. The result: a single particle of light can rotate an unprecedented 10 million times before it finally fades, dramatically improving on Ashkin's pioneering invention and breaking all records in the resonant enhancement of light. Read More
  • Like rose-colored glasses, a ‘sexy mindset’ helps you see what you want to see

    September 22, 2020 | University of Rochester | Newscenter
    Can "feeling frisky" distort our romantic senses so that we only see what we want to see? Absolutely, according to BSF-grantees Prof. Gurit Birnbaum from the IDC Herzliya and Prof. Harry Reis from the University of Rochester. The two social psychologists and leading voices in the field of human sexuality and intimacy have found that sexual attraction can serve an important evolutionary purpose of biasing our perceptions to encourage bold "leaps of faith" into new relationships. Their latest study, funded by a BSF grant, was published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. Read More
  • Mapping cavefish brains leads to neural origin of behavioral evolution

    September 16, 2020 | Florida Atlantic University | FAU - NEWS DESK, BY GISELE GALOUSTIAN
    Study supported by BSF reveals how evolution has altered brain morphology and how these morphological changes relate to changes in behavior. This groundbreaking research published in Science Advances by neuroscientists at Florida Atlantic University’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science and Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College in collaboration with Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan in Israel, is the first to identify large-scale differences between surface fish and cavefish populations of A. mexicanus, as well as between different populations of cavefish. Researchers extracted 18 anatomical regions across the entire brain and measured changes in neural activity across these regions. Whole-brain atlases generated from this study represent a comparative brain-wide study of intraspecies variation in a vertebrate model and provide a resource for studying the neural basis underlying behavioral evolution. Read More
  • Role of protein in development of new hearing hair cells

    September 11, 2020 | University of Maryland School of Medicine | Science Daily
    Finding of collaborative US-Israel team could lead to future treatments for hearing loss. Researchers from University of Maryland School of Medicine and Sackler School of Medicine at Tel-Aviv University conducted a study that has determined the role that a critical protein plays in the development of hair cells. These hair cells are vital for hearing. Some of these cells amplify sounds that come into the ear, and others transform sound waves into electrical signals that travel to the brain. Read More
  • Memory Protein

    August 25, 2020 | University of California, Santa Barbara | UCSB, The Current, By Sonia Fernandez
    Researchers from UC Santa Barbara and Tel-Aviv University uncover unusual glassy behavior in a disordered protein. Material scientists expected that after being stretched, one particular model protein would snap back instantaneously, like a rubber band. Instead, this disordered protein relaxed slowly, taking tens of minutes to relax into its original shape — a behavior that defied expectations, and hinted at an inner structure that was long thought to exist, but has been difficult to prove. To explain these unexpected, glassy behaviors, the researchers drew inspiration from some rather mundane objects: crumpled paper and memory foam. The longer the protein is stretched the longer it takes to relax, hence it 'remembers' how long it was pulled. Understanding the structure behind this ability to adapt could open the door to future dynamic materials, that just like a brain, helps them filter out unimportant information and makes them more efficient at storing repeated stimuli. Findings were published recently in Physical Review Letters (PRL). The study was made possible due to a joint NSF-BSF research grant in Molecular & Cellular Biosciences. Read More
  • FAU-Israeli Partnerships Win Two International Grants

    July 20, 2020 | Florida Atlantic University, Div of Research | FAU Research Daily
    How does early-life stress (ELS) impact the developing brain and open the door to anxiety and eating disorders? The inch-long, transparent zebrafish may give us some important clues. Now, in the framework of jointly funded by NSF-BSF research grant, Dr. Erik Duboue, assistant professor of biology at Florida Atlantic University and Israeli research partner Yoav Gothilf, professor of neurobiology at Tel Aviv University, will be studying the small freshwater fish to better understand the neuronal and genetic basis of anxiety and its effect on appetite and food consumption. Dr. Duboue will be merging his expertise in molecular genetics with Prof. Gothilf's "world-renown" zebrafish laboratory in an exciting and truly collaborative study with broad social implications. Read More
  • MSU’s Frances Trail leads multi-funded investigation into evolution of infectious fungi

    July 15, 2020 | Michigan State University , College of Natural Sciences | Homepage News
    BSF is proud to be one of the supporting agencies to fund an impressive binational collaboration of U.S. and Israeli scientists studying fungal morphology and the destructive impact it can have on global food sources. A collaboration of international scientists and funding agencies will investigate seven fungi whose common ancestor dates back 270 million years. Michigan State University plant biologist Prof. Frances Trail will be working with The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Prof. Oded Yarden; Prof. Jeffrey Townsend and Dr. Zheng Want, both from Yale University; and Prof. Carolyn Young from the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation in a joint NSF-BSF grant in Integrative and Organismal Systems (IOS). Prof. Yarden, the Buck Family Chair of Plant Pathology at Hebrew U, will be using BSF funds for his investigations into the evolution of disease-causing genes in fungi that regularly wreak billions of dollars worth of crop damage in the U.S. and around the world. Read More
  • The sun’s rays can electrify plants into producing renewable energy, study finds

    June 8, 2020 | CTech, Calcalist | by Omer Kabir, Calcalistech.com
    A joint National Science Foundation (NSF)- BSF grant may help wean hydrogen production from its almost total reliance on polluting fossil fuels. Prof. Keving Redding, professor in the School of Molecular Sciences in Arizona State University, joined forces with Israeli Prof. Iftach Yacoby , head of The Laboratory of Renewable Energy Studies at Tel Aviv University's Faculty of Life Sciences, together they are trying to find ways to overcome the major challenges to algal biohydration production to make it a viable, clean and affordable option to conventionally produced hydrogen. Their collaborative study, entitled 'Rewiring photosynthesis: a Photosystem I -hydrogenase chimera that makes hydrogen in vivo' was published recently in the high impact journal Energy and Environmental Science. Read More
  • Why ‘playing hard to get’ may actually work

    June 8, 2020 | University of Rochester | Newscenter
    The dynamics of human sexual attraction is tricky. While "playing hard to get" could be an effective mating strategy, it could also potentially backfire if overdone, according to a recent BSF-funded study in human interpersonal behaviour. BSF grantees Gurit Birnbaum, a social psychologist and associate professor of psychology at the IDC Herzliya, and Harry Reis, a professor of psychology and Dean's professor in Arts, Science & Engineering at University of Rochester, found that striking a balance between the excitement of the chase (uncertainty) and the comfort of reciprocation (certainty) is key to attracting a potential mate. Their latest BSF-supported research, published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, examined the effects of playing hard to get and found that it does increase a mate's desirability. However, Reis acknowledges, the strategy could backfire, "if playing hard to get makes you seem disinterested or arrogant." Read More
  • Bioinformatics study could help prevent rehospitalizations

    March 12, 2020 | ISRAEL21c | by ISRAEL21c Staff
    What if we could avoid the costly readmission of high-risk patients to overburdened hospital emergency rooms by identifying them early and providing them with efficient personalized interventions on their first visit? That was the goal of BSF-funded researchers Dr. Ofir Ben-Assuli from Ono Academic College and Prof. Rema Padman from Carnegie Mellon University who applied complex statistical and machine learning methods to the data of over 70,000 patients, including 16,117 chronic patients, with over four years of repeated emergency room visits. Their predictive modeling could give doctors a "heads up" on patients likely to repeatedly revisit the ER and help health care systems reduce readmission rates and better allocate resources - an objective made more urgent by the demands of the COVID19 pandemic. Read More
  • Zombie scanning enables researchers to rapidly study peptide-receptor interactions on the cell surface

    March 4, 2020 | University of California, Irvine, Sch of Medicine | NEWSWISE.COM
    How can "zombie scanning" improve therapeutic efficacy and facilitate biology research? A new BSF-funded study published in the journal Science Advances, reveals that this new method can simplify the creation of peptides - important for use in medical therapy and the study of biology - making their construction both quicker, more cost-effective and, therefore, more accessible in medical research. The authors, co-led by BSF grantees Prof. Steve A.N. Goldstein of University of California, Irvine and Prof. Jordan H. Chill of the Department of Chemistry at Bar-Ilan University, were able to "hijack cell machinery" to cut peptide changes down to days of work and pennies per construct. Read More
  • Tel Aviv University researchers discover a non-breathing living animal

