44 May 30 • 2019
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Fighting Antibiotic Resistance

Each year in the United States, at 
least 2 million people become infect-
ed with bacteria resistant to antibi-
otics and around 23,000 people die 
as a result, according to the Center 
for Disease Control. Every hour 
that effective antibiotic treatment 
is delayed, survival rates drop by 
around 7.6 percent for patients with 
septic shock. Technologies that pre-
dict the resistance of a specific bac-
teria within the shortest possible 
time can save lives. 
Nanosynex technology is based 
on research from the laboratory 
of Shulamit Levenberg, dean of 
the Technion-Israel Institute of 
Technology’
s faculty of biomedical 
engineering. Levenberg and her team 
developed a diagnostic chip with 
hundreds of nanoliter wells con-

taining a specific bacteria-antibiotic 
combination that determines which 
bacteria in a patient’
s body are resis-
tant to which antibiotics — all in just 
four hours. That compares favorably 
with the day or two or more required 
for traditional diagnostic tests. The 
result: Physicians can more quickly 
prescribe the antibiotics that will 
work.
The highway to commercialization 
opened when two students from 
the Technion Startup MBA program 
chose a technology in Levenberg’
s lab 
as a case study as part of an entrepre-
neurship course. 
Nanosynex is creating a kit that 
will be sold to laboratories; it con-
tains disposable cards, a fluorescent 
reading device and software to do 
the analysis. ■

health | Israel’
s role

Loading and 
scanning a nanoliter 
array device used 
to develop a rapid 
medical diagnostic 
for antibiotic 
resistance

JONATHAN AVESAR, LEVENBERG LAB, TECHNION-ISRAEL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

3D BIOPRINTING
Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in 
Haifa recently inaugurated an innovative 
center for the 3D printing of living cells 
and tissues at the university’
s Faculty of 
Biomedical Engineering in Haifa. Recently, 
researchers successfully created a tiny, 
live 3D printed heart made from human 
tissue. 
According to the Technion, the new 
printer can obtain information from a 
patient’
s CT scans and translate it into 
printing three-dimensional tissue that 
exactly suits an injured area. 
3D bioprinting is the process of cre-
ating cell patterns in a confined space, 
where cell function and viability are 
preserved, creating tissue-like structures 
that are later used in the medical and tis-
sue engineering fields to correct or even 
replace damaged tissue.

HELPING TO CONNECT
Wisdo, an Israeli mental wellness 
startup, wants to harness the power of 
online communities to lift people out 
of emotional pain by connecting with 
each other through shared experiences, 
according to a story in NoCamels, an 
online source.
Launched in January 2018, Wisdo 
developed an app that connects people 
around shared issues such as ques-
tions of sexuality, anxiety and loss, and 
encourages those who have successfully 
traversed life challenges to become 
“helpers” or “guides,” the story states. 
The app already has 750,000 down-
loads and its active user base is at 
around 70 percent, according to Wisdo 
CEO Boaz Gaon.
The Tel Aviv-based startup, which has 
so far raised $11 million, recently won 
a 2019 Google Play Award in the “Best 
Social Impact” category. 

Awaken the Beauty Within...

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