Faculty of Medicine Newsletter 33 (January 4-17, 2021)

לניוזלטרים בעברית, לחץ כאן.

For PDF version, click here.

Introducing Our New 10-Year Anniversary Logos

Appointments, Promotions, and Grants

• Congratulations to Prof. Eric Shinwell upon his promotion to Full Professor.
• Congratulations to Dr. Nomy Dickman upon her promotion to Senior Lecturer.
• Congratulations to Prof. Tzipora Falik Zaccai upon two-year extension of appointment as member of the national committee for multi-center clinical trials, by the Directorate of Medical Technologies, Informatics & Research of the Israeli Ministry of Health.
• Congratulations to Prof. Itay Onn upon receipt of Israel Cancer Association grant.

Medical School Application Season

Prof. Itay Onn who heads the four-year medical school selection committee, reports that the selection process for the 2021-22 academic year will commence on March 1, 2021, the date of the “knowledge test.”

The “analytical test” that tests thinking skills and serves as part of the screening tests for the four-year medical program, will be given this year in Arabic as well. Candidates whose mother tongue is Arabic have complained in the past that the test when given in the Hebrew language, does not allow them to express and prove their full potential. The Azrieli Faculty of Medicine and the Faculties of Medicine of Tel Aviv and Ariel Universities jointly approached the National Institute for Testing and Evaluation. The decision was made to translate the test into Arabic and allow candidates whose mother tongue is Arabic to be tested in that language.

Overcoming Covid-19 Educational Challenges

Prof. Johnny S. Younis, Vice Dean for Clinical Education, reports that the educational administration has made a strategic decision to continue clinical studies in the affiliated hospitals and medical centers in the community despite the limitations. He says that the Faculty has gained quite a bit of experience in the past year regarding how to cope, but that lately they are being faced with new challenges, mainly due to 1) The decision to limit gatherings to no more than 5 people in a room which makes it very difficult to manage the clinical instruction in an optimal way; and 2) The closing of all schools, which makes it difficult for parents to continue their clinical studies in a continuous and efficient manner.

The educational administration together with the dean of students are working with the department heads, clinics, and tutors – and of course the students – to find optimal solutions.

Prof. Younis concludes: “I am full of hope that we will succeed in getting through these trying times. Sometimes we need to be creative and think out of the box.”

A Few Words from the Student Union

Due to the challenging Corona times, and in order to offer some academic assistance, the chairman of the student union, Lee Azulay together with the student union academic excellence coordinator David Carmon started a mentoring club wherein more experienced students help out the newer ones as they acclimate. The program will start off with anatomy and later be expanded to include subjects such as physiology and internal medicine and even practical skills such as public speaking.

In addition, as the students begin to get their second round of immunizations, they would like to thank the administration for their help in making this happen so quickly and efficiently.
 

Seminars

• PhD Seminar: Modulation of Cellular Epigenetics by Kaposi’s Sarcoma Associated Herpesvirus (Guy Journo supervised by Dr. Meir Shamay)
• Upcoming: Special Seminar: Dissecting the Axoneme Structure: New Insights into an Old Organelle (Dr. Ron Orbach, Yale U., hosted by Dr. Nir Qvit)

Website: What’s New? (medicine.biu.ac.il/en)              

Publications (https://medicine.biu.ac.il/en/research-news(

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

• Amir Bashkin, Manar Ghanim, Reem Miari, Samer Srouji, Mizied Falah: Forty-One Plant Extracts Screened for Dual Antidiabetic and Antioxidant Functions: Evaluating the Types of Correlation between -Amylase Inhibition and Free Radical Scavenging (Molecules.)
• Dhanoop Manikoth Ayyathan, Gal Levy-Cohen, Sandy Boutros-Suleiman, Michael Blank: Development and characterisation of SMURF2-targeting modifiers (J Enzyme Inhib Med Chem . )
• Aatef Khattib, Elena Bukovetzky, Orna Dally Gottfried: Is the probable spillage of the lung surfactant dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine the ultimate source of diabetes type 1? (Respir Physiol Neurobiol .)
• Avi Matityahu, Itay Onn: Hit the brakes - a new perspective on the loop extrusion mechanism of cohesin and other SMC complexes (J Cell Sci .)
• G Fonar, B Polis, D S Sams, A Levi, A Malka, E Elliot, A O Samson: Modified Snake α-Neurotoxin Averts β-Amyloid Binding to α7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor and Reverses Cognitive Deficits in Alzheimer's Disease Mice (Mol Neurobiol .)
• T Zoabi, O Ronen: A novel technique for protecting staff during microlaryngoscopy procedures (J Laryngol Otol .)
• Nakhoul Farid, Nakhoul Nakhoul: Active vitamin D supplementation and COVID-19 infections: review (Ir J Med Sci . )
• Anjali Pathania, Avi Matityahu, Itay Onn: Chromosome loading of cohesin depends on conserved residues in Scc3 (Curr Genet . )
• Mohammad Adawi:Burden of Ocular Comorbidities in Patients With Hidradenitis Suppurativa (JAMA Dermatol .)
• Karl Skorecki: Kinins and Chymase: The Forgotten Components of the Renin angiotensin system and their implications in COVID-19 Disease (Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol .)
• Nehama Cohen Kfir, Mary Rudolf, Miriam Ethel Bentwich, Nomy Dickman, Tzipora C Falik-Zaccai: 'LEADERS': A culturally tailored approach to genetic counseling for minority populations (J Genet Couns . )
• Offer Amir: Novel technologies in the management of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction: a promise during the time of disappointment from pharmacological approaches? (Curr Opin Cardiol . )

Faculty News (https://medicine.biu.ac.il/en/faculty-news) 

Nothing new uploaded to the site these past two weeks, despite recent signing of collaboration with Gulf Medical University. See broad press coverage for exciting details.

Media Exposure (https:/medicine.biu.ac.il/en/media)       

• JPost.com: First of its kind: Bar Ilan and UAE University sign academic collaboration
• JewishPress.com: Bar-Ilan U, UAE’s Gulf Medical U Sign Collaboration Agreement

Image Gallery/Photo Albums (https://medicine.biu.ac.il/en/gallery)       

Stay tuned for new pictures…

A Special Request

The Azrieli Faculty of Medicine will be celebrating its ten-year anniversary. We invite and encourage you to send us a short (15-20 second) video (selfie or with assistance) of what the Faculty means to you, your experiences, growth, hopes for the future of the Faculty. Special credit for creativity! Send your videos to Hadas Oren via email or WhatsApp.

Comments/additions/updates?

Write to us, here.