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Parents show love less during COVID-19: TAU Study

Written by AUFTAU on . Posted in Newsroom.

Stress, crowded homes cause parents to “forget” to express love, at a time when children are in great need of parental affection.

A new study from Tel Aviv University found that during Israel’s first lockdown parents reported a significant decline in expressions of love for their young children (aged 3-5), compared to normal times. In addition, even though all members of the family were at home together, parents reported a significant decrease in parental leadership, and in setting rules and boundaries for their children.

The study, led by Prof. Dorit Aram, Head of the Early Childhood Research Laboratory at TAU’s Constantiner School of Education, examined parents’ behavior toward toddlers in Israel during the first lockdown (March-April 2020), and compared it to their behavior in regular times. The study surveyed 522 parents who filled out questionnaires. The parental behavior test was based on the Parenting Pentagon Model, consisting of five principles: partnership between caretakers, humane leadership, expressing unconditional love, promoting independence and imposing rules.

Loving behavior of parents toward their children is defined as: Loving behaviors include physical expressions of love (hugs, kisses, etc.), verbal expressions of love, encouragement, patience and sensitivity, expressions of empathy, and time spent together. The researchers found a significant difference between normal times and the pandemic.

The researchers note that during the pandemic parents spent more time with their children compared to regular times. Possibly, they had less of a need to show their love verbally and physically, because they paid more attention to their children on a daily basis. In addition, the researchers believe that the stress experienced by the parents, the crowded homes and the many hours spent together may have caused parents to “forget” the need to express love for their children, at a time when the children were in great need of loving behavior from their parents.

“This finding is somewhat surprising and even disappointing,” says Prof. Aram. “At times of crisis and stress, young children need their parents more than ever. They need a hug and words of affection, and yet parents did not express their love as often, and parental leadership, discipline and rule-setting were weakened. I hope that parents will learn from our study…and strive to exhibit more beneficial parenting practices under stressful conditions.”

The research examined several behaviors:

Parental leadership: Behaviors exhibiting leadership demonstrate parents’ place as leaders of the family and role models for their children. This behavior is characterized by assuming responsibility, setting goals related to raising the child, planning parental behavior (organizing the family in response to the new situation, preparing for changes, etc.) The study found that the implementation of this important principle was lower compared to normal times. The researchers claim that the pandemic has weakened parental control, and assume that in the chaos surrounding it, parents lost some of their efficacy in making decisions and setting goals for the family.

Partnership between caretakers: Partnership behaviors include a division of labor between parents, mutual support, the ability to resolve conflicts with mutual respect, presenting a common front to the child, presence in meaningful events in the child’s life, and agreement about how the child should be brought up. It might have been expected that with both parents at home, the level of cooperation would be higher than usual. The study, however, found no difference between the implementation of this principle in regular times and during the pandemic.

Promotion of independence: This behavior includes encouraging the child to become independent and to perform tasks suitable to age and abilities, while providing assistance when necessary. The study found that parents did not use time spent together to present challenges that could further their children’s independence, and continued to behave “normally” in this respect. The researchers emphasize that Israeli parents tend to be protective in normal times as well.

Rule-setting: For optimal family dynamics, the parent must create for the child a structured framework of rules, and implement it with persistence and authority. The parents who participated in the study reported a lower level of implementation of this principle. The researchers assume that this was caused by the lack of routine, timetables and activities outside the home.

An Underwater Journey Following the Vanishing of Sponge Species from the Shallow Water of the Israeli Coast

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The researchers believe that the sharp rise in water temperatures may lead to the death and disappearance.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University embarked on an underwater journey to solve a mystery: Why did sponges of the Agelas oroides species, which used to be common in the shallow waters along the Mediterranean coast of Israel, disappear? Today, this species can be found in Israel mainly in deep sponge grounds – rich habitats that exist at a depth of 100 meters. The researchers assess that the main reason for the disappearance of the sponges was the rise in seawater temperatures during the summer months, which in the past 60 years have risen by about three degrees.

The study was led by Prof. Micha Ilan and PhD student Tal Idan, in collaboration with Dr. Liron Goren and Dr. Sigal Shefer, all from the School of Zoology at the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History. The article was published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Biology.

