News

Blood Test Developed at Hebrew University Detects Immune and Inflammatory Activity in Tissues, Removing Need for Painful Biopsies and Expensive Imaging

Our immune systems work hard to keep us healthy and to protect us against bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites and cancerous cells.  When our Immune systems are weakened, we’re at risk for illnesses and dangerous infections; when they’re overactive, we’re at risk for inflammation and autoimmune diseases.  Therefore, accurate monitoring of our immune systems’ activity is vital to our health.  

For almost two years, newsfeeds have kept us updated on the daily battle to annihilate the coronavirus.  So, it’ s easy to forget that there are also many types of bacteria threatening human health – our survival depends on the constant quest for new antibiotics that can destroy them.  Recent research provides an important insight into the complex response of bacteria to antibiotics and opens up the possibility of developing a novel and more effective class of drugs to combat major bacterial diseases.

Back in the day, the Assyrians were one of the Near East’s superpowers, controlling a land mass that stretched from Iran to Egypt. They accomplished this feat with military technologies that helped them win any open-air battle or penetrate any fortified city.  While today, air power and bunker busters help win the war, back in the ninth to the seventh centuries BCE, it was all about the siege ramp, an elevated structure that hauled battering ramps up to the enemy’s city walls and let the Neo-Assyrians soldiers wreak havoc on their enemies.

The human brain is a constant buzz of activity, with its 86 billion nerve cells (neurons) sending electrical signals from one region of the brain to another. The signals travel along the white matter fibers, a maze of wire-like fibers, ultimately giving rise to all brain functions. Uncovering these wire-like highways between neurons has been a longstanding challenge for neuroscience.  Existing methods for mapping this neural circuitry at the cellular level are either limited to animal studies or require highly specialized equipment for data acquisition and processing.

In our increasingly industrialized world, what we produce “out there” has a direct impact on what happens inside our bodies.  A new study by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU) reveals the link between rates of metal production and toxic lead exposure in humans.  The research team closely examined human remains from a burial ground in central Italy that was in consecutive use for 12,000 years.

Among 2,000 universities surveyed worldwide, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU) ranked 90^th in the 2021 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)’s evaluation of higher education institutions.  This marks HU’s best showing since 2016.

Smoking among young teens has become an increasingly challenging and costly public healthcare issue.  Despite legislation to prevent the marketing of tobacco products to children, tobacco companies have shrewdly adapted their advertising tactics to circumvent the ban and maintain their access to this impressionable—and growing—market share. 

A recent archeological dig in central Israel unearthed evidence that Homo sapiens, humans that inhabit the earth today, likely lived alongside a group of archaic humans known as the Middle Pleistocene Homo.  This discovery, and the international collaborations that made it possible, provide the first evidence that the two human types lived at the same time and interacted with one another.  Their findings were published today in Science.

Archaeological Excavations Near Temple Mount Also Unearth Pool Built by Soldiers From Rome’s 10th Legion and Byzantine Lamp Inscribed “The light of Christ Shines for All”

2022 Academic Ranking of World Universities Ranks Hebrew University 17^th Worldwide in Mathematics and Communications, and #1 in Israel in Earth Sciences, Food Sciences, Water Resources, Economics, and Public Policy

New Deans at the Faculty of Law, the Faculty of Social Sciences, the Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, and the School of Education

(Jerusalem, July 12, 2022) The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has announced the appointment of four new deans who will take up their posts at the beginning of the upcoming academic year in October 2022.

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Sheafer Replaces Prof. Barak Medina, HU Rector Since 2017

Professor Tamir Sheafer was chosen by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU)’s Senate as the university’s new rector.  For the last six years, Sheafer has served as Dean of HU’s Faculty of Social Sciences.  His field of expertise is digital and comparative communications.  Over the past two decades, Sheafer has led several international research groups to study the impact of political systems and the strength of a democracy on that country’s political processes and communications.

On Eve of 4 Month Anniversary of Russian Invasion, Zelenskyy Asks the World, “How Can You Not Help the Victims of Such Aggression?”

Today, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU) in a live speech from Kiev. The speech was broadcast on the university’s social media channels and followed by Q&A with students and staff.

In honor of Jerusalem Day, a special session of Israel’s Knesset, headed by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, was held at the Hebrew University (HU)’s Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC) at the Edmond J. Safra Campus in Jerusalem.

Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino received an honorary degree--“Doctor Philosophiae Honoris Causa”--from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU) at a festive ceremony during the 85^th Board of Governors (BOG) meeting.

MIT physics Professor Pablo Jarillo-Herrero has won the 2022 Dan Maydan Prize for Nanoscience Research for his pioneering work on two-dimensional nanomaterials.  The Dan Maydan Prize was established by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU) in 2018, with the generous contribution of Dr. Maydan, who played a central role in establishing the Israeli National Nanotechnology Initiative (INNI).  The INNI helped position Israel as a leader in nanotech and led to the opening of 10 nanotech centers in the country, including HU’s Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology.

Ecuadoran President Guillermo Lasso became the 1st sitting president of his country to visit Israel.  He arrived with a 100-member delegation that will remain in country for two weeks to visit Israeli universities and innovative projects.

Today at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Lasso and his wife First Lady Maria de Lourdes Alcivar, inaugurated Ecuador’s Office for Technology and Innovation and held a business conference called “Ecuador Open for Business” to develop investments and public-private partnerships with key players in Israel’s ecosystem. 

Considering the threat on the lives of academics and university students in Ukraine, and in a show of solidarity, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU) has offered academic hosting for Ukrainian academic staff and students.  To date, 18 such refugees have been accepted to continue their studies at the University and 10 have already arrived at our Jerusalem and Rehovot campuses. 

Dr. Moran Yassour at Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU)’s Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, and Dr. Haitham Amal, at HU’s Institute for Drug Research and the School of Pharmacy, have been awarded the prestigious Krill Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research, which is administered by the Wolf Foundation. The Krill Prize is awarded each year to 10 outstanding young researchers who have not yet been granted tenure. Winners are chosen based on standards of excellence and on the subject of their research.

Israel’s academic cooperation with Morocco hit a high point this week with the visit of a senior delegation from Morocco’s Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI).

Seeking to establish a medical school and school of pharmacy, the UM6P representatives met with Professor Dina Ben Yehuda, Dean of the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, to learn how HUJI prepares its future doctors for a medical career based on computational medicine and AI, while maintaining humanity and compassion for their patients.

(Jerusalem, March 17, 2022)—Moshe Shenfeld, a computer science PhD candidate at Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU)’s Rachel and Selim Benin School of Engineering and Computer Science has been selected as an Apple Scholar in AI/Machine Learning for 2022.  Shenfeld is one of only 15 awardees worldwide, the other Israeli recipient is from Tel Aviv University.  The PhD fellowship in Machine Learning and AI was created by Apple “to celebrate the contributions of students pursuing cutting-edge fundamental and applied machine learning research worldwide”.

A joint Israeli-Italian nanosatellite has been launched into space – with a Hebrew University experiment on board!