Category: Food and Agriculture

A genetic circuit for production of a honey-like emulsion using engineered B.subtilis bacteria

Researcher: Prof. Roee Amit

Honey is a sweet, viscous food substance made by bees. Bees produce honey from floral nectar by regurgitation, enzymatic activity, and water evaporation. The process of honey production is complicated and involves various proteins secreted by the bees. The new...
Categories: Food and Agriculture

Anti-microbial peptides

Researcher: Prof. Noam Adir|Prof. Sima Yaron

New antibiotics are a necessity in today’s modern medicine due to the increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistant strains of pathogenic bacteria. There are many attempts at providing new antibiotic drugs by either modification of existing drugs or by finding new...
Categories: Food and Agriculture|Medical Devices|Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology

Anti-nematodal methods

Researcher: Prof. Benjamin Podbilewicz

Nematodes are one of the most diverse of all animals. Over 28,000 Nematode species have been described and about 16,000 of the nematodes are parasitic. The nematodes have adapted to nearly every, known ecosystem. Infection by nematodes in general and...
Categories: Food and Agriculture

Antibacterial Packaging

Researcher: Prof. Ester Segal

Health care associated infections and deaths have reached dimensions that rival traditional diseases and have become a serious financial burden on the health-care systems. Such infections result from microbial contaminations by both bacteria and fungi. Moreover, microbial growth is also...
Categories: Chemistry and Materials|Food and Agriculture

Beta Casein assemblies for mucosal delivery of therapeutic bioactive agents

Researcher: Prof. Dganit Danino

The present invention relates to drug carrier compositions comprising β-casein micelle assemblies for drug delivery such as mucosal drug delivery. Beta-casein (β-CN), a major milk protein, which self-associates into small capsules (micelles) in aqueous solutions, solubilizes water-insoluble drugs. The nanoparticles...
Categories: Food and Agriculture

Bio-based, bio-degradable plastic

Researcher: Prof. Nadav Amdursky

Much of the planet is swimming in discarded plastic. Plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing environmental issues, as rapidly increasing production of disposable plastic products overwhelms the world’s ability to deal with them. In order to handle...
Categories: Chemistry and Materials|Food and Agriculture|Sustainability and Energy

Brackish-water desalination using mineral-selective membrane

Researcher: Dr. Razi Epsztein

Reverse osmosis and nanofiltration membranes used for desalination typically remove most or all minerals from water, including beneficial ones like calcium and magnesium. While eliminating sodium chloride is essential, some of these filtered-out minerals are vital for health. The proposed...
Categories: Chemistry and Materials|Food and Agriculture|Sustainability and Energy

Delamination of multilayers films and packages

Researcher: Prof. Oz M. Gazit

Currently multilayer laminate films such as food packing are not recycled due to the inability of the recycling to process the multilayers together. Our delamination technology chemically breaks only the tie-layer (glue) that holds the layers together. The central difference...
Categories: Automation, Mobility and Aerospace|Chemistry and Materials|Food and Agriculture|Sustainability and Energy

Diagnosis of Transient Neonata Deficiency (TNZD) using maternal breast milk cells

Researcher: Prof. Yehuda G. Assaraf

The present technology describes a novel genetic diagnostic method for Transient Neonatal Zinc Deficiency (TNZD) using maternal breast milk cells, for early diagnosis as well as prevention.Zinc deficiency is very common worldwide and although actual prevalence figures are not known,...
Categories: Food and Agriculture

Edible, eco-friendly films

Researcher: Prof. Maya Davidovich-Pinhas

Plastics are known to be one of the most urgent problems in the world due to its increase use in different applications such as food, house holding, construction etc. Today some of the plastics can be recycled while some cannot. In...
Categories: Chemistry and Materials|Food and Agriculture|Sustainability and Energy

Encapsulation materials

Researcher: Prof. Michael S. Silverstein

A family of continuous porous polymers, generally known as polyHIPEs, have been synthesized using high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) as templates for the porous structure. This composition-of-matter having microscopic closed-cell capsules (either hydrophobic and hydrophilic) can be utilized for various...
Categories: Chemistry and Materials|Food and Agriculture|Sustainability and Energy

