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TAU to partner with InnoCan Pharma on revolutionary COVID-19 treatment

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The technology, which is expected to be administered by inhalation, will be tested on several lung infections

InnoCan Pharma Corporation announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, InnoCan Pharma Ltd. of Herzliya Israel, has entered into a sponsored research agreement with Ramot at Tel Aviv University to jointly develop a novel, revolutionary approach to treat COVID-19 by using cannabidiol (CBD) loaded exosomes (“CLX”). Under the terms of the Research Agreement, InnoCan and a team led by Prof. Daniel Offen, a leading researcher specializing in Neuroscience and Exosome technology at Tel Aviv University, will collaborate to develop the cell therapy based product on Prof. Offen’s work in the field. InnoCan and Ramot are collaborating on a new, revolutionary exosome-based technology that targets both central nervous system (CNS) indications and the Covid-19 Corona Virus. CBD-Loaded exosomes hold the potential to provide a highly synergistic effect of anti-inflammatory properties and help in the recovery of infected lung cells. The techology, which is expected to be administered by inhalation, will be tested on a variety of lung infections. Exosomes are small particles created when stem cells are multiplied. Exosomes can act as “homing missiles” when the cell healing properties of the exosomes are combined with the anti-inflammatory properties of CBD. Exosomes also have an important role in cell-to-cell communication, which can be beneficial to additional treatments for CNS indications such as epilepsy and Alzheimer’s Disease.

Background

The world is suffering from a rapid rise in illness due to the fast growing spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The lungs are the organ most affected by COVID-19, causing pneumonia that rapidly progresses to acute respiratory distress syndrome and can further result in respiratory failure, septic shock, multi-organ failure, and in the most severe cases death. Recent in-vivo and in-vitro studies have demonstrated that exosomes derived from mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) can promote regeneration and improve immune reaction processes in damaged tissues. Exosomes contain anti-inflammatory agents that can target inflamed organs. Prof. Offen and his team have already successfully loaded exosomes with various molecules. They have also succeeded in treating different tissue injuries in animal models, while significantly reducing inflammation and pathological impairment. To date, there have been hundreds of clinical studies using exosomes globally, demonstrating their therapeutic potential at different applications. Animal studies have also demonstrated CBD as effective in reducing lung inflammation. Based on these findings, InnoCan believes that its CLX therapy has the potential to treat the COVID-19 virus by combining CBD with exosomes, thereby creating therapeutic synergies. The suggested combination may have strong synergetic effects, thereby increasing the potential efficacy of planned treatments. Prof. Dani Offen, of the Sackler School of Medicine and Sagol School of Neuroscience  said, “I am pleased to work with the InnoCan team on this exciting CLX development project. We are facing a challenging time, and I believe our unique approach holds a promise to offer a treatment for COVID-19, pneumonia and perhaps for other lung inflammations as well.” Iris Bincovich, CEO of InnoCan’s CEO, also commented, “COVID-19 has quickly become one of the largest challenges in healthcare today. With the development of CLX, we are creating a new treatment, to join the global mission to combat the effects of COVID-19. We are determined to make a difference as quickly as possible to assist patients worldwide.” Keren Primor Cohen, CEO of Ramot at Tel Aviv University, summarized, “We hope that this collaboration with Innocan will assist in transforming Prof. Offen’s promising technology into a real treatment for the global threat of COVID-19”. Featured image: Prof. Daniel Offen (photo: Jonathan Blum)

Antisemitic Manifestations Worldwide – 2019 and the Beginning of 2020

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First came Halle, and then the Corona

