2011: The Bergmann Memorial Awards for the best applications by young scientists was awarded two researchers. Dr. Udi Qimron from Tel Aviv University working together with Professor Charles Richardson from the Harvard Medical School on “Bacteriophage-Host Interactions” received one award. Dr. lnna Gaisler Salomon from the University of Haifa, who is collaborating with Dr. Scott Small and Dr. Stephen Rayport from Columbia University on “Giud1 Deficiency in Animal Model of Schizophrenia”, received the second award. Dr. Gaisler-Salomon responded on behalf of all the award winners pointing out about her research that there have been no new lines of medication for schizophrenia since the 1960s. While research in laboratory models cannot completely mimic human diseases, they can represent certain key features, and can be used to develop new drugs against them.
The two Neufeld Memorial Awards for outstanding applications in the health sciences went to two groups: Prof. Yosef Varden of the Weizmann Institute of Science and Prof. Forest White of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who are collaborating on “Mutant EGF Receptors of Brain Tumors” and Prof. Israel Vlodavsky from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, together with Prof. Ralph D. Sanderson from the University of Alabama on “Novel Heparanase Inhibitors for Myeloma Treatment.” This is broadly based on the idea, said Prof. Vlodavsky, “that you have to change microenvironment, not just treat the tumors.”
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