    February 26, 2020 | Tel-Aviv University | The Jerusalem Post, By ZACHARY KEYSER
    The FIRST known animal that does not need oxygen to survive has been revealed in a groundbreaking study led by three-time BSF grantee Prof. Dorothee Huchon of the School of Zoology at Tel Aviv University's Faculty of Life Sciences and Steinhardt Museum of Natural History. The non-breathing multicellular parasite, a distant cousin of the jellyfish, is challenging one of science's most basic assumptions about the animal world and the very fundamentals of how "life" works. Its genome was sequenced, along with those of other myxozoan fish parasites, as part of research supported by the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation and conducted with Prof. Paulyn Cartwright of the University of Kansas, and Prof. Jerri Bartholomew and Dr. Stephen Atkinson of Oregon State University. As Huchon said, “Our discovery shows that evolution can go in strange directionss." Read More
  • Researchers stimulate areas vital to consciousness in monkeys’ brains – and it wakes them up

    February 12, 2020 | Cell Press | Science Daily
    BSF-funded study helps in clarifying one of the central questions in neuroscience: where in the brain consciousness arises? A collaborative team of Israeli and US researchers report their findings in Neuron journal, that a specific area in the brain, the central lateral thalamus, appears to play a key role. In monkeys under anesthesia, stimulating this area was enough to wake the animals and elicit normal waking behaviors. Read More
  • Ben-Gurion U. researchers hit back at antibiotic-resistant infections

    February 11, 2020 | The Jerusalem Post | By ILANIT CHERNICK
    The coronavirus is not the only threat to global public health. Drug-resistant infections claim an astounding 700,000 lives per year, with the World Health Organization (WHO) estimating up to 10 million deaths per year by 2050. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev scientist and BSF-grantee Dr. Barak Akabayov is taking on the challenge of finding new antibiotics to fend off the impending drug-resistance crisis. He and his team at BGU's Dept. of Chemistry, have developed a unique hybrid method for screening and detecting new antibiotics that could lead to a more expedient and cost-effective path to drug discovery for a variety of diseases including hepatitis, HIV and even cancer. His active BSF Medicinal Chemistry grant in collaboration with U.S. Prof. Gerhard Wagner from Harvard Medical School, supports this critical effort to urgently provide new tools in drug development. Read More
  • Where Will Our Farmlands be in the Next Decade?

    January 9, 2020 | Louisiana State University (LSU), College of Science | News
    With global population rates soaring and crop yields suffering from increasingly stressful conditions on the ground, the need for resilient plants has arguably never been greater. U.S. and Israeli scientists, supported by a new joint NSF-BSF EDGE Integrative and Organismal Systems research grant, are determined to find a way to enhance plant stress tolerance and stave off what could be an impending global food crisis. Dr. Maheshi Dassanayake, associate professor in the LSU Department of Biological Sciences has joined forces with Prof. Simon Barak from Ben Gurion University's Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research and Prof. Hillel Fromm from Tel Aviv University's School of Plant Science and Food Security, to better understand the genetic elements of some of the world's most resilient wild plants and how their unique biology could be applied to existing crops. In this collaborative project LSU scientists are partnering with scientists at University of Michigan to create maps of genes expressed at single-cell-scale, in addition to scientists from Ben-Gurion and Tel Aviv Universities in Israel to generate molecular tools to monitor plant stress from single cell to entire organism scale. Read More
  • Drugs that quell brain inflammation reverse dementia

    December 4, 2019 | UC Berkeley | Berkeley News, By Robert Sanders
    There is hope for our aging brains! The common signs of age-related cognitive decline such as confusion and dementia could actually be reversed, according to BSF-supported research by U.S. and Israeli scientists. Twenty years of collaboration by two-time BSF grantees, Prof. Daniela Kaufer of UC Berkeley and Prof. Alon Friedman of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, supports a "radical" new view of neurological aging pointing to a leaky blood-brain barrier as the main culprit in cognitive dysfunction. This blood-brain barrier - a filter intended to protect the brain from infectious organisms and molecules - can be compromised by age and allow hazardous leakage into the brain, triggering inflammation and rampant cell death. The result is the confusion and cognitive decline so often associated with the aging process. A new drug developed by the scientists could heal the blood-brain barrier and reduce brain inflammation, dramatically improving cognitive functioning. Read More
  • Earthquake-like brain-wave bursts found to be essential for healthy sleep

    November 14, 2019 | Boston University | EurikAlert!
    What do a good night's sleep and earthquakes have in common? According to a recent study published in PLOS Computational Biology by senior author and two-time BSF grantee Plamen C. Ivanov, PhD, quite a lot. The Boston University physics research professor revealed a surprising mathematical connection between the tumultuous grinding of tectonic plates and the spontaneous transitions between sleep cycles. Ironically, it is precisely the earthquake-mimicking phenomena or intense arousals during our sleep that trigger the necessary shift in sleep cycles that keep us well rested. Read More
  • How much do we lie when sex is on the brain?

    November 1, 2019 | UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER | Newscenter
    How much do we lie when sex is on the brain? Apparently quite a bit, according to a new study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology by BSF-funded researchers from Israel's Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya and the University of Rochester in upstate New York. Gurit Birnbaum, a social psychologist and associate professor of psychology at the IDC Herzliya, and Harry Reis, a professor of clinical and social sciences in psychology and Dean’s Professor in Arts, Sciences & Engineering at the University of Rochester, concluded that, “people will do and say just about anything in order to make a connection with an attractive stranger.” Birnbaum and Reis' research was based on the participation of 634 students with an average age of 25 over the course of four studies. The two researchers are currently in the midst of their second BSF grant, both awarded in the area of Social Psychology. Read More
  • Digging deeper into liquid crystals

    September 26, 2019 | Case Western Reserve University | TheDaily
    "Digging deeper" is exactly what a three-year, $497,000 NSF-BSF research grant will enable distinguished scientists from Ohio and Jerusalem to do on the complex topic of chirality, or the absence of mirror symmetry, in liquidcrystals. Prof. Charles Rosenblatt, professor of Physics and Macromolecular Science and holder of the Ohio Eminent Scholar endowed chair at Case Western Reserve University, will be collaborating with Prof. David Avnir, Israeli professor of chemistry at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Institute of Chemistry, in a newly-granted project in the joint NSF-BSF Materials program. Read More
  • Study points to new drug target in fight against cancer

    September 18, 2019 | RICE UNIVERSITY | EurikAlert!
    Joint NSF/BSF-funded research has contributed to the identification of a potential new drug target in the fight against cancer. In a recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an international team of researchers, including NSF/BSF grantees from the U.S. and Israel, describe how a better understanding of a cancer-linked version of the protein mitoNEET can lead to new weapons for battling multiple cancers. Co-authors Prof. Rachel Nechushtai from Hebrew University in Jerusalem (a recipient of three earlier regular BSF grants) and Prof. Ron Mittler from the University of Missouri collaborated on a joint NSF-BSF grant in Molecular and Cellular Biosciences that examined ROS, redox and cell metabolism - critical components of the published study. Read More
  • Helping autonomous vehicles, robots make better plans

    August 29, 2019 | Washington University in St. Louis | McKelvey School of Engineering,  by Beth Miller
    Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis the Department of Software and the Department of Information Systems Engineering at Ben-Gurion University in Israel are developing ways that a planning agent can help autonomous vehicles, robots, or other devices that use machine learning can improve their understanding of the world. The work is funded jointly by a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation and the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation in Information and Intelligence Systems (IIS) program. "We want to be able to quantify how confident we are that things are going to work in contexts where there is no guaranteed safe path forward, but it can limit the number of unsafe steps to take". The team will then develop automated planning algorithms based on the learned models to produce plans with the desired guarantees. Read More
  • Israel provides $56 million boost for joint Israel-US research projects

