Faculty News

Congratulations to Prof. Itay Onn, Prof. Michael Blank, Prof. Meital Gal-Tanamy, Dr. Hanna Keren, Dr. Shai Bel, and Dr. Nir Qvit. from The Azrieli Faculty of Medicine on being awarded the Israel Science Foundation grant. This prestigious recognition underscores their exceptional research and dedication to advancing medical science.

The grant will empower them to continue their groundbreaking work, contributing valuable insights to the academic community. We celebrate their remarkable achievement and look forward to the impactful outcomes of their ongoing research.

Dr. Youssef Awni has been appointed as advisor to the Dean, Prof. Orly Avni, for Arab Sector Affairs.

Dr. Awni is an active faculty member at the Faculty of Medicine in the Galilee, involved in clinical medical education; in guiding medical students in the Center for Consulting Medicine under his management; in creating collaborations between the University and the Clalit Health Fund; and also serves as the chairman of the Research Center for Environmental and Population Health at the Faculty; as a member of the social commitment committee and the strategic committee of the Russell Berrie Galilee Diabetes Sphere of the Faculty.

Dr. Awni is an orthopedic physician, and has held significant positions that have had an influence on public health in the North: for 26 years he worked at the Emek Hospital as an orthopedist specialist and as a pediatric orthopedist, and combined administrative work in the northern district of the Clalit Health Fund. Since 1994, he has been managing the orthopedic service in the North District and established the department of control and hospitalization control in the hospitals in the North, in addition to consulting for the main administration.

In 2013, Dr. Awni was appointed director of the Nazareth Towers Consulting Medical Center, which includes 300 employees and 17 departments. Under his management, the Center became Clalit's flagship center, and won the Outstanding Center award for 10 consecutive years. He developed new services such as a pain clinic, the first fetal ultrasound, and operating rooms.

In recent years, Dr. Awni has served as the Deputy Director of the Northern District at the Clalit Health Fund, is a member of the District Board, and Assistant Vice President of the Community for Health Promotion in the Arab Society. As part of his work, he combines his extensive professional and managerial experience with his connections in Arab society and in the North in general in order to lead significant health projects and promote the health of the community.

Prof. Orly Avni, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in the Galilee: "Dr. Awni is highly valued for his work at the Faculty and for the clinical medical education of our students. This is a significant position whose purpose is to strengthen the relationship with Israel's Arab sector in general and in the north in particular, considering the diversity of the population of patients and students at the Faculty. This is another milestone in the development of the capabilities of the Faculty in the Galilee to adapt to current challenges and the local population in the region.”

The Azrieli Faculty of Medicine will be welcoming in the coming months, three new microscopes that will be located in the scientific equipment center.

The equipment that will be purchased will include a state-of-the-art confocal microscope that allows the creation of 3D images of the sample by changing the focus point of the light in space, a spinning disk microscope that allows monitoring of short-lived dynamic processes in cells, and an incosite system that is used to film living cells, and image processing capabilities that are based on artificial intelligence .

The purchase will be financed with the funds of a competitive grant of the council for higher education's planning and funding committee. The proposal was submitted by Prof. Itay Onn and Dr. Ron Orbach. The scientific content was provided by Prof. Meital Gal Tanamy, Dr. Shai Bel, Dr. David Enshell Seijffers and other Faculty researchers .

These advanced microscopes, which are at the forefront of technology, will bring new and advanced capabilities to the microscopy unit at the Scientific Equipment Center.

The Microscopy Unit, under the direction of Dr. Michael Assa, provides the professional supporting infrastructure for the groundbreaking research being carried out by the Faculty's researchers.

The BIU Azrieli Faculty of Medicine in the Galilee always tries to be an active partner in the local community and lead to positive changes in the region. As part of our commitment to social involvement, we stepped to the plate at the request of the head of the Marom HaGalil Council, Keren Patel, to host about 80 students from grades 4 to 8 for a science workshop.

During the visit, Dr. Shulamit Fluss Ben Uliel and Dr. Michal Werbner Poran, graduates of the Faculty who are now lab managers here, welcomed the children and offered them experiential science workshops. The workshops were carefully planned to stimulate the children's curiosity, expand their horizons and give them practical experiences in science, with the hope of to exposing them to the world of research and make science accessible and fascinating for them.

This involvement is part of the broad vision of the faculty, which believes in the importance of the connection between academics and the community, with our role bridging between the worlds of science and research and the general public. We consider it a privilege and a duty to lead and support social initiatives that promote scientific education in the periphery, with the aim of empowering the younger generation and securing their future as leading researchers, doctors and scientists in Israel.

