Israel Space Agency Plans for First Ever Trip to Neptune: Yakir Benzion, United With Israel, May 24, 2020
___________________________________________6 Coronavirus Vaccine Developments From Israel to Watch
Abigail Klein Leichman
Israel 21C, May 25, 2020Research groups across the world are using a variety of approaches to formulating vaccines that could protect people from coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19). Big money and urgent demand are accelerating the normally lengthy process of vaccine development (see our companion story, “In the race for a coronavirus vaccine, first doesn’t mean best,” to read what two Israeli experts have to say about this).
Vaccine candidates from the US, UK, China, Japan, and Germany are on the fast track, and Israel has at least six projects on the go. This international effort may lead to multiple products. “We expect more than one could make it to market,” says Ronald Ellis, an Israel-based consultant to the industry and editor in chief of Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics.
Let’s see what vaccine candidates are being cooked up in Israeli labs.
MigVax
The new startup MigVax was spun out of Migal Galilee Research Institute in Kiryat Shemona, the largest regional R&D center of the Israeli Science and Technology Ministry. Over the past four years, Migal developed a vaccine against a coronavirus strain affecting chickens. Safety and effectiveness were proven in animal trials at Israel’s Veterinary institute. MigVax is translating methods from the poultry vaccine program to develop an oral human vaccine against Covid-19.
This is a “sub-unit” vaccine, containing pieces of coronavirus protein (not live or dead virus) delivered orally to the immune system via a bacterial protein to stimulate antibodies and immune cells against coronavirus in mucosa, blood, and cells. “The experiments we have carried out so far show that because the vaccine does not include the virus itself, it will be safe to use in immune-suppressed recipients, and has fewer chances of side effects,” said David Zigdon, CEO of the Migal Galilee Research Institute and interim CEO of MigVax. Zigdon said the material could be ready for clinical trials within a few months.
If the trials are successful, MigVax will partner with a GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) facility to produce the vaccine in mass quantities quickly and at low cost using bacterial fermentation. On April 22, Jerusalem-based OurCrowd venture investment platform announced a $12 million funding round in MigVax.
IIBR
The Israel Institute of Biological Research, a Defense Ministry laboratory in Ness Ziona, has reportedly completed successful Covid-19 vaccine trials on rodents. The vaccine candidate will now be tested on other animals for safety and efficacy and then, if successful, would be tested in humans, according to Israeli media. The IIBR did not release any official statement about its vaccine progress.
However, Chief Innovation Coordinator Eran Zehavy previously said the institute is also developing an antibody-based treatment for Covid-19 using plasma from recovered patients. He said this treatment is expected to take less time to develop than the vaccine.
Earlier this month, the IIBR isolated a key coronavirus antibody that successfully neutralized aggressive coronavirus in lab tests. Since then, the institute filed patent applications for eight separate coronavirus antibodies it has isolated. The essence of this vaccine candidate is an edible delivery vehicle based on engineered algae.
Bioencapsulated inside the algae, a specific coronavirus protein molecule travels intact through the digestive system to stimulate its target, the immune system.
Eyal Ronen, VP for business development, says TransAlgae invested over $25 million over the past 11 years in developing this technology for animal and fish vaccines as well as crop insecticides. “We are not a pharma company and were not interested in going into human health at this moment. But our shareholders were asking us, why not use this for human beings? We took the challenge,” says Ronen. … [To read the full article, click the following LINK – Ed.]
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Most Coronavirus Infections in Israel Caused by Variant Imported from US – Study
NoCamels Team, May 19, 2020
A majority of Israeli patients with COVID-19 were infected by a SARS CoV-2 variant that originated in the US, according to a genomic sequencing study by Israeli and international researchers.
The study was based on an analysis of the genomic sequences of over 200 coronavirus patients across Israel, constituting a representative sample of the general population. It found that over 70 percent of the infections were from a variant – or more accurately a haplotype – found in the US, says Dr. Adi Stern, an evolutionary virologist at Tel Aviv University’ School of Molecular Cell Biology and Biotechnology who led the study.