    August 1, 2019 | Shoshana Solomon | The Times of Israel
    Israel’s Council for Higher Education (CHE) has earmarked some $56 million to a joint US-Israeli research program over five years. Funds will be distributed over five years to promote projects in a variety of fields; postdoctoral scholarships for US and Israeli students also get tailwind. The special budget will be allocated to a joint US-Israel program set up by National Science Foundation (NSF) and the United States–Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF). The money will enable the NSF-BSF program to run “many more US-Israeli scientific research projects” in “a variety of fields,”, the CHE said in a statement on Wednesday. Read More
  • Krypton reveals ancient water beneath the Israeli desert

    July 31, 2019 | DOE/Argonne National Laboratory | EurekAlert! AAAS
    Getting reliable precipitation data from the past has proven difficult, as is predicting regional changes for climate models in the present. A combination of isotope techniques developed by researchers at Argonne and UChicago may help resolve both. With support of a BSF grant, researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel are collaborating with colleagues at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago to better understand the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer system, which lies beneath a large portion of the Negev and other parts of Israel. Findings of the research were recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) online. Read More
  • Better wound sealing with a hot-glue gun

    June 18, 2019 | Technion - Israel Institue of Technology | ISRAEL21c, By Abigail Klein Leichman
    BSF supported research is opening up new possibilities in sealing serious wounds. Hot-glue guns can be used for more than putting together cardboard furniture, home decorations and toys. Binational team of researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and Boston Children’s Hospital have developed a hot-glue gun to adhere torn human tissues together. This non-toxic medical glue gun that can overcome the drawbacks of traditional staples and stitches, speed up the healing process and reduce scarring. The researchers say their novel adhesive for wound closure is four times as strong as existing medical adhesives and can be used for both external and internal injuries. Findings were recently published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials. Read More
  • Experimental fertility preservation provides hope for young men

    May 29, 2019 | Children's National Health System | EurekAlert! AAAS
    Thousands of young boys undergoing sterilizing doses of chemotherapy or radiation could possibly preserve their fertility thanks to a BSF supported experimental process of freezing testicular tissue. This study, which "presents a message of hope to the families," includes former BSF grantees Prof. Kyle E. Orwig (senior author) from University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev professors and co-authors Eitan Lunenfeld and Mahmoud E. Huleihel - all three of whom collaborated on a four-year BSF Medicine grant on, "Preservation of Male Fertility," back in 2011. Testicular tissue was collected from centers in the U.S. and Israel from January 2011 to November 2018 and cryopreserved, with patients as young as 5 months old participating in the research. Read More
  • Single neurons require sleep to perform nuclear maintenance

    May 7, 2019 | Bar-Ilan University | RELIAWIRE, By Dan Modano
    What is the purpose of sleep? Considered one of the most important unanswered questions in life sciences, BSF-supported research may be bringing us closer to a scientifically proven explanation. In a new study published in the journal Nature Communications, researchers at Bar-Ilan University reveal a novel and unexpected function of sleep that they believe could explain how sleep and sleep disturbances affect brain performance, aging and various brain disorders. Sleep increases chromosome dynamics that clear out DNA damage accumulated during walking hours. Read More
  • New shapes of laser beam ‘sneak’ through opaque media

    March 4, 2019 | Yale University | YaleNews, by Jim Shelton
    Researchers, including BSF grantee in Transformative Science program and principal investigator Hui Cao, the John C. Malone Professor of Applied Physics and of Physics at Yale University, have found a way to "sneak" a laser beam through opaque surfaces without dispersing. Like a headlight that can cut through heavy fog at full strength, this new discovery could enhance the ability of light to probe and manipulate cells in living tissue with profound implications for brain research. A study announcing the technique appears in the March 4 edition of journal Nature Photonics. Read More
  • Laser-induced graphene gets tough, with help

    February 12, 2019 | Rice Univestity, Houston | EurekAlert! AAAS
    Stronger than steel and more conductive than copper, graphene, the promising "wonder material," has not lived up to expectations. This may change with new BSF sponsored collaborative research between U.S. and Israeli scientists. The labs of Rice University chemist James Tour and Christopher Arnusch, a professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, may have overcome the stubborn obstacles of graphene manufacturing by using a novel laser-induced process to create cost-effective and commercially viable graphene-based products. The researchers introduced a batch of LIG composites in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano that put the material's capabilities into more robust packages. Laser-induced graphene (LIG) infused into plastic, rubber, cement, wax or other materials creates robust solutions that could disrupt and significantly improve a wide range of industries, from wearable electronics and water treatment to heat therapy and anti-icing. Read More
  • Cut to the chase: Can sex help start a relationship?

    January 7, 2019 | University of Rochester, Newscenter | www.rochester.edu/newscenter
    “Sex motivates human beings to connect, regardless of gender.” Sexual attraction actually serves an evolutionary purpose that goes beyond simple reproduction, according to BSF grantees Gurit Birnbaum, a socialpsychologist and associate professor of psychology at the IDC Herzliya and Harry Reis, a professor of psychology and Dean’s Professor in Arts, Sciences & Engineering at the University of Rochester. The BSF-funded research by a binational team of U.S. and Israeli psychologists from the two universities found that the prolonged emotional bonds between parents that led to joint care of offspring and improved child survival rates, were promoted and reinforced by intense sexual desire. Read More
  • Once unstuck, boron nitride nanotubes show promise

    December 19, 2018 | RICE UNIVERSITY, HOUSTON | news.rice.edu
    Who knew that everyday products like shampoo and soap could be so critical to the advancement of nanotechnology? BSF funded research between Rice University, Houston and Israel Institute of Technology (the Technion) suported the discovery of an unconventional method of unclumping stubbornly cohesive boron nitride nanotubes and manipulating them into incredibly efficient insulating material for sophisticated electronics, protective shields, composite material reinforcements and biomedical applications like delivering drugs to cells. Read More
  • Epigenetic map may pave way for new therapeutic solutions to hearing loss

    December 3, 2018 | American Friends of Tel Aviv University | EurekAlert! AAAS
    Understanding the expression of and controlling the genes involved in hearing are milestone discoveries. The epigenetics involved in the inner ear is a critical part of the mystery of hearing. International team of researchers from Tel-Aviv University, University of Washington and their colleagues from Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Italy has now created the first map of "methylation" -- one of the body's main epigenetic signals -- that reflects the functioning of the inner ear in its entirety. Prof. Howard Cedar from Hebrew University, a world authority on epigenetics, a member of the BSF Board and a multiple BSF grantee himself, recognized the importance of this research and its potential "to prevent or correct a wide variety of hearing ailments." The study was published in Scientific Reports. Read More
  • New method of creating complex proteins

    October 18, 2018 | Technion, Israel Institute of Technology | technion.ac.il
    In a new study supported by the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF), the researchers from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and Johns Hopkins University have developed innovative method of protein synthesis that could one day be used to promote biochemical, structural and functional studies, and in the creation of new drugs. The findings were recently published in Nature Communications. Read More
  • Possible cure for day blindness starts human trials

    October 9, 2018 | The Hebrew University | ISRAEL21c.com, by Abigail Klein Leichman
    The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved clinical trials of a gene therapy for day blindness developed in Israel by members of the team that identified and treated the blind sheep six years ago. Funded in part by a BSF grant, a binational collaboration between veterinarians, ophthalmologists and research scientists from the U.S. and Israel successfully treated a herd of visually-impaired sheep in a unique ovine-to-human research effort. The result could restore vision to thousands of day-blind sufferers worldwide. Read More
  • Studying sea slugs, looking ahead to better robots

