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Is the Vaccine Safe? Consult the Smart Sensor!

Written by AUFTAU on . Posted in Newsroom.

Innovative technology will prevent the reliance on self-reports for future vaccines, using smart sensors to ensure vaccine safety.

In most methods used today, clinical trials designed to evaluate the safety of a new drug or vaccine employ self-report questionnaires, asking participants how they feel before and after receiving the treatment. A new study from Tel Aviv University enables developers, for the first time in the world, to determine vaccine safety via smart sensors that measure objective physiological parameters. According to the researchers, most clinical trials testing the safety of new vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines, rely on participants’ subjective reports, which can lead to biased results. In contrast, objective physiological data, obtained through sensors attached to the body, is clear and unambiguous.

The study was led by Dr. Yftach Gepner of the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at TAU’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine, together with Dr. Dan Yamin and Dr. Erez Shmueli from TAU’s The Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering. The paper was published in Communications Medicine, a journal from the Nature portfolio. 

The End of an Era?

Researchers from Tel Aviv University demonstrated that smart sensors can be used to test new vaccines. The current study was conducted when many Israelis received their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The researchers equipped volunteers with innovative, FDA-approved sensors developed by the Israeli company Biobeat. Attached to their chests, these sensors measured physiological reactions from one day before to three days after receiving the vaccine.

The innovative sensors monitored 13 physiological parameters, such as: heart rate, breathing rate, saturation (blood oxygen levels), heartbeat volume, temperature, cardiac output, and blood pressure. The surprising results:

  • A significant discrepancy was found between subjective self-reports about side effects and actual measurements. That is, in nearly all objective measures, significant changes were identified after vaccination, even for subjects who reported having no reaction at all.
  • In addition, the study found that side effects escalate over the first 48 hours, and then parameters return to the level measured before vaccination. In other words: a direct assessment of the vaccine’s safety identified physiological reactions during the first 48 hours, with levels re-stabilizing afterwards.

“The message from our study is clear,” says Dr. Gepner. “In 2022 the time has come to conduct continual, sensitive, objective testing of the safety of new vaccines and therapies. There is no reason to rely on self-reports or wait for the occurrence of rare side effects like myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, which occurs in one of 10,000 patients. Preliminary signs that predict such conditions can be detected with advanced sensors, identifying normal vs. extreme alterations in physiological parameters and any risk of inflammation. Today, trial participants are invited to the clinic for blood pressure testing, but often their blood pressure rises just because the situation is stressful. Continual monitoring at home solves these problems with simple, convenient, inexpensive, and accurate means. This is the kind of medicine we should strive for in 2022.”

 

The Research Team (from left to right): Dr. Dan Yamin, Dr. Yftach Gepner and Dr. Erez Shmueli

Research based on a comprehensive study of 8,000 birds in Israel

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Tel Aviv University (TAU) researchers say that climate change may be responsible for changes in the morphology of many birds in Israel over the past 70 years. The body mass of some species decreased while in others body length increased, in both cases increasing the ratio between surface area and volume. The researchers contend that these are strategies to facilitate heat loss to the environment.

“The birds evidently changed in response to the changing climate,” the researchers concluded. “However, this solution may not be fully adequate, especially as temperatures continue to rise.”

The study was led by Professor Shai Meiri and PhD student Shahar Dubiner of the School of Zoology, Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History at TAU. The paper was published in the scientific journal Global Ecology and Biogeography.

Professor Meiri explains that according to “Bergmann’s rule,” an ecogeographical rule formulated in the 19th century, members of bird and mammal species living in a cold climate tend to be larger than members of the same species living in a warmer climate. This is because the ratio of surface area to volume is higher in smaller animals, permitting more heat loss (an advantage in warm regions), and lower in larger bodies, minimizing heat loss (a benefit in colder climates). Based on this rule, scientists have predicted that global warming will lead to a reduction in animal size, with a possible exception: birds living in the human environment (such as pigeons, house sparrows, and the hooded crow) may gain size due to increased food availability, a phenomenon already witnessed in mammals such as jackals and wolves.