In honor of Yom haShoah, Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, Tel Aviv University’s Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry has released its Annual Report on Antisemitism Worldwide for 2019. The Recent Coronavirus-inspired antisemitism should be closely monitored, yet taken in proportion – 2019 witnessed a rise of 18%  in major violent cases compared to 2018 – seven people were killed – and a rise in most other manifestations –  antisemitic expressions continue to infiltrate from the fringes of society into the mainstream – a growing discrepancy between on-the-ground reality and governmental efforts – troubling trends in Germany and the U.S. – achievements in the U.N., E.U. and Israel, in monitoring antisemitism on the web and in legislating it – 52 heads of states declared commitment to remember the Holocaust and fight antisemitism  –  surveys continue to raise awareness about the surging antisemitism.
  • The Coronavirus-inspired antisemitic expressions constitute forms of traditional Jew-hatred and of conspiracy theories. So far, these accusations appear to be promoted mainly by extreme rightists, ultra conservative Christian circles, Islamists, and to a minor extent by the far-left, each group according to its narrative and beliefs – such as different conspiracy theories as well as the image of the Jew as a producer of diseases.
  • 2019 witnessed a rise of 18% in major violent cases compared to 2018 (456 cases in 2019 compared to 387 in 2018), seven Jews and non-Jews were killed during antisemitic attacks, and a rise in most other manifestations, in most countries. At least 53 synagogues (12%) and 28 community centers and schools (6 percent) were attacked. An increase in life-endangering threats (47%) and in attacks on private properties (24 %).
  • The return of traditional, classic antisemitic stereotypes as well as the intensification of anti-Israeli and Islamist antisemitism, have contributed to the growing role of the antisemitic discourse that moved from the fringes of society into the mainstream public discourse.
  • According to a 2019 FRA report, 41% of Jews aged 16-34 have considered emigrating from Europe because of antisemitism over the last 5 years. Antisemitism as the main factor pushing for emigration, might be enhanced by the perceptions regarding governments’ responses and efforts to antisemitism, which are overwhelmingly considered inadequate.
  • In Germany, the shooting at the Halle synagogue, on October 9, has become a landmark in the antisemitic activity in Germany that embodies all the present problems. The police registered 1839 antisemitic incidents nationwide, 5 cases a day (!), mostly perpetrated by neo-Nazis and extreme right-wingers. The role of radical Muslims in everyday harassments is yet to be fully formally assessed. Additionally, surveys have shown that the knowledge about the Holocaust is diminishing in Germany, and that Jewish pupils are increasingly harassed by their Muslim classmates.
In the U.S., a new phenomenon is emerging, one of increased violent antisemitic manifestations, with shooting sprees and numerous casualties,  inspired  mainly by right wing ideologies as well as by certain groups within the Black Hebrew Israelites and  the Nation of Islam. Perpetrators of major antisemitic violent attacks in 2019 were active in disseminating antisemitic propaganda online, through international networks of likeminded activists. Anti-Zionism expressed in antisemitic terms was rampant among left wing activists as well, especially in reaction to warm Israeli-American administration relations, depicted as Israeli-Jewish deliberate attempts to dominate and manipulate American policies and leaders.
  • Underreporting by Jews in some countries is corroborated by the number of perpetrators still unidentified.
  • Significant achievements during 2019:
    • The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief presented a report to the U.N. General Assembly entitled “Elimination of All Forms of Religious Intolerance,” warning against growing antisemitism inspired by Nazi and Islamist ideologies.
    • The European Union established a working group consisting of national special envoys to guide Member States in implementing steps against antisemitism.
    • The German – and Austrian – parliaments defined the BDS as a movement that uses antisemitic tactics, and reached a resolution according to which “the pattern of argument and methods of the BDS movement are anti-Semitic.”
    • The World Holocaust Forum, initiated and supported by Dr. Moshe Kantor, President of the European Jewish congress, held its fifth meeting on January 23, 2020 in Yad Vashem, under the auspices of President Reuven Rivlin. It was a tremendous success, with heads of 52 states coming to declare their commitment to “Remembering the Holocaust, Fighting Antisemitism”.
According to the report  there’s “a continuing downward trend in violent events versus an increase of antisemitic verbal and visual expressions, especially on social media.” These findings, along with a wave of refugees and the growing rise of extreme right-wing political entities, have been a cause for great concern among Jewish communities.