    October 2, 2018 | Case Western Reserve University | EurekAlert! AAAS
    The US and Israeli researchers in biology, neurosciences, electrical engineering and computer sciences map sea slugs' rapid behavioral adaptations--with application to humans, robots. With that knowledge, scientists believe they might be able to develop more responsive prosthetics and even more adaptive flexible robots. Understanding biological nervous systems may provide new ideas for creating artificial nervous systems that are even faster and more flexible than current artificial neural networks. The study is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the United States - Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) in the framework of a joint research program in Integrative and Organismal Systems. Read More
  • URI professor leading U.S., Israeli probe into adaptability of coral reefs

    September 6, 2018 | University Of Rhode Island | today.uri.edu
    A new three-year collaborative study of the US and Israeli team investigates how coral and other organisms dependent on coral reefs adapt and acclimate to environmental stress caused in large part by climate change. The team will examine corals sensitive to environmental changes and those that are resistant to see the stress response toolkit corals use to survive. Such work is important, because reefs around the world are threatened by warming, acidification, and other human caused stressors. The grant is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the United Staes - Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) in the framework of a joint research program in Oceanography. Read More
  • Hadassah, Ohio hospital eye health of preemies

    August 22, 2018 | Hadassah Medical Organization | thejewishstar.com
    The BSF-funded project between Hadassah Medical Organization (HMO), Pediatric Nephrology Unit in Israel and Cincinnati Childrens Hospital could help millions of people worldwide suffering from chronic kidney disease by focusing on the source of the problem in the womb where critical nephrons are formed to ensure a lifetime of proper kidney functioning. Researchers have identified the reason why premature birth negatively affects kidney development and how to remedy it, according to a study published in the June Issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. This research describes how the creation of more nephrons (microscopic blood-filtering units inside the kidney) improves adult kidney function and identifies the protein hamartin, which needs to be manipulated for a longer period for proper kidney development. The two-year U.S.-Israel BSF grant will enable the teams to pursue two new research directions: what medication can successfully manipulate the protein that controls kidney development, and what mechanism causes kidney problems in children born to malnourished mothers. Read More
  • Quantum fluctuations successfully imaged

    August 20, 2018 | Bar-Ilan University | Science Daily
    International group of scientists, led by Prof. Beena Kalisky and Prof. Aviad Frydman, from the Department of Physics and the Institute for Nanotechnology at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, has succeeded in imaging quantum fluctuations for the first time. In their experiment, published recently in Nature Physics, not only were quantum fluctuations visualized, but new information about the sizes, times and distributions of quantum events was extracted. The researchers employed a unique microscope that can operate at very low temperatures to examine a material that undergoes a quantum phase transition. This experiment opens a door to detailed investigations of quantum events. This novel ability to look at quantum fluctuations is expected to be a fundamental tool for the future development of quantum technology. The study was funded by several grants, including the BSF (United States - Israel Binational Foundation) , which supported the cooperation of Prof. Frydman with his American colleague from Physics Department, The Ohio State University, Prof. Trivedi. Read More
  • Collaboration on birth outcomes and changing climate receives international award

    August 20, 2018 | Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai | sinaienvime.org
    How is pregnancy, a time of heightened susceptibility, impacted by increased temperatures and heat stress? A new BSF-funded collaborative project between New York's Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Israel's Ben-Gurion University of the Negev along with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is exploring the relationship between extreme temperatures and how they can adversely affect birth outcomes. Using satellite remote sensing and innovative exposure modeling, Allan Just, PhD, from the Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health (EMPH) at Mt. Sinai; Itai Kloog, PhD, from Ben Gurion University and Adjunct Professor in EMPH; and Joel Schwarz, PhD, from Harvard, will conduct an unprecedented bigdata study analyzing hundreds of thousands of births from two large population-based registries to better understand the links between climate and health. Read More
  • WITH MORE FUNDING, ISRAELI-US SCIENCE RESEARCH GROWS CLOSER

    July 16, 2018 | Israel’s Council for Higher Education | The Jerusalem Post, By Max Schindler
    Israeli scientists are growing ever closer to their American peers, despite the geographic distance. In the next five years, the budget from the Israel Council for Higher Education for Israeli research collaborations with the U.S. is expected to jump by at least 60% with projects affiliated with the U.S.-Israel BSF-National Science Foundation (NSF)​ program receiving the lion's share of the increase. The BSF-NSF program, designed to combine the creative talents of American and Israeli scientists, was inaugurated in 2013 and is a show of support for Israeli researchers and institutions by the "world's research superpower." Specific areas of interest include: engineering, computer science, natural sciences, life sciences, earth sciences and social sciences. The NSF is accepting proposals from cooperating researchers from both countries. Read More
  • Seth Davidovits wins 2018 Marshall N. Rosenbluth dissertation award

    July 13, 2018 | DOE/Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory | EurekAlert! AAAS
    Kudos to Dr. Seth Davidovits, a Princeton University graduate in the Department of Astrophysical Sciences, for winning the 2018 Marshall N. Rosenbluth dissertation award! A "remarkable achievement," his thesis was inspired by a BSF-NSF project originating at the Weizmann Institute of Science lab of Prof. Yitzhak Maron and will be "unusually influential" as a result of the productive collaboration with his Israeli counterpart. The experiments in Weizmann, in framework of the joint BSF-NSF project, raised theoretical questions brought to the attention of the collaborators at Princeton University. Motivated by these questions and by the experimental results achieved at the Weizmann lab of Prof. Maron, Dr. Davidovits started his theoretical work on this topic, which also led to additional partial theoretical collaboration with the Weizmann Institute. Read More
  • Bitcoin price manipulation puts trust in cryptocurrencies at risk

    June 26, 2018 | Tel Aviv University/University of Tulsa | The CONVERSATION
    Is the $350 billion cryptocurrency market open to abuse and manipulative trading? According to research jointly funded by the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation - BSF and the National Science Foundation (NSF), the answer is a resounding 'yes'. Scientists from TelAvivU's School of Economics and UofTulsa's School of Computer Science collaborated to confirm the vulnerability of the cryptocurrency market to fraud and the need for better supervision to avoid the erosion of investor trust in such a high risk/high reward arena. This team of researchers has been investigating digital currencies for the last several years. In their most recent paper, published in the Journal of Monetary Economics earlier this year, the authors found evidence of fraudulent behavior in 2013 and 2014, when prices soared and then tumbled over several months. Read More
  • Can Israeli scientists save Darwin’s finches?

    January 31, 2018 | The Hebrew University, Faculty of Agriculture | ISRAEL21c, By Rebecca Stadlen Amir
    “The problem with extinction is that it’s forever" and Darwin's iconic finches are at risk. The U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation - BSF along with the University of Minnesota, are supporting the work of internationally acclaimed entomologist Prof. Boaz Yuval and his colleagues Prof. Edouard Jurkevitch and Micki Ben-Yosef in a novel four-year project to save the finches from the fatal impact of the Galápagos' parasitic flies. The team will also collaborate with U of Minnesota entomologist George Heimpel and scientists from the Charles Darwin Foundation. Read More
  • Nanotube fibers in a jiffy

    January 11, 2018 | RICE UNIVERSITY, HOUSTON | EurekAlert! AAAS
    Short nanotube samples made by hand dramatically cut production time. Scientists from Rice University lab and the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology are making short carbon nanotube fibers by hand as a way to quickly test materials before spinning industrial quantities of fiber for aerospace, automotive, medical and smart-clothing applications. The method developed by the Rice lab of chemist Matteo Pasquali allows researchers to make short lengths of strong, conductive fibers from small samples of bulk nanotubes in about an hour. Read More
  • Our brains scan faces and tag them friend of foe, study shows

    December 21, 2017 | The Hebrew University | timesofisrael.com, by Shoshana Solomon
    Researches from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel) and Princeton University (USA) now hope to see if they can change how the brain perceives people, and may be one day help suffers of autism, PTSD, depression. A new study, supported by a BSF grant, published in Nature Human Behavior journal describes how the unconscious mind processes human faces and the two types of faces it chooses to consciously see, namely: chose associated with dominance and threat and, to a lesser degree, with trustworthiness. Read More
  • Fueling the future: ASU scientists promote new, efficient method of algal hydrogen production

