(TECH) Israel's Smallest PC

CompuLab, an Israel-based manufacturer that specializes in small computer has announced the release of a small PC - the Trim Slice.

The Trim Slice runs on a dual-core Tegra 2 processor. The price will start at $250. The little computer comes with 1GB of memory. There are 4 USB 2.0 ports and a serial port.

The whole thing uses an average of just 3 watts of power and has a fanless all-metal design. The computer could be used as a media player, gaming system, or even a desktop PC with the right software.

They also have a slightly bigger version that can slot in a 2.5" Sata hard drive. 1GB RAM, it also has an internal Micro-SD slot to store the OS. So if you want to upgrade or change the OS, just change the MicroSD card and reboot. It also ships with 32GB Flash storage.

They are launching this with Ubuntu 10.10 and they will add support for Honeycomb by launch. Available in June.

(TECH) From Koogle To Yideotube, Efforts To Provide A Kosher Internet

"As more ultra-Orthodox Jews venture online, various providers in Israel are offering them pre-screened access so they can avoid inadvertently viewing any offensive content.

From a drab office in this ultra-Orthodox Jewish stronghold, three devout young women hunch over computers and surf the Internet — looking for pornography, celebrity gossip and a laundry list of other items banned by their rabbis.



It's odd work for this trio, dressed modestly and wearing wigs in keeping with their beliefs. But it's their job at Israel's first ultra-Orthodox Internet provider, Nativ, as it tries to launch a product that could transform the traditionally sheltered community: kosher Internet.

Because racy images of women are the most common offensive content found, the company decided it would be less objectionable to hire women to scour the Internet so ultra-Orthodox customers can surf without worry.

Lea Bernat, 22, a former kindergarten teacher, clicks through hundreds of web pages a day, using specialized software to open links and disable problematic content. 'If it's clean, we release it,' she said. 'If it's really unclean, we tell the customer that the site isn't approved.'

But is it kosher?

That's the question facing many ultra-Orthodox as they move online and are greeted by a fast-growing industry seeking to cater to their special needs, even though no one agrees yet exactly what a kosher Internet should look like.

There's Koogle, a Google-inspired searchable directory of kosher businesses offering, say, bargains on 'modest' wedding dresses. Many rabbis frown on YouTube, so Yideotube offers a 'daily online source of carefully screened videos,' ranging from spoofs of anti-war activists to tips for buying a ceremonial kittel robe.

Worried about violating prohibitions against working on the Sabbath? Software vendor SaturdayGuard sells technology that enables websites to block access for Internet users, depending upon their time zone, between Friday and Saturday night.

There's even an online support group, GuardYourEyes.org, specializing in helping Orthodox Jews break 'lust addictions' arising from Internet access. In addition to the usual 12-step programs and daily 'strengthening' e-mails, the group offers tips for curtailing inappropriate surfing, including using software that automatically sends lists of visited websites to your spouse or rabbi.

Modern technology has long been viewed by many ultra-Orthodox rabbis as incompatible with a spiritual life. Television is banned and only 'kosher' cellphones, which carry rabbinical stamps and have disabled Web browsing and text messaging, are accepted in ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, communities here.

Ultra-Orthodox Rabbis initially labeled the Internet as the biggest threat yet to Judaism, likening it to eating pork and calling it '1,000 times worse' than TV. As the technology spread, rabbis softened their stance and by 2005 allowed limited Internet use for work purposes only.

Now, as the Internet permeates most aspects of life, from banking to registering children at school, more Haredi families have no choice but to go online. About one-third admit to having Internet access at home, though the actual figure is believed to be about 50%.

With an outright ban on the Internet no longer feasible, ultra-Orthodox rabbis are realizing that their only option is to create a kosher variety.

'The overwhelming majority understand that if you can't fight it, join it,' said Avi Greenzeig, believed to be Israel's first 'kashrut monitor' — similar to those who inspect kosher restaurants. He was hired by rabbis to edit and censor one of Israel's most popular Haredi websites, Behadrei Haredim. 'People can live without television, but the Internet is different,' Greenzeig said. 'It's impossible to tell people to go back to the caves. Technology is moving forward and people must move with it. But there are limits.'

From the website's nondescript Jerusalem office, where there is no sign on the door and writers use pseudonyms because of the stigma of working for an Internet company, Greenzeig reviews every article and reader comment before it's posted online.

Greenzeig, only 24 and working at his first job, is younger than the writers and editors. But as the official eyes of the rabbis, he carries considerable clout because he's regularly in touch with the religious leaders.

A piece about a rabbi accused of sexually harassing male students? Greenzeig spiked it. He also killed a review of a band that performs for mixed audiences of men and women. Because the website workers are also Haredi, there's never a problem with profanity or inappropriate pictures, but Greenzeig says he often edits reader comments when they are disrespectful or criticize rabbinical decisions.



Creating a truly kosher Internet is no easy task, partly because of the unreliability of commercial filters. Already, frustrated Haredi youth are asking websites such as Answers.com, 'How Do I Get Around Kosher Net?'

At the same time, Haredi rabbis remain deeply divided on what kosher Internet should look like, who should have access and which websites should be blocked.

'So far they haven't been able to find a clear line, as they have with cellphones,' said Mordecai Plaut, an Orthodox rabbi who operates an English-language Haredi website. 'They are still trying to figure out a way to throw out the bathwater and keep the baby.'

For example, pornography isn't the only thing that upsets some rabbis. They've also expressed concern about websites that espouse other faiths, such as Christianity or Islam. They worry Haredim will waste too much time surfing trivial news and entertainment sites, and not spend enough time in religious reflection.

Access to the Internet has also exposed Haredim, who traditionally have taken their direction only from rabbis, to alternate opinions.

'It's also about control,' said one ultra-Orthodox Internet professional who didn't want to be identified criticizing rabbis.

Hoping to fill the void, several Internet providers are developing customized products for the ultra-Orthodox community, combining filters, web-blocking software and dedicated servers designed to ensure control.

Nativ, which employs the female Web monitors, offers Internet service to about 20,000 ultra-Orthodox customers. The company, based in Bnei Berek just outside Tel Aviv, adheres to strict religious guidelines, employing only Haredi workers and taking instructions from rabbis.

Deputy chief executive Yechiel Twersky is dressed in a 19th century black suit with hat and sidelocks, yet has the very 21st century habit of checking his Blackberry while holding conversations.

Twersky installs 'unhackable' programs on customers' computers to ensure that all Internet access goes through Nativ. The standard service offers about 2,200 websites, mostly government agencies and Haredi businesses. All forms of social media, such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, are blocked, as are Google images. Customers who want access to anything else, such as a journalist who wants to read a particular news site or a doctor who needs a medical research page, must provide a letter from his or her rabbi. Then the female monitors inspect the site.

Software engineer Yaniv Sharon, a Haredi father of five from Rehovot, has tried all the providers, but says none offer the right balance of protection from inappropriate images and access to websites he needs for his Web-design business.

So Sharon is braving the Internet alone, even though he's worried about even inadvertent exposure to pictures of women.

'Just viewing such a picture damages the soul,' he said. 'I put my hand up and scroll the page down.'