Relying on the vast bird collection preserved by the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History at TAU, the researchers looked for changes in bird morphology over the past 70 years in Israel. They examined approximately 8,000 adult specimens of 106 different species, including migratory birds that annually pass through Israel such as the common chiffchaff, white stork, and black buzzard; resident wild birds like the Eurasian jay, Eurasian eagle-owl, and rock partridge; and commensal birds that live near humans. They built a complex statistical model consisting of various parameters to assess morphological changes — in the birds’ body mass, body length and wing length — during the relevant period.

“Our findings revealed a complicated picture,” Dubiner says. “We identified two different types of morphological changes: some species had become lighter – their mass had decreased while their body length remained unchanged; while others had become longer – their body length had increased, while their mass remained unchanged. These together represent more than half of the species examined, but there was practically no overlap between the two groups – almost none of the birds had become both lighter and longer.

“We think that these are two different strategies for coping with the same problem, namely the rising temperatures. In both cases, the surface area to volume ratio is increased by either increasing the numerator or reducing the denominator, which helps the body lose heat to its environment. The opposite, namely a decrease in this ratio, was not observed in any of the species.”

These findings were observed across the country, regardless of nutrition, and in all types of species. A difference was identified, however, between the two strategies: changes in body length tended to occur more in migrants, while changes in body mass were more typical of non-migratory birds. The very fact that such changes were found in migratory birds coming from Asia, Europe, and Africa suggests that this is a global phenomenon. The study also found that the impact of climate change over time on bird morphology is 10 times greater than the impact of similar differences in temperature between geographical areas.

“Our findings indicate that global warming causes fast and significant changes in bird morphology,” Dubiner concludes. “But what are the implications of these changes? Should we be concerned? Is this a problem, or rather an encouraging ability to adapt to a changing environment? Such morphological changes over a few decades probably do not represent an evolutionary adaptation, but rather certain phenotypic flexibility exhibited by the birds. We are concerned that over such a short period of time, there is a limit to the flexibility or evolutionary potential of these traits, and the birds might run out of effective solutions as temperatures continue to rise.”

Work created by TAU-affiliated artists can’t exist on earth

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Many think that physics is an exact science that requires the application of analytical and quantitative abilities, while art is based on emotion and creativity. A collaboration between the physicist Dr. Yasmine Meroz of Tel Aviv University (TAU) and the contemporary artist Liat Segal challenges the boundaries between the two fields. Their joint work, called “Impossible Object,” will be launched in April to the International Space Station (ISS), as part of the “Rakia” mission of the Israeli astronaut Eitan Stiva.

Dr. Meroz is a senior faculty member at the School of Plant Sciences and Food Security at TAU’s Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, whose lab studies the physics of plant systems. Segal studied Computer Science and Biology and worked in the hi-tech industry for several years, before shifting her career to arts. The special bond between the two was created when they were graduate students at the same lab at TAU.

“Impossible Object” is a sculpture made of water. The liquid’s three-dimensional form does not get its shape from any vessel and so cannot exist on earth, but only in outer space in the absence of gravity.

The sculpture is made of interconnected brass pipes and rods, through which water is flown. In the absence of gravity, the water adheres to the rods and forms a liquid layer shaped by water tension, which envelopes the brass structure, yielding a three-dimensional shape that changes over time. The underlying brass structure is reminiscent of a wavy and directionless staircase, raising questions about shape and form in the absence of gravity and directionality. In particular, what is the shape of water? What does a “slice of the sea” or a “handful of a wave” look like?

“There is much in common between art and scientific research: Both are the result of a thought process in which creativity plays a central role and are motivated by the desire to ask interesting questions,” Dr. Meroz says. “‘Impossible Object’ is a research-based artwork, where the medium is basically the physics underpinning water behavior in the absence of gravity. I learned a lot in the process, and I have no doubt it will contribute to research in my laboratory. In this respect, this work expresses the unrealized potential of the synergy between art and scientific research.”

“I am very happy about my collaboration with Yasmine,” Segal adds. “In this collaboration we not only shared knowledge and inspiration, but we were also able to bring about a true co-creation, which could not have been realized by each one of us individually. ‘Impossible Object’ is timely, weighing the role of culture and art at an era when humanity is experiencing accelerated scientific and technological developments. Following incredible technological and scientific achievements in space, and as space tourism becomes tangible, it is important to reflect on the place of culture and arts in our lives, on earth and beyond.”