Encapsulation of beta-casein assemblies for enrichment of foods, beverages and soft drinks

Researcher: Prof. Dganit Danino

Solutions aimed at incorporating nutraceuticals and other additives in foods and beverages, particularly clear ones, at the nano-scale, are scarce. Incorporating additives into foods and beverages is still a major challenge in creating advanced functional foods. The challenges are especially...
Categories: Chemistry and Materials|Food and Agriculture

Encapsulation of drugs and therapeutic bioactive agents in Beta-casein assemblies for oral delivery

Researcher: Prof. Dganit Danino

β-casein is an amphiphilic protein that self-organizes into well-defined core–shell micelles that can be developed as efficient nanocarriers for oral drug delivery. One model is celecoxib, an anti-inflammatory hydrophobic drug utilized for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, now also...
Categories: Food and Agriculture

Encapsulation of hydrophobic moleciles with PP/SBP for clear beverages enrichment

Researcher: Prof. Yoav Livney

The enrichment of foods with hydrophobic biologically active molecules, including hydrophobic nutraceutical compositions and fat-soluble vitamins is a promising strategy for promoting health of global populations. However, the desire for reduction of dietary fat content creates a difficulty in providing...
Categories: Food and Agriculture

High pressure homogenization and plant protein isolate for the formation of fermented yoghurt-like beverages

Researcher: Dr. Avi Shpigelman

Yogurt is a cultured dairy product generated by fermentation of milk inoculated with lactic acid bacteria to form a 3D protein network. Protein content in diary-based yogurt usually range from 4-10% making it a contributing source to the daily protein...
Categories: Food and Agriculture

Highly porous degradable polymers for biomedical applications

Researcher: Prof. Michael S. Silverstein

Highly porous emulsion-templated polymers, known as polyHIPEs since they are synthesized in high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs), are of interest for biomedical applications such as tissue engineering (see electron microscope image). Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) is a renewable-resource polymer that undergoes...
Categories: Chemistry and Materials|Food and Agriculture

Interspecies intestinal co-culture for simple screening of foods and drugs

Researcher: Prof. Esther Meyron-Holtz

To meet a growing world population’s nutritional needs, novel foods and especially protein sources are developed, and need to be tested for their physiologic effects on the gastrointestinal tract. The gastrointestinal tract is a complex tissue that can be analyzed...
Categories: Food and Agriculture|Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology

Metabolic interventions to enhance immunity in elderly

Researcher: Dr. Noga Ron- Harel

With aging, immune function, particularly T cell responses, decline, affecting the efficacy of vaccinations and increasing susceptibility to infections. Recent research has identified that the aging spleen’s microenvironment, rich in toxic heme and iron depositions, contributes significantly to this immune...
Categories: Food and Agriculture|Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology

Methacrylated fibrinogen hydrogel precursors

Researcher: Prof. Dror Seliktar

Technology Hydrogel biomaterials that are biodegradable are often sought in the field of regenerative medicine and 3D bioprinting. Biomedical hydrogels comprised of natural polymers such as chitosan, alginate, gelatin, albumin, fibrin and collagen have gained interest for their inherent biocompatibility...
Categories: Food and Agriculture|Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology

Method and system for estimation of fruitlet drop

Researcher: Prof. Raphael Linker

There is a need to control the amount of flowering on apple trees – too many will result in too many low quality apples. Chemical thinning is currently the only viable solution in large commercial operations to ensure adequate yield....
Categories: Food and Agriculture|Physics and Electro-Optics

Nano gate - stimulus induced nanofluidic device

Researcher: Prof. Oz M. Gazit|Prof. Ofer Manor

Flow control that is activated by environmental and other pre-designed parameters can be useful in many systems such as agriculture and water treatment. Natural tendency of two-dimensional (2D) clay nano-particles to self-assemble and restrict water permeability in soils can be...
Categories: Chemistry and Materials|Food and Agriculture|Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology|Sustainability and Energy

Nutritional solution for muscle atrophy

Researcher: Prof. Shenhav Shemer

Loss of muscle mass occurs naturally with aging and in many human diseases (e.g. cancer, diabetes, renal failure, motor-neuron diseases, AIDS, neurodegenerative diseases). It is considered to be the major immediate cause of death in many patients with cancer, and...
Categories: Food and Agriculture|Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology

Plant proteins as edible matrixes

Researcher: Prof. Eyal Zussman

Cultivated meat is considered one of the leading solutions to the global food crisis, offering conventional meat-like nutritional values and eating experiences without harming animals and with a much lower environmental footprint compared to conventional meat production. The development of...
Categories: Food and Agriculture|Sustainability and Energy

Prebiotic delivery system targeted to probiotic bacteria

Researcher: Prof. Yoav Livney

Maintaining a good proportion of gut probiotic bacteria is imperative to health. This may be achieved by consuming “prebiotics,” e.g., galacto‐oligosaccharides (GOS) that selectively promote probiotic bacteria, Proteins are an important source for amino acids essential to probiotic bacteria. however,...
Categories: Food and Agriculture

Protein based oleogels

Researcher: Prof. Maya Davidovich-Pinhas

The Food industry is seeking for new ways to eliminate trans fats and minimize the use of saturated fats in processed foods. On the other hand, recent studies have concluded that positive health effect will be gained more effectively if...
Categories: Food and Agriculture

Rapid clinical antimicrobial susceptibility diagnostic system

Researcher: Prof. Ester Segal

Technology By the year 2050, antimicrobial resistance is predicted to cost the world over 100 trillion US$ cumulatively and claim 10 million lives per year. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop diagnostic methods that will help physicians to...
Categories: Chemistry and Materials|Food and Agriculture|Medical Devices|Physics and Electro-Optics
Agricultural fields or remote communities, located where no regular power supply is available, must rely on manual labor, generators or photovoltaic panels to power pumping equipment. This type of equipment can be expensive to purchase and maintain, and also prone...
Categories: Food and Agriculture|Sustainability and Energy

Thin film composite membranes

Researcher: Dr. Tamar Segal-Peretz

Thin film composite (TFC) membranes are utilized in various industries, including water treatment, agriculture, manufacturing, power generation, waste treatment, military, and semiconductors. For decades, the industry standard for fabricating the active layer of these membranes has been interfacial polymerization (IP),...
Categories: Chemistry and Materials|Food and Agriculture|Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology|Sustainability and Energy

Universal system for scalable expression and purification of proteins

Researcher: Prof. Arnon Henn

There is a critical need for common technology for the robust production protein-based therapeutic drugs for vaccines and diagnostics, as well as for supporting alternative protein industry, including cultured meat and cultured milk. Despite the introduction of Insulin some four...
Categories: Food and Agriculture|Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology

Water treatment for prolonged live seafood transportation and holding

Researcher: Prof. Ori Lahav

Technology Seafood such as lobsters, oysters, clams, and the like are premium products all over the world. Potential revenue from selling live premium seafood is significantly higher than the revenue obtained from frozen or chilled fresh products. Nevertheless, most premium...
Categories: Food and Agriculture|Sustainability and Energy

Prof. Roee Amit

Biotechnology and Food Engineering

Research Interests: Deciphering the regulatory code and constructing novel biological scaffolds using synthetic biology and machine learning-based approaches. Live dynamical imaging of...

Prof. Yachin Cohen

Chemical Engineering

Research Interests: Dispersion and processing of carbon nanotubes and graphene with polymers. Functional nano-composites. High performance composite materials by fiber compaction. Organized...

Prof. Dganit Danino

Biotechnology and Food Engineering

Research Interests: Development and application of Cryo-Electron Microscopy (CryoEM) and Cryo-Electron Tomography (CryoET) to complex fluids. The structure of milk and unfolded...

Prof. Maya Davidovich-Pinhas

Biotechnology and Food Engineering

Research Interests: Physical and chemical characterization of lipids and soft matter systems for food and biotechnology applications.

Prof. Dov Dori

Industrial Engineering and Management

Research Interests: Systems engineering, conceptual modeling, software engineering, requirements engineering. Systems engineering and modeling, systems architecture, enterprise systems modeling. Object-process methodology. Conceptual...

Prof. Carlos Dosoretz

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Research Interests: Environmental biotechnology: advanced wastewater treatment and reuse, effluents desalination, biofouling, removal and degradation of micropollutants, membrane bioreactors, biofilters.