    November 8, 2017 | Arizona State University | asunow.asu.edu
    Prof. Kevin Redding's research group from the Center for Bioenergy and Photosynthesis, Arizona State University in a partnership with Prof. Iftach Yacoby - a young scientist from Tel-Aviv University, aim to change the way a nation generates and consumes energy, to obtain industrial scale algal hydrogen production. In a future commercial system, one will want to be able to grow the cells normally at first, and then switch them to a mode in which most of the electrons are diverted to make hydrogen — essentially crossing over from a cheap replicating system to a “biofactory” in which sunlight drives production of hydrogen using water. The proposed systems provide an obvious way to do that by turning on the genes encoding the linked PSI-hydrogenase proteins. The project is sponsored by a joint grant from the NSF and the BSF. Read More
  • Scientists find new method to control electronic properties of nanocrystals

    August 10, 2017 | Brookhaven National Laboratory | PHYS.Org
    Researchers from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Stony Brook University, and the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered new effects of an important method for modulating semiconductors. The method, which works by creating open spaces or "vacancies" in a material's structure, enables scientists to tune the electronic properties of semiconductor nanocrystals (SCNCs)—semiconductor particles that are smaller than 100 nanometers. This finding will advance the development of new technologies like smart windows, which can change opaqueness on demand Read More
  • Israel to build its first ‘dark matter’ detector

    June 13, 2017 | Ben-Gurion University | The Jerusalem Post, By Judy Siegel-Itzkovich 
    Ben-Gurion University of the Negev will attempt to shed light on the hypothetical type of cosmic matter. International team of experts in the fields of atomic spectroscopy, magnetic sensors, lasers and optics, atomic clocks and advanced electronics will cooperate on the effort, which will be led by BGU Prof. Ron Folman with Prof. Derek Jackson Kimball of California State University, East Bay. The initiative is partly funded by a joint grant from the American National Science Foundation (NSF) and the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF). Read More
  • Graphene Deemed a Highly Effective Antifouling Material

    May 26, 2017 | Rice University, Houston/ Ben-Gurion University of the Negev | Plastic Technology
    Binational team of Israeli and American researchers discovers that laser-induced graphene zaps bacteria. Scientists at Houston-based Rice University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) have discovered that laser-induced graphene (LIG) is a highly effective antifouling material, and when electrified, a bacteria zapper. In their report in the American Chemical Society’s ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, the researchers note that LIG also protects surfaces from biofouling, the buildup of microorganisms, plants or other biological material on wet surfaces. Read More
  • Swirling a Fluid from Within

    April 17, 2017 | Tel Aviv University | physicsbuzz.physicscentral.com, By Kendra Redmond
    Scientists from Tel-Aviv University (Israel) and University of Chicago (United States) provide a new insight on how to control chaotic swirling motion in a fluid. A new study sponsored by a BSF grant finds the sedimentation of asymmetric objects in liquid is very different from that of symmetrical objects like spheres. A new theory suggests that sedimenting particles of irregular shape will drift horizontally as they fall, a result that may resolve a long-standing puzzle. The research explains process of sedimentation in natural and industrial contexts. Read More
  • Earth’s Mysterious Magnetic Field, Stored in a Jar

    February 13, 2017 | Marcia Bjornerud | TheNewYorker
    Ancient pottery can record our planet's magnetic ebb and flow. Six centuries of geomagnetic intensity variations recorded by royal Judean stamped jar handles. In the study published in PNAS and supported by a BSF research grant, binational team of Israeli and American archeologists and geophysicists reports the most detailed reconstruction yet of the magnetic field in pre-instrumental times, using a set of ceramic jars from Iron Age Judea, that were made between 750 and 150 B.C. The team’s analysis suggests that for much of that time the magnetic field was relatively stable, and about forty per cent stronger than it is now. But the oldest jars reveal that, just before 700 B.C., the field’s strength briefly jumped by half, to almost twice its modern intensity, then fell rapidly in the next three decades. Today, such an event would cause catastrophic disruption of the electrical grid and satellite communications. It’s unlikely that the Judeans even noticed it. The new findings, with their clear evidence of a geomagnetic spike, may help archeologists date pottery from other Iron Age sites, particularly where stamps are lacking. Read More
  • Come on baby, (re)light my fire

    July 20, 2016 | UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER | EurekAlert! AAAS
    Many couples find that their sexual desire has dwindled over time. It's not unusual for partners who could not keep their hands off each to gradually lose interest. But new psychological research, supported by the BSF, indicates that there are ways that couples can sustain--or relight--their passion. In a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Gurit Birnbaum and coauthor Harry Reis, professor of psychology at the University of Rochester, report that their new study was, in part, prompted by a concept psychologists know as the "intimacy-desire paradox." Read More
  • Director-General Irina Bokova celebrates science diplomacy at the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation annual event

    February 11, 2016 | UNESCO-Media Services | unesco.org
    The US-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) bears witness to the power of science diplomacy to bring people together, to strengthen the foundations of peace and this resonates at the heart of UNESCO’s mandate” declared the Director-General Irina Bokova at the annual dinner of the BSF, held at the Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C. , February 10, 2016. Read More
  • Researchers sequence genomes of parasite that is actually a ‘micro jellyfish’

    November 16, 2015 | University of Kansas | ScienceDaily
    A very exciting finding emanated from an NSF-BSF ICOB program, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It’s a shocking discovery that may redefine how scientists interpret what it means to be an animal. The scientists will reveal how a jellyfish — those commonplace sea pests with stinging tentacles — have evolved over time into “really weird” microscopic organisms, made of only a few cells, that live inside other animals. Read More
  • Bees to scientists: ‘We’re more complicated than you think’

    October 20, 2015 | Penn State University | EurekAlert! AAAS
    Chemical signaling among social insects, such as bees, ants and wasps, is more complex than previously thought, according to researchers at Penn State and Tel Aviv University, whose results refute the idea that a single group of chemicals controls reproduction across numerous species. The researchers say that their team’s study contributes to a larger debate concerning how pheromonal signals might evolve and how social behavior is maintained. It also contributes to the debate about which measures should be used to investigate queen bee effects on worker reproduction. Read More
  • For People with Autism, Repetition Can Hurt Learning

    October 16, 2015 | Carnegie Mellon University | Futurity.org, By Shilo Rea
    A recent study, by US-Israel binational team of neuroscientists, shows that training individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to acquire new information by repeating the information may harm their ability to apply that learned knowledge to other situations. This finding, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, challenges the popular educational approaches designed for ASD individuals that focus on repetition and drills. It has been thought that because those with ASD sometimes acquire a new behavior or skill only in a specific context, and have difficulty transferring that learned skill or information to a new context, repetition can aid the learning process Read More
  • The Tidings of Scientific Collaboration with the United States (in Hebrew)

    August 5, 2015 | Yair Rotstein, BSF | Haaretz-The Marker
    The Israeli Academy of Science, in its recent Report to the Israeli Government, emphasized the acute need at this time for scientific collaboration with the US. Strengthening connections with their U.S colleagues is one of the essential requirements of the Israeli scientific community. A new model of binational scientific cooperation with the NSF (U.S. National Science Foundation) will greatly contribute to this significant purpose. Read More
  • Heartbeat is complex, synchronized event, find Weizmann Institute and Penn Scientists

    March 5, 2015 | Weizmann Institute of Science | Newswise.com
    Two hearts, said Keats, can beat as one, but a study led by Weizmann Institute scientists in collaboration with researchers from the University of Pennsylvania shows that sometimes a single heart muscle cell can beat as more than two dozen. The findings, reported recently in Nature Communications, provide an extremely detailed glimpse into the mechanisms behind normal and irregular heart muscle cell contractions. The study may help define the limitations of existing therapies for abnormal heartbeat and, in the future, suggest ways of designing new ones. Read More
  • New look at neuroscience draws experts to ASU