This is their second collaboration; their previous artwork, “Tropism,” has been exhibited at TAU’s Genia Schreiber University Art Gallery.

TAU Nanodrug Enables 2-in-1 Attack on Cancer

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Innovation pinpoints hard-to-treat cancers and amplifies their responsiveness to treatments.

To overcome the resistance of certain cancers to different types of treatments, Tel Aviv University researchers developed a nanodrug technology that simultaneously delivers two therapies to attack malignancy with precision. The approach lays the groundwork for cancer treatments that can work faster and with fewer side effects than existing methods.

“In our system, a single nanoparticle is capable of operating in two different arenas,” explains lead investigator Prof. Dan Peer, TAU’s Vice President of R&D, who heads the Laboratory of Precision Nanomedicine at the Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research, The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences. “It increases the receptiveness of cancer cells resistant to chemotherapy, while also reinvigorating immune cells and increasing their sensitivity to cancer cells. Thus, with one precisely targeted nanoparticle we provide two different treatments, at very different sites.”

Chemo-immunotherapy, which combines chemotherapy with immunotherapy, is considered the most advanced standard of care for various types of cancer. While chemotherapy destroys cancer cells, immunotherapy encourages the immune system to identify and attack diseased cells while sparing healthy cells critical to recovery. However, many patients fail to respond to chemo-immunotherapy, indicating the need for treatments that target cancer with greater accuracy.

 

Potential to Heal

In a study, Peer’s team showed how a single minescule particle, called a lipid nanoparticle, acts as a molecular precision-guided missile to deliver the two-in-one medicine directly to cancer cells. The medicine, an advanced RNA (ribonucleic acid)-based compound, alters how cancer cells function to make them identifiable for chemotherapy and immunotherapy for obliteration. 

“This is only an initial study, but it has enormous potential for positive change in the ongoing fight against cancer,” says Peer, who is a global pioneer in the field of RNA medicines. Dr. Seok- Beom Yong, a post-doctoral researcher at Peer’s lab, co-led the study. Their team tested the system in lab models for metastasized melanoma, the most aggressive type of skin cancer which spreads to other parts of the body, along with a local solid tumor confined to a single organ.

“In both populations we observed positive effects of our drug delivery system,” adds Peer, who is a member of the Roman Abramovich Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at TAU. The results were published in the scientific journal Advanced Materials.

Targeted Treatment

The new development by Peer’s team builds on a recent discovery by international scientists that sheds light on how cancer evades common treatments. The discovery demonstrates how an enzyme called HO1 is used by cancer cells to both resist chemotherapy and conceal themselves from the immune system. Silencing HO1 in tumors is thus considered an optimal strategy in clinical research, but so far, all attempts to silence the enzyme led to severe side effects.

“Existing methods for silencing HO1 resemble using an F-16 fighter jet to blast a tiny ant,” says Peer. “Our new nanodrug knows how to precisely target the cancer cells, silence the enzyme, and expose the tumor to chemotherapy, without causing any damage to surrounding healthy cells. Afterwards, the same nanoparticle goes on to reprogram T-cells in the immune system to restore their ability to recognize cancer as a foreign body and attack it.”

The study was funded by an ERC grant from the European Union and a research fellowship from the South Korean government.

Strengthening Local Leadership in Israel

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New TAU program will help mayors of cities across Israel improve services, strengthen social bonds, and foster relationship with mayors globally.

Bloomberg Philanthropies and The Sagol Family announced a major new effort to strengthen local leadership across Israel through The Bloomberg-Sagol Center for City Leadership at Tel Aviv University. Inspired by the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, the new program aims to help mayors of cities across Israel deliver better and more equitable public services to residents, strengthen social bonds, and deepen ties to the global community of innovative city leaders.

“Israel’s local authorities have a much greater impact on citizens’ lifestyles and quality of life than the central government,” said Professor Ariel Porat, President of Tel Aviv University. “The quality of sanitation, transportation, welfare, education, and health services mostly depends on the local authority’s performance. This new program aims to improve the management of local authorities in Israel, thereby enhancing the quality of life of Israelis throughout the country.”