Tal Idan explains: “Sponges are marine animals of great importance to the ecosystem, and also to humans. They feed by filtering particles or obtain substances dissolved in the seawater and making them available to other animals, and are used as a habitat for many other organisms. Also, the sponges contain a wide variety of natural materials – chemicals that are used as a basis for the development of medicines. In our study, we focused on the Agelas oroides species – a common Mediterranean sponge that grew throughout the Mediterranean Sea, from a depth of less than a meter to 150 meters deep, but which has not been observed in Israel’s shallow waters for over 50 years.”

During the study, the researchers used a research vessel and an underwater robot belonging to the NGO “EcoOcean,” and with their help located particularly rich rocky habitats on the seabed at a depth of about 100 meters, approximately 16 kilometers west of Israeli shores. The most dominant animals in these habitats are sponges, which is why the habitats are called “sponge gardens.” The researchers collected 20 specimens of the Agelas oroides sponge, 14 of which were transferred to shallow waters at a depth of 10 meters, at a site where the sponge was commonly found in the 1960s. The remaining six specimens were returned to the sponge gardens from which they were taken, and used as a control group.

underwater robot. Photo: Tal Idan

The findings of the study showed that when the water temperature ranged from 18 to 26 degrees (in the months of March to May), the sponges grew and flourished: they pumped and filtered water, the action by which they feed, and their volume increased. However, as the water temperature continued to rise, the sponges’ condition deteriorated. At a temperature of 28 degrees, most of them stopped pumping water, and during the month of July, when the water temperature exceeded 29 degrees, within a short period of time all of the sponges that had been transferred to the shallow water died. At the same time, the sponges in the control group continued to enjoy a relatively stable and low temperature (between 17 and 20 degrees) which allowed them to continue to grow and thrive.

Thus, the researchers hypothesize that the decisive factor that led to the disappearance of the sponges from the shallow area was prolonged exposure to high seawater temperature. According to them, “In the past, the temperature would also reach 28.5 degrees in the summer, but only for a short period of about two weeks – so the sponges, even if damaged, managed to recover. Today, seawater temperatures rise above 29 degrees for three months, which likely causes multi-system damage in sponges, which leaves them no chance of recovering and surviving.”

Prof. Ilan: “From 1960 until today, the water temperature on the Israeli Mediterranean coast has risen by three degrees, which may greatly affect marine organisms, including sponges. Our great concern is that the changes taking place on our shores are a harbinger of what may take place in the future throughout the Mediterranean. Our findings suggest that continued climate change and the warming of seawater could fatally harm sponges and marine life in general.”

The researchers add that in recent years, in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, they have been conducting extensive surveys in a number of sponge gardens along the coast, with the clear aim of protecting these unique habitats and changing their status so that they are recognized as particularly vulnerable. Three of the research sites have now been made part of the Nature and Parks Authority’s Marine Nature Reserves Program, in the hopes that they will eventually receive official recognition as marine nature reserves.

Featured image: Tal Idan

New Discovery: Development of the Inner Ear in Embryos is Similar to Crystal Formation

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This discovery could contribute to the development of treatments for hearing loss based on regeneration of hair cells in the ear.

An interdisciplinary study headed by Prof. David Sprinzak, a researcher from the School of Neurobiology, Biochemistry and Biophysics at the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences at Tel Aviv University, showed for the first time that physical forces are involved in the development of the inner ear in mammalian embryos.

Prof. Sprinzak: “We identified a new developmental mechanism that is driven by mechanical forces: the organization of hair cells in the inner ear resembles the way atoms are organized into a crystal. This is a revolutionary finding that changes fundamental perceptions in the field of developmental biology.”

The study was performed by Roie Cohen and Liat Amir-Zilberstein of Prof. Sprinzak’s laboratory; Prof. Karen Avraham and Shahar Taiber of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine; and other researchers from the Faculty of Exact Sciences and from the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University. Researchers from Switzerland, and Japan also participated in the study. The paper describing the work was published in the prestigious journal, Nature Communications, in October 2020.

Prof. Sprinzak explains: “The mammalian ear has three parts: the outer, middle, and the inner ear. Within the inner ear, there is a spiral structure, the cochlea, which contains sensory cells called hair cells. Hearing occurs when sound waves entering the inner ear cause the tiny hairs located on the hair cells to vibrate. These vibrations are then converted into electrical signals that are transmitted to the brain.