TAU Scientist Awarded U.S. Patent for Novel Coronavirus Vaccine Design

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The patent, approved in March, covers a vaccine that targets the most vulnerable point in a coronavirus’s structure, through which it penetrates human cells

Researchers worldwide are racing at breakneck speed to develop potential vaccines and drugs to fight the novel coronavirus, SARS-Cov-2. Now, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted a patent to Tel Aviv University’s Prof. Jonathan Gershoni of the School of Molecular Cell Biology and Biotechnology at TAU’s George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences for his innovative vaccine design for the corona family of viruses.

The vaccine targets the novel coronavirus’s Achilles’ heel, its Receptor Binding Motif (RBM), a critical structure that enables the virus to bind to and infect a target cell.

According to Prof. Gershoni, the vaccine would reconstruct the coronavirus’s RBM, a tiny feature of its “spike” protein. Though the virus uses many different proteins to replicate and invade cells, the “spike” protein is the major surface protein that it uses to bind to a receptor — another protein that acts like a doorway into a human cell. After the spike protein binds to the human cell receptor, the viral membrane fuses with the human cell membrane, allowing the genome of the virus to enter human cells and begin infection.

“We have been working on coronaviruses for the last 15 years, developing a method of reconstructing and reconstituting the RBM feature of the spike protein in SARS CoV and subsequently in MERS CoV,” explains Prof. Gershoni. “The moment the genome of the new virus was published in early January 2020, we began the process of reconstituting the RBM of SARS CoV2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and expect to have a reconstituted RBM of the new virus soon. This will be the basis for a new vaccine, which could be ready for use within a year to a year and a half.”

The spike protein is quite large, containing about 1,200 amino acids. Some researchers have limited their research to a region of the spike known as the receptor binding domain (RBD) that comprises some 200 amino acids. However, the problem is that these relatively large areas have a variety of targets, and the immune system produces antibodies for all of them indiscriminately – reducing the effectiveness of a potential vaccine.

The RBM, a highly complex three dimensional structure, is only 50 amino acids long. Functionally reconstituting such a structure would be very challenging, but it would be an extremely effective basis of a vaccine, says Prof. Gershoni.

“The smaller the target and the focus of the attack, the greater the effectiveness of the vaccine,” he adds. “The virus takes far-reaching measures to hide its RBM from the human immune system, but the best way to ‘win the war’ is to develop a vaccine that specifically targets the virus’s RBM.”

Prof. Gershoni’s team has completed their initial steps toward reconstituting the new SARS CoV2’s RBM. The reconstitution of the new SARS CoV2’s RBM and its use as a basis for a new vaccine is covered by an additional pending patent application, filed by Ramot, TAU’s technology transfer arm, to the USPTO.

“Now that we have received serum samples we should be able to isolate RBM-based vaccine candidates in the next month or two,” concludes Prof. Gershoni. “The discovery and production of a functional RBM for the new coronavirus is fundamental and critical for the production of the vaccine we propose.

“Our successful isolation and reconstitution of such a functional RBM will allow the industry to incorporate it into a vaccine, which will be produced by a pharmaceutical company. Development of such an RBM-based vaccine should take months and then would need to be tested in Phase 1, 2 and 3 clinical trials which would then take up to a year.”

Donated Equipment Aids in Urgent Coronavirus Research

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Shmunis family gift ramps up the scientific capabilities of the School of Molecular Cell Biology and Biotechnology.

