Israeli companies could be producing solutions that will cure both cancer and diabetes (and other diseases) in just a few short years.

One Israeli company claims to have produced a vaccine that would prevent about 90% of cancers from returning, after fighting them off.

From Ynetnews:

Vaxil BioTherapeutics, a biotechnical company based in Ness Ziona, near Tel Aviv, has produced a ground-breaking therapeutic vaccine for cancer patients which could prevent about 90% of cancers from coming back.


Vaxil was founded in 2006 by Dr. Lior Carmon and the vaccine is now in clinical trials at the Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem. The vaccine could be available as early as 2017 to administer on a regular basis, not only to help treat cancer but in order to keep the disease from recurring.


The vaccine is being tested against a type of blood cancer, ‘multiple myeloma’. If the substance works as hoped, its platform technology, VaxHit could be applied to 90% of all known cancers, including prostate and breast cancer, solid and non-solid tumors.


“In cancer, the body knows something is not quite right but the immune system doesn’t know how to protect itself against the tumor like it does against an infection or virus. This is because cancer cells are the body’s own cells gone wrong,” says Julian Levy, the company’s CFO.


“Coupled with that, a cancer patient has a depressed immune system, caused both by the illness and by the treatment.” The trick is to activate a compromised immune system to mobilize against the threat.


A traditional vaccine helps the body’s immune system fend off foreign invaders such as bacteria or viruses, and is administered to people who have not yet had the ailment. Therapeutic vaccines, like the one Vaxil has developed, are given to sick people, and work more like a drug.


The new vaccine works by activating the immune system by “training” T-cells to search and destroy cells with the MUC1 molecule, typically found only on cancer cells. More than 90% of common solid tumor cancers bear the MUC1 molecule, as well as many non-solid tumors, including lymphoma, leukemia and multiple myeloma.


Advanced-stage cancer will still require chemotherapy or surgery to remove a large tumor, Vaxil CEO Julian Levy noted, but if the cancer is brought down to size, the body will then be able to fight it, with ImMucin seen as a long-term approach to prevent recurrence.

The second medical breakthrough is being worked on by a team from the Technion and from Rambam Medical Center.

From No Camels:

For the first time in the world researchers at the Technion Institute of Technology and Rambam Medical Center in Haifa in Israel created new blood vessels using embryonic stem cells that were programmed in advance.


The team, headed by Prof. Joseph Itskovitz-Eldor, head of women and maternity department at the Rambam Medical Center and Dr. Ayelet Dar-vaknin, produced new cells named Pericytes, that have a crucial role in building blood vessels and ensuring their functioning.


The experiment simulated the treatment for damaged muscles or tissues, as a result of disruption in the blood supply. The research was conducted in the laboratory for stem cells research at the Faculty of Medicine at the Technion Institute. Over the course of the study, the researchers cultured the Pericytes in the lab in large quantities.


These cells were then injected into the leg muscles of a mouse with bad blood circulation. The injected PericyteS blood cells produced new blood vessels which rehabilitated the muscle cells damaged by lack of oxygen supply.


These new Pericytes blood cells were produced from donated embryonic stem cells, as well as genetically modified adult cells. This means that the cells can also be produced from human patient, reducing the chances of rejection by the body.


The results of this research help to understand vascular development processes and to learn how to treat common diseases with damage to the blood supply to the heart, limbs and other organs. These damages may result from complications of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, for example.


“It is a breakthrough research with broad implications in many areas,” said Prof. Rafi Beyar Head of the Rambam hospital in Haifa, Israel. “The applications on patients are still making progress, but I see a great potential here that can be implemented in a few short years .”

That would be really great, if these horrible diseases could finally be solved. And it's great that it is Israelis who are leading the way in finding the solutions! Who said there is a brain drain here?