He's been advised to hang a picture of his rabbi on the computer to keep him focused. 'It's a constant battle, though.'" (source)

(TECH) Israel's Highest Quality Satellite Presented At Aerospace Conference

Video below: "OptSat 3000 is one of many technologies and developments presented at Israel's Second Annual International Aerospace Exhibition & Conference, which is taking place in Jerusalem this week.

Developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Optsat 3000 is a three axis stabilized, autonomous satellite, designed according to a low weight, low power, and high reliability concept. Officials at IAI report that the satellite features 'high geolocation accuracy and an amazing weight to performance ratio.' The Optsat 3000 offers 'simultaneous panchromatic and multi-spectral imaging capability, high image quality and high agility - the low weight and compact dimensions of the satellite also result in low inertia, allowing for high agility, which enables achieving a very high number of images, widely spread, in one satellite pass.' The satellite is designed for a mission life of more than six years.

Deagel.com reported that 'OptSat 3000 represents the third generation of optical observation satellites developed by IAI/MBT. The spacecraft is based on a small multi-purpose generic platform which is common with TECSAR radar observation satellite. The generic platform can accommodate a variety of payloads. OptSat 3000 is the follow-on for proven Ofeq observation satellites.'

In the following video, Israel National News TV speaks with Yehiel Shalev, head of IAI's Space Division Military Satellite Dept." (source)

(TECH) Israeli Company Crunches-Down High-Quality Photos With No Contradiction

"Tackling a major on-line frustration, an Israeli start-up uses video technology and unique algorithms to compress photos to a manageable size, while ensuring the highest quality.

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but as far as the Internet is concerned, a picture is worth a thousand kilobytes - or even megabytes. And unlike the descriptive advantage inherent in the comparison of a photo to lots of words, a byte-heavy photo is not always a good thing - especially if you're planning to e-mail it or post it in cyberspace. That problem has now been solved with the unique Hipix application from Israel, that crunches down photos without reducing their quality.



Meir Kollman, CEO and president of Israeli startup Human Monitoring offers this interesting statistic: 'At least 20 percent of all data traffic currently being pushed over the Internet is in the form of photos, and with the increased capabilities of digital cameras - especially those in phones - the traffic load on networks is increasing all the time.'

That extra load is prompting services providers to force consumers to pay more for data services, or cut their data loads. Many of those photos are sent directly from the smartphones via e-mail to friends, or to social network sites like Facebook, exacerbating the problem.

The secret's in the video compression

There is a third way to send photos, says Kollman - the Human Monitoring way, via its unique Hipix application, which crunches down photos without compromising their quality. 'Especially now, when more and more phones come with built-in high-quality cameras, Hipix can go a long way to reducing traffic on the network while allowing users to enjoy and share high-quality photos,' he says.

The more 'information' - the more data, in the form of bits and bytes - in a picture, the better the quality of the photo, and most digital cameras give you the option of taking photos of higher or lower quality (with the latter resulting in smaller photos). Lower-quality photos may be missing some of the rich detail in a scene, but photographers who plan on uploading their photos to the Internet or sending them by e-mail often choose the low-quality setting, to ensure that their photos are small enough to send quickly.

The problem is that those photos usually don't look that good, given the extra compression used to keep them small. Even higher-quality photos are significantly compressed, as they are saved in Jpeg format, a compression system that hasn't been updated for 15 years, according to Kollman.

Hipix is the first new compression system to come along in awhile - and the only one that can compress a photo to a manageable size, while ensuring the highest-quality photo possible. 'We've developed unique, patented algorithms that ensure that photos look great, yet compresses them by as much as 60 percent or even 80% of their original size,' states Kollman.





For example, a two-megabyte four by six photo snapped by a seven megapixel digital camera - which, due to its size, would probably be considered a high-quality photo - can be compressed down to 500 or 600 kilobytes with Hipix, without compromising quality. Thus both the consumer and the Internet or cell phone service provider walk away happy.

Hipix accomplishes this visual miracle by utilizing the video (as opposed to photo) technology that's built-in in modern digital cameras and smartphones. While Jpeg, the standard compression technology for still photos, hasn't been updated to accommodate innovations in camera technology and new chips with expanded capabilities, video compression has improved by leaps and bounds.

It's built on a built-in chip

'When we first started the company five years ago, we worked in the area of video compression, and developed several innovative techniques and applications that are being enthusiastically used by partners we work with,' (Texas Instruments is among them) Kollman relates.

'We saw there was a great market in developing improvements in the area of digital still photos, which few developers were bothering with, and we began developing the technology for Hipix in 2007,' he adds. They focused on a still compression system based on the H.264 video codec, which is very common in chips used for mobile phones. This is the market Human Monitoring is aiming to conquer initially.

'By taking advantage of a chip that is already built into many devices for the compression Hipix does, we make it easy for device manufacturers to use our technology, building it directly into devices,' Kollman relates, and indeed, cell phone service providers who have seen Hipix in action have been very enthusiastic - to the extent that several in the Far East, such as Innoace, a leading Korean mobile solution provider, have already partnered with Human Monitoring, installing Hipix in phones used by their customers.

'We're working in Japan, where seven out of every 10 people take at least one photo with their phones every day, and five of them are sent by e-mail or SMS. We are also talking with service providers in the US and Europe as well, and expect to be deployed in both markets within the next year,' Kollman asserts, adding that the company has begun talking to handset and chip manufacturers as well, looking at the possibility of installing Hipix directly on the hardware.

Human Monitoring is currently self-funded, with some angel investors providing funds - but next year, the company is likely to seek a larger round of funding. And there is plenty more work to do in the photo game.

'Picture quality is getting better, which means that photo size will grow, and soon we will begin seeing 3D cameras, which use sophisticated software to view photos from different angles and compose them into a single image. Those photos, of course, will be even larger.' The level of data crowing networks is only going to increase, says Kollman, 'but with Hipix, networks will be able to take these improvements in stride.'" (source)

(ENVIRO) The Israeli "Spider" That Reads The Wind

"An Israeli device resembling a spider should improve the ability of wind farmers to measure the breeze and make the most of their wind power.

Why is an Israeli device that resembles a computerized spider attracting international attention in the field of alternative energy? As Bob Dylan might put it, 'the answer is blowing in the wind.'



Pentalum Technologies' SpiDAR system, still in development at the company’s Rehovot headquarters in central Israel, is creating a buzz. That's because of its potential improvement over existing LIDAR (light detection and ranging) and other remote systems, which wind power plants rely on to monitor wind conditions.

Constantly varying wind speeds and directional patterns present a challenge for wind farms, because these changes have a huge impact on the performance of the turbines that generate energy. That’s why wind farmers invest significant capital in precision wind measurement tools to help them to site their operations and assure optimum production.

Pentalum’s proprietary technology will provide a smaller and less-expensive alternative that is also more accurate than existing methods. It utilizes sophisticated distributed wind sensors that are coordinated and controlled through a central computer. The visual effect of this configuration is what gave rise to the brand name SpiDAR.

More accurate wind measurements

'All the data from the different 'legs' of the spider' are transmitted to the central 'headquarters,' ' says Gil Shamai, Pentalum’s vice president for business development.'It’s light and very easy to deploy by a single person on the ground. You can place several in your terrain and receive measurements up to 200 meters off the ground.'

According to Shamai, the noiseless device is designed to provide more reliable and cost-effective results in three distinct applications.