The hair cells in the cochlea are arranged in a highly organized pattern, where the hair cells and a second cell type called supporting cells form an alternating checkerboard-like pattern. This organization is important since different regions along the cochlea respond to different sound frequencies. Such a remarkably organized cellular system is rather uncommon in nature – in fact, the inner ear is one of the most organized tissues in the mammalian body. In this work, we investigated the mechanism that causes the hair cells to arrange in such a pattern during embryonic development. To do so, we conducted an interdisciplinary study that involved two innovative approaches: a new imaging technology and computational simulations of the process.”

 

In order to track the development of hair cells in the embryo, the researchers studied mouse embryos at different developmental stages. They found that early on, the cells in the tissue are disordered and undifferentiated; namely, their type and position was not determined yet. As development progresses, the cells differentiate into hair cells and supporting cells. Then, they gradually rearrange into the organized checkboard-like pattern.

Prof. Sprinzak: “Until now, most researchers in the field focused on the process of cell differentiation, which is controlled by intercellular communication. We hypothesized that this was not enough to explain the observed behavior, and we decided to examine how cells rearrange to form an ordered pattern after differentiation.” In order to do so, the researchers developed a new imaging technology that is based on three-dimensional time lapse imaging of the inner ear using a specialized microscopy setup. This approach allowed generating time-lapse videos of the development of the tissue and to track the morphological processes occurring over several days.

Prof. Sprinzak: “This is the first time that the process has been observed continuously and at high resolution. We observed that the initially disordered hair cells and supporting cells actively move until they gradually arrange into an ordered array. Neighboring cells, known as Hensen cells, move in one direction, exerting shear forces on the hair cells – forces that act in parallel to the layer of cells. These forces squeeze the hair cells together, causing them to arrange in a compact and organized pattern.”

In the next stage, the researchers used computer simulations to model the patterning process. The model showed that two main mechanical forces acted on the hair cells during the patterning process: shear forces, which caused squeezing and movement of the hair cells within the tissue, and repulsion forces between the hair cells, which keep the hair cells from getting too close to one another. Prof. Sprinzak: “We were surprised to discover that the patterning process of the hair cells in the cochlea highly resembled a well-known physical process – the patterning of atoms during the formation of a crystal. Just as atoms form a highly ordered crystal when external forces are exerted on them, so the hair cells and the supporting cells rearrange into a highly ordered pattern in response to mechanical forces acting on them. This is a completely new way of thinking in the field of developmental biology. The insights obtained from our study shed light on new research directions relevant for many other developmental processes in other organs.”

Prof. Lawrence Lustig, the Howard Smith Professor and Chair of Otolaryngology at Columbia University and New York Presbyterian Hospital who was not involved in the research, added that the study’s findings could also have significant medical implications. “All the hair cells in our inner ear are created at an embryonic stage and do not regenerate during one’s lifetime. Death of hair cells in the inner ear at any stage of life leads to permanent hearing loss. In recent years, a lot of effort have been made by the scientific community to develop therapeutic approaches to hearing loss based on regeneration of hair cells – a process where formation of new hair cells is induced by genetic therapy or small signaling molecules. This study makes an important contribution to understanding the process of hair cell regeneration and is a critical step towards this goal.”

Featured Image: Prof. David Sprinzak

The future generation of the Startup Nation

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Students from Tel Aviv University win a gold medal at iGEM – the World Championship in Synthetic Biology

An unprecedented achievement for the TAU team at iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition) – the world championship in synthetic biology. The 50%-female team won first place in the Best Software Development category, and second place in the Foundational Advance category (a prize given for proposed solutions for fundamental problems in synthetic biology). Moreover, in the competition’s overall ranking, the TAU team ranked higher than teams from some of the world’s top universities, including Stanford, MIT, Harvard and Cornell.