    October 15, 2014 | Arizona State University | PHYS.Org
    As part of an effort by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) to leverage this investment of time and money, and to provide opportunities for neuroscientists to collaborate, Arizona State University's School of Life Sciences and School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences are hosting the 2014 Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience (CRCNS) meeting for principal investigators. Scheduled Oct.16-18, this annual conference brings together scientists from many disciplines to investigate how the brain works at all levels, from molecular to behavior to networks of neurons. Through the CRCNS program, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the French National Research Agency, and the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation support collaborative activities that will advance the understanding of nervous system structure and function, mechanisms underlying nervous system disorders, and computational strategies used by the nervous system. Read More
  • Researchers explore what happens when heart cells fail

    July 29, 2014 | University of Wisconsin-Madison | MedicalXpress, By Jasmine Sola
    Through a grant from the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation, Biomedical Engineering Associate Professor Naomi Chesler will embark upon a new collaborative research project to better understand heart function and failure. "This is unique opportunity to combine theoretical and the experimental approaches and to develop a collaboration with an Israeli investigator," Chesler says. Chesler will work with Richard Moss, the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health associate dean for basic research, biotechnology and graduate studies; and with Amir Landesberg, dean of Biomedical Engineering at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Read More
  • Celebrating the BSF

    March 26, 2014 | U.S. – Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) | American Friends of the BSF afbsf.org
    In January 2014, amid freezing cold temperatures, the U.S. – Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) celebrated its current successes and awarded Vanderbilt Professor Janet Macdonald, the Bergmann Memorial Award Held at the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC, guests enjoyed a wonderful buffet and a musical performance by the Silverwinds Ensemble. BSF Board members, grantees, and friends from the Washington government and science community mingled with members of the American Friends of the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation (AFBSF) board. Read More
  • Binational team of researchers from Israel and US find way to slow down white blood cells

    November 11, 2013 | Tel Aviv University | The Jerusalem Post, By Judy Siegel-Itzkovich
    Tel Aviv researchers have found a way to put the brakes on white blood cells and prevent them from going wild and overactive, a condition that can lead to allergies and autoimmune diseases. The investigators have found a mechanism that pushes eosinophils (a type of white blood cell) to die before they get into the blood and wreak havoc. The discovery, they say, is a “breakthrough in science’s understanding of the immune system and suggests powerful new treatments for eosinophilic diseases such as asthma.” . The research took four years to conduct and was carried out in cooperation with the Allergy and Immunology department of the Children’s Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio. The study has just been published online in the Nature Immunology journal and was partially funded by the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation. Read More
  • Occupational disease that threatens dental technicians (in Hebrew)

    July 18, 2013 | Lizi Fireman | Haaretz
    Israeli dental technicians are in risk of Chronic Beryllium Disease, the illness that may impair the lung function. Regular diagnosis tests for target population at high-risk has not been implemented yet. BSF supported joint longitudinal follow-up study in environmental occupational health to investigate Israeli dental technicians and Nuclear Industry workers in USA. Read More
  • U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation Funds 40 Nobel Prize Winners in 40 years

    January 8, 2013 | American Friends of the BSF | AFBSF.org
    As the Nobel Committee announced its selections this past fall, two additional scientists who previously participated together with Israeli colleagues in research programs supported by the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) have been honored. “The BSF has now supported research involving a total of 40 Nobel Laureates in our organization’s 40 years,” said Professor Mina Teicher, Chair of the BSF Board of Governors. “Our peer review panels work diligently to identify the best scientists. Our track record speaks for itself.” “The recent Nobel Awards received by Professor Roth and by Dr. Wineland are a testament to the high caliber of projects receiving funding,” said Yair Rotstein Executive Director of the BSF. “Israel is a small country and has a very prolific scientific community. Our funded collaborations between Israeli and American scientists have led to the support of 40 Nobel Laureates. We are proud of this contribution to the body of scientific achievement.” Read More
  • US – Israel look to Neurotecnology cooperation

    August 22, 2012 | United States-Israel Science and Technology Foundation (USISTF) | PRNewswire CISION
    The United States-Israel Science and Technology Foundation (USISTF), the Israel – U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD), and the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) announced today the plenary session speakers and program agenda for the 2012 U.S.-Israel Neurotechnology and Neuroscience Conference. The conference will bring together leading scientists from academia and industry to highlight recent developments in the study of brain function and brain disorders. The event is scheduled for September 12 at the National Academy of Sciences Building in Washington, D.C. The 2012 U.S.-Israel Neurotechnology and Neuroscience Conference will feature leading experts in the field of neurology, who will share recent breakthroughs in the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders and how bi-national cooperation plays a key role in advancing brain research. Read More
  • New study defines the genetic map of the Jewish diasporas

    August 6, 2012 | Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University | Science Daily
    A new genetic analysis focusing on Jews from North Africa has provided an overall genetic map of the Jewish Diasporas. The findings support the historical record of Middle Eastern Jews settling in North Africa during Classical Antiquity, proselytizing and marrying local populations, and, in the process, forming distinct populations that stayed largely intact for more than 2,000 years. The study, led by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in cooperation with scientists from Institute of Human Genetics, Sheba Medical Center, Israel, was published online August 6 in the  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research is partially supported by the Binational Science Foundation Israel - U.S. Read More
  • Physicists invent ‘spintronic’ LED

    July 12, 2012 | University of Utah | (E) Science News - Physics & Chemistry
    University of Utah physicists invented a new "spintronic" organic light-emitting diode or OLED that promises to be brighter, cheaper and more environmentally friendly than the kinds of LEDs now used in television and computer displays, lighting, traffic lights and numerous electronic devices. "It's a completely different technology," says Z. Valy Vardeny, University of Utah distinguished professor of physics and senior author of a study of the new OLEDs in the July 13, 2012 issue of the journal Science. Vardeny developed the new kind of LED with Tho D. Nguyen, a research assistant professor of physics and first author of the study, and Eitan Ehrenfreund, a physicist at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. Read More
  • Plant poison turns seed-eating mouse into seed spitter

    June 14, 2012 | University of Utah | Science Daily
    In Israel's Negev Desert, a plant called sweet mignonette or taily weed uses a toxic "mustard oil bomb" to make the spiny mouse spit out the plant's seeds when eating the fruit. Thus, the plant has turned a seed-eating rodent into a seed spreader that helps the plant reproduce, says a new study by Utah and Israeli scientists, supported by the BSF. "It adds a new dimension to our understanding of the ongoing battle between plants and animals," says Denise Dearing, a coauthor of the study and professor of biology at the University of Utah. "In this case, the plants have twisted the animals to do their bidding, to spread their progeny." The study illustrates the first known case within a single species of what is known as the "directed deterrence" hypothesis, namely, "the fruit is trying have itself eaten by the right consumer -- one that will spread its seeds”. Read More
  • What do pendulums and elastic film share?