The first application measures wind conditions for at least one year before a wind farm begins operation. Today, this is usually accomplished by mounting cup anemometers on meteorological masts. However, the height of modern turbines is rising, and that makes for commensurately higher costs for the masts, as well as permits, installation, and maintenance. SpiDAR promises to deliver more accurate wind measurements without those drawbacks.



The second application involves mounting SpiDAR units on turbines to measure approaching winds a fraction of a second before the gusts reach the blades. In response, the turbines can quickly readjust direction and speed to precisely meet the coming wind. Shamai estimates that this application will improve performance up to 15 percent over current systems that measure wind behind - not approaching - the blades.

Finally, the SpiDAR can play a crucial role in helping wind farm operators to predict production capabilities. 'A better understanding of the wind map in the area helps to forecast how much power the farm will produce tomorrow or next week,' Shamai explains. This data allows the farm to make accurate estimations of the amount of energy it can offer the local power grid on any given day.

Keen interest from Spain and Germany

Shamai co-founded Pentalum in 2009 with chief executive officer Sagie Tsadka and vice president of R&D Dr. Nathan Sela. Along with vice president for operations Niv Narkiss, they brought with them the relevant executive-level experience in optics, telecom, fluid mechanics, atmospheric remote sensing and software.

Thanks to $9 million raised in its first financing round from Cedar Fund, Evergreen Venture Partners, and an undisclosed American fund, the privately-held company is gearing up for pilot field tests of the SpiDAR system in early 2011 in the United States.

'Our target market is in the US and Europe, since the market in Israel, while growing, is not very large,' Shamai reveals.

Wind farms require large tracts of windy exposed areas, and are therefore most common in the states of Texas, Iowa, and California. Spain and Germany lead the market in Europe's fast-growing wind energy field. Those foreign markets are keenly interested in the product’s promise of greater accuracy and lower price, Shamai notes." (source)

(TECH) Israeli Software Takes Us From Facebook Video Dating To Playing Games

"Israel's Rounds isn't the first video chat to work within Facebook, but the company claims to have the best interactive games and features.

Dany Fishel and Ilan Leibovitch didn't intend to build one of the hottest new video chat applications for Facebook. They were just looking for a way to help Israeli singles find a match online.



Originally a 'speed dating' website, the Tel Aviv entrepreneurs called their startup '6Rounds,' the idea being that six women and six men would meet for digital dating 'rounds.' The daters would have half an hour to chat and then the program would automatically match participants by profiles.

Worried that their daters would become bored during their five-minute sessions of Web time, Fishel (31) and Leibovitch (29) started adding features - an 'activities' screen where they could play games like backgammon and chess; the ability to share pictures and video; easy tools to 'mark up' pictures with special effects.

Before they knew it, the add-ons were attracting more attention than the dating program itself. In typical Israeli 'thinking on your feet' style, the company dropped the dating, re-branded itself as just Rounds, and last month launched a social networking application that allows friends to video chat without leaving Facebook.

Bridging the online and offline worlds

Rounds already had a sizable base for its post-speed dating website. There were 250,000 users who discovered the site when it was one of the first applications to be integrated into the now discontinued Google Wave, the search engine giant's attempt to build a next generation e-mail and content management service.

But by jumping into Facebook, the pool of potential users includes the entire 500 million strong Facebook ecosystem.
This has not been lost on investors, who have put some $2 million into the company - $1.5 million last August from Israeli Daniel Recanati's Rhodium Investment Group, and the rest from a group of angel investors including Startup Factory.

Social community marketing manager Natasha Shine tells ISRAEL21c that Rounds aims 'to bridge the offline and online worlds' - to take what two people would do if they were physically together and translate that to the Internet where they might be separated by miles or continents.

Shine proffers her relationship with her mother as an example: 'She lives abroad. For five years she's been saying to me 'you don't tell me what you're doing in your life.' Using Rounds, we could see each other and browse pictures together on Facebook. I can point to a particular shot with my mouse to show her a party that I went to last week.'

If Shine is so inclined, she can also take a snapshot of herself within the app, and decorate it with a variety of effects. Look Ma, I'm on fire! There are also animated characters - she could choose a cute little bunny - that can prance around the screen.



Focusing on the best interface

Still, Rounds isn't all fun and games and its investors expect a return on investment. Its business model includes selling 'premium' effects and characters. It does this using the popular Facebook currency of 'coins.' While some coins will eventually cost, today it's all free. And if you share your snapshots with the rest of the Rounds community, you automatically receive extra coins, which you can use to buy more effects.

Rounds is counting on third parties to create the effects. In August, the company released a developer API (Application Programming Interface), which allows outside vendors to build add-ons to the Rounds platform. The company clearly has its eye on Apple and its app store; a product with a digital ecosystem generally has a much greater chance of success.

Shine mentions eventual advertising as well. But 'we're very focused on providing the best user interface possible,' she says. 'We don't plan to bombard users with ads. It will be very subtle.' Virtual (paid) gifts will also be available to purchase within the Rounds world.

Rounds comes in two flavors: The newly-released Facebook app, and its web-based parent. The latter is far more functional than Rounds on Facebook - you can watch YouTube videos together, listen to music and browse external photo sharing sites like Flickr. The company is planning to release its own browser so that users will be able to visit websites together.

Integration with Facebook's text chat?

Up next is expanding to mobile devices such as the iPhone, and Rounds is using its latest investment to that end, and planning to add new features - for example, the ability to chat with up to six people at once. 'A US office is also in the long-term pipeline,' Shine reveals.

There may even be a new version of the original online dating service. For now, only two people who are formally friends on Facebook can video chat, but that may open up into what's known as 'chat roulette' where people can talk freely with anyone (with strict user privacy controls in place, of course). Intimations can already be seen. When you post a snapshot to Facebook, all Facebook users - even those you're not friends with - can see it and contact you.

Rounds isn't the only video chat program in Facebook; Friendcam is a notable forerunner. And the company has had some preliminary discussion with the social networking giant, although Shine would only disclose that a meeting between Facebook executives and Fishel and Leibovitch had taken place.

Could Rounds' video chat be integrated more tightly with Facebook's existing text chat function? We'll have to wait for the 'next round' to find out." (source)

(TECH) Meet The Israeli Spiderman-Robot

"Visitors to the bi-annual Robotics Conference in Israel had a chance to meet Spiderman, at least in the form of a robot.

The Spiderbot, which was developed by a group of engineers at the Robotics laboratory at Ben Gusion University, was inspired by the legendary comic superhero. The robot can shoot cables with magnetic ends and walk on metal surfaces. In fact, researchers told National Geographic magazine last year that if developed properly, the Spiderbot could move cargo or conduct rescue operations.



Amir Shapiro, the director of the Robotics lab at Ben Gurion University’s Mechanical Engineering department, explained in an interview to National Geographic in October of last year what the robot could possibly do: 'The application of Spiderbot can be for saving survivors in the middle of the ocean where you can imagine people in the middle of the sea and two boats on the sides and the robots are handling to the sides of the boats and holding the survivors and carrying them up to the boat. This is one application, another application is shooting arrows at buildings at the end of the streets and then moving along the street, on top of the street and having cameras and communication hardware.'

Shapiro usually models his robotic creations from animals such as snakes, snails, and even cats. His team recently created a snake-like robot by combining two concurrent wave motions to create a slithering movement.