Students from 256 leading universities around the world participated in the competition. Each team formed an original idea and implemented it like a startup venture. Normally, the competition takes place anually in Boston, but this year, due to the pandemic, it was conducted online. The TAU team, led by Prof. Tamir Tuller, Head of the Laboratory of Computational, Systems and Synthetic Biology, The Fleischman Faculty of Engineering, included 12 outstanding students from the Faculties of Engineering, Medicine, Life Sciences and Exact Sciences: Karin Sionov (Captain), Niv Amitay, Hadar Ben Shoshan, Noa Kraicer, Bar Glickstein, Itamar Menuhin, Matan Arbel, Doron Naky, Omer Edgar, Itai Katzir, David Kenigsberger and Einav Saadia.

Genetic engineering is based on the insertion of genes from one organism into another organism. The challenge in this process is the instability of these genes, which are often quickly ‘erased’ from the genome. In the iGEM competition, the TAU team developed an innovative technology that improves genome stability and ensures long-term preservation of the inserted synthetic genes. Since most of the world’s biotech and pharma companies use this type of genetic engineering, the new technology can contribute to a range of areas, such as drug development, the food and agriculture industry and green energy.

The technology, based on tools from various disciplines, including engineering, computer science and molecular biology, comprises software for designing genetically stable DNA sequences, alongside novel techniques for measuring genome stability. Highly impressed with the new technology, the judges awarded it a gold medal, as well as prizes and high ranking in several categories.

Team Captain Karin Sionov, who holds a BSc in Biomedical Engineering from TAU’s Faculty of Engineering: “It was a great honor for me to head a team of outstanding students who were extremely proud to represent Tel Aviv University and the State of Israel. Winning was our reward for a whole year of hard, challenging work. We came to the competition with great motivation and gave everything we had. I am glad that we defeated some of the world’s leading universities.”

Prof. Tamir Tuller: “This is a very impressive achievement, which proves that TAU leads and excels in synthetic biology – not only in Israel but internationally as well. One proof of the immensity of the achievement comes from a Swiss company that has expressed an interest in our technology, already forwarding a contribution to advance the idea, and intending to support us on our way to commercialization.”

Karin Sionov the team captain

In First, Aging Stopped in Humans: TAU Co-Study

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New research finds that high pressure treatments can reverse two processes associated with aging and its illnesses

A first-of-its-kind clinical trial in human subjects: A new study from Tel Aviv University and the Shamir Medical Center indicates that HBOT (treatments with high-pressure oxygen) in healthy aging adults can stop the aging of blood cells.

The researchers found that a unique protocol of treatments in a pressure chamber can reverse two major processes associated with aging and its illnesses: the shortening of telomeres – – protective regions located at both ends of every chromosome (the chromosomes contain the genetic material in the cell’s nucleus), and the accumulation of senescent (old and malfunctioning) cells in the body. Focusing on immune cells containing DNA, obtained from the participants’ blood, the study discovered a significant lengthening – up to 38% – of the telomeres, as well as a decrease of up to 37% in the presence of senescent cells.

The study was led by Prof. Shai Efrati, faculty member of the Sackler School of Medicine and the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University and Founder and Director of the Sagol Center of Hyperbaric Medicine at the Shamir Medical Center, and Dr. Amir Hadanny, Chief Medical Research Officer of the Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research at the Shamir Medical Center. The clinical trial was conducted as part of a comprehensive Israeli research program that targets aging as a reversible disease. The paper was published in the scientific journal Aging in November 2020.

Prof. Efrati explains:  “For many years our team has been engaged in hyperbaric research and therapy – treatments based on protocols of exposure to high-pressure oxygen at various concentrations inside a pressure chamber. Our achievements over the years included the improvement of brain functions damaged by age, stroke or brain injury. In the current study we wished to examine the impact of HBOT on healthy and independent aging adults, and to discover whether such treatments can slow down, stop or even reverse the normal aging process at the cellular level.”

The researchers exposed 35 healthy individuals aged 64 or over to a series of 60 hyperbaric sessions over a period of 90 days. Each participant provided blood samples at four different points in time – before, during, at the end and after the series of treatments, and the researchers analyzed various immune cells (cells containing DNA) in the blood and compared the results.

The findings indicated that the treatments actually reversed the aging process in two of its major aspects: The telomeres at the ends of the chromosomes grew longer instead of shorter, at a rate of 20%-38% for the different cell types; and the percentage of senescent cells in the overall cell population was reduced significantly – by 11%-37% depending on cell type.