Mayors on the Front Lines

“The series of recent terrorist attacks in Israel underscores the urgency of this new initiative, which is aimed at helping mayors confront their most difficult challenges and most pressing crises,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies and 108th mayor of New York City. “Mayors are on the front lines of every crisis, whether it’s terrorism or a pandemic. The Bloomberg Harvard program has proved phenomenally successful, and now we’re glad to team up with our partners in Israel on a new program that builds on our success and will help local leaders across the State of Israel.”

In 2016, Bloomberg Philanthropies and Harvard University established the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, an unparalleled effort by Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) and Harvard Business School (HBS) to build the leadership capabilities of mayors and their teams. By engaging 40 mayors and 80 senior city leaders each year, this program develops effective organizational practices in city halls around the world, invests in a new generation of city leaders, and advances knowledge and establishes the field of city leadership at large. The program has trained 196 mayors and 318 leaders from 25 countries in the past five years.

Yossi Sagol began working with Bloomberg Philanthropies in 2018 to develop an Israel-based program similar to the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative that could strengthen the country from the local level up. The Bloomberg-Sagol Center for City Leadership is the first-ever initiative inspired by the Bloomberg Harvard program and will be housed at Tel Aviv University’s Coller School of Management under the direction of Dean Moshe Zviran, the inaugural Faculty Director of the Israel City Leadership Initiative.  

“Mayors are required to make decisions that impact tens or hundreds of thousands of people and manage huge budgets, but most of them lack experience in managing organizations that are as large and complex as a local authority,” said inaugural Faculty Director Moshe Zviran. “The job of mayor requires a vast range of managerial skills at the highest level and in our new program we intend to equip participants with helpful insights and a useful toolbox for making critical decisions and implementing innovation in the urban environment. Here they will also learn about developments in other cities, both in Israel and around the world.” 

 

Elad Mayor Yisrael Porush, Yossi Sagol, Knesset Member Yoav Gallant, and Sami Sagol at the launch event (Photo: Chen Galili)

Year Long Program

The Bloomberg-Sagol Center for City Leadership will focus on developing the leadership and management skills of mayors and their senior aides, while strengthening city hall operations. Specifically, the year-long program will build critical capabilities in fostering collaboration, using data in decision making, negotiation, crisis management, resident engagement, and generating and implementing innovative ideas through:

•    Executive Education: Mayors and senior leaders will receive instruction in how to build leadership and management skills conducted by Coller School of Business and other Tel Aviv University disciplines. The mayors will conclude the year with additional training and networking hosted by Bloomberg Philanthropies and Harvard University in New York City and Boston, in the United States.  

•    City Innovation Projects: Each mayor will receive innovation training and support to address an urgent issue facing their city with coaching and technical assistance from Hazira, an Israeli national program that establishes and guides innovation teams in local government across the country.  

•    Summer Fellowship Program: Tel Aviv University students will take part in a 10-week summer fellowship program in participating mayors’ offices throughout Israel.

•    Local Government Alumni Network: The program will forge a local leadership network that will bring together all program participants and eventually alumni – mayors, municipal chiefs of staff and other senior city leaders – to share and adapt best practices and innovative policy ideas. The network will also serve as a platform for continuous education for participants and alumni.

•    Research Program: The program will convene scholars from across Tel Aviv University to conduct applied research on a wide range of topics that are relevant to effective leadership and management in cities. 

The State of Israel has about 260 cities and towns with mayors. The Bloomberg-Sagol Center for City Leadership will invite applications and up to 20 mayors will be admitted each year. Selected mayors will also invite two key members of their team to go through the program. The first class of mayors will be announced in fall 2022. All expenses for the city hall officials program participation will be covered by this philanthropic funding through Tel Aviv University.

The program was inaugurated at a festive event at the Steinhardt Museum of Natural Science. Michael Bloomberg and Yossi Sagol were among speakers along with US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides and Oakland, California Mayor Libby Schaaf, an alumna of the Bloomberg Harvard program. Over a dozen Israeli mayors were also in attendance.

 

Over a dozen Israeli mayors attended the inauguration of The Bloomberg-Sagol Center for City Leadership at the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History at TAU (Photo: Chen Galili)

Featured image: Left to Right: Michael R. Bloomberg, Prof. Ariel Porat and Yossi Sagol (Photo: Chen Galili)

TAU Alumnae are the most influential women in Israel

Written by AUFTAU on . Posted in Alumni News, Newsroom.