He has worked with the IDF and crafted wall-climbing robots for intelligence gathering, including a robot that can scale concrete walls by releasing melted glue. In keeping with the animal motif, this robot was designed to act like a snail which leaves a trail of mucus behind. The walk and climb of a cat were his inspiration for a robot with four hooks whose four legs carry fishhooks.

Another one of Shapiro's creations is a robot with compliant magnetic wheels that can clamber on submerged hulls of cargo ships. Shapiro believes that this robot will one day be able to replace divers now check for contraband and bombs, and as he recently told Spectrum magazine: 'A robot can do it safer, better, easier, and much less expensively. A good scanning algorithm can make it very efficient.'" (source)

(TECH) Meet The Israeli Unmanned Ground Combat Vehicle - AvantGuard

Video below: "The bi-annual Robotics Conference is taking place in Herzliya, and Israel National News TV was there to meet the developers of the AvantGuard Unmanned Ground Combat Vehicle (UGCV). It is a jeep-like robot that takes the place of human soldiers in testing out dangerous territory.

The AvantGuard, which has been already trialed and certified by the Israeli army, features superb maneuverability while operating in harsh terrain environments.

The developers of the UGCV explain that by employing a set of modular payloads and utilizing its inherent endurance, the AvantGuard can be effectively deployed in a variety of combat missions, including advance guard, armed sentry, combat logistic support, and more.

The AvantGuard is controlled by mobile or portable Operational Control Unit. It can also operate in a Follow-Me mode, autonomously trailing a Guide foot soldier or Guide vehicle." (source)

(TECH) Military Rabbinate Presents: Shabbat-Adapted Touch Screen

"New exhibition showcases specially-developed products enabling soldiers to perform duties on Shabbat without desecrating it. 'This work is necessary to integrate religious soldiers in all units,' says Chief Military Rabbi Rafi Peretz.

The Military Rabbinate unveiled a line of electronic devices enabling observant soldiers to perform various duties they are required to do on Shabbat last Tuesday. Among the new developments: Touch screens, light-bulbs, flashlights, water-coolers etc.

The goal of the exhibition was to expose military rabbis to technological solutions which could help soldiers on the field. The Israel Defense Forces will not provide the products to all units and the Military Rabbinate are hoping rabbis would encourage soldiers to purchase the items themselves."

(TECH) Israeli University-Developed Invention Wins Wall Street Journal Award

"Video below: The 2010 Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award in the area of physical security will be awarded this week in the US to the Israel-based BriefCam Company for its invention, which was developed by Prof. Shmuel Peleg of the Benin School of Computer Science and Engineering at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem The invention offers an innovative solution to quick review of information from security cameras.

Surveillance cameras generate a prodigious amount of video; unfortunately there's not enough time and manpower to watch it all. Other video-surveillance technologies address this problem by fast forwarding through recordings or capturing only moving images using motion detectors, for instance.



BriefCam takes a different approach. Its patented technology, called Video Synopsis, provides a solution to this problem through computer software that creates a synopsis of recorded information, generating a very short video preserving the essential activities of the original video captured over a very long time period. For example, the passage of vehicles passing through a security gate over many hours can ne condensed into a few minutes, showing each vehicle's entry followed immediately by another.

'Five hours of video is not five hours any more,' says Peleg, developer of the technology and the company's chief scientist. 'It's five minutes.' Earlier this year Peleg was the winner of a Kaye Innovation Award at the Hebrew University for his invention.

The Video Synopsis invention was licensed to BriefCam through Yissum, the technology transfer company of the Hebrew University.

The winners of The Wall Street Journal's 2010 Technology Innovation Awards will be honored on Nov. 3 at a ceremony and dinner in Redwood City, Calif.

This is the tenth year that the Wall Street Journal is presenting its technology innovation awards. This year it received 597 applications from companies, organizations and individuals in 30 countries. Journal editors reviewed the entries and forwarded about 275 to a panel of judges from research institutions, venture-capital firms and other companies. From that pool, the judges chose 49 for awards." (source)

(TECH) TA Tech Tour Goes Live On US Campuses

"Eight Israeli start-ups, one Palestinian start-up, two weeks, ten campuses in the US - that's the recipe for the Tel Aviv Tech Tour, 2010.

From November 8 through 21 they'll be in New York, Connecticut, Boston, Michigan, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Los Angeles and more, 'hopping from campus to campus to meet face to face with students and tech communities, present their start-ups, discuss innovation, entrepreneurship and current hot trends in technology.'

They want to launch and introduce their ventures to their real audience, get their feedback and start generating buzz - and if some investors happen to stop by they say, well that's okay with them, too.

A partial list of the participating start-ups: Fiddme, a social network for foodies and a 'friend-finder;' the iStreamer by AllofMe.com, a new mobile application, specifically designed for Apple's iPad, that gives you a zoomable, 3D continuous Timeline; DoNanza, the world's largest work-from-home job search engine for freelancers, from professionals to work-at-home moms, students and hobbyists; ChatSq, that integrates location-based social networks and communication channels into a single, simple-to-use mobile interface; give2gether, that provides a unique SaaS (Software as a Service) platform, tailored for non-profits and NGOs; LoyalBlocks, that allows businesses to create and manage location-based loyalty clubs using an in-store dedicated Android device; and Jolicam, a service that upgrades any webcam into a surveillance system." (source)

(AGRI) Israeli Trees Can Text Message Their Farmers When Thirsty

"Need a drink? Volcani researcher Eran Raveh attaches the water stress monitor to a lemon tree. It sounds like a fantasy of Audrey II, the colorful man-eating plant from the Little Shop of Horrors movie: Israeli scientists have developed a new device that taps into the stem of a tree and when water levels are low, the tree can text a message, email the farmer, or turn on the irrigation tap to water itself.

Measuring electric conductivity inside the tree, a parameter of water stress, the Israeli researchers Eran Raveh and Arieh Nadler from the Volcani Institute of Agriculture, say that Californian citrus and mango farmers, banana plantations and vintners have already expressed interest in the technology, which can be programmed by the farmers themselves.



Now developing it into a product, Raveh tells ISRAEL21c that it will take about three to four years until the novel device is on the shelves: 'We have a water crisis here in Israel and need a way to irrigate more accurately,' says Raveh.

The device, still without a name, will save farmers up to 30 to 40 percent in water use, he calculates. 'The idea is that we were trying to find a way to give water more accurately to the trees. Usually [devices today] measure soil water content.'

Measuring tree water content this way, says the plant and soil specialist, is 'complicated and takes a lot of time until you get a 'true' measurement, because there are many varying parameters involved.'

Cheap, simple, accurate

To get a true estimate of the moisture level in a plant or tree, a farmer must make a grueling check of 26 points in the ground around the plant.

'We've found a different way for measuring a tree?s water status: by sticking probes - three simple nails -- into the main stem of the tree, we measure electric conductivity of the stem, and analyze the data to tell people if the tree is under good water conditions. It's important to be able to do this in a simple and cheap way,' says Raveh, who came about the idea by accident: ?Our solution is cheap, it can be automated and is very accurate.



'We were doing some other work, and realized that the data that came out of it reflects tree water status,' he says.

This data is the intellectual property that the future company will revolve around. Whether the information collected will be transmitted by SMS, email message, fax, or sent to switch on an automated tap, is a matter of simple programming.