Prof. Efrati: “Today telomere shortening is considered the ‘Holy Grail’ of the biology of aging. Researchers around the world are trying to develop pharmacological and environmental interventions that enable telomere elongation.  Our HBOT protocol was able to achieve this, proving that the aging process can in fact be reversed at the basic cellular-molecular level.”

Dr. Hadanny: “Until now, interventions such as lifestyle modifications and intense exercise were shown to have some inhibiting effect on telomere shortening. But in our study, only three months of HBOT were able to elongate telomeres at rates far beyond any currently available interventions or lifestyle modifications. With this pioneering study, we have opened a door for further research on the cellular impact of HBOT and its potential for reversing the aging process.”

TAU developed genome editing system destroys cancer cells

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Breakthrough treatment, with no side effects, may increase life expectancy in brain and ovarian cancer patients.

Researchers at Tel Aviv University have demonstrated that the CRISPR/Cas9 system is very effective in treating metastatic cancers, a significant step on the way to finding a cure for cancer. The researchers developed a novel lipid nanoparticle-based delivery system that specifically targets cancer cells and destroys them by genetic manipulation. The system, called CRISPR-LNPs, carries a genetic messenger (messenger RNA), which encodes for the CRISPR enzyme Cas9 that acts as molecular scissors that cut the cells’ DNA.

The revolutionary work was conducted in the laboratory of Prof. Dan Peer, VP for R&D and Head of the Laboratory of Precision Nanomedicine at the Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research at TAU. The research was conducted by Dr. Daniel Rosenblum together with Ph.D. student Anna Gutkin and colleagues at Prof. Peer’s laboratory, in collaboration with Dr. Dinorah Friedmann-Morvinski from the School of Neurobiology, Biochemistry & Biophysics at TAU; Dr. Zvi R. Cohen, Director of the Neurosurgical Oncology Unit and Vice-Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at the Sheba Medical Center; Dr. Mark A. Behlke, Chief Scientific Officer at IDT Inc. and his team; and Prof. Judy Lieberman of Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.  

The results of the groundbreaking study, which was funded by ICRF (Israel Cancer Research Fund), were published in November 2020 in Science Advances.

“This is the first study in the world to prove that the CRISPR genome editing system can be used to treat cancer effectively in a living animal,” said Prof. Peer. “It must be emphasized that this is not chemotherapy. There are no side effects, and a cancer cell treated in this way will never become active again. The molecular scissors of Cas9 cut the cancer cell’s DNA, thereby neutralizing it and permanently preventing replication.”

To examine the feasibility of using the technology to treat cancer, Prof. Peer and his team chose two of the deadliest cancers: glioblastoma and metastatic ovarian cancer. Glioblastoma is the most aggressive type of brain cancer, with a life expectancy of 15 months after diagnosis and a five-year survival rate of only 3%. The researchers demonstrated that a single treatment with CRISPR-LNPs doubled the average life expectancy of mice with glioblastoma tumors, improving their overall survival rate by about 30%. Ovarian cancer is a major cause of death among women and the most lethal cancer of the female reproductive system. Most patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage of the disease when metastases have already spread throughout the body.  Despite progress in recent years, only a third of the patients survive this disease. Treatment with CRISPR-LNPs in a metastatic ovarian cancer mice model increased their overall survival rate by 80%.

“The CRISPR genome editing technology, capable of identifying and altering any genetic segment, has revolutionized our ability to disrupt, repair or even replace genes in a personalized manner,” said Prof. Peer. “Despite its extensive use in research, clinical implementation is still in its infancy because an effective delivery system is needed to safely and accurately deliver the CRISPR to its target cells. The delivery system we developed targets the DNA responsible for the cancer cells’ survival. This is an innovative treatment for aggressive cancers that have no effective treatments today.”

The researchers note that by demonstrating its potential in treating two aggressive cancers, the technology opens numerous new possibilities for treating other types of cancer as well as rare genetic diseases and chronic viral diseases such as AIDS.

