2012 Issue TAU International Peres’ Young Scientists Educating for Peace TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY REVIEW Personalized Medicine “It doesn’t get more personal than this.” Cultural Immersion 14 The Marc Rich Program in the Humanities and the Arts is leading the way in revitalizing interest in the liberal arts. Cover story: Up Close and Personal 2 Rethinking Prof. Miguel Weil and his son, Nir, Addiction 16 are courageous poster boys for Tel Aviv University the promise – and frustrations – scientists are of genomic research at Tel Aviv researching new University. therapies for the treatment of addiction and pain. 3D Frontiers 22 Advanced 3D Technology being pioneered at TAU has implications for TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY REVIEW everything from security to surgery. 2012 Issue sections Issued by the Strategic Communications Dept. Development and Public Affairs Division innovations 22 Tel Aviv University Ramat Aviv 69978 Tel Aviv, Israel leadership 25 Tel: +972 3 6408249 From England Fax: + 972 3 6407080 E-mail: [email protected] with Love 28 The inaugural UK Legacy Mission initiatives 26 www.tau.ac.il brought a new group of British Jews into the TAU family. Editor: Louise Shalev Contributors: Rava Eleasari, Judd Yadid, associations 30 Sarah Lubelski, Bari Elias, Ilana Teitelbaum Graphic Design: TAU Graphic Design Studio/ Michal Semo-Kovetz digest 35 Photography: Development and Public Affairs Division Photography Department/Michal Roche Ben Ami, Michal Kidron newsmakers Additional Photography: Yoram Reshef; Rafael 38 Herlich; Isaac Harari, Knesset Media and Relations Division; Roee Ivgy; Jackie Simmonds; Adam Ha’Israeli; Avi Hayun; The Wiener Collection, Courtesy books 40 of Beit Hatfutsot Photo Archive Administrative Assistant: Roy Polad Printing: Eli Meir Printing Officers of Tel Aviv University a Harvey M. Krueger Chairman of the Board of Governors Dr. Giora Yaron Chairman of the Executive Council Prof. Joseph Klafter President Prof. Aron Shai Rector Mordehai Kohn Director-General Prof. Raanan Rein Vice President Prof. Eran Rabani Vice President for Research and Development Dear Friends, Dr. Raymond R. Sackler, Michael H. Steinhardt The year 2012 began with the wonderful news Honorary Chairmen of the Board of Governors that the Dean of Tel Aviv University’s Buchmann Dr. h.c. Karl Heinz-Kipp, Marshall H. Polk Faculty of Law, Prof. Daphne Barak-Erez, was Deputy Chairman of the Board of Governors appointed a Supreme Court Justice. Her selection underscores the continuing Dr. h.c. Josef Buchmann, – and highly influential – role of TAU faculty members and graduates in Stewart M. Colton, Prof. François Heilbronn, Dr. h.c. Raya Jaglom, John Landerer AM CBE, shaping Israeli society through public service. Adolfo Smolarz, Melvin S. Taub The University’s drive to provide the very best conditions for Vice Chairpersons of the Board of Governors interdisciplinary brain studies and research gained momentum with the establishment of the School of Neuroscience and School of Psychological Prof. Dina Prialnik Sciences. We are dedicating the School of Neuroscience in the name of Vice Rector Prof. Dany Leviatan Israeli industrialist and philanthropist Sami Sagol, a TAU honorary doctor Pro-Rector and governor, and a long-time supporter of brain research in Israel. Prof. Hannah Naveh TAU International launched five new English-language master’s Dean of the Yolanda and David Katz programs this year and two undergraduate programs for next year, including Faculty of the Arts Israel’s first International BSc in Electrical Engineering. Our increasingly Prof. Ehud Heyman Dean of the Iby and Aladar Fleischman globalized campus welcomed 1,000 foreign students this year. Faculty of Engineering Tel Aviv University was the only university in Israel to be awarded a Prof. Yaron Oz senior partnership in the three inaugural Centers for Research Excellence, Dean of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler known as I-CORE, being set up with government and private funding. Faculty of Exact Sciences One is in genomic science, the subject of this issue’s cover story; one Prof. Eyal Zisser in cognitive science, and one in computer science, to be led by TAU’s Dean of the Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities Blavatnik School of Computer Science. I-CORE funding will enable Tel Prof. Daphne Barak-Erez Aviv University to recruit young faculty from top schools abroad, fulfilling Dean of the Buchmann Faculty of Law a top university and national priority and further strengthening TAU’s Prof. Moshe Mevarech global standing as a leading center for academic research. Dean of the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences Prof. Asher Tishler Dean of the Faculty of Management—Leon Yours sincerely, Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration Prof. Yoseph Mekori Dean of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine Professor Joseph Klafter Prof. Tammie Ronen TAU President Dean of the Gershon H. Gordon Faculty of Social