Second Place in Teva BioInnovations Forum Competition

Orly Weisberg, a student in Prof. Evan Elliott's neurobiology laboratory, won second place in the BioMix2023 competition on March 17, 2024. Some 30 ideas were presented by students from all Israeli universities.

Orly is a participant in a Teva company program called ForumTeva BioInnovations. The program trains students in academia to prepare for the world of industry. As part of the program, participants are exposed to senior personalities in academia and industry, participate in workshops and training sessions, and learn how to develop an idea that originated in academia and translate it for industry. As part of the program the students were requested to take an academic idea then develop it into a medical startup. All ideas competed in the Teva BioMix2023 competition.

Orly has named her company HostDiffender. It is a groundbreaking idea that is based on her master's thesis and has been processed so that it can reach the clinic - a unique development designed to prevent toxicity in bone marrow transplants.

A bone marrow transplant is the main treatment for leukemia patients, but in many cases (40-60%) the patients develop a new disease called GvHD following the transplant. Everyone recognizes the risk of transplant rejection, but in a bone marrow transplant, cells of the immune system are transplanted and when they recognize the body's cells as foreign they can attack them and produce a disease called GvHD Graft versus Host Disease. About 30% of mortality after bone marrow transplants is due to complications of GvHD.

HostDiffender is an idea that is based on CAR-T technology and enables the selective removal of alloreactive T cells (which cause GvHD) from the transplant before transplantation and to produce a safe transplant.

In her research, Orly combines immunology with neurology and focuses on neurological and immunological aspects of autism.