“We now intend to go on to experiments with blood cancers that are very interesting genetically, as well as genetic diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy,” says Prof. Peer. “It will probably take some time before the new treatment can be used in humans, but we are optimistic. The whole scene of molecular drugs that utilize messenger RNA (genetic messengers) is thriving – in fact, most COVID-19 vaccines currently under development are based on this principle. When we first spoke of treatments with mRNA twelve years ago, people thought it was science fiction. I believe that in the near future, we will see many personalized treatments based on genetic messengers – for both cancer and genetic diseases. Through Ramot, the Technology Transfer Company of TAU, we are already negotiating with international corporations and foundations, aiming to bring the benefits of genetic editing to human patients.”

Featured image: Prof. Dan Peer

Attracting Students with “Fire in Their Hearts”

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TAU’s DAN Department of Communication trains young Israelis in digital literacy, unbiased reporting and media professionalism

By Lindsey Zemler

Since Aubrey and Marla Dan, Toronto, Canada based philanthropists, dedicated the Department in 2017, their support has transformed its academic program into one that offers significant hands-on professional training alongside theoretical studies.

“We are investing in students’ futures to help them become leaders in journalism, public relations and research, thus improving the field of communications in Israel, both internally and externally,” says Aubrey Dan.

“The Aubrey & Marla Dan Foundation rejuvenated the Department of Communication at a time when the communication field in Israel needed to adapt to global trends,” says outgoing Department Head Prof. Shira Dvir-Gvirsman. She worked together with Aubrey and Marla to develop new programs and revamp the curriculum, which in turn brought in new students and faculty, expanded research, and extended international connections. In the last four years, enrolment has doubled.

From left: Executive Director for Canadian Friends of Tel Aviv University (CFTAU) Ontario and Western Canada, Stephen Adler; DAN Foundation’s Aubrey and Marla Dan; former TAU President, Joseph Klafter; CFTAU National Chair, Jeff Wagman. Photo: Israel Hadari.


 “Aubrey and Marla have supported us throughout the entire journey, guiding us with their knowledge and vision, but also enabling us to develop independently,” Dvir-Gvirsman says. The progress they achieved puts the Department on track to meet a long-term goal: to offer a full degree program. Currently, students can study communication only as a double major with another field to complete their degree.

“Students come to the Department with fire in their hearts to change the world,” says Prof. Elad Segev, the newly appointed Department Head, who assumed the role in the fall of 2020. “We help them channel their energy and find their career paths, develop a unique voice, and resist giving in to external commercial and political interests. We examine how communication affects our lives, and work to instill students with values to become more responsible citizens and protect our democracy.”

According to Segev, who is carrying on the vision of the Dans and Dvir-Gvirsman, the DAN Department is a top choice for communication studies in Israel. Faculty members continuously seek to stay two steps ahead of current trends in the communication field, strive to maintain excellence in research, and provide students with the most up-to-date tools and technologies used in the digital world. Aubrey Dan believes that boosting Israel’s media landscape with the latest technology will augment Israel’s ability to evolve as a nation and contribute to the world.

In 2016, the inaugural year, successes included the launch of the flagship year-long workshop about producing media content in the news and marketing industries; the establishment of a department news website; the hosting of two international conferences; and the purchase of new equipment. The following year saw even more growth, with the launch of the Digital Society program, the establishment of BA specializations, the addition of new courses encompassing practical community work, and the introduction of many new workshops taught by leading practitioners in media professions.

Embracing complexity

According to Ph.D. student Noa Hatzir, studying communication in Israel is critical. “Israeli media cover diverse topics, but don’t always represent multiple angles and perspectives, which is important when portraying the complexity of life here, and especially when misinformation is spread,” Hatzir says. For her master’s thesis, Hatzir studied how international news coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict affects Israeli art and culture perceptions.  She also participated in the Department’s German-Israeli student exchange program, an annual tradition that allows students to practice looking at Israeli and foreign media through their international peers’ eyes.

TAU Dan Department of Communication student Noa Hatzir. 

​Photo: Courtesy of Noa Hatzir.

Both a master’s and doctoral fellowship recipient, Hatzir, says the support she receives from the Aubrey & Marla DAN Foundation has enabled her to delve deeper into academia. Another recent MA graduate enrolled in a Ph.D. program at Harvard University. Since the Department’s inauguration, the Dan family has created several new scholarship opportunities to be awarded for individual achievement. Over the years, Marla and Aubrey Dan traveled to Israel on several occasions to award the DAN Prize for Best Paper in the field of communication.