Photo credit: מוחמד אבוריא

Every year, the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine celebrates and honors the scientists, researchers, and doctors who teach at the Faculty.

This recognition is given to the scientists, researchers, and doctors who are responsible for the pre-clinical training, to the faculty who offer academic courses to the research students situated at campus laboratories, and also to the doctors who teach the students bedside, during the clinical studies phase of their training. Clinical teaching takes place in the hospitals affiliated to the faculty - Tzafon Medical Center in Poriya, Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya, Ziv Medical Center in Safed, and the three hospitals in Nazareth - the Scottish, the French, and the Italian - and in community clinics all over the Galilee, clinics in the Northern and Western Galilee districts of Clalit Health Services and the northern district of Maccabi. In all of these locations, approximately 1000 lecturers are responsible for the teaching of our students.

Based on student course feedback, some 100 outstanding teachers were selected this year to receive special recognition certificates for excellence in teaching for academic year 2022-23.

Faculty management also awards certificates for outstanding courses and outstanding hospital departments.

A few pictures can be seen here.

One of the aims of the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine is to mentor and train the next generation of researchers. Some will have roles in academia, and some will transition to industry. Last month, Dr. Sondra Turjeman led a new academic workshop entitled "From Academy to Industry in One Week" in which MSc and PhD students in the medical and health sciences were encouraged to take a week to think about their futures as leading scientists and researchers. The course's main aim was to introduce research students to the world outside of the academy, with a special focus on the North. 

More than 20 guest speakers came to Safed to teach about the different types of industries in Israel, explain the differences between various job titles, discuss research-adjacent roles, describe what it takes to get a job (CV, networking, and interviews), highlight differences in culture between big and small companies and new and budding start-ups, and share their experiences making the transition out of academia - including practical tips and common mistakes.

In addition to familiarizing students with types of jobs relevant to their biomedical advanced degrees, a secondary goal of the course was to provide students with tools towards obtaining these jobs. Students prepared elevator pitches - short personal statements for any occasion - CVs, and LinkedIn profiles, and on the final day of the course, they put everything together in a networking event with Faculty alumni and other members of the North's varied industry. The room was buzzing all afternoon, and the event led to a number of connections that students have already begun to cultivate, towards building their own personal networks.

Merck sponsored refreshments for the course throughout, the Bar-Ilan Employability Center provided students with personal access to LinkedIn Learning to further expand their skillset, Bar-Ilan's Unbox joined for a lecture, and guests from AgTech, MedTech, FoodTech, clinical trials, and everything in between joined from near and far.

The students of the Faculty of Medicine in the Galilee of Bar-Ilan University initiated a visit to the Ziv Medical Center in Safed to meet with and give gifts to the children of Majdal Shams who were injured in Hezbollah's criminal shelling of the village last Saturday. Faculty staff joined in and pulled together a quick fundraiser - staff raised a  nice sum which was used to purchase gifts for the children. The visit to the hospital made the children happy.

We are excited to introduce the 98 medical students who received their White Coats last night at a festive and exciting ceremony.

The event marks the transition from the pre-clinical study phase at the Faculty, to the clinical practical study phase which will take place bedside, at the northern hospitals affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine and at community centers in the Galilee.

Prof. Orly Avni, Dean of the Faculty, congratulated them: "In an era of artificial intelligence, where at the click of a button all human knowledge will be spread before your eyes and the eyes of your patients, organized and laid out according to demand - your real strength lies in the ability to extend a smart, empathetic and compassionate hand, to guide patients to the treatment that best suits them.”

We are proud of you and wish you success in the hospitals!

A few pictures can be seen here.

On July 1, 2024, the first conference of its kind in the north on sex and gender aware medicine was held at the Bar-Ilan U. Azrieli Faculty of Medicine in Safed, with an emphasis on the periphery.

The organizers of the conference - Dr. Rola Khamisy Farah, coordinator of the Sex and Gender Aware Medicine course at the Faculty of Medicine, and Dr. Michal Sela and Dr. Ronal Bernstein the founders and chairpersons of the NogaFem Center – worked together in the organization of the conference and its successful implementation at the Faculty of Medicine in Safed.

The conference was attended by more than 140 doctors, and other medical professions including nurses, pharmacists, attorneys, researchers, and more. The response was very impressive, despite the difficult and challenging security situation in the north in general and Safed in particular.

Professor Orly Avni, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, gave a welcome speech and emphasized the importance of the subject and the Faculty's commitment to educate students to be actively aware of these differences and adopt a sex- and gender-aware lens in research and clinical work in the future.

Professor Glazerman, "the father of gender medicine," founder and current chairman of the Israeli Society for Sex and Gender Aware Medicine, delivered congratulations and gave a fascinating lecture on "Why medicine should be sex and gender aware."

