Faculty of Medicine Newsletter 68 (November 2022)

PDF for easier reading here.

SPHERE: Mobile Diabetes-Testing of the Israel Diabetes Association at Bar-Ilan Ramat Gan Campus

The Azrieli Faculty of Medicine and The Russell Berrie Galilee Diabetes SPHERE initiated community testing for the early detection of diabetes in November – National Diabetes Awareness Month. On November 22, 2022, a mobile diabetes-testing clinic of the Israel Diabetes Association came to the Bar-Ilan campus in Ramat Gan and performed free testing without prior registration.

During the month of November, the mobile clinic of the Israel Diabetes Association also visited other locations in the partner cities in the project.

Diabetes Awareness Month events were held under the auspices of the municipalities of Safed, Sakhnin, Shafaraam, Nazareth – partners in SPHERE project – as well as the Israel Diabetes Association, Maccabi Health Services, and Clalit Health Services.

Russell Berrie Foundation Trustee Visit

The Russell Berrie Foundation, led by the Foundation's president Mrs. Angelica Berrie, visited Israel exactly one year after the launch of The Russell Berrie Galilee Diabetes SPHERE. Accompanied by the SPHERE team on November 15, 2022, in the city of Shefaraam, one of SPHERE's five pilot cities, they learned about the implementation of the SPHERE project and the joint work with the local authorities. To read more about the full day, go here.

Visit of Leir Foundation

On November 14, 2022, delegates from the Leir Foundation visited the Azrieli Faculty, accompanied by Dr. Sharon Goldman, VP Global Resources, BIU. anatomage table

Margot Gibis, President; Joseph Whalen and Markus Fuchs, Board of Directors; and Laurie Kuhn, Assistant to the President, had the opportunity to meet with Prof. Chaim Putterman, Acting Dean and Associate Dean Research; and Dr. Sivan Spitzer, Deputy Director SPHERE and Head of Population Health Education. They also met Dr. Alon Barash, an anatomy and evolution researcher, who demonstrated the Faculty’s Anatomage Table (pictured) to the delegation, and Prof. Meital Gal-Tanamy in her molecular virology lab. Over lunch with Prof. Eric Shinwell, Associate Dean Medical Education and Noam David Reshelbach, Administrative Head of Faculty, they also had the opportunity to talk to students from the ROM Galil and ETGAR programs which is generously supported by the Leir Foundation.

BIU Marketing - Digital Section Visits Azrieli

The Azrieli Faculty of Medicine was excited to host delegates from the Bar-Ilan U. marketing division digital section, on November 20, 2022. digital visit

The team met with Martin Duifhuizen, Commercial Director of SPHERE; Prof. Chaim Putterman, Acting Dean and Associate Dean Research; Noam David Reshelbach, Administrative Head of the Faculty; and a range of researchers – Dr. Moshe Dessau, Prof. Itay Onn, Dr. Ron Orbach, and Dr. Nir Qvit. They also visited labs and in addition, were given a tour of the Scientific Equipment Center (Dr. Eyla Maoz) and the Genomic Technology Center (Dr. Shira Peretz).

The Second Franco-Arab-Israeli Mother and Child Health Conference

The Azrieli Faculty of Medicine was proud to participate in this important conference on mother and child health that was held in Nazareth on November 10-11, 2022.

Just as one example, Prof. Johnny Younis, Azrieli Vice Dean Clinical Education, lectured on “What is the recommended management of young women with an intact endometrioma desiring future fertility.” conference nazareth

Dr. Nael Elias, General Director of the Saint Vincent (“French”) Hospital in Nazareth: “There is no doubt that cooperation between the French Hospital in Nazareth and the [Azrieli] Faculty is a pillar for the advancement of medicine in the northern region of Israel.”

Pictured right to left: Prof. Chaim Putterman (Acting Dean and Associate Dean Research), Dr. Iyad Jahshan (Director French Hospital OB/Gyn dept), Dr. Nael Elias.

Annual Research Day, Baruch Padeh Medical Center

The annual Baruch Padeh Medical Center research conference was held on October 26, 2022 and was attended by medical center staff and researchers as well as academics from the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine.

Research presented included studies in clinical research, basic research, and research in nursing. In addition, there was a poster exhibition. Dr. Shai Bel gave the opening lecture, “Man and germs, from enemies to neighbors.”

Prof. Chaim Putterman, Acting Dean and Associate Dean Research at the Faculty, said, “A clinician who does research is a better clinician, which is why one of the goals of the Faculty is to advance research not only by us, at the Faculty, but also at our affiliate hospitals. Intensive research projects at hospitals improves not only the level of the hospital but of the entire system.”

More details (in Hebrew) can be found on their website here.