​Today, the Department’s curriculum continues to reflect quickly-changing industry trends, offering courses and workshops in topics such as data privacy, social marketing, advanced public relations, Adobe Photoshop and video-editing, social and mobile storytelling, and visualization. For example, Dr. Ronit Kampf’s course about “digital natives,” or young people born into the digital revolution, draws from the virtual world of games, apps and social media platforms. Students learn to appreciate the influence of technology on almost every aspect of life and how to make choices about using technology in different contexts. In the course “Digital Society,” students turn off their smartphones for 2-3 days and write about the experience of living without constant access to media.

Tel Aviv, the heart of Israel’s media landscape, provides a prime location for students to gain real-world experience. The DAN Department maintains strong ties with industry partners to keep abreast of developments in the field and connect students to internships and jobs. In the spring semester of 2020, one-third of internship program students received job offers from the companies where they interned, says Kampf.

The Department strives to effect social change through research and course projects. In the course “Social Marketing: How to Harness a Marketing Approach for the Good of the Public,” students create marketing material for organizations. This past year included programs to encourage women to be active in politics and a summer camp for religious and non-religious children. In 2017, Dr. Nurit Guttman, with the Israeli Ministry of Health’s support, launched a project to help Ethiopian immigrants gain better access to health services by setting up a website in their native language, Amharic.

During the spring semester of 2020, the Department pivoted within days to adjust to the new realities of the COVID-19 pandemic, transferring classes online and hosting a virtual colloquium series. Students continue to study online through the virtual classroom, and the Department remains committed toward their goal of expansion while adapting to the new reality.  

According to Segev, communication studies have increased in popularity due to a growing understanding of digital media’s importance in daily life and digital literacy’s critical role in bettering society. Aubrey Dan and Segev agree that training young media professionals in critical thinking is of the utmost importance, especially with the prevalence of fake news.

To this end, the Dan Family is investing in the TAU Department, says Segev. “Marla and Aubrey understand the importance of communication for society and for Israel.” Their daughter, Alyse Dan, is the Executive Director of the Aubrey & Marla Dan Foundation, and visited the Department with her parents in 2019, meeting students and faculty.

Marla Dan, a volunteer leader and philanthropist, was expected to receive an Honorary Doctorate from TAU in 2020. The ceremony has been rescheduled to 2021 due to COVID-19.

European Association of Law and Economics recognizes TAU President

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Professor Ariel Porat, President of Tel Aviv University and former Dean of its Buchmann Faculty of Law, has been named the winner of the 2020 European Association of Law and Economics (EALE) Lifetime Achievement Award. He is the first Israeli scholar to win the award.

The Association grants the EALE Award and honorary membership in the Association for significant contributions to the field of Law and Economics, in particular to the development of this movement in Europe. The decision is made by the Management Board of the Association.

Professor Porat will deliver the Award Lecture at the next EALE conference in Barcelona in September 2021.

ABOUT THE EALE

The European Association of Law and Economics (EALE) is an institutional response to the increasing importance of economic analysis of law in Europe. Founded in 1984, the Association stimulates the development of Law and Economics in Europe, providing assistance to law-and-economics scholars and bringing their scholarship to a wider audience, including policy makers, legislators and judges. The EALE annual conference has become an important forum for the exchange of research findings and ideas. The Association also arranges seminars jointly with other international organizations, as well as local activities in different countries. For more information, visit the EALE website.

Unique Collaboration Between Tel Aviv University And Local Fashion Designers

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What do you do when the academic year begins but the students can’t come to campus?

When the 2020/21 academic year began on October 18, TAU found itself in an unprecedented situation. The restrictions dictated by the pandemic meant that students couldn’t come to campus. New students began their studies without ever sitting in a lecture hall, having coffee with friends in the cafeteria or talking to a lecturer in the hallway.

To give new students a feel of TAU’s atmosphere, and begin the new year in a slightly different way, the university joined forces with the Gelada studio – creating a special minicollection of T-shirts inspired by TAU’s slogan ‘Pursuing the Unknown’. The idea behind the designs: If you can’t come to the university, why not let the whole city be your campus? Every design in the collection pays homage to a different iconic site in the city of Tel Aviv.

