http://blogs.jpost.com/print/3852
Truth is Stranger than Fiction
Tel Aviv’s annual science fiction / fantasy festival Icon TLV [2] has just finished and again demonstrated how quickly the dreams of yesterday’s science fiction writers have become today’s reality. Israeli innovation is bringing that gap even closer. Now that October has been designated Israel Innovation Month [3], and in light of a number of recent dramatic news items, you may wish to re-evaluate some previously held perceptions about the Jewish State.
The Nobel Prize for Medicine has just been announced. The prize was awarded to two men involved in turning mature cells into stem cells. But the truth is that the process is far from being understood and extremely unreliable. So I was impressed to read that Israeli researchers at the Weizmann Institute have worked out the science involved [4] and are now busy working to make a biomedical breakthrough. Another little known fact is that most patients suffering from acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) can thank Professor Leo Sachs [5] of Israel’s Weizmann Institute for their treatment. Professor Sachs discovered the process of differentiation [6], which causes the cancer cells to return to their normal function and is helping to cure 70% of all APL sufferers.