Prof. Alexander Lerner Invited to Train Latvian Medical Students

At the end of October 2022, Prof. Alexander Lerner of the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine and Ziv Medical Center (Orthopedics) was invited to Riga in order to train doctors and students from the Riga Stradins University Faculty of Medicine in new methods of treating serious injuries, including modern war injuries. More details can be found here.

Seminars

Please note: All upcoming Faculty Seminars for the 2022-23 academic year can be seen here.

Faculty Seminar: The multi-scale structure of chromatin in the nucleus (Prof. Yuval Garini, Technion)
Faculty Seminar: Regulation of mitophagic selectivity by a novel intramitochondrial signaling cascade (Prof. Hagai Abeliovich, Hebrew University)
Faculty Seminar: Studying RNA Binding Proteins at Subcellular Resolution to Uncover their Roles in Health & Dysregulation in Disease (Dr. Daniel Benhalevy, TAU)
Faculty Seminar: Functions and modes of action of cis-acting long noncoding RNAs in mammalian cells (Prof. Igor Ulitsky, Weizmann Institute)
Upcoming Faculty Seminar: Ubiquitin-dependent and ubiquitin-independent steps in hypoxia-driven mitophagy (Prof. Michael Glickman, Technion)
Upcoming Faculty Seminar: Epigenetics: from stem cells to ancient DNA (Prof. Eran Meshorer, Hebrew University)
And more…

Faculty Seminar…Plus

After the November 16, 2022 Faculty Seminar (Studying RNA Binding Proteins at Subcellular Resolution to Uncover their Roles in Health & Dysregulation in Disease), Dr. Daniel Benhalevy of Tel Aviv University met with students over lunch to offer his advice on how to best choose a thesis advisor.

Upcoming Conference

Israel Diabetes Association in cooperation with The Russell Berrie Galilee Diabetes SPHERE 39th Annual Scientific Conference, December 15-17, 2022, Nazareth. For more details (in Hebrew), see here.

Diabetes Research: Call for Papers

The Azrieli Faculty of Medicine and the community division and the hospital division of Clalit Health Services, in collaboration with The Russell SPHERE Berrie Galilee Diabetes SPHERE, have established a joint fund to promote research in the field of diabetes. The Call for Papers that can be found here is open to BIU researchers, including clinical faculty. Deadline to submit page-long abstract is December 5, 2022.

Awards, Grants, Etc.

Congratulations to Dr. Mizied Falah (Head of Research Institute at Azrieli affiliate Holy Family (Italian) Hospital, Nazareth) upon receipt of a Ministry of Innovation, Science & Technology research grant for his research “Combination therapy for pancreatic cancer disease utilizing mutant KRAS inhibition agents and p53 function restoration by xenogenic p53 containing extracellular vesicles.”
Congratulations to Prof. Johnny S. Younis on his appointment to the National Council for Gynecology, Genetics, and Neonatology. He will serve as a committee member re-examining technologies that support fertility treatments. The committee is planning to discuss the working paper submitted to the Ministry of Health regarding recommendations for the standards of IVF units, in addition to other contemporary assisted reproductive technologies treatments in Israel.

Appointments and Promotions

Congratulations to Dr. Haneen Jabaly-Habib on her promotion to clinical senior lecturer.
Congratulations to Dr. Afif Nakhleh on his appointment as clinical lecturer.
Congratulations to Dr. Avishalom Sharon on his appointment as clinical lecturer.
Congratulations to Dr. Hiba Abu Zayyad on her appointment as clinical lecturer.

Condolences

Condolences to Dr. Anat Einy on the passing of her mother.

Meet our Researchers

As we mentioned last month, two new researchers just joined the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine: Dr. Moran Yadid and Dr. Rotem Kahalon. This month we would like to introduce you to Dr. Yadid:

Dr. Moran Yadid received her BSc. And PhD degrees from the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at the Technion. Then she continued her postdoctoral training at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Moran returned to Israel and held a research associate position at the Shmunis School of Biomedicine at Tel Aviv University, at the Dvir lab for regenerative medicine. This year Moran Joins the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine at Bar-Ilan University as a principal investigator.

Moran’s work is interdisciplinary, involving engineering and biology. In her PhD studies, Moran’s research focused on cardiac muscle physiology and understanding the roles of mechanical loading in regulating the myocardial contractile forces. During her postdoctoral research Moran developed Heart-on-Chips assays using human stem cells derived-cardiomyocytes and employing tissue engineering techniques. These models mimic the basic structure and function of the human heart and facilitate measurements of contractile function using various sensors embedded in the engineered tissues. The Heart-on-Chip can serve as a human-relevant preclinical model to study cardiotoxicity, responses to different drugs, and physiology in healthy and disease conditions. Most importantly these models can be based on patient specific cells, thereby representing the patient specific response or disease. Additionally, in her work, Moran has revealed that the endothelial cells comprising the vasculature can provide signals that protect the heart from injury due to ischemia (prolonged lack of oxygen).