Every student in the first year of undergraduate studies at TAU chose her/his favorite T-shirt. Enthusiasm ran high, and now the T-shirts are being delivered, by mail, directly to the students’ homes.

Photo: Yanai Yechiel

“TAU is proud to be an integral part of the city of Tel Aviv,” says Alon Weinpress, TAU’s Marketing Director. “A city which, like the university, constantly renews itself, innovates, looks for the next big thing and invents the things that everyone will talk about tomorrow. We looked for a way to connect our new students, who have never met us, to these values, and give them a small taste of Tel Aviv. Our collaboration with Gelada has bred something that totally reflects Tel Aviv but is also cosmopolitan. We are very happy to support local industry.”

Yaron Mendelovich, owner of Gelada, says: “Gelada Tours is an illustration, design and production studio. We like to think of ourselves as a fictional travel agency, in which every collection, series or project is a unique journey. We form collaborations and create products related to many destinations in Israel, around the world and beyond the planet. This collection, inspired by Tel Aviv University, emphasizes the values it represents: innovation, freedom and creativity. Together with illustrator/architect Kiril Cherikover, graduate of the Architecture Department at the Bezalel Academy, we created a series that combines urban nature, beaches and culture. We tried to connect the graphic language with unique icons of Tel Aviv and the spirit of the city as we see it: a city of initiative, knowledge, pluralism and freedom. A festival that never stops coupled with a lot of hard work.”

Featured images:  Yanai Yechiel

TAU Co-Study: “Green Revolution” Decreased Infant Mortality

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“Israel, as a global leader in agriculture R&D, has much to offer to the developing world.”

In the first global-scale study of its kind, researchers used wide-scale data to correlate between the “Green Revolution” in agriculture and the dramatic reduction in infant mortality in the developing world. The Green Revolution was a global effort to increase the global crop yield during the second half of the twentieth century.

“In our study, we sought to use empirical methods based on our hypothesis that larger crop larger yields could improve the level of nutrition of pregnant women and young children, and also increase household income, thus contributing indirectly to improved health,” explained Dr. Fishman, of the TAU Department of Public Policy and the Boris Mints Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions to Global Challenges, who contributed to the research. “During the Green Revolution, there was support for international public agricultural R&D with a focus on developing higher-yielding strains of common staple crops, such as wheat, rice, and corn. By the end of the 20th century, approximately 60% of the developing world’s agricultural lands were using these varieties.”

At the same time, between 1960 and 2000, there was a dramatic improvement in health in the developing world- the percentage of children who died before the age of one was reduced from 20% to 10%. The cause of this improvement has been long-contested and attributed to various public health improvements but the contribution of individual factors, including the impacts of the Green Revolution, has been poorly quantified until now.

The correlation in the study suggests that the Green Revolution was responsible for a decline of some 2.5- 5% in the rate of infant mortality. This represents between 25% to 50% of the overall reduction of infant mortality during that time period.

To conduct the study, the researchers collected detailed data about the mortality rates of 600,000 infants born in 37 developing countries between 1961 and 2000, and cross-referenced them with information about the diffusion of the improved Green Revolution seeds in the place and year of birth of each of these infants. Using sophisticated statistical methods, they estimated the association between these two variables. The analysis found a statistically significant causal link between the two data sets. In locations where improved varieties diffused earlier – in part because of the types of crops grown, there was also a more rapid decrease in mortality rates.

“Our study proves the historical importance of agricultural R&D for the health of the rural populations in the developing world. We showed that improved crop varieties, which thus improved nutrition and income and reduced hunger, saved the lives of tens of millions of children in the second half of the twentieth century, and have most likely also brought about improved health for tens of millions of other individuals not directly visible in the data,” said Dr. Fishman.

According to Dr. Fishman, these findings highlight the continued need to address public health. “Israel, as a global leader in agriculture R&D, has much to offer to the developing world,” he says.

The study was conducted by an international team of researchers from Tel Aviv University, the Indian School of Business, the World Bank, the University of California San Diego, Michigan State University, and Colorado State University. The paper was published in the Journal of Health Economics.

Featured images: TAU Prof. Ram Fishman and agricultural expert Omar Zaidan explain seedling use to farmers in India. Credit: the Nitzan Lab

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