News

Drs. Yonit Hochberg and Mor Nitzan Among 43% of ERC Grants Awarded to Women, Highest Rate Ever

Close to 400 early-career researchers won European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grants, among them two promising female researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU). These grants, worth on average €1.5 million each, will help ambitious younger researchers launch their own projects, form their teams and pursue their best ideas. 

Initial Clinical Data from Hebrew University Shows Promising Results, Supporting Early Evidence of Fenofibrate Ability to Prevent Lung Damage in Corona Patients

Drug can reduce COVID-19 severity and mortality even as newly emerging vaccines reduce transmission

Hebrew University Archaeologists Survey 737km “Genghis Kahn” Wall Along Mongolian Steppe

For the first time ever, researchers have fully mapped the “Genghis Khan’s Wall,” a 737km section of The Great Wall that resides outside of China along the Mongolian Steppe.  Hebrew University of Jerusalem archaeologist Professor Gideon Shelach-Lavi lead the international research team and published their findings in the latest edition of Antiquity.

Hebrew University Researchers Crack the Code

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  Nowhere is this principle more true than in the world of social media.  There, people choose cab drivers, Airbnb rentals and even life partners based on photos. 

In online transactions like Airbnb, photos play an outsized role in a renter’s decision-making process:  Which host looks trustworthy?  Who do I think will provide me a nice rental--one that closely resembles the photos they posted? 

We all know that DNA molecules express heredity through genetic information.  However, in the past few years, scientists have discovered that DNA can conduct electrical currents.  This makes it an interesting candidate for roles that nature did not intend for this molecule, such as smaller, faster and cheaper electric circuits in electronic devices, and to detect the early stages of diseases like cancer and COVID-19.

The Abel Prize, often referred to as the Nobel of Mathematics, was established to recognize contributions that are of “extraordinary depth and influence”.
Today, the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters announced it will award the Abel Prize to Hillel Furstenberg at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Gregory Margulis at Yale University “for pioneering the use of methods from probability and dynamics in group theory, number theory and combinatorics”. 

When wild Egyptian fruit bats set out at night to forage in Israel's Hula Valley, they do so using advanced spatial memory and a flexible cognitive mapping of the fruit trees and other goals scattered in their foraging area. They seldom search randomly and their foraging patterns cannot be explained by simpler navigation mechanisms, a research team headed by Professor Ran Nathan of Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU)’s Movement Ecology Lab has found.

The Edmond de Rothschild Foundation has generously provided the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU) with 15 million NIS to fund coronavirus research.  The donation will fund 60 research teams at HU that are working to find a vaccine, produce faster and cheaper testing methods, and develop targeted treatments for those afflicted by COVID-19. 

Do you remember where you were when you first heard that two planes had crashed into New York’s Twin Towers? Or where you had your first kiss?  Our brains are wired to retain information that relates to the context in which highly significant events occurred.  This mechanism also underlies drug addiction and is the reason why hanging out in an environment or with people associated with memories of drug use often leads to relapse. 

New Delivery for Antibiotics Arms Medicine in the Fight against Antibiotic Resistance and COVID-19

Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed an injectable antibiotic with a new mode of action, which could have a significant impact on the morbidity rate for pandemics such as COVID-19, Yissum, the technology transfer company of the Hebrew University announced today.

It is a fact that has long baffled doctors: Cancer in the small intestine is quite rare, whereas colorectal cancer, a neighboring though much smaller organ, is one of the leading causes of cancer death for men and women.  What is it about the colon that seems to “attract” cancer?