Moran’s future work will be in the field of bioengineering and regenerative medicine, using human in vitro tissue models to study organ-organ interactions in health and disease. Moran’s work will aim to harness the native capabilities of the human body and enhance them to induce self-repair and to adapt to extreme physiology conditions.

“I am excited to join the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, and to start my own lab. There are many challenges in establishing an experimental, multidisciplinary, research laboratory but the joy of developing new ideas and finding new discoveries with a group of young enthusiastic minds is well worth it! Come join me ?”

Moran is now starting her lab and recruiting excellent masters and PhD students from various disciplines including biology, medicine, and engineering.

Russell Berrie Galilee Diabetes SPHERE

During the month of November, International Diabetes Awareness Month, SPHERE held a wide variety of activities to promote a healthy lifestyle and raise awareness of diabetes. The activities took place in collaboration with the local municipalities where SPHERE is active, with the health funds, and the Israel Diabetes Association. Among the many activities, there were, for example, free diabetes testing stations for the public, nutrition and healthy lifestyle workshops in elementary schools, lectures on healthy nutrition for the elderly, and more.

In addition, this month we marked the anniversary of the festive launch of the SPHERE project, with a fascinating visit by the trustees of the Russell Berrie Foundation, led by the foundation's president, Mrs. Angelica Berrie.

For latest SPHERE activity, see their Facebook page here.

Preventing Physician Burnout

Podcast for physicians – How to prevent burnout, stay physically fit, get enough sleep (with Dr. Lilach Malatskey. For more information and to learn more about their other important support services for physicians go to mifne.org.il.

Azrieli Alumni Please Note

Please help us spread the word to Azrieli alumni that we want to keep in touch. We want to hear from them, from you. Go to our “Request for Information” page, here.

Note that currently we are expending special efforts to build the MD graduate alumni organization.

All graduates are encouraged to take advantage of the Bar-Ilan University Alumni Association, here.

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

Publications

Reminder that publications by Azrieli faculty are generally posted in chronological order based on publication date, per PubMed listings. If you have published an article recently that appears on PubMed but that was not listed in a Newsletter, I apologize, and please do let me know.

PLEASE NOTE: ALL PUBLICATIONS BY RESEARCHERS AT AZRIELI OR ITS AFFILIATE RESEARCH CENTERS MUST PROPERLY CITE THIS AFFILIATION: Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed, Israel. IF YOU ARE UNSURE OR NEED GUIDANCE, PLEASE CONTACT US.