Globes published the “50 Most Influential Women in Israel” project for 2022, and the TAU alumnae community continues to break glass ceilings and increase TAU’s honor and prestige!

Globes Magazine has published the “50 Most Influential Women in Israel” project for 2022, which showcases the top women in the country whose work has significantly influenced the public or the public discourse in the past year.

The women on the prestigious list come from various fields like economics, industry, tourism, finance, high-tech, the public sector, the health system, the legal system, real estate, security, politics, society, education, media and advertising.

Tel Aviv University is represented by 14 alumnae, the highest number of alumnae amongst all academic institutions in Israel in the respected team:

  • Minister of the Interior Ayelet Shaked, alumna of TAU’s Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering and the Blavatnik School of Computer Science
  • Esther Hayut, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel, alumna of the Buchmann Faculty of Law
  • Attorney General Adv. Gali Baharav-Miara, alumna of the Buchmann Faculty of Law
  • Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, Chief Military Prosecutor, alumna of the Buchmann Faculty of Law 
  • Ofra Strauss, Chairperson of the Public Strauss Group, alumna of the Buchmann Faculty of Law 
  • Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, Head of Public Health Services at the Israeli Ministry of Health, alumna of the Coller School of Management
  • Shira Greenberg, Chief Economist at the Israeli Ministry of Finance, alumna of the School of Economics at TAU’s Faculty of Social Sciences
  • Liran Avisar Ben Horin, Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Communications, alumna of the Buchmann Faculty of Law and the Coller School of Management
  • Dr. Osnat Levtzion-Korach, General Director of the Shamir Medical Center (Assaf Harofeh Hospital), alumna of the Coller School of Management
  • Lilach Asher-Topilsky, Senior Partner at Fimi Opportunity Funds, alumna of TAU’s Faculty of Social Sciences and the Coller School of Management
  • Etty Abadi, CEO of McCann TLV, alumna of TAU’s Faculty of Humanities and the Coller School of Management 
  • Sarit Firon, Managing Partner & Co-Founder of Team8 Capital and Chairperson of Evogene, alumna of TAU’s Faculty of Social Sciences and the Coller School of Management 
  • Lior Eshkol, CEO of Wolt Israel, alumna of TAU’s Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering
  • Tami Bronner, Partner at the Vertex Venture Capital Fund, alumna of TAU’s Faculty of Social Sciences and the Coller School of Management 

 

See the full project (in Hebrew) on Globes’ website>

First Israeli Research Book Published in Abu Dhabi

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The work was issued by the UAE’s largest public research institute.

For the first time since the signing of the Abraham Accords, an Israeli research book was published in Abu Dhabi. The UAE’s largest public research institute, the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research, has published Zionism in Arab Discourse by TAU’s Prof. Uriya Shavit and Dr. Ofir Winter from the Institute for National Security Studies, INSS. Translated into Arabic at the initiative of Dr. Rami Abd el-Hai Kabil, a lecturer of modern Hebrew literature in Sohag University, Egypt, this is the first Israeli research book to be published in the UAE.

Prof. Uriya Shavit is Head of the Religious Studies Program and The Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, both at The Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities at Tel Aviv University. Dr. Ofir Winter is a researcher at the INSS. 

Models for Inspiration

Initially published in Hebrew in 2013 by HaKibbutz HaMeuchad Publishing House and in English in 2016 by the Manchester University Press, the book has aroused considerable interest. Its main thesis is that, alongside animosity towards Zionism and Israel, quite a number of Arab thinkers since the end of the 19th century, including members of the Muslim Brothers, have regarded various aspects of the Zionist enterprise as models which the Arab world should also adopt. 

Arab texts that are mentioned in the book value a range of Zionist qualities, such as Israeli democracy, the figures of Herzl and Ben Gurion, the status of women in Israeli society, the revival of the Hebrew language, relations between Israel and the Jewish diaspora, and the achievements of Israeli science and academia.

Prof. Shavit and Dr. Winter: “In the book’s final chapter we wrote that Israelis can and should note the strengths identified by Arab thinkers – for example, the widely accepted notion that Israel’s democracy and rule of law can serve as a commendable model. We are very glad and proud that readers of Arabic will now be exposed to our book. In one sense, the very fact that it has been translated, under the auspices of the Abraham Accords, confirms our thesis – that the Arab world’s stance toward Israel is more multidimensional than what is commonly assumed.” 