With COVID-19 coronavirus infections surging in Israel and worldwide, TAU biomedical specialists have dropped everything to push forward the fight against the virus. Eleven teams at the School of Molecular Cell Biology and Biotechnology are working to expand the arsenal of vaccines, drugs, testing methods and public health insights aimed at saving lives. Now, a significant and timely gift from philanthropists Sana and Vlad Shmunis of the San Francisco Bay Area is providing the School with much needed core equipment for the research push. “We needed emergency scientific funding and, when we turned to the Shmunises, both TAU Governors, they responded immediately and generously,” said TAU Vice President Amos Elad. “It’s heartwarming to see the concern of our TAU friends take such concrete form and so quickly.” The funding has gone toward the purchase of a new ultracentrifuge and a new high capacity autoclave. “This vital equipment will bolster the ability of our research teams to conduct molecular virology and immunology research much faster than before and with the highest quality,” said Prof. Tal Pupko, Head of the School of Molecular Cell Biology and Biotechnology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences. Among the School’s urgent research goals are:
  • Aiding the authorities focus quarantine efforts, understand if there are “super-spreading” infected individuals, and predict how quickly the disease spreads or wanes.
  • Screening Israeli COVID-19 survivors for antibodies as a basis for therapies and a vaccine.
  • Developing novel inhibitors for viral entry and viral activity.
  • Finding candidate compounds to kick in the body’s natural immunity to COVID-19 and ability to overcome infection.
  • Understanding lung immune responses to viral infection.
  • Introducing a robotic system for much faster detection of coronavirus presence in tests.
  • Repurposing known and FDA-approved drugs for prevention and treatment.
Among local and international collaborators in the research are the Israeli Ministry of Health, Israel Biological Institute, IDF, major TAU-affiliated hospitals, and universities in Israel and abroad including Stanford University and University of Washington, Seattle.  

Boosting national coronavirus testing

In addition to the research, the School joined forces with TAU’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine to convert an existing lab into a coronavirus testing facility. The newly renovated lab will expand public testing and assist Israel’s overburdened hospitals. Professors, students, engineers and a construction crew worked 24/7 for three days straight to build the lab and bring it up to the highest safety and research standards. School members are also volunteering to operate it once the test samples come in. The lab project followed a move by several researchers at the School to help enlist medical students and biomed graduate students as volunteers for collecting and processing samples in hospital laboratories. The nationwide initiative recruited over 2,000 medical and graduate students as volunteers in the national public health operation.

Tel Aviv University Sets Up Emergency Lab to Expand COVID-19 Testing

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specialized lab, run by TAU researchers and graduate students, was built in 3 days

University has built an emergency COVID-19 testing lab, which will allow Israel to perform an additional 2,000 coronavirus tests per day. The new facility was born virtually overnight of the interdisciplinary efforts of TAU researchers, graduate students and management staff of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences. Construction for the lab began on Tuesday, March 24th, at 7 a.m., and was completed Friday, March 27th, with engineers, construction workers, professors and graduate students working around the clock. A Health Ministry official reviewed the lab to ensure that it meets health and safety protocols before commencing operations. “We realized immediately how critical testing was and how we at the University could contribute to Israel’s diagnostic landscape,” explains Prof. Ariel Munitz of Sackler’s Faculty of Medicine, who spearheaded the establishment of a testing lab on campus. “It was not an easy decision. It was unclear whether the Health Ministry would approve, and we did not know exactly what the protocol was or what was required – but we knew we needed to act.”   Getting ready to perform 2,000 coronavirus tests per day “We all understood that there was a national crisis at hand, and our first thought was how to help and contribute – we have put all other considerations aside,” adds Prof. Eran Bacharach of the School of Molecular Cell Biology and Biotechnology, Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, who is in charge of the TAU BSL2+ facility dedicated to studies of viruses and bacteria. Prof. Bacharach also helped coordinate a TAU volunteer initiative currently underway at Israeli hospitals. “A week ago we had to convince laboratories to accept our volunteers, but today labs are approaching us.” As a result of the TAU volunteer initiative, some 170 student volunteers are currently embedded in 12 laboratories in hospitals, including Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital), Shamir Medical Center (Assaf Harofeh), Rambam Health Care Campus, Soroka Medical Center, and HMOs across Israel. TAU volunteers at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital) But after technicians at the Sheba Medical Center’s laboratory were quarantined as a result of exposure to COVID-19, TAU recognized an opportunity to contribute even further to Israel’s coronavirus efforts by performing public testing. “We contacted University management, who got involved immediately and quickly approved an emergency budget for the project,” says Prof. Munitz. “The safety of the team operating the lab is and remains our highest priority, and we are taking every necessary precaution in strict alignment with Health Ministry regulations. The goal was to design a lab that could process up to 2,000 tests a day, and we have accomplished it.” “Usually, setting up a lab takes 4-6 months,” concludes Ofer Lugassi, VP of Engineering and Maintenance at TAU. “To do so within a few days required the extraordinary efforts of project partners working around the clock and adopting innovative ideas, including architect Daniel Zarchi who designed the lab. Without the full mobilization of the entire team, it would never have happened. We learned and solved everything ‘on the go’: from building a new ceiling, something we didn’t anticipate we would need to do, to installing a complex air filtration system that normally takes about a month to set up. Everything was done overnight.”   TAU researcher checking the lab facilities Featured image: Prof. Ariel Munitz