Professor Dror Dicker, director of the Internal Medicine Department (D) of the Sharon Hospital, gave an amazing lecture on sex and gender in obesity diseases.

Dr. Avital Porter, Director of the Women's Heart Clinic at Sharon Hospital, gave a lecture on aspects of sex and gender in the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases

Professor Naim Shehadeh, Director of the Russell Berrie Galilee Diabetes SPHERE, spoke about treating obesity and diabetes in the Arab sector and the differences between the sexes.

Dr. Fiad Adoi, Director of the Endocrinology and Diabetes Unit at the Ziv Medical Center in Safed, offered his insights on diabetes and gender issues.

Dr. Keren Agay Shay, head of Health and Environmental research at the Faculty of Medicine, gave a fascinating lecture on gender differences in causal risks.

Congratulations to Dr. Shai Bel upon receipt of a grant from the European Union. An innovative treatment for inflammatory bowel diseases will now proceed to the pre-clinical stage.

150,000 Euros (approx. 600,000 NIS) will be awarded to a researcher who succeeds in developing an innovative therapeutic approach for those suffering from Crohn's disease and Colitis.

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), such as Crohn's and Colitis, are chronic diseases that affect 1% of the population in the developed world. The current treatments weaken the immune system, which can have potentially serious consequences such as infection and the development of cancer. In addition, over 50% of patients do not respond to any existing treatments.

Two years ago, thanks to a preliminary ERC grant, Dr. Bel and his team discovered a possible new approach to treating these diseases. The method they developed encourages the intestine to produce mucus that protects the tissue from bacteria and helps to heal the intestine.

Now, with the support of an ERC Proof of Concept grant, this innovative approach can be tested in preclinical models, determining the potential to treat clinical patients.

You worked hard for the title "PhD" - and we are proud of you. We beamed along with you at last night's graduation ceremony at the main Bar-Ilan campus in Ramat Gan.

Mazal tov!

Mazal tov to 75 women and 59 men who worked very hard to qualify for their MD degrees, which were conferred last night at the Yigal Alon Auditorium in Safed, home to the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine.

This represents the 8th graduating class of the four-year track and the 9th graduating class of the three-year track.

A few pictures can be seen here.

Congratulations to Dr. Sivan Spitzer and to Dr. Elite Arnon Sheleg of the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine upon receipt of this year's Bar-Ilan University Outstanding Instructor Award.

Ceremony was held at the main Ramat Gan campus on July 1, 2024.

Full BIU article (in Hebrew) can be found here.

Warmest congratulations are extended to recipients of this year's Rector’s Prize for Outstanding Students.

• Hanan Zbedat, of Prof. Itay Onn's lab (to the right)
• Lynn Khoon of Dr. Ron Piran's lab (to the left)

A ceremony was held at the BIU Ramat Gan campus on June 24, 2024.

The 24th Nahariya Conference on Medicine and the Holocaust, in memory of Prof. Shaul Shasha, took place on June 5, 2024 at the Galilee Medical Center. The yearly conference is a joint collaboration between the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, the Ghetto Fighters' House Museum, and the Western Galilee College.

This year's conference focused on three areas:

• The Nahariya Conference on Medicine and the Holocaust
• Teachers' Course on Medicine and Holocaust Education
• Conference to mark the launch of the Task Force Report on Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust

Dr. Hadas Shasha Lavsky, of the organizers, adds: "For the three days of this conference, the BIU Faculty of Medicine stood out in leadership. The Galilee is where the conferences on medicine and the Holocaust began, from where the Galilee Declaration came out in 2017 calling for the teaching of medicine and the Holocaust in all medical faculties in the world, and where there have been four partners on the subject for many years - the Galilee Medical Center, the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Western Galilee College, and the Ghetto Fighters' House Museum. We wish to continue to lead this field in Israel, to attract researchers and lecturers working in the field and to be a role model for the other faculties. The establishment of a research center on medicine and the Holocaust within an ethics research center constitutes another layer of activity in the field in our faculty.

"I would like to thank Prof. Orly Avni, Dean of the Faculty, for her active participation. Generally, deans come to conferences to deliver a greeting at the beginning of the conference and to express their participation in the first minutes of the conference. Dean Avni did not do that; Prof. Avni was available for two full days and was actively present at the conferences when she chaired a session at the Medicine and Holocaust conference in Nahariya and participated in the panel at the conference launching the report at the Western Galilee College. This active presence contributed greatly to the conference, both in terms of content and in expressing support and commitment to the assimilation of medical and Holocaust studies in the Faculty of Medicine. "

Specific details can be seen on the Hebrew site.