Azrieli Faculty of Medicine Newsletter #29 (Nov. 9 - 22, 2020 )

לניוזלטרים עברית, לחץ כאן.

For PDF version, click here.

International Cooperation

Prof. Chaim Putterman, Associate Dean for Research, opened the ACR Convergence 2020 conference (by Zoom), “Lupus Nephritis: New Decade, New Approaches.” He spoke about recent progress in biomarkers, such as their use in early diagnosis and prediction of disease flare, and his predictions for more rapid integration of novel biomarkers into clinical care.
Prof. Eric Shinwell, Associate Dean for Medical Education, spoke (by Zoom) at an international conference – the Union of European Neonatal and Pediatric Societies. His talk was entitled “Antibiotic stewardship in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.”
To commemorate International Day for Tolerance (November 16, 2020), a joint prayer session for the current Coronavirus pandemic was initiated by the Israeli and United Arab Emirates ministries of the interior. Dignitaries and medical professionals from eight faiths – Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Bahia, Druze – participated.

Research Grants

Congratulations to Dr. Shai Bel upon receipt of a research grant from the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organization – The Role of Autophagy in Limiting IBD-associated AIEC-induced intestinal inflammation.

Seminars

PhD Seminar: Human Nup214 malfunction in a rare neurodegenerative disease (Nitzan Biran supervised by Prof. Amnon Harel)
Special Seminar: Pericytes at the Cossroads between Tissue Regeneration and Pathology (Prof. Alexander Birbrair)
Special Seminar: Order from Chaos: Chromosome Catastrophes Drive Cancer Evolution (Dr. Ofer Shoshani)
PhD Seminar: Arginase inhibition as a treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (Baruh Polis supervised by Dr. Avraham Samson and Dr. Hava Gil Henn)

Online Teaching Survey

Prof. Jamal Zidan, Chairman of the Faculty of Medicine Council, carried out a survey of online teaching, just before the new fall semester commenced. Twenty eight students from the three-year track replied. Overall, it shows, students are pleased with the option of studying remotely. They prefer small groups and the use of educational aids during the lecture. Good organization is vital. They also stressed the importance of recording the lectures so they can be revisited in the future for clarification. “This is important information for us, since it offers feedback from the perspective of the student, not just the teacher. It will serve as a springboard for future surveys,” Prof. Jamal added.

Reminder: Webinar Series

Webinar series with the world’s foremost experts on vaccines, pandemics, and public health systems: When the End Is Just the Beginning: The COVID-19 Vaccine Challenge

Session One, Mon., Nov. 2, 2020, 6 pm IST, Prof. David Heymann, “The Vaccine Is Not the (Whole) Answer: Learning to Live with the COVID-19 pandemic”

Session Two, Tues., Nov. 10, 2020, 6 pm IST, Prof. Andrew Pollard “Ten Years in Less than Ten Months: Runing Vaccine Trials During a Pandemic”

Session Three, Wed., Nov. 18, 2020, 6 pm IST, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, “Lessons from Africa: Immunizing Populations in Low-income Settings”

Still Upcoming:

Session Four, Wed., Nov. 25, 2020, 6 pm IST, Prof. Michael Edelstein (of our Faculty) “It’s All in the Delivery: Operational and Logistical Challenges in Deploying a Pandemic Vaccine”

Session Five, Mon., Nov. 30, 2020, 6 pm IST, Dr. Ravit Barkama, “Treating Patients, Testing Patients: A Hospital at the Forefront of COVID-19 Treatments”

Website Recap

Publications

Reminder that publications by Azrieli faculty are generally posted in chronological order based on publication date, per PubMed listings.

D Tworowski, A Gorohovski, S Mukherjee, G Carmi, E Levy, R Detroja, S Biswas Mukherjee, M Frenkel-Morgenstern: COVID19 Drug Repository: text-mining the literature in search of putative COVID19 therapeutics (Nucleic Acids Res .)
Esther Orlanski-Meyer, Dotan Yogev, Adi Auerbach, Orli Megged, Daniel Glikman, Philip J Hashkes, Maskit Bar-Meir: Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children associated with SARS-CoV-2 in an 8-week old infant (J Pediatric Infect Dis Soc . )
Karl Skorecki: Childhood Cancer and the Risk of ESKD (J Am Soc Nephrol . )
Moshe Dessau: The structural basis for SARM1 inhibition and activation under energetic stress (Elife . )
Anuj Ahuja, Guy Journo, Ron Eitan, Meir Shamay: High levels of LINE-1 transposable elements expressed in Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus-related primary effusion lymphoma (Oncogene .)
Tzipora Falik-Zaccai: The role of orotic acid measurement in routine newborn screening for urea cycle disorders (J Inherit Metab Dis . )
W Sbeit, A Kadah, A Shahin, N Abed, H Haddad, A Jabbour, H Said Ahmad, R Pellicano, T Khoury, A Mari: Predictors of in-hospital mortality among patients with Clostridium difficile infection: a multicenter study (Minerva Med .)

Faculty News

Media Exposure

WorldIsraelNews.com: WATCH: Corona won’t disappear without vast majority vaccinated, says Israeli professor (Prof. Chaim Putterman)
Vice.com: Slovakia Is Testing Its Entire Population for Covid-19 (Prof. Michael Edelstein)
JTA: Israeli scientists pioneering new, less invasive breast cancer detection methods (Dr. Hava Gil-Henn)

Image Gallery/Photo Albums

Nothing new for now…stay tuned…PhD graduation this week…

Reminders

Updates/ads/notifications can be posted on the English Faculty of Medicine opening page. Let me know.

Comments/additions? Write to us, here.