    October 12, 2011 | University of Chicago | Futurity.org, by Steve Koppes 
    A coupled line of swinging pendulums apparently has nothing in common with an elastic film that buckles and folds under compression while floating on a liquid, but scientists at the University of Chicago and Tel-Aviv University have discovered a deep connection between the two phenomena. Energy carried in ordinary waves, like those seen on the ocean near a beach, quickly disperses. But the energy in the coupled pendulums and in compressed elastic film concentrates into different kinds of waves, ones with discrete packets of energy called “solutions”. Read More
  • Smooth single-molecule layers of materials: Expanding the degrees of surface freezing

    May 21, 2011 | DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory | Science Daily
    As part of the quest to form perfectly smooth single-molecule layers of materials for advanced energy, electronic, and medical devices, researchers have discovered that the molecules in thin films remain frozen at a temperature where the bulk material is molten. Thin molecular films have a range of applications extending from organic solar cells to biosensors, and understanding the fundamental aspects of these films could lead to improved devices. The study, which appears in the April 1, 2011, edition of Physical Review Letters, is the first to directly observe "surface freezing" at the buried interface between bulk liquids and solid surfaces. The results of this study and the theoretical framework which it provides may lead to new ideas on how to make defect-free, single molecule-thick films. Read More
  • Hebrew University and University of Kentucky Research Teams win Israel-US Science Award in New Program on Transformative Science

    May 15, 2011 | The Hebrew Univesity/University of Kentucky | Hebrew.com
    A recent press release from joint research teams at the University of Kentucky in the United States and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel touts their accomplishment in winning a highly-regarded award from the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) for a new program focused on Transformative science. This work by researchers at the University of Kentucky and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem could help to explain how the information contained within genomes are used to build a living organism. The exciting new window into genomes might allow research scientists to design completely new treatments in the fight against many human diseases and continued investigation could lead to a whole new understanding of molecular biology. Read More
  • Artificial light at night may cause obesity

    December 2, 2010 | ISRAEL21c Staff | ISRAEL21c
    It seems that timing really is everything. A new Israel-US collaborative study shows that obesity may not depend on what you eat, but when you eat it. Obesity is not necessarily related to the amount of food eaten or to physical activity, but rather to when you eat, according to a new study at Ohio State University in collaboration with Prof. Abraham Haim of the University of Haifa. Timing appears to be the key, with the discovery that exposure to artificial Light at Night (LAN) could cause obesity. Much emphasis has been placed on factors such as bad eating habits and insufficient physical activity to explain the growing phenomenon of obesity around the world. But researchers have recently begun to find a connection between weight gain and disturbed circadian cycles – which are regulated by the biological clock that is entrained each day by cyclical time indicators, such as sunrise and sunset. Read More
  • A fountain of youth in your muscles?- Researchers uncover muscle-stem cell mechanism in aging

    December 2, 2010 | American Friends of Tel Aviv University | Science Daily
    Researchers have discovered how endurance exercise, like jogging or spinning classes, increases the number of muscle stem cells, enhancing their ability to rejuvenate old muscles. The finding could lead to a new drug to heal muscles faster. Prof. Dafna Benayahu and her team at Tel Aviv University's Sackler School of Medicine say their findings explain for the first time why older people who have exercised throughout their lives age more gracefully. They have discovered how endurance exercise increases the number of muscle stem cells and enhances their ability to rejuvenate old muscles. The researchers hope their finding can lead to a new drug to help the elderly and immobilized heal their muscles faster. Read More
  • Planned research into Lou Gehrig’s disease could let patients bank own stem cells for treatment

    November 5, 2010 | Juliana Keeping | The Ann Arbor News
    Those afflicted with the deadly, degenerative neurological condition called Lou Gehrig’s disease could eventually bank their own stem cells for later treatment. That's the hope driving new research funded by billionaire mall mogul and Pontiac native Alfred Taubman. This week, Taubman announced a new collaboration between University of Michigan neurologist Dr. Eva Feldman, the director of the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute within the U-M Medical School, and Israeli doctor Benjamin Reubinoff of the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem. Taubman and a grant from the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation are funding the new collaboration . Read More
  • Oxytocin: it’s a mom and pop thing

    August 20, 2010 | Elsevier | Science Blog
    The hormone oxytocin has come under intensive study in light of emerging evidence that its release contributes to the social bonding that occurs between lovers, friends, and colleagues. Oxytocin also plays an important role in birth and maternal behavior, but until now, research had never addressed the involvement of oxytocin in the transition to fatherhood. A fascinating new paper “Oxytocin and the Development of Parenting in Humans” by collaborative team of researchers from Bar-Ilan University and Yale University, reports the first longitudinal data on oxytocin levels during the initiation of parenting in humans. Corresponding author Dr. Ruth Feldman noted that this finding “emphasizes the importance of providing opportunities for father-infant interactions immediately after childbirth in order to trigger the neuro-hormonal system that underlies bond formation in humans. The neuroscientists also found a relationship between oxytocin levels in husbands and wives. Read More
  • NEW RESEARCH: ONE PEOPLE!

    June 4, 2010 | Judy Siegel-Itzkovich | Jerusalem Post
    The Jews have been not only a national and religious group since the 2nd century BCE but also have common genetic links derived in the ancient Middle East despite their dispersion throughout the world, sophisticated genetic analysis based in New York has concluded. A collaborative study of researcher from US and Israel, which was published in the online edition of The American Journal of Human Genetics, also provides the first-ever detailed genetic maps of the three major Jewish subpopulations – a precious resource that can be used to study the genetic origins of disease in non-Jews as well. Read More
  • It looks like a pen but it can foil a bomb

    April 15, 2010 | Karin Kloosterman | ISRAEL21c
    A new weapon in the arsenal shared by airport security personnel and police resembles a pen but can detect bomb detonators in powder form at as little as five micrograms. Collaboration between an American researcher and Prof. Ehud Keinan of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology has culminated in a new way to foil terrorists carrying TATP-based explosives. Resembling a pen – although you can’t write with it – the device is a new weapon in the arsenal shared by airport security personnel, police and environmentalists. Keinan and Prof. Philip Dawson from the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, recently developed and commercialized the ACRO-P.E.T. (Peroxide Explosives Tester) – a simple and cost-effective device for detecting TATP. Read More
  • Outsmarting Bacteria: Researchers develop faster method to generate new antibiotics

    January 13, 2010 | University of Michigan | Michigan News
    Researchers team from the University of Michigan's Life Sciences Institute and the University of Tel Aviv have figured out a way to fool bacteria by using the microbes’ own defenses against them, techniques that could provide scientists with a new tool in the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Resistance is a problem in the aminoglycoside family of antibiotics, which are commonly used to fight serious bacterial infections and genetic diseases, and as anti-HIV drugs. Read More
  • New Israeli battery provides thousands of hours of power

    October 14, 2009 | Judy Siegel-Itzkovich | Jerusalem Post
    A new kind of portable electrochemical battery that can produce thousands of hours of power - and soon replace the expensive regular or rechargeable batteries in hearing aids and sensors and eventually in cellphones, laptop computers and even electric cars - has been developed at Haifa's Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. The unique battery is based on silicon as a fuel that reverts to its original sand. The battery can also be left on the shelf for years and inserted into a device to provide immediate power. It was developed over the last two-and-a-half years by Prof. Yair Ein-Eli of the Technion's materials engineering department, with collaboration by Prof. Digby Macdonald of Pennsylvania State University in the US and Prof. Rika Hagiwara of Kyoto University in Japan. The work was conducted with a grant from the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation, and an article on the battery was just published in the journal Electrochemistry Communications. Read More
  • Sheba, NYU researchers to draw genetic map of wandering Jew

    July 20, 2009 | Judy Siegel-Itzkovich | Jerusalem Post
    Geneticists at Sheba Medical Center and New York University have launched the world's first comprehensive gene-mapping project of the Jewish people, in an effort to trace their wanderings to and from Israel and in the Diaspora over the millennia. The research may also be used in the future to connect specific genes to certain "Jewish diseases" by providing data on the normal gene to serve as a control group. The project is being carried out by Prof. Eitan Friedman of Sheba's clinical genetics unit and Prof. Harry Ostrer, director of the human genetics program at NYU Medical School's pediatrics department, who is an expert in the origins of the Jewish people. The 18-month to two-year project is being funded by the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation. Read More
  • Social network bolsters teen emotions after suicide bombings

    July 14, 2009 | Judy Siegel-Itzkovich | Jerusalem Post
    Teenagers who have a strong social support system are more resilient to depression after being exposed indirectly to suicide bombings than those who had little social support from friends before the incident. This was discovered by Prof. Golan Shahar of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev's psychology department in Beersheba, working together with Dr. Christopher Henrich from Georgia State University. The BGU psychologist said that the study - funded by the Israel-USA Binational Science Foundation - "serves as a basis for the development of innovative preventive interventions for adolescents exposed to terror attacks." Read More
  • Drugs may prevent epilepsy and seizures after brain injury