For tomatoes and potatoes too

For now, the team will continue refining the first product, shaped like a small hammer -- for trees -- and will continue fine-tuning it to apply it in farm produce as well. Raveh envisions the cost will be very affordable for most farmers, about $250 per orchard: only one probe will be needed to reflect the water content in about every 500 trees.

'It can work on every stem and doesn't matter what kind of plant material,' he says. 'Olives, palm, banana -- at the moment we are working with big trees, but it's a matter of calibrating [the device] to move it to younger and smaller plants.'

Orchard farmers everywhere, and the planet, will be saying thank you. 'In big orchards, water use is a problem,' says Raveh, who estimates that an orchard with thousands of trees could cut its water use by almost half. It could also spare trees and plants from being over-watered.

He doesn't expect the device will be that useful for the homeowner with a few trees on a lot, because in this case it's not difficult to see if a tree is water stressed. A 'smart' tree that can send text messages, however, could be used a novelty item to entertain and teach the kids about water, plants and the environment." (source)

(TECH) Israel’s Latest Airport Security Technology

"Video below: Israel has a reputation for being the world leader when it comes to airport security.

This week security officials from all over the world came to Tel Aviv for the first annual Homeland Security Conference--a chance to see Israeli security companies present the latest technology for combating terrorism.



'We're looking at a lot of face-recognition technology,' said Richard Edgeworth, the Chicago Department of Aviation's Security Chief. 'Our concern is also the terrorists that are coming from within the Unites States. It's not just from over the oceans. Terror from within is a major problem right now.'

Face-recognition technology allows law enforcement to scan a photo of a wanted suspect. If that person shows up at the airport, a simple face scan would be able to alert authorities who can then use cameras to monitor and track the individual.

But some Israeli security experts say it's not just about the latest technology.

'We started checking people and then they started putting the bombs in their underwear,' said Tomer Benito, Tamar Explosives. 'We started checking shoes, they started putting the bombs in different places. We have to be ahead all the time. We have to also teach people how to better detect possible terrorists.'" (source)

(TECH) High-Tech Company Aims To Be First Israeli Firm To Hire Palestinian Engineers

"Forget the Far East, says CEO. Palestinian workers are good, cheap, close - and take shekels.

As part of its never-ending search for talented manpower at reasonable prices, a high-tech company found itself opening an office in an unconventional location: Ramallah.

Mellanox Technologies CEO Eyal Waldman said he had considered employing Palestinians for some time, for both economic and ideological reasons."

(TECH) Israel, Canada Working Together On Nanotechnology

"Relations between Canada and Israel just keep getting tighter. Two years ago, experts from both countries met, through computer video links, to discuss potential business ventures, including developing instruments for desalinating sea water to make it potable. Last year, Israeli and Canadian philatelists met face to face to launch a friendship stamp to celebrate 60 years of great relations between their two nations.

Last month, nanotechnologists from both places got together at Carleton University in Ottawa to study matter so small that it would be lost on the head of a pin. On Oct. 4 and 5, scientists in this super-specialized field, and from several Israeli universities, came to 'a summit of research-sharing and academic co-operation,' a press release from the Embassy of Israel stated.



It noted that the two-day summit was to focus on the themes of 'nanomechanics, optoelectronics, photonics and biophotonics.'

Miriam Ziv, Israel’s ambassador to Canada, said, 'Israeli research and innovation is world renowned and the potential benefits of an exchange of knowledge between Canada and Israel will be extremely valuable. I am confident that this workshop will not only enrich the research but also strengthen the friendship between our two countries.'

According to Kim Matheson, Carleton’s vice-president (research and international), 'Carleton is known for its significant cutting-edge research in the field of nanotechnology,' and collaboration between scientists from both coubtriescould lead to great initiatives and cooperative ventures.

At the conference – which attracted about 40 scientists, government and university officials, curious spectators and press people – Matheson reiterated Carleton’s international leadership in the field. He noted that the university teaches nanotechnology at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.

'Researchers here have received both awards and grants to further their work,' he said.
The ambassador stressed at the opening of the conference that Canada and Israel have been forging close ties 'since 1949. Such collaboration is a valuable tool for both countries. I see this conference as part of a wider effort to deepen our ties.



'Both Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agree these kinds of joint efforts are good for both countries.'

As the scientists began their presentations, it became obvious just how complicated nanotechnology is. To highlight this fact, Ron Miller, an associate professor at Carleton of mechanical and aerospace engineering, explained that 'since the 1980s, with the invention of the modern electron microscope, scientists in the area of study have used a total of only I cubic millilitre of matter. The totality of material studied in nanotechnology, on the other hand, is a nanogram, less than the size of a grain of sand.'

Researchers from Israel included scientists from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Applications for nanotechnology range from early detection of diseases to the relationship between nature and nano-quantum mechanics.

At Carleton specifically, efforts in the field are focussing on solutions to many social, environmental and health problems. For instance, nano research into making better currency will one day help to avoid counterfeiting." (source)

(SCI) A Comprehensive Guide To Israel’s Biotech Industry

"Blockbuster prescription drugs sold worldwide that treat multiple sclerosis, cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases derive from Israeli biotechnology. Israel creates more medical devices per capita than any other country, and its life sciences exports earn more than $3 billion a year.

Israeli research is at the forefront of the emerging fields of stem-cell therapy and genomics, and two Nobel Prizes in Chemistry, the first to Profs. Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, and the second to Prof. Ada Yonath of the Weizmann Institute of Science number among the many awards bestowed on the country’s biotech scientists.



The pace of innovation, development and growth in Israel’s biotechnology sector is unparalleled. Israel’s biotech industry is the most aggressive in the world, with more startups per capita then any other country. Its 180 biotech companies – each built on a combination of academic excellence, a highly-skilled workforce, cutting-edge technological inventiveness and entrepreneurial daring – are creating therapeutic products, diagnostic tools and revolutionary drug-delivery techniques benefiting people all over the world.

Tailor-made for Israel

Biotechnology, the science which applies breakthroughs in molecular biology and immunochemistry to diagnosis and therapy, was born in the late 1970s. In many ways, it is tailor-made for Israel, being rooted in innovation and perseverance; a highly educated workforce; the lessons of military service; intimate links between researchers and entrepreneurs; and US capital and markets and, particularly, the US 1985 free trade agreement with Israel.

• Innovation and perseverance: A small country with a population of only seven million and few natural resources, Israel’s economy is necessarily one of innovation and perseverance. Demanding conditions – first in agriculture, then in defense and from there throughout its economy – set the stage for dramatic economic growth, as Israel transformed itself from a developing to a developed nation, and from an economy based on agriculture to one based on knowledge.
• A highly educated workforce: With seven world-class universities, Israel is one of the most highly educated countries on the globe. Almost a quarter of its workforce has university degrees, and 12 percent of these have advanced degrees. Among the 750,000 people who immigrated to Israel from the Former Soviet Union between 1989 and 1991 were hundreds of highly skilled engineers. They have enhanced Israel’s technological talent-pool, giving the country the world’s highest rate of scientists per capita (one in 200), 39 percent of whom specialize in life sciences.
• The lessons of military service: Mandatory military service in Israel equips its young people with the connections, management skills and action-oriented entrepreneurial mindset critical for technological development.
• Intimate links between researchers and entrepreneurs: Israeli universities were among the first worldwide to develop technology transfer organizations – professional companies tasked with helping Israeli researchers to commercialize their academic research by connecting them with national and multi-national companies.
• US capital and markets and, particularly, its 1985 free trade agreement with Israel: The US as a trading partner helped fuel the high-tech boom of the 1980s and 1990s, which, in turn, created the conditions for Israel’s biotechnology cluster.