 

The book’s cover. Its webpage on the website of the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research can be viewed here

TAU Welcomes Ukrainian Emergency Fellowship Students

Written by AUFTAU on . Posted in Newsroom.

Some “need time to unfreeze”, as they begin their studies on campus.

Tel Aviv University officially welcomed seven Ukrainian graduate students, who arrived within the framework of the Emergency Fellowship Fund recently announced by the University in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing refugee crisis.

The all-women group of students hail from different cities in Ukraine, stretching from Lviv and Kyiv to Mariupol and Mikolaiv, and will continue their studies in law, medicine, psychology, music and linguistics. 

“You are very much wanted here at TAU,” President Ariel Porat told the students at the introductory meeting, expressing hope that despite the unfortunate circumstances students will find “a home away from home” at the University that will enrich their academic and personal lives. 

Constant Worry

Most of the students left their families behind in Ukraine, and worry about their wellbeing around the clock. “I managed to speak to my family yesterday, but today the connection was severed and I was unable to reach them,” says Alisa, a graduate student in law, who will be studying Crisis Management at TAU. She comes from a small town near Mariupol, in Eastern Ukraine, which has suffered some of the heaviest blows in the fighting. Alisa heard about the Fellowship through her academic advisor, as did most of the other students. 

Marina, another law student, was enrolled at the Ukrainian State Pedagogical University in Kropyvnytskyi, a central town which she says is pretty safe for now. The University premises, however, have been converted into living quarters for people escaping from more dangerous areas. Lectures are only taking place online and are highly irregular. “I was supposed to graduate in June,” she tells us, “but for now, I’m just happy to be able to continue my studies here at TAU.”

Kateryna from Kyiv studies psychology, and left immediate family members in Ukraine. “This is my first time in Israel and I know nothing about the local culture, but I’m very curious to learn,” she says, adding that the adjustment process helps her endure the constant concern about her family’s wellbeing. 

“We need some time to ‘unfreeze’, before we can start to take in and appreciate our surroundings,” adds Alisa. 

Here to Help

The students are being offered counseling and psychological services by TAU International, which has been taking full care of them since their arrival in Israel. “In light of the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, we are making a great effort to ensure that the Ukrainian students enjoy their campus experience and have a smooth transition to living in Tel Aviv, and that all their immediate needs are met,” says Michal Linder Zarankin, the School’s International Projects Coordinator.

Their tuition and living expenses are covered by TAU’s $1 million Emergency Fellowship Fund, which was swiftly raised by the University’s donors around the world over the last few weeks. 

Five more Ukrainian students are expected to arrive next week, as well as some faculty members. 

Out of the 30,000 students studying at TAU, over 300 hold dual Israeli-Ukrainian citizenship. In addition to these, there are many Israeli TAU students of Ukrainian and Russian descent. 

Featured image: Ukrainian graduate students are welcomed by TAU’s President Ariel Porat, Prof. Milette Shamir VP International and TAU International staffers

TAU Researchers Identified a Serious Security Flaw in Samsung’s Galaxy Series

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TAU Researchers Identified a Serious Security Flaw in Samsung’s Galaxy Series.

Tel Aviv University researchers have discovered a serious security flaw in Samsung’s flagship Galaxy series. The researchers contacted Samsung in May 2021, and in October the company released a software update that fixed the loophole. According to the researchers, users who have not updated their Android software since October are urged to do so as soon as possible, as hackers could take advantage of the loophole found to hack into the Galaxy smartphones in the series and steal sensitive information.

The study was conducted by Prof. Avishai Wool of TAU’s School of Electrical Engineering, Dr. Eyal Ronen of the Blavatnik School of Computer Science, and graduate student Alon Shakevsky.

Securing the Last Layer of Protection

“In protecting smartphones using the Android system, there is a special component called TrustZone” explains Prof. Wool. “This component is a combination of hardware and software, and its job is to protect our most sensitive information – the encryption and identification keys. We found an error in the implementation of Samsung’s TrustZone code, which allowed hackers to extract encryption keys and access secure information.”