Live Webinar: Corona Virus crisis and the future of Disaster Management

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Insights into the global shifts from a medical, ethical, economic, and mental health perspective – what lies ahead?

Date: Monday, April 6 Time: 11:00 AM EST / 16:00 PM CET / 18:00 PM IL

Join Tel Aviv University’s emergency and disaster faculty and its assessment of the current corona crisis. This interdisciplinary panel of experts will offer insights into the global shifts taking place from a medical, ethical, economic, and mental health perspective and what lies ahead.

The webinar will be moderated by : Dr. Bruria Adini, Head of the Emergency & Disaster Management Department, School of Public Health, Sackler Faculty of Medicine.

Panelists: Dr. Yoav Yehezkeli, Disaster management of biological hazards Prof. Michael Alkan, Infectious diseases & humanitarian aid Prof. Nava Haruvi, Economic aspects Dr. Zohar Rubinshtein – Resilience and mental health Mr. Gili Shenhar, Risk communication

Connect for free >

For more information you may refer to our FB event page.

Milner Foundation Donates $3 million to Tel Aviv University, Magen David Adom and Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov)

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This “critical injection of oxygen” is expected to increase coronavirus remote testing and research.

The Milner Foundation, founded by renowned tech investor and science philanthropist Yuri Milner and his wife Julia, has donated $3 million to three Israeli institutions currently leading a “race against the clock” to beat the coronavirus pandemic: Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency medical response organization, which is launching an innovative project to reduce the number of people coming to clinics; Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine and George S. Wise Life Sciences, which is accelerating research efforts aimed at developing treatments for the virus; and Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Ichilov Hospital, which will directly fund the intensive care unit that is caring for COVID-19 sufferers. Mr. Milner, an Israeli citizen living in Silicon Valley, was an early investor in a range of tech giants that shaped the Internet, including Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Airbnb and Spotify. He and his wife Julia hope that the Foundation’s donation will help fight the spread of infection in Israel, and will advance new research and technological tools to combat the virus. The donation was carried out in close cooperation with Israel’s Consul-General to the Pacific North West in San Francisco, Mr. Shlomi Kofman. “This is an investment in the present and the future,” Mr. Milner says. “In the short term, it’s a way to increase the intensive care unit capacity in Israel and relieve pressure on doctors and, in the longer term, it will support the search for a cure and help develop a new system of virtual medical treatment. “In the face of global threats like this, science, technology and innovation are our best hopes. Israel is a leader in those fields, and I hope this initiative can both make an impact on COVID-19, and also become a model that can be replicated by other countries.” Consul-General Kofman adds: “It is wonderful to see Israelis abroad supporting their country at this difficult time. Silicon Valley and the State of Israel share a resourcefulness and ingenuity that will be invaluable in overcoming this crisis, and this donation from the Milner Foundation will be a big help in advancing that goal.”