Birth of biotech in Israel

Israel whimsically dates the birth of its biotechnology industry to 1936. This was when chemist Chaim Weizmann, later to be the country’s first president, developed a process that produced acetone from the bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum. It took almost six more decades, however, until the modern Israeli biotechnology industry was born, on the heels of the high-tech boom.

While Israeli biotechnology embraces the whole biotech sphere – from animal vaccines and diagnostics to plant tissue culture, bioreactors, seeds, diagnostics and biopesticides – its emphasis is firmly on medical agents, diagnostics and cell- and tissue-therapies. Some 60 percent of Israeli biotech focuses on human therapeutics, including drug discovery, cell therapy and genetics. A further 20% of Israeli biotech companies produce diagnostic kits.

Top-selling prescription drugs based on Israeli research

The best-known and most successful medication developed in Israel is Copaxone®, a breakthrough treatment that significantly reduces the severity of clinical episodes in multiple sclerosis patients also making them less frequent. Developed by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and the Weizmann Institute of Science, it is the world’s leading MS therapy, approved in 52 countries, with global sales reaching $2.8 billion in 2009.

Teva’s first proprietary drug, Copaxone®, is today responsible for a third of the company’s profits. Teva is one of the 15 biggest international pharma companies in the world and one of the largest generic drug manufacturers. The company employs more than 35,000 people in 50 countries, and earned almost $14 billion in 2009. It is increasingly expanding into cutting-edge patentable therapies.

Azilect® (rasagiline) is another Teva product. Based on research at the Technion Institute of Technology, it combats Parkinson’s disease, both as initial therapy and, later in the disease, in conjunction with L-dopa. Its 2009 sales reached $175 million.

Exelon® is a medication for Alzheimer’s disease that reduces symptoms, enabling patients to remain independent and ‘themselves’ for longer. Originating in research at the Hebrew University and developed and commercialized by Novartis, its global sales in 2009 were more than $954 million.

Doxil® is a chemotherapy agent used in treating different types of leukemia, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, multiple myeloma and cancers of the bladder, breast, stomach, lung, ovaries and thyroid. Based on research at the Hadassah Medical Center, it was sold to Johnson & Johnson, and recorded global sales of $430 million in 2009.

Regenerative Medicine

Scientific regulation in Israel is informed by Judaism’s emphasis on the saving of life. The country’s relatively liberal approach to stem cell research for therapeutic purposes derives from this tradition, which has positioned Israeli scientists among stem-cell research’s pioneers and kept them at the heart of the regenerative medicine map, helped by a government-sponsored research consortium spanning academia and industry. While no stem-cell medication yet exists anywhere, several are on the way from Israeli companies.

The four-year-old Jerusalem start-up Cellcure Neurosciences is starting clinical trials in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness in over-50s in the Western world, which is estimated to affect some 30 million people.

The disease is caused by the dysfunction, degeneration and death of pigment-including retina cells, which lie between the retina’s photoreceptors and the nourishing blood vessels at the back of the eye. Cellcure creates healthy retinal pigment cells from human embryonic stem cells, and injects them into the eye to replace the dying cells.

Jerusalem-based Gamida Cell has developed stem cells from umbilical cord-blood to treat blood cancers, autoimmune diseases, metabolic disorders and the hematological disease neutropenia. Its lead product is StemEx, which was given FDA Fast Track Designation in mid-2010. It is now being tested in international Phase III clinical trials as an alternative to bone marrow transplant in patients with advanced blood cancers, who are unable to find a matched donor.

BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics in Petah Tikva is a leading developer of adult stem cell technology and therapy. It has created a stem cell treatment for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease) and Parkinson’s disease based on autologous bone-marrow-derived adult stem-cells. In a first clinical trial, conducted at the Hadassah Medical Center, ALS patients will be re-implanted with stem cells taken from their own pelvis.

Drugs derived from living cells

Uplyso, a medicine for Gaucher’s disease based on the enzyme taliglucerase alfa, is an example of the ongoing push into biologics – drugs derived from living cells rather than from chemicals. It was developed by Protalix Biotherapeutics, a company that began life in 1994 within Israel’s Meytav Technological Incubator, graduating to become an independent publicly held company with a market capitalization of more than $700 million, trading on both the NYSE Amex Exchange and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

It recently sold the rights to this experimental Gaucher’s medication for $60 million to the New York-based Pfizer, the world’s largest-selling pharmaceutical firm.

Re-engineering existing drugs

D-Pharm, created in 1993 in Ness Ziona, is a biopharmaceutical company that has created a new class of therapeutics to treat devastating brain disorders. Its proprietary technology re-engineers existing drugs, modifying them to work more efficiently and with fewer side effects. A mid-stage trial of its neuroprotective DP-b99 doubled the number of patients who completely recovered from strokes caused by blood clots.

The company hopes to bring it to market by 2013. D-Pharm is also making good progress with a medication for epilepsy, bipolar disorder and migraine prophylaxis.

Computational Biotechnology

Computational biotech, also called bioinformatics, is the specialty of Compugen, a company founded in Tel Aviv in 1993 by three former IDF intelligence officers. Its technologies incorporate methods from mathematics, computer science and physics into biology, organic chemistry and medicine to help scientists gather and process vast amounts of data.

The result is powerful predictive models and discovery engines, which advance understanding of biological phenomena and enable discovery of potential therapeutic products and diagnostic markers. Compugen’s customers include the pharmaceutical concerns Eli Lilly, Merck, SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, Novartis and Millennium Pharmaceuticals.



Genomics

Genomics uses the RNA system within living cells to control which genes are active and how active they are. Rosetta Genomics, based in Rehovot, is using RNA-based technology to develop a wide range of diagnostic tests for cancers and women’s health indications.

Quark Pharmaceuticals has created a fully-integrated drug development platform to deliver RNA molecules to the eye, ear, kidney, lung, spinal cord and bone marrow, where they can block the action of faulty genes.

Diagnostics

Diagnostics, particularly monoclonal antibody-based test kits, were among Israel’s first commercial biotechnology successes. Aided by Israel’s vast clinical medicine resources, new diagnostic tests are brought rapidly from the lab into the hospital ward and to market. Savyon Diagnostics was an earlier entry in this field in 1983, when Ben-Gurion University researchers developed a serological diagnostic kit to test for the sexually transmitted disease Chlamydia (‘clap’).

They formed the company a year later, and brought their test-kit to market in 1989. Savyon has gone on to develop and market tests for urinary tract infections and for HIV.

Orgenics, founded in 1983, produces 22 patented easy-to-use, stand-alone, ELISA-based ImmunoComb kits that test for Chlamydia, hepatitis A and B, cytomegalovirus, toxoplasmosis, rubella, Helicobacter pylori and AIDS, as well as non-wipe strips for measuring blood glucose levels.

Zer Science-Based Industries specializes in diagnostic tests related to fertility. Its Single-Step pregnancy test requires just drops of urine to give an accurate result within five minutes, even before the first missed menstrual period.