Avi Benov: Intraosseous administration of freeze-dried plasma in the prehospital setting (Isr Med Assoc J . )
Maamoun Basheer, Elias Saad, Majd Kananeh, Layyous Asad, Osama Khayat, Anan Badarne, Zaki Abdo, Nada Arraf, Faris Milhem, Tamara Bassal, Mariana Boulos, Nimer Assy: Cytokine Patterns in COVID-19 Patients: Which Cytokines Predict Mortality and Which Protect Against? (Curr Issues Mol Biol . )
Rajesh Detroja, Somnath Tagore, Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern: tRNA methylation resolves codon usage bias at the limit of cell viability (Cell Rep .)
Trishna Saha Detroja, Rajesh Detroja, Sumit Mukherjee, Abraham O Samson: Identifying Hub Genes Associated with Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Resistance in Breast Cancer and Potential Drug Repurposing for the Development of Precision Medicine (Int J Mol Sci . )
Khalaf Kridin: Evaluation of clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients with cutaneous sarcoidosis: A single-center retrospective cohort study (Front Med (Lausanne) . )
Sophia Eilat-Tsanani, Carmel Kasher: Community-acquired pneumonia - use of chest x-rays for diagnosis in family practice (BMC Prim Care . )
Noor Mruwat, Khalaf Kridin: Mortality in eight autoimmune bullous diseases: A global large-scale retrospective cohort study (J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol .)
Khalaf Kridin: Therapeutic effects of Fc gamma RIV inhibition are mediated by selectively blocking immune complex-induced neutrophil activation in epidermolysis bullosa acquisita (Front Immunol . )
Ranin Saad, Hagar Tadmor, Offir Ertracht, Nakhoul Nakhoul, Farid Nakhoul, Farber Evgeny, Shaul Atar: The Molecular Effects of SGLT2i Empagliflozin on the Autophagy Pathway in Diabetes Mellitus Type 2 and Its Complications (J Diabetes Res .)
Tom Domovitz, Samer Ayoub, Michal Werbner, Joel Alter, Lee Izhaki Tavor, Evgeny Tikhonov, Tomer Meirson, Yaakov Maman, Moshe Dessau, Meital Gal-Tanamy: HCV Infection Increases the Expression of ACE2 Receptor, Leading to Enhanced Entry of Both HCV and SARS-CoV-2 into Hepatocytes and a Coinfection State (Microbiol Spectr .)
Haneen Jabaly-Habib: Ocular manifestations in systemic diseases (Harefuah .)
Basel H Nasser, Daher Hamid, Yacoub Zakharian, Jimmy E Jadaon: Intra-amniotic umbilical vein varix. A case report and review of the literature (Int J Gynaecol Obstet . )
Khalaf Kridin, Erez Onn: Vitiligo and systemic sclerosis: Are they associated?- Lessons from a population-based study (Australas J Dermatol .)
Shemy Carasso, Offer Amir: Sex difference and outcome trends following transcatheter aortic valve replacement (Front Cardiovasc Med . )
Avi Matityahu, Itay Onn: It's all in the numbers: Cohesin stoichiometry (Front Mol Biosci . )
Inshirah Sgayer, Daniel Glikman, Raneen Abu Shqara, Maya Maimon, Hagai Rechnitzer, Lior Lowenstein, Maya Frank Wolf: Maternal colonization with extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Enterobacteriaceae in term vs preterm pregnancies (Int J Gynaecol Obstet
Khalaf Kridin: Chronic spontaneous urticaria in patients with interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome: Insights from big data analyses (Urology . )
Sondra Turjeman: Linking migration and microbiota at a major stopover site in a long-distance avian migrant (Mov Ecol . )
Chaim Putterman: Choroid Plexus-Infiltrating T Cells as Drivers of Murine Neuropsychiatric Lupus (Arthritis Rheumatol . )
Erez Onn, Khalaf Kridin: The burden of gout in acne keloidalis nuchae-Insights from a population-based study (J Cosmet Dermatol)
Omry Koren: Context-dependent differences in the functional responses of Lactobacillaceae strains to fermentable sugars (Front Microbiol . )
Tamara Bassal, Maamoun Basheer, Mariana Boulos, Nimer Assy: Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease-A Concise Review of Noninvasive Tests and Biomarkers (Metabolites .)
Amir Mari: Diagnostics of Gastrointestinal Motility and Function: Update for Clinicians (Diagnostics (Basel) .)
Liraz E Anavi, Einat Kodesh, Gur Mainzer: The Compatibility of Children with Obesity to Self-Report Aspects of Physical Activity Domains (Children (Basel) .)
Narjes Azzam, Amir Mari: Integrated Relaxation Pressure (IRP) Distinguishes between Reflux-Predominant and Dysphagia-Predominant Phenotypes of Esophageal "Absent Contractility" (J Clin Med . )
Yishai Mintzker: Risk of major osteoporotic fractures among ultra-orthodox Jews (Osteoporos Int .)
Amani Daoud, Ohad Ronen: Parathyroid Cystic Adenoma: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (Endocr Pract . )
Hilel Frankenthal: Validation of the Algorithmic Prediction of Failure Modes in Health Care Methodology: Applied to the Department of Sterile Supply and Equipment (Am J Med Qual . )
Liza Grosman-Rimon, Shachar Yehezkeel, Sagi Gleitman, Erez Kachel:Predictors of prolonged hospitalization in modified sternoplasty following postoperative mediastinitis (J Card Surg . )
Ala Aiob, Raneen Abu Shqara, Susana Mustafa Mikhail, Avishalom Sharon, Marwan Odeh, Lior Lowenstein: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on ectopic pregnancy presentation and treatment: A retrospective cohort study (J Gynecol Obstet Hum Reprod . )
Samih Badarny: Management of advanced Parkinson's disease in Israel: Clinicians viewpoint and action items (Front Aging Neurosci . )
Ory Wiesel: Perspective and practice patterns of mediastinal staging among thoracic surgeons (J Thorac Dis . )
Ory Wiesel: Thoracic surgery in Israel (J Thorac Dis . )
Avi Benov: Isolated limb fractures - the underestimated injury in the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) (Injury . )

Faculty News

Rivo Plaque Dedication at New Faculty Building

The Azrieli Faculty of Medicine warmly welcomed Karen and Dr. Marc Rivo to Safed on November 6, 2022 for the unveiling of a plaque in their honor, located at the new Faculty building just a few minutes from the main Azrieli campus….

Faculty Press Exposure

israel21c.org: Vaccine May Prevent Long Covid; Oxygen Might Help Cure It (Prof. Michael Edelstein)

Image Gallery

Stay tuned for new pictures.