Donation to Tel Aviv University

Tel Aviv University will utilize the donation for vaccination and drug R&D to treat coronavirus infection. Five TAU research groups will be assisted in their gene sequencing and gene editing technologies, in computer analysis and other advanced methods to find ways to block the penetration of the virus into cells or alternatively to strengthen the body’s immune response to overcome infection. TAU scientists will use samples taken from coronavirus patients in hospitals affiliated with the university and will work in close cooperation with many organizations including the Health Ministry, the Technion Institute of Technology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Biology Research Institute and other research institutions in Israel and worldwide. TAU President Prof. Ariel Porat says: “It’s very moving that in these difficult days, Milner Foundation has not forgotten the State of Israel and is generously helping Tel Aviv University. We for our part will do everything in our ability to justify the confidence given to us and through our first-rate researchers, we will contribute our part in this world war of a type that we have never known before.”

Donation to Magen David Adom (MDA)

MDA is launching an innovative project to reduce the number of people in Israel at healthcare fund clinics as well as hospital accident and emergency rooms. This is currently a critical necessity as the healthcare system contends with massive public demand. The project, which commenced due to the spread of the coronavirus, is part of MDA’s day-to-day operations and harnesses advanced telemedicine technologies in intensive care ambulances to provide effective, professional and safe medical treatment and reduce the number of people at clinics and hospitals. Due to this project, it will now be possible to treat coronavirus patients at home as well as those patients who cannot currently enter clinics for routine tests and treatment. MDA prepared the groundwork for the project in 2018, and the need for it has currently risen due to the coronavirus outbreak in Israel; the Foundation donation will enable MDA to fully launch this innovative project. MDA Director-General Eli Bin says: “Milner Foundation’s generous donation takes this initiative — something we’ve planned for years — and instantly turns it into a viable program that can keep hundreds of thousands of Israelis out of hospitals every year. Using technology to benefit our patients has long been a priority at Magen David Adom, and the telemedicine equipment that we will now purchase on a large scale will allow us to significantly increase the number of patients we can respond to at home while reducing the burden on hospitals and preventing unnecessary infections.”

Donation to Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center

According to Prof. Ronni Gamzu CEO of TSMC (Ichilov), “The donation would serve the need of supporting Intensive Care Unit department, promoting diagnosis and research for the epidemiology and treatment of the new disease while serving the entire State of Israel and the world.”

Milner Foundation

Yuri Milner, who lives in Silicon Valley, California and holds Israeli citizenship, is one of the world’s most respected technology investors. His portfolio has included some of the world’s most prominent internet companies, such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Airbnb, Spotify, Alibaba, and others. The Milner Foundation has contributed to a range of initiatives and organizations in Israel as well as to Jewish communities in Europe via The Conference of European Rabbis. In 2018, to mark the 70th anniversary of the State of Israel, the Foundation awarded NIS 25 million to 70 outstanding Ph.D. students at the Technion, Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University. In addition, it is a prominent donor to the Peres Center for Peace and FIDF. At the same time, Yuri and Julia Milner have long supported initiatives that utilize scientific and technological innovations to improve peoples’ lives, including joining Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett’s “Giving Pledge” initiative, as part of their commitment to donate most of their wealth for important scientific programs. In 2012, they, together with other senior tech figures including Google cofounder Sergey Brin, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, Pony Ma founder of Tencent and Anne Wojcicki founder of 23andMe founded the Breakthrough Prizes – a not-for-profit organization which awards prizes for breakthrough research in the fields of fundamental physics, life sciences and mathematics. The Breakthrough Prizes are considered among the most prestigious in the world of scientific achievements, and every year six winners each receives $3 million. Since 2012, the organization has awarded more than $200 million to about 2,000 scientists (including some prizes split between the members of large research groups).

Students Volunteer to Increase and Improve Coronavirus Testing Across Israel

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Over 1000 medical and graduate students join initiative to assist medical and laboratory teams.

Israeli hospitals and universities, including Tel Aviv University, have joined forces to build an enormous student volunteer base to expand and improve the detection of people infected with novel coronavirus all over Israel. In addition, TAU, together with the Weizmann Institute of Science and other institutes in Israel, have recruited over 600 doctoral students to volunteer their time and assist overburdened hospitals process coronavirus tests in laboratories.

The medical student initiative was launched by researchers and doctors at Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Hadassah Medical Center and Shamir Medical Center, together with the co-chairs of the Medical Students Association, which represents medical students at Israel’s five universities.