Future blockbusters

One example among many is Glassia, the first and only high purity, liquid, ready-to-use 1-proteinase inhibitor for adults with inherited emphysema resulting from 1-antitrypsin deficiency.

Kamada, the 20-year-old biopharmaceutical concern that invented Glassia, entered an exclusive distribution and manufacturing agreement for its production in mid-2010 with the global health-care company Baxter International.

Biotech and electronics

Among Israel’s strengths is the interdisciplinary nature of its R&D. This underlies the creation and development of out-of-the-box products. One of the best-known and among the most important and successful life sciences developments to come out of Israel in the past decade, is the Pillcam from Given Imaging, a disposable pill-sized camera encased in a capsule and used to diagnose stomach disorders after being swallowed (pictured above).

Easily ingested, the capsule moves naturally and painlessly through the gastrointestinal tract, wirelessly transmitting to a portable recorder as it goes, to provide the physician with high-quality images on a computer workstation.

Financing Israel’s biotech

Israel’s biotechnology track record is strong. Companies that have commercialized their products and been publicly listed do exceptionally well – testifying to their excellent science.

The process of scaling up biotech R&D to early production and beyond, however, is a high-risk undertaking. With only one in 250 compounds making it from preclinical development to market (and taking perhaps seven years and $500 million to do so), the major brake on Israel’s biotechnology cluster is the lack of an asset-intensive infrastructure.

Investment is in especially short supply for the so-called Valley Of Death phase – the gap between very early stage investment (usually academic research funds), and easier-to-obtain investment for the clinical study phase which, although more costly, is correspondingly more certain than early-stage technologies.

Government help

Israel’s government supports a spectrum of programs to help start-ups survive the difficult stages between proof of feasibility and final success. They include R&D grants from the Chief Scientist’s Office (since the early 1990s); the Magnet framework that brings companies and researchers together to develop novel generic technologies, underwriting up to 65% of the budget (since 1994); a National Committee for Biotechnology tasked with developing and promoting biotechnology in Israel (established in 1995); Bioplan 2000, which created dedicated biotech incubators to bridge the gap in funding, infrastructure and managerial talent; naming biotechnology a National Project and creating infrastructure centers which give researchers access to essential equipment and knowhow (2002); and, most currently, a generous Grants Program administered by the Israel Investment Center; an Automatic Tax Benefits program administered by the Tax Authorities, offering foreign investors unique advantages; and finally, deignating biotechnology a Preferred Sector.

Academic research funding

Israel’s biotech research at its universities and medical schools is the foundation of the industry. Dedicated biotechnology departments are rare anywhere, but there are three among Israel’s seven main universities. Biotech research is funded from the annual $140 million research budget at Israel’s universities and is comprised of external competitive research grants (36%); the regular budget of the universities (36%); and industry and government research grants and contracts (28%).

Technology transfer

Israel has 12 technology transfer organizations, seven of them university-based and five in its leading research hospitals. They are highly effective: the Hebrew University’s Yissum, for example, founded in 1964, generates more revenue than its counterparts at MIT, Harvard or NYU in its management and licensing of thousands of patents developed within the institution. More successful still is the Weizmann Institute’s Yeda, which has been named the world’s third most profitable technology transfer organization.

Incubators

Based on Israel’s high-tech experience, incubators have been created to nurture young biotech companies. There are both public and private incubator organizations, but all offer fledgling entrepreneurs skilled and experienced management, suitable R&D facilities, technical, financial, administrative and logistic support, administrative services (secretarial, accounting, legal, acquisition) and business guidance.

The Technological Incubators Program, established in 1991 for high-tech and administered by the Chief Scientist’s Office, includes a number of biotech startups. BiolineRx was set up in 2003 by Teva, Hadassah’s technology transfer company Hadasit and two leading venture capital funds as a clinical-stage, publicly-traded, biopharmaceutical development company. It licenses promising early-stage projects and develops them as far as Phase I clinical trials.

Rad-Biomed Accelerator is another interface between biomedical research and Israel’s biomedical industry. It provides physical infrastructure, seed capital, business development and a wide range of related services to help entrepreneurs establish companies that will join the flourishing Israeli biomedical industry.

International partners

Throughout most of biotech’s history, small companies have been the hotbed of innovation. These small firms, however, generally lack the development capital to fund the costly clinical trials and launch of new therapeutics. Biotech has, therefore, long depended on partnerships with large, profitable pharmaceutical companies.

For Israel, this paradigm means that the fruits of Israeli research go largely to foreign companies – with the large partner selling the final product and capturing the lion’s share of the profits.

The unraveling of interferon’s mechanisms and isolation of the human Interferon-beta gene, for example, which began at the Weizmann Institute, was eventually sold to Swiss pharmaceutical giant Ares-Serono Group in 1979.

Growing numbers of Israeli companies today, however, are searching for funding that will allow them to develop their own intellectual property, rather than sell to the multinational pharmaceutical companies.

Venture capital

Israel’s venture capital (VC) industry, born in the late 1980s, received a major boost in 1993, when the government launched the company Yozma to help finance high-tech and, later, biotech startups.

During the 1990s, local venture capital companies that specifically targeted biomedicine were formed. Medica, Columbine, Innomed of Jerusalem Global Ventures, Denali and Vitalife were among the first.

Pontifax, 7 Health Ventures and Poalim Medical III followed.

With most of these funds now fully invested (or no longer active), local investment in life sciences today comes largely from general VCs, not dedicated to biotech.

Clal Biotechnology Industries (an Israeli investment company but not a VC) has a portfolio of 16 young biotech firms. A number of foreign VC investors have targeted Israel’s life sciences in recent years – among them NGN Capital, Onset Ventures, Schroder Ventures Life Sciences, Three Arch Partners and Ziegler Meditech Orbimed, a US firm that invests in the healthcare sector and has been active in Israel for the past decade, expanded its investment team into Israel in April 2010." (source)

(NEWS) NanoIsrael 2010: "Israel Is On Its Way To Turn Into A Leading Nano-Technology Nation"

"A three-year support of Nano-Technology as an Israeli national project has resulted in: 52 leading scientists have immigrated to Israel, 77 million dollars have been invested in equipment, 41 million dollars have been invested in infrastructure, 106 success stories have been documented and 389 Academy–Industry Projects have been achieved.

Based on data of the Israel National Nano–Technology Initiative – INNI – which has gathered on the occasion of Nano–Technology Week: NanoIsrael 2010 Conference and Exhibition being held next week in Tel Aviv, during the last three years since Nano–Technology has been declared an Israeli national priority project, this area has arrived at some achievements that cannot be disregarded: 52 world–wide well–known scientists have immigrated to Israel and have been accepted as faculty members in various universities. The financial facts are impressive as well: 77 million dollars have been invested during the last three years in basic equipment in addition to the 41 million dollars which have been invested in new infrastructure and facilities.



During this time, 389 cooperation transactions have been established between the Israel academy and the Industry (both local and foreign), 106 'success stories' have been documented, either as new start–up companies or as authorized patents, not to mention the 422 patents that were submitted for registration.

In 2007, the Israel Nano field was defined as a project that received governmental priority, and its mission was the installation of the research and structural infrastructure in six university premises. The selected universities were those in which the research dealing with establishing the industry based on Nano–Technology was going to be performed. A plan was based on three supporting entities: governmental support (one third), university resources (one third) and contributions (one third). Six Nano centers were established in different universities (the Technion center had already been established in 2005).