Dr. Razi Epsztein

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Research Interests: Membrane processes for selective separation at the water-energy nexus. Molecular transport and selectivity in membranes and nanopores. Biological processes for...

Prof. Ayelet Fishman

Biotechnology and Food Engineering

Research Interests: Applied biocatalysis. Protein engineering. Enzymes in non-conventional media. Structure-function relationships in enzymes.

Prof. Eran Friedler

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Research Interests: Development of alternative water sources as part of sustainable management of water in the urban sector. Extensive wastewater treatment systems....

Prof. Jacob (Yasha) Grobman

Architecture and Town Planning

Research Interests: Digital architecture and performance-oriented architectural design. Sustainable architectural design. Computer aided manufacturing. The connection between digital design research and architectural...

Prof. Hossam Haick

Chemical Engineering

Research Interests: Nano-array devices for screening. Diagnosis and monitoring of disease. Nanomaterial-based chemical (flexible) sensors. Electronic skin. Breath analysis. Volatile biomarkers. Cell-to-cell...

Prof. Yechezkel Kashi

Biotechnology and Food Engineering

Research Interests: Applied genomics. Food and water microbiology. Environmental microbiology, Bacterial typing. Evolution of microsatellite DNA. Microbiome and host interaction & coevolution....

Dr. Fadi Kizel

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Research Interests: Processing and analysis of (hyper) spectral images. Remote sensing data for geoscience and digital thematic mapping.

Prof. Ori Lahav

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Research Interests: Aquatic chemistry and water treatment process development and applications. Reverse osmosis desalination. Removal of nitrogen species from drinking and agricultural...

Prof. Shulamit Levenberg

Biomedical Engineering

Research Interests: Stem cell differentiation toward tissue vascularization. Stem cell 3D organization into composite tissues. Use of degradable polymers as scaffolding for...

Prof. Raphael Linker

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Research Interests: Sensing, and in particular mid-infrared spectroscopy and hyperspectral imaging. Modeling, control and optimization of agricultural and environmental systems.

Prof. Yoav Livney

Biotechnology and Food Engineering

Research Interests: Physical chemistry of biomacromolecules in food, biotechnology and biomedicine. Alternative proteins: Plant and algae-based substitutes for animal-based foods Next-generation Prebiotics:...

Prof. Marcelle Machluf

Biotechnology and Food Engineering

Research Interests: Developing nano-particles for the delivery of anti cancer drugs to the brain and other organ. Developing nano-delivery system for DNA...

Prof. Esther Meyron-Holtz

Biotechnology and Food Engineering

Research Interests: Regulation of mammalian iron homeostasis, with emphasis on disruptions of the iron cycle during diseases including inflammatory and infectious diseases.

Prof. Boaz Pokroy

Materials Science and Engineering

Research Interests: Biomineralization and mechanical properties of biomineralized tissue. Bioinspired crystal growth and synthesis of semiconductors via wet chemistry. Amorphous thin films...

Prof. Gadi Schuster

Biology

Research Interests: Harnessing photosynthesis to produce electricity and hydrogen. Photosynthesis, photoinhibition and improving agriculture crops. Gene expression in chloroplast and mitochondria.

Prof. Ester Segal

Biotechnology and Food Engineering

Research Interests: Biosensors for detection of biological and chemical toxins. Biosensors and bioassays for medical diagnostics. Drug delivery platforms. Antimicrobial polymer nanocomposites.

Prof. Shenhav Shemer

Biology

Research Interests: Molecular mechanisms of myofibril destruction to treat atrophy induced by aging, inactivity or disease. Molecular mechanisms of desmin intermediate filaments...

Dr. Avi Shpigelman

Biotechnology and Food Engineering

Research Interests: Novel processing technologies -(Nano) structure of biopolymers (proteins, polysaccharides). Food bioactives (polyphenols, vitamins etc. ) and their stability during the...

Prof. Michael S. Silverstein

Materials Science and Engineering

Research Interests: Porous polymers from high internal phase emulsions. Polymers from renewable resources. Biodegradable scaffolds for tissue engineering. Surface functionalization of porous...