The volunteer base is geared at scaling up Israel’s capacity to conduct tests and produce critical coronavirus infection results more quickly. Accordingly, over 1,000 medical student volunteers from all over the country are helping Magen David Adom, Israel’s National Pre-Hospital Medical and Blood Emergency Services Organization (MDA), collect test samples from people in communities across the country.

“Dozens of volunteers have already joined MDA medics in collecting test samples this week, and some have even started to carry out the tests themselves,” says Prof. Carmit Levy of the Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry at TAU’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine, who is involved in this initiative.

This week, five doctoral students underwent coronavirus testing training, led by Prof. Ohad Gal-Mor of TAU’s Sackler School of Medicine and the head of the Sheba Infectious Diseases Research Laboratory.

“It is inspiring to see students from all of the higher education institutions in the country enlisted bravely and resolutely to establish new laboratories and to assist existing laboratories in their efforts against the coronavirus,” Prof. Levy adds.

The doctoral student volunteer mission was the brainchild of TAU, the Technion, Hebrew University, Bar-Ilan University, Ariel University and many medical centers, including Sheba, Shamir, Hadassah, Soroka, Wolfson, and Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center. Several HMOs are also taking part in this effort in full coordination with the Ministry of Health.

“The level of collaboration between faculty, physicians, health professionals and medical and graduate students at the universities, hospitals, HMOs, MDA, and Ministry of Health, is unprecedented in Israel,” concludes Prof. Karen Avraham, Vice Dean of TAU’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine. “This will set the stage for years to come for how much we can accomplish when working together so selflessly.”

Volunteers in a MEUHEDET HMO. (Photo: MEUHEDET HMO)

TAU researcher launches urgent push to beat corona

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Dr. Natalia Freund is analyzing immunity of Israelis who have recovered from the virus.

TAU researcher Dr. Natalia Freund and her team have abandoned their everyday work of isolating antibodies for HIV and other infectious diseases to urgently fight and treat COVID-19, the new coronavirus. The highly contagious disease has been declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization, with almost 200,000 cases worldwide at press time.

Freund, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, will analyze blood samples from Israelis who have recovered from COVID-19 (eleven at press time). Working with graduate student Michael Mordekovich, she will use cutting-edge technology to isolate and extract special cells that produce antibodies following infection and immunize us against the virus.  From these cells, she will isolate antibodies against the virus, produce them in her lab and test them for viral inhibition.

Hope for a vaccine

Freund is hopeful that within a few weeks her team will generate an antibody that will be ready for preclinical trials. The anticipated result is a treatment for COVID-19 patients and a candidate for the development of a vaccine, “although these would be ready in a best-case scenario months down the line,” said Dr. Freund.

Dr. Natalia Freund, testing to beat the coronavirus

In attempts to stem the outbreak as soon as possible, she is working intensively with colleagues at TAU as well as at the Chaim Sheba Medical Center (Tel Hashomer Hospital), Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital), Bar-Ilan University and the Institute for Biological Research.

Aside from Dr. Freund, several more scientists at TAU are working on various aspects of COVID-19 in a campus-wide effort to better understand and overcome the virus.

 

What’s more important? Privacy vs. public health

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Experts from Tel Aviv University answer questions about the coronavirus crisis.

On Saturday, March 14, Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu stated that the government intends to use various digital tools, the kind that have so far been used in the fight against terrorism, for the purpose of monitoring the coronavirus. His remarks remained vague and were not accompanied by detailed explanations, which raised many questions for citizens.

On the one hand, radical measures are being taken around the world to try to eradicate the coronavirus, including increased surveillance and tracking measures, in accordance with WHO recommendations. Apps and features that were previously controversial are being hailed as lifesaving. On the other hand, do public health considerations override an individual’s right to privacy? Is there a precedent for the state to surveil citizens who are not suspected of any crime? What will be done with this private information? Who will have access to it? We asked experts to shed some light on this.

Can your phone serve as your handcuffs?