According to the INNI, 249 junior scientists coming from the field (including postdoctoral researchers), 675 doctorate students and 662 masters students have participated in the plan since day one. During these three years, 3248 scientific articles were published and 536 other essays were originated in cooperation between several universities. 'This is an excellent example of the efficient use of public money and the mutual cooperation between the government, academy and industry, which brings back significant return on investment [ROI],' said Mr. Dan Vilenski – a member of the national NanoIsrael committee. 'I believe that we are on the way to turn Israel into a leading Nano–Technology great nation.'

The 'NanoIsrael 2010' conference (http://www2.kenes.com/nano/pages/home.aspx) and the accompanied exhibition will be held on November 8–10 at the Dan Panorama Hotel in Tel Aviv focusing on business innovations and opportunities in the fields of energy, water systems, environmental issues, Nano–Materials, Nano–Electronics, Nano–Photonics, Nano–Bio and Nano–Medicine.

This conference is targeted at industry and business persons from around the world, and will serve as the meeting point for companies and persons involved in venture capital, private funds, institutional and organizational investors, regulation, technology and development persons, governmental decision makers, as well as academy representatives, scientists and investors. The conference is held in cooperation with INNI – The Israel National Nano–technology Initiative – the Nano–technology Centers of the various Israeli universities, and is organized by the Kenes International Company." (source)

(TECH) Tel Aviv University Chemists Develop Explosives-Detecting Sensors

"Nanotechnology-based electronic sensor is fast, highly portable and more sensitive and reliable for detecting explosives than sniffer dogs are.

Within days of revelations that al-Qaida mailed an explosives-packed printer from Yemen destined for Chicago synagogues, Tel Aviv University said on Tuesday that its researchers have developed a powerful electronic sensor able to detect many kinds of such dangerous chemicals.

The nanotechnology-based sensor is fast, highly portable and more sensitive and reliable for detecting explosives than sniffer dogs are, according to Prof. Fernando Patolsky of the Sackler School of Chemistry, who headed the research team."

(MED) Israel Invents A New Way For AAT Patients To Take Their Meds

"Kamada's flagship inhalable AAT replacement treatment has succeeded in five clinical trials and 'the safety is almost perfect,' bringing hope to sufferers of this fatal genetic disorder.

Approximately one out of every 2,500 people in the world suffers from a deficiency of the Alpha-1 Antitrypsin or AAT protein. Untreated, this genetic disorder - which affects the liver and lungs - is always fatal. Now an Israeli bio-pharmaceutical company has developed a more efficient treatment delivery system, holding out the promise of both an improvement in a patient's quality of treatment, and their quality of life.



Kamada is no newcomer to drug development and manufacturing. Founded in 1990, the company went public in 2005 and has more than 15 products on the market. But it is hoping that the next generation of its flagship product - an inhalable version of its AAT replacement treatment - will be its biggest winner yet.

VP of business development Yaron Cherny, tells ISRAEL21c just what's so revolutionary about Kamada's latest medication. AAT deficiency, he says, starts in the liver and results in chronic inflammation of the lungs, which slowly suffocates the patient. There are currently only two ways to treat the ailment: Via a lung and liver transplant or a lifetime of receiving AAT intravenously.

For most patients, where transplants are not an option, intravenous AAT delivery requires weekly hospitalization and medical support; it is also often prohibitively expensive - upwards of $100,000 a year. Insurance companies, which nearly always cover the treatment, are acutely aware of this fact.

Inhaling your meds

An inhalable version of AAT can be used at home, obviating a trip to the clinic. That both makes the process less expensive and grants the patient significantly more freedom. From a medical point of view, since the inflammation is in the lungs, inhaling the drug directly makes more therapeutic sense, not to mention that it avoids the risks of infection that comes with using an IV.

While there are three other firms with AAT intravenous solutions, Kamada is the only one with an inhalable version (competitor Talecris Biotherapeutics was working on one but dropped out earlier this year).

Still, people suffering from AAT deficiency shouldn't rush to their doctors to demand the drug just yet. The inhalable product is now in Phase I and II tests in Europe, which are slated to be completed in 2012. Indeed, Kamada only received FDA approval for the intravenous version in July of this year. And, as Cherny explains, until a drug is officially approved, 'there's always uncertainty.'

The good news is that Kamada's inhalable AAT has already succeeded in five clinical trials 'with no adverse effect,' according to Cherny, who adds that 'the safety is almost perfect.'

An additional benefit is that Kamada's IV version is in liquid rather than powder form. That means it doesn't need mixing before delivery, as do the medications from the other companies. 'We don't have to develop the drug all over again,' Cherny says, since 'the liquid particles are the right size to go into the inhalation device.'



Good news for investors

Inhalable AAT has been approved for 'orphan' drug status, a form of marketing protection that is given to drugs for diseases affecting small numbers of people. As the developer of an orphan drug, Kamada has the exclusive rights to marketing inhalable AAT for 10 years in the US and 12 years in the European Union, which 'for many companies, is better than a patent,' Cherny declares.

This should also put investors at their ease - it can take more than half a billion dollars and 10 years of development and testing to bring a biological drug to market.

Only 5,000 people in the US and 6,000 in Europe have been diagnosed with AAT deficiency. However, Cherny estimates there may be upwards of 200,000 people suffering from the genetic disorder in those two regions alone. That makes the potential market much more lucrative. And if inhalable AAT brings greater awareness to physicians, Kamada will have contributed to much more than its own corporate bottom line.

AAT replacement therapy may also have implications for people suffering from cystic fibrosis and bronchiectasis, Cherny reveals. And new research by Dr. Eli Lewis of Israel's Ben Gurion University of the Negev suggests it may help those suffering from Type 1 diabetes, although this is not related to AAT deficiency and Kamada is not active in this area.

All of Kamada's products are based on the company's in-house developed chromatographic purification technology. This was originally used to create only the active ingredients in drugs, which large pharmaceutical companies would then mix together to create complete medications. Kamada now manufactures the entire drug for its products.

Deal with Baxter

In August, Kamada signed a strategic agreement with Baxter International for production and marketing of its intravenous AAT drug. Shipments will begin in September. It's a deal that CEO David Tsur believes will help make the company profitable and could bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues. Kamada will receive up to $45 million in milestone payments, including a $20m. upfront payment.

For inhalable AAT, the company has partnered with PARI, a German-based firm specializing in inhalation solutions.

In other sectors, Kamada has just registered its passive rabies vaccine in Russia, and expects to begin sales in the first half of 2011. The vaccine is derived from human plasma with additional antibodies, and is used to prevent rabies, which affects the central nervous system.

Kamada was founded by Argentinean Jewish immigrant Ralf Hahn, whose family has been active in the drug industry for years, and businessman Tzur.

The company, which is listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, has raised more than $139 million. Kamada's stock price has increased more than 70 percent since 2007, despite the worldwide economic crisis.

Kamada has 250 employees, 30 in its Rishon Letzion headquarters, and 220 in the company's manufacturing plant on Kibbutz Beit Kama. The name is a play on words composed of the name of the kibbutz plus the world mada, which is Hebrew for 'science.'" (source)