    July 14, 2009 | University of California, Berkeley | UC Berkeley News, By Robert Sanders
    Drugs that block a growth factor receptor on brain cells may prevent epilepsy after brain damage, according to a new study appearing in the July 15 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. Daniela Kaufer, an assistant professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, graduate student Luisa P. Cacheaux, and their Israeli colleagues, graduate student Yaron David and neurosurgeon Alon Friedman, found that they could prevent the brain changes leading to epilepsy in rats by treating the animals with a drug that blocks transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) receptors. Read More
  • New radiation-free targeted therapy detects and eliminates breast cancer tumors in mice

    March 30, 2009 | CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY | EurekAlert! AAAS
    A BSF-sponsored team of American and Israeli scientists has developed a targeted cancer therapy that is able to detect and eliminate tumors in mice with seemingly fewer side effects than other breast-cancer treatments. In the experiments described in the PNAS paper, the team paired a gallium corrole with a carrier protein, then aimed it at cells that carry the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). The presence of a HER2 receptor is the hallmark of about 25 percent of breast cancers, and marks those tumors as particularly aggressive and difficult to treat. Read More
  • Genetic Mechanism In Mole Rats Can Be Targeted In Cancer Research

    March 23, 2009 | University of Haifa | Science Daily
    Cellular mechanisms that subterranean mole rats have developed in order to survive the low levels of oxygen in their underground habitat are similar to the mechanisms used by tumors to survive and progress in humans. This landmark discovery was revealed in a new study by researchers from the University of Haifa and the University of Illinois, supported by a BSF grant. Based on a new study, the mole rat can represent the human tumor in research, and the gene targeted in mole rats can be targeted for development of anti-cancer drugs. Read More
  • US-Israel sign agreement of cooperation in renewable energy

    February 20, 2009 | Rachel Neiman | ISRAEL21c
    The United States and Israel have signed an agreement of cooperation promoting joint research and development projects in renewable energy, and the BSF will play a key role. The US-Israel Energy Cooperation Act is an international collaboration aimed at creating a renewable energy storage initiative to reduce the world’s oil dependence. Read More
  • Palestinian and Israeli scientists unite to help the region

    January 6, 2009 | Karin Kloosterman | ISRAEL21c
    The BSF's workshop program promotes scientific cooperation between Israeli, Palestinian and American scientists, in subjects of regional interest and importance, such as water, environment and public health. What could be more important than water in a region where water is a limited resource? The first BSF-funded workshop took place recently in Haifa, where about 20 researchers, Palestinians, Israeli Arabs, Israeli Jews, and Americans — tackled the problem of water scarcity and discussed new science that could address the growing lack of water in Israel, and the Middle East in general. Read More
  • Brain Birth Defects Successfully Reversed Through Stem Cell Therapy

    December 30, 2008 | Hebrew University of Jerusalem | Science Daily
    A team of researchers has succeeded in reversing brain birth defects in animal models with the use of embryonic stem cells. This BSF-supported collaboration between Prof. Joseph Yanai of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Prof. Ted Slotkin of Duke University could lead to a major breakthrough in the treatment of neural and behavioral birth defects. Read More
  • How Memories Are Made, And Recalled

    September 9, 2008 | UCLA, By Mark Wheeler | Medical News Today
    What makes a memory? For the first time, scientists at UCLA and the Weizmann Institute of Science have recorded individual brain cells in the act of calling up a memory, thus revealing where in the brain a specific memory is stored, and how it is able to recreate it. Read More
  • Scientists discover that protons partner with neutrons more often than with other protons

    June 23, 2008 | Penn State University | EurekAlert! AAAS
    Fast-moving protons are much more likely to pair up with fast-moving neutrons than with other protons in the nuclei of atoms, according to a recent experiment. The research confirms a previous theoretical prediction by a Penn State physicist. The theory and its experimental confirmation show that the high-energy interactions can be used to make future discoveries in order to understand the structure of nuclear systems, from light nuclei to massive neutron stars. Two decades ago, Strikman and his collaborator Leonid Frankfurt of Tel Aviv University in Israel suggested that the most direct way to look for pairings of two high-momentum nucleons--a nucleon is a proton or a neutron in the nucleus of an atom--would be to knock a fast-moving nucleon out of an atom's nucleus and to identify the nucleon that is left behind. In 2006, Strikman and his colleagues published a paper in the journal Physical Review Letters in which they described the development and results of a detailed model that analyzed the Brookhaven National Laboratory data. The discovery is the most clear-cut example that the high-energy processes, which we have been advocating for many years, are truly effective tools and can be used for future discoveries. Read More
  • Protons Pair Up With Neutrons: Finding Sheds New Light On Structure Of Nuclear Systems

    June 3, 2008 | DOE/Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility | Science Daily
    Research performed at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility could have implications for understanding the structure of nuclear systems. This research was performed by Jefferson Lab’s Prof. Douglas Higinbotham, Tel Aviv University’s Prof. Eli Piasetzky, and others, in a multinational collaboration supported by the BSF. The result, based on the first-ever simultaneous measurement of such pairings and their constituents, could have implications for understanding the structure of nuclear systems from light nuclei to neutron stars. Read More
  • Alzheimer’s Protection? Appealing the death sentence for brain cells

    May 29, 2008 | AMERICAN FRIENDS OF TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY | EurekAlert! AAAS
    A new drug being developed by Prof. Ilana Gozes of Tel Aviv University may be an effective treatment against Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other diseases. This promising development grew out of BSF-supported collaboration between Prof. Gozes and Dr. Doug Brenneman from the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Read More
  • BSF Profile: Harnessing Binational Brainpower

    May 13, 2008 | Karin Kloosterman | ISRAEL21c
    For over 30 years the BSF has played a crucial role in facilitating U.S.-Israel scientific relations, bringing together the best minds of the two countries. Working behind the scenes, the BSF makes a powerful contribution to science, technology and economic growth - and to strengthening the bonds of friendship between Israel and America. Read More
  • The Rhythm According to Green: Research Profile of BSF grantee Dr. Rachel Green

    April 30, 2008 | Karin Kloosterman | ISRAEL21c
    Research into the biological processes of plants can help breeders better select which plants to grow in different climates, which in turn will lead to increased crop yield. This research, being carried out in a BSF-supported project by Dr. Rachel Green of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Prof. Robertson McClung of Dartmouth College, may have applications for human medicine as well, as the ‘biological clocks’ of plants and animals work the same way. Read More
  • Israeli Fibers Help NASA Locate Livable Planets in the Universe

    February 27, 2008 | Karin Kloosterman | ISRAEL21c
    The development of a special optical fiber is helping NASA get closer to answering the age-old question: ‘Is there life on other planets’? This fiber was developed by Prof. Abraham Katzir of Tel Aviv University and Prof. Amnon Yariv of the California Institute of Technology in a BSF-supported collaboration, and could be installed in space satellites as early as 2012. Read More
  • Weizmann scientists discover a new line of communication between nervous system cells

    June 27, 2007 | AMERICAN COMMITTEE FOR THE WEIZMANN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE | EurekAlert! AAAS
    BSF-supported research led by Prof. Elior Peles of the Weizmann Institute of Science and Prof. Steven Scherer of the University of Pennsylvania, published in Nature Neuroscience, may lead to new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases and in restoring the normal function of affected nerve fibers. Read More
  • Inexpensive ‘Nanoglue’ Can Bond Nearly Anything Together

    May 17, 2007 | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | Science Daily
    A newly-developed ‘nanoglue’ can bond materials that don’t normally stick together. This research, supported in part by the BSF, by Prof. Ganapathiraman Ramanath of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Prof. Moshe Eizenberg of the Technion, invented new adhesive, based on self-assembling nanoscale chains, could have major benefits for everything from next-generation computer chip manufacturing to energy production. Read More