On Saturday, Israel’s Prime Minister announced that among other measures being considered, there will be use of “digital tools, as done in Taiwan.” Prof. Itzhak Ben-Israel, head of the Security Studies Program at the School of Political Science, Government & Political Affairs and also of the Yuval Ne’eman workshop for Science, Technology & Security and Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center said, “There are many options for this kind of surveillance. The simplest of them is to use the cellphone location function to make sure that the people who are quarantined at home aren’t leaving the house. Another option is to use the same location function to follow the path of someone who might be carrying the virus to see where they’ve been. This is a more intrusive option in terms of privacy. There are of course even more intrusive options, ‘Big Brother’ style. For example, it’s possible to track the ‘suspect’ who might be infected with the disease via the contents of their e-mail or social media, to find people the ‘suspect’ has been in touch with in recent days. In Taiwan, meanwhile, they’ve used the most minimal of the options I’ve mentioned: the use of the location function (as a kind of electronic handcuff).”

The concern: an irreparable violation of individual rights

“Israel’s Prime Minister didn’t elaborate on what measures would be taken, who would be affected by conducting the surveillance, and what legal framework would be used,” says Prof. Michael Birnhack, Deputy Dean of Research at the Buchmann Faculty of Law and also a researcher at the Balavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Researcher Center. “The state now has a number of legal tools to monitor people in various contexts, but there is no context that fits well with a general health emergency, such as the one we are in right now.

“Indeed, the emergency is severe, and Israel and many other countries have no prior experience in dealing with this kind of epidemic, but the right to privacy, like all human rights, is particularly important and is tested in times of crisis and emergency. A populist approach presents the situation as a dichotomy in which we must choose between public health and privacy. This is a false and misleading dichotomy. The democratic approach seeks to balance and, where possible, achieve both goals at once.

“The concern is that curtailing of rights will be difficult to fix, and emergency arrangements will remain with us long after the coronavirus disappears. To prevent such harm, the health system needs to be precisely defined. According to its needs, different tools available to the state can be examined, in order to find the course of action that last violates privacy (‘proportionality’ in legal terms).

“I can characterize some of these needs: First, the patients. They need the best care, and we all have an interest in reducing further infection. The patients’ privacy is compromised by the hospitalization. No additional follow-up measures are needed for them.

“Second, those isolated at home – the interest here is to make sure they maintain isolation lest they infect others. But here, the social solidarity, backed by the law that determines the isolation breach as a criminal offense, the ability to report someone, and the enforcement of the Ministry of Health backed by the police – are sufficient. Geolocation of people who are isolated won’t be effective. A person who wants to violate isolation will simply leave the mobile phone at home.

“Third, reconstructing the ‘path of infection’ for those who are ill. As part of the epidemiological investigation, not all patients remember where they were every hour from the 14 days prior to identifying their disease. Cellular data can help. But here, you don’t need the law. It’s enough to ask for their consent and, in my estimation, everyone will agree to give up their location data, to minimize the harm they’ve caused unintentionally.

“And fourth, locating those who have been exposed to a verified patient. Here, you need to be informed. Now, the Ministry of Health is publicizing the patients’ ‘path of infection’, but presumably the information does not reach everyone who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Cellphone surveillance can locate them. This is where the idea of ​​’privacy by design’ comes into the picture. One way is that cellular companies transmit information to the state. This is a bad, disproportionate way. The goal is not to collect location information, but to inform citizens. So, the flow of information has to be reversed, so that the state asks cellular companies to contact those who were in a certain place at a certain time. The details are important, of course, and should be formulated in an integrated engineering-organizational-legal process,” concludes Prof. Birnhack.

In conclusion, responsibility seems to ultimately fall on everyone in society. It’s our responsibility to demonstrate social solidarity, to obey the instructions of official health agencies so as not to infect others, and help as much as possible those in our community who are afraid or are at higher risk. It’s also our responsibility to ask questions and not take for granted fundamental rights. It seems that balancing these two approaches will allow us to successfully overcome this crisis.

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