Azrieli Faculty of Medicine Newsletter #27 (October 12 - 25, 2020 )

For PDF version, click here.

New BIU Academic Year

The Bar-Ilan University academic year opened on Sunday October 18, 2020. We wish our students enthusiasm and success in their studies; our teachers satisfaction and insight as they guide the next generation of scientists and practitioners; and our researchers creativity culminating in exciting and important results.

A few stats to open up the new year:

New 4-yr track MD students	74	New MSc students	35
New 3-yr track MD students	54	New PhD students	18
Total MD students	463	Total graduate students	137 (24 international)
“Staj”	112
Graduates	464

Principal Investigators (PIs)	26
Laboratories	20
New Azrieli researchers	4

Neonatology Conference (Prof. Eric Shinwell)

Prof. Eric Shinwell, Associate Dean of Medical Education and Director of Neonatology at the Ziv Medical Center in Safed, was the invited speaker at a Europe-Asia conference in Neonatology based in Russia. Prof. Shinwell presented his research, Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia, and then responded to requests for advice on specific cases. The conference was attented by approximately 150 neonatologists via Zoom and was also broadcast on YouTube.

Pictured to the right: Prof. Shinwell (top left); Prof. Mark Prutkin, Yekaterinburg Regional Childrens Hospital, a Russian neonatology specialist (top right); Prof. Sergey Ivanov, chief of NICU at the St. Petersburg Childrens Hospital (bottom).

Researcher Profile: Dr. Eilam Palzur

Dr. Eilam Palzur is a researcher at the Institute for Medical Research, Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya. He earned his PhD in Neurophysiology from the faculty of medicine at the Technion (Haifa). He also holds a BSc in biology from the faculty of natural sciences at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

His PhD thesis, in collaboration with the Israeli Naval Medical Institute, was about the beneficial effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy cerebral cell death following head trauma. Dr. Palzur has experience in hyperbaric oxygen therapy and in brain physiology and metabolism. He has published 11 papers in peer reviewed journals, and actively participated in national and international conferences.

He is currently the manager of both Prof. Soustiel’s brain research lab and Prof. Bornstein’s gynecology research lab. The research in both labs is true translational research initiated by a clinical need aimed to improve the healthcare provided to the patients.

The brain research lab is studying the mitochondrial involvement in cerebral cell death following brain injury and stroke utilizing a holistic approach: from animal behavior to cellular response and mitochondrial metabolism.

The gynecology lab is focused on the study of vulvodynia - a chronic pain in the vulva, particularly the links between inflammation, chronic pain, neuromodulation, and neuroproliferation combining basic and clinical research.

Besides being a researcher, Dr. Palzur is married, and a father of two. He is also an enthusiastic sailor, trekker, and traveler.

From the Website: What’s New?

Publications

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

· Vikrant Palande, Dorith Raviv Shay, Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern: Detection of Cell-Free DNA in Blood Plasma Samples of Cancer Patients (J Vis Exp .)

· Chaim Putterman: Age-associated changes in the circulating human antibody repertoire are upregulated in autoimmunity (Immun Ageing . )

· Maya Frank Wolf, Rosa Michlin, Yaniv Farajun, Ella Ophir, Jacob Bornstein: Intrauterine bacterial growth in elective and non-elective caesarean sections (J Obstet Gynaecol . )

· Dana Binyamin, Nir Werbner, Meital Nuriel-Ohayon, Atara Uzan, Hadar Mor, Oren Ziv, Omry Koren:The aging mouse microbiome has obesogenic characteristics (Genome Med. )

· Yana Lerner, Wessal Hanout, Shulamit Fluss Ben-Uliel, Samar Gani, Michal Pellach Leshem, Nir Qvit: Natriuretic peptides as the basis of peptide drug discovery for cardiovascular diseases (Curr Top Med Chem .)

· Enav Yefet: One elevated oral glucose tolerance test value in pregnancy increases the risk for future diabetes mellitus type 2 (Arch Gynecol Obstet . )

· Nehama Cohen-Kfir, Miriam Ethel Bentwich, Nomy Dickman, Basem Higazi, Limor Kalfon, Mary Rudolf, Tzipora C Falik-Zaccai: Challenges to effective and autonomous genetic testing and counseling for ethno-cultural minorities: a qualitative study (BMC Med Eth

· Chen Shochat, Rajashekar Donaka, David Karasik: Deletion of SREBF1, a functional bone-muscle pleiotropic gene, alters bone density and lipid signaling in zebrafish (Endocrinology .)

· Pre- and Post-Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement Serum Brain Natriuretic Peptide Levels and All-Cause Mortality (Cardiology . )

· Naama Garmi, Suheil Nasrallah, Yacov Baram, Adina Katz, Avishai Koren, Maya First, Arnon Blum: Platelets and Breast Cancer (Isr Med Assoc J .)

· Taer Abu Jabal, Magid Ganayem, Avi Peretz, Orna Nitzan: The Undesired Outcomes of Bodybuilding: An Intra-Deltoid Abscess Caused by Eikenella corrodens After Licking the Needle (Isr Med Assoc J .)

· Inbar Ben Shachar, Ilan Atlas: Increased ultrasonographic endometrial thickness is associated with poor survival in patients with endometrial cancer: An Israel gynecologic oncology group study (Eur J Surg Oncol . )

· Rina Dolinski, Luiza Akria, Yevgeni Yampoulski, Jamal Awad: A Case of Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis Associated With Mediterranean Spotted Fever in a Healthy 29-Year-Old Female (Open Forum Infect Dis .)

· Atara Uzan-Yulzari, Maya Morr, Hala Tareef-Nabwani, Oren Ziv, Anca Leibovici, Ayelet Shai, Omry Koren: The intestinal microbiome, weight, and metabolic changes in women treated by adjuvant chemotherapy for breast and gynecological malignancies (BMC Med.)

· Nir Qvit: Engineering "Antimicrobial Peptides" and Other Peptides to Modulate Protein-Protein Interactions in Cancer (Curr Top Med Chem .)

· Avinoam Markovich, Ohad Ronen: Factors predicting length of stay in patients hospitalized for acute parotitis (J Investig Med . )

· Inbar Ben-Shachar, Ilan Atlas: Age is an independent predictor of outcome in endometrial cancer patients: an Israeli Gynecology Oncology Group cohort study (Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand .)

· Celia Suru: Daratumumab for relapsed AL amyloidosis - when cumulative real-world data precedes clinical trials: A multisite study and systematic literature review (Eur J Haematol .)

· Tomer Meirson: Survival-Inferred Fragility Index of Phase 3 Clinical Trials Evaluating Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors (JAMA Netw Open .)

Faculty News

· Book Launch Event: Active Education for Future Doctors (Nomy Dickman, Barbara Schuster eds.)

Media Exposure

· Algemeiner: Young Doctors Help Fight Israel’s War on COVID-19

· JPost.com: Vitamin D deficiency linked to increased risk for COVID-19

· inews.co.uk: Circuit Breaker: Israel’s second Covid lockdown is working, but it’s not a long-term solution

· NewScientist.com: Should We Plan for Regular "Circuit Breaker" Coronavirus Lockdowns?