The remaining nearly 30 percent were imported from Belgium (8 percent), France (6 percent), England (5 percent), Spain (3 percent), Italy (2 percent), the Philippines (2 percent), Australia (2 percent) and Russia (2 percent), according to the preliminary, non-yet-peer-reviewed research published this week on medRxiv.org.
Dr. Stern tells NoCamels that the study was conducted over approximately two months “so from the very beginning [of the outbreak of the pandemic in Israel], from some of the earliest patients until late April.”
Israel’s first confirmed case of coronavirus was recorded on February 21, 2020, three weeks after the country began restricting travel from Asia and closing its borders to tourists while implementing mandatory quarantines for travelers. Flights were also restricted early from Europe but not the US.
“There was a delay in policy. Flights from Europe were stopped between February 26 and March 4 and all travelers had to be quarantined, but flights from the US were only stopped on March 9,” Dr. Stern says by way of possible explanation.
The findings show that “returning travelers from the US contributed more to the spread of the virus in Israel than those from Europe,” she tells NoCamels. Closing the borders to flights from Europe “worked really well as we saw very few transmission chains from there.”
Another partial explanation is the “different behavioral patterns,” Dr. Stern says. Travelers from the US appear to have interacted more with Israelis, seen more family, or attended more social gatherings, she speculates.
Generally speaking, according to a statistical model built by the scientists, the rate of infection in Israel also decreased significantly following strict quarantine measures in mid-March.
Another interesting finding from the study was that over 80 percent of coronavirus infections in Israel were the direct result of just 10 percent of “super spreaders.” “Some of the clusters of sequences in the data that we saw were 100 percent identical and this tells us that there were some ‘super spreaders,’ Dr. Stern says, noting that the super-spreading may have occurred at various events such as weddings and other social gatherings.
As of May 19, the novel coronavirus has infected 16,650 people in Israel, with 3,074 active cases as of May 19, and 277 deaths. Over 13,000 have recovered. Dr. Stern says that no more than 1 percent of the population in Israel contracted the virus – a far cry from herd immunity.
To conduct the study, Dr. Stern and her team of doctoral students worked in collaboration with scientists at Emory University, the Gertner Institute, the Holon Institute of Technology, the Genome Center at the Technion Institute of Technology, as well as a number of leading Israeli hospitals. … [To read the full article, click the following LINK – Ed.]
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Jewish General Set to Roll Out Game-Changing App in Coronavirus Battle
Aaron Derfel
Montreal Gazette, Apr. 9, 2020
Medical staff and patients at the Jewish General Hospital will be using a potentially powerful new tool in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in the coming days — a smartphone app that will allow users to monitor their vital signs by simply staring into their phone’s screen.
The medical-grade app, developed by a Tel Aviv company in collaboration with a Montreal health technology firm, is believed to be the first of its kind in the world. Although the app was not designed with COVID-19 in mind, the Jewish General will be using it in three distinct ways during the pandemic.
First, starting as early as next week, triage nurses will use the app to screen arriving emergency-room patients for telltale symptoms of the respiratory illness. Without having to touch a patient, a triage nurse will hold a smartphone in front of a patient’s face and in less than a minute the app will measure three vital signs: heart rate, respiratory rate, and oxygen saturation in the blood. Patients with abnormally elevated heart and respiratory rates as well as a low oxygen-saturation reading will be isolated immediately for further investigation.
Second, the Côte-des-Neiges hospital will use the app in its COVID-19 wards, giving it to some of the patients so they can monitor their vital signs in their negative-pressure rooms. This should result in nurses entering those rooms less frequently, which in turn will help conserve the scarce supply of gloves, masks, and other personal protective equipment worn by medical staff.
Third, the app will be downloaded by some vulnerable patients in Montreal’s west end — which has reported the highest concentration of COVID-19 cases in the city — to let people monitor their symptoms at home.