“It should be understood that phone companies like Samsung go to enormous lengths to secure their phones, and yet we still hear about attacks, for example in the case of the NSO spyware,” Dr Ronen adds. “TrustZone is designed to be the last layer of protection, the internal safe. So, even if NSO managed to hack into my phone, it still wouldn’t be able to access the encryption keys. For example, if I approve a bank transfer using a fingerprint, the fingerprint enters the phone’s TrustZone, and hackers will have no way to use the fingerprint to carry out transactions in my bank account. In our article, we showed that failures in Samsung’s code also allowed access to these sensitive cryptographic keys.”

 

The Research Team (from left to right): Alon Shakevsky, Prof. Avishai Wool and Dr. Eyal Ronen

“A Secret Code Never Guarantees Longevity” 

In May 2021, the Tel Aviv University researchers contacted Samsung and presented their findings. In October 2021, Samsung released an update to the Android operating software that fixed the major loophole in about 100 million Galaxy phones. The company and the researchers coordinated the date of the publication of the findings and the date of the update in order to prevent hackers from taking advantage the loophole.

“Master’s student Alon Shakevsky worked for months on extracting the code from the device so that we could investigate it,” says Wool, “and two weeks ago hackers broke into the company’s databases and leaked Samsung’s code. The information that was previously confidential is today available to everyone, including researchers like us. Therefore, the lesson for phone companies should be to publish the code in advance, let the experts and researchers check the architecture, and not to rely too much on the code’s secrecy. A secret code never guarantees longevity, because it will eventually leak. In the end, we helped Samsung.”

“In order to protect ourselves,” Dr. Ronen concludes, “we encourage all owners of Samsung Galaxy devices to update their software.”

Prof. Ehud Gazit – First Israeli to Receive Prestigious International Recognition in Chemistry

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Selected as International Solvay Chair in Chemistry for 2023.

Prof. Ehud Gazit from The Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research at The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences and The Department of Materials Science and Engineering at The Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering, was selected as the International Solvay Chair in Chemistry for 2023. Prof. Gazit, who also heads TAU’s Blavatnik Center for Drug Discovery, is the first Israeli to receive this annually awarded honor and the first scientist to be appointed to the position outside of the United States and Europe. 

 Joining 15 Other World Top Scientists

The Solvay International Institute was founded in Belgium about a century ago and is designed to develop and support creative and groundbreaking research in physics, chemistry and related fields, in order to increase and deepen the understanding of natural phenomena. The Institute organizes annual conferences on physics and chemistry, as well as international workshops for the training of doctoral students and selected topics. 

As part of Gazit’s new appointment, he will spend a month or two in Brussels, the capital of Belgium, during which he will give lectures on his field of research. The prestigious nomination has previously been awarded to 15 of the world’s top scientists, including three Nobel laureates in chemistry, the Wolf Prize winner and laureates of other prestigious awards, all from leading institutions in the US and Europe, who are now joined by Gazit. 

Gazit is a biophysicist, biochemist and nanotechnologist. His main area of expertise is “Solid State Biology”, an innovative field of study that combines disciplines from physics, chemistry, synthetic and structural biology and materials engineering. He is a world-renowned expert in nanotechnology and biological chemistry, a highly cited researcher who has published more than 350 scientific articles and inventor of more than 100 patents.

Previously, he served as Vice President for Research and Development of the University, as the Chairman of Ramot, Tel Aviv University’s Tech Transfer Company, and as the Chief Scientist of Israel’s Ministry of Science and Technology. 

Over the years, Gazit has won a number of prestigious awards and prizes in Israel and around the world, including The Kadar Family Award for Outstanding Research, the Landau Prize in Science and Arts and the Rapaport Prize for Excellence in Biomedical Research. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in the UK, a Foreign Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences in India and a Member of the European Organization for Molecular Biology.  

Gazit stated: “I thank the Solvay Institute for selecting me, a great honor and excitement for me. It is a great privilege for me to join such a prestigious and impressive list of leading researchers. Today I am reminded of the former President of Israel, Prof. Ephraim Katzir, one of Israel’s greatest scientists, and of whom I am one of his academic ‘great grandchildren’ and who organized the Solvay Institute’s Chemistry Conference about 40 years ago. Apart from the personal honor, I am happy and proud to represent Tel Aviv University and the State of Israel in this appointment.”

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