The hospital is completing the testing of the app’s accuracy on-site and, given the early positive results, has shared it with the Quebec Health Ministry. The provincial government is considering introducing the smartphone technology across the province with the goal of reducing the size of a possible second wave of COVID-19 cases in the next few months.
Had the app existed widely in the general population before the pandemic struck this year, its developers say, the technology could have slowed the spread of the novel coronavirus since some infected users would have known to self-isolate at home.
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Israel Space Agency Plans for First-Ever Trip to Neptune
Yakir Benzion
United With Israel, May 24, 2020
When NASA’s proposed Trident mission to Neptune is launched in 2026, there is a good chance that Israeli technology will help uncover the secrets of Neptune’s unique and highly active icy moon, Triton.
The Weizmann Institute’s Prof. Yohai Kaspi is part of the proposed space mission team that hopes to investigate the existence and properties of Triton’s subterranean ocean as well as Triton’s youthful-looking surface and unique atmosphere.
Triton is not just super cold, with a surface temperature of −235 degrees Celsius. It also has active geysers, meaning the icy moon has a heat source.
Kaspi and Dr. Eli Galant, the two Israelis on the Trident team, possess expertise in analyzing radio signals from distant spacecraft. The Trident spacecraft will be equipped with a special scientific clock they designed that is so accurate it will lose less than a second in 10 million years. The clock will be built by the Jerusalem company Accubeat to withstand the rigors of space travel for at least 15 years. Kaspi and Galant will use the clock to calculate the properties of Triton’s atmosphere based on the Doppler displacement of radio waves beamed back to Earth from the spacecraft. The Israeli-made clock will assist them in measuring tiny oscillations in these waves.
Accubeat is already building a similar clock to be launched aboard the European Space Agency’s JUICE mission to the moons of Jupiter, set for 2022.
“This unique clock, developed for an ESA flagship mission, has raised interest with other mission teams. It is proof that Israeli industry and research have much to contribute to international space exploration,” said Israel Space Agency Director General Avi Blasberger, whose organization is providing research funding.
As one of four finalists from 22 proposals submitted to NASA’s Discovery Program, the Trident team and three other proposals will each receive three million dollars in the coming year to develop their plans before two are finally selected for missions. If all goes well, the interplanetary probe is due to be launched in 2026 for the multi-billion mile journey to the solar system’s third-largest planet. … [To read the full article, click the following LINK – Ed.]
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For Further Reference:
Israeli Scientists Develop Predictive Framework To Detect Coronavirus Spread Zones: NoCamels Team, March 23, 2020 — Israeli scientists have developed a framework for monitoring, identifying, and predicting the novel coronavirus’s spreading zones in the country. The method developed jointly with researchers from The Weizmann Institute, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Clalit Health Services – and in coordination with the Israeli Health Ministry – is built on population-wide surveys, data analysis, and regional mapping.
Israel Fast Tracks Optimized Elite Defense Technologies to Fight COVID – 19: Viva Sarah Press, NoCamels, May 20, 2020 — A light stick that can disinfect an airplane or hospital room from all traces of the novel coronavirus in under 30 minutes. A breathalyzer that looks like a cigar that can detect COVID-19 infection in 60 seconds. Robots that help care for hospitalized and highly infectious patients. The artificial intelligence-driven computerized vision that detects and alerts people not wearing a mask in a public space.
33 Creative Initiatives Taken By Israeli Companies During The Pandemic: Efrat Fenigson, NoCamels, May 14, 2020 — It’s no secret that COVID-19 forced companies to adapt their marketing strategies to a changing environment. The understanding that companies are facing challenging times all over the world meant marketers needed to improvise and think more creatively and on their feet.
Look to Israel as a Light against Corona: Shari Dollinger, Israel Hayom, May 25, 2020 — Israel is a light unto the nations, the world’s first responder and the startup nation. The Jewish state is known for doing more with less and exceeding beyond all reasonable expectations.
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Last week’s French-language briefing is titled: Communiqué: Habemus Papam. (MAI 22,2020)