Sciences Prof. Yoav Ariel Dean of Students Personalizing Medicine 2 2012 Issue TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY REVIEW Personalizing Medicine Neurobiologist Miguel Weil has little time left. Prof. Weil’s son, Nir, an affable 21 year-old who has just finished his national are changing the way we’re practicing service, suffers from a medicine,” says Israeli-American geneti- Jewish cist Karen Avraham, Vice Dean of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine. She serves genetic disorder called on the board of the recently established Israel Center of Research Excellence familial dysautonomia (FD). (I-CORE) in Genomic Medicine, in which TAU is a partner. It’s a progressive disease that eats “We’re talking about using informa- tion we have on the genetic origin of away at the peripheral nervous diseases among individuals and groups to better target care,” Prof. Avraham system, which regulates essential says. Tel Aviv University’s strength in the field, stresses University President bodily functions like blood Joseph Klafter, “draws on the robust interdisciplinary research and teaching pressure. Victims die, on average, environment we’ve created for tack- By Rava Eleasari ling complex problems, and especially at 25 years of age. on our collaborative links with major hospitals.” Most Jewish genetic diseases are And using that knowledge to save lives.” Race for a curative compound rare, explains Weil, with each claiming Weil belongs to a diverse group of Prof. Weil, a member of the a few hundred sufferers in the entire scientists at Tel Aviv University who Department of Cell Research and world. Known as “orphan” diseases, are working in the area of personalized Immunology and Head of the Smolarz they are far too uncommon for phar- medicine, also known as genomic medi- Family Graduate School of Life maceutical companies to invest the cine. Researchers in the field capitalize Sciences, George S. Wise Faculty of tens of millions of dollars needed to on the growing amounts of data on the Life Sciences, is searching for new drug develop a drug for treatment. complete genetic make-up of individu- candidates for Nir’s disease and other “That’s where Tel Aviv University als to tailor preventive, diagnostic and heritable disorders. comes in,” says Weil. “We have the treatment strategies for both rare and Funds given by a Mexican donor who experimental set-up to tackle medical common diseases. recently lost two sons to another rare problems that others do not, because “Whole genome sequencing and and devastating disease, called MNGIE, our goal is not profit but knowledge. other advanced screening technologies enabled Weil to build the most sophisti- 3 cated robotic facility in Israel today for service, and he is now preparing himself Today, as Director of Pediatric fully automated drug screening. for university admission examinations. Genetic Services at the TAU-affiliated The research team uses live stem cell While the research team aims to Schneider Children’s Hospital, Rabin samples from patients as a lab-based develop personalized treatment for Medical Center, Dr. Basel receives model for personalized medicine. First very small groups of sufferers of FD young patients from all over Israel with they compare the diseased cells with and MNGIE, they are also applying genetic disorders that have no descrip- healthy ones, trying to find the biologi- their techniques and findings to more tion in medical literature. cal differences between them. Then they widespread genetic diseases such as ALS After taking a blood sample, she attempt to identify the compound that and Huntington’s. uses sequencing technology to study will counteract these differences and the genetic material, searching for the transform a sick cell into a healthy one. A disease of one gene mutation that causes the disease. “It’s like looking for a needle in a What happens when a disease is so haystack,” says Weil, “but the screening rare that only one person suffers from equipment can analyze millions of dis- it, or one family, and doctors don’t even eased cells a week that have had different know what to call it? chemicals and drugs added to them.” “I’m interested in families that have What Weil and his team are looking lost hope for a diagnosis for their sick for is a “hit” – when the machine reads children,” says Lina Basel, a physician that a compound has made a positive and specialist in orphan diseases who difference. At that point, the researchers transfers, or in scientific parlance, have to investigate what’s happening “translates,” laboratory knowledge into in the diseased cell on the molecular clinical answers. level, and to use this understanding Born and raised in Lithuania, and for developing a drug candidate. The with a charming unidentifiable lilt when Cell Screening Facility in Personalized speaking, Basel received her MD from Medicine established by the Mexican the University of Vilna, immigrated Friends of TAU is the first such unit in to Israel in 1991, and earned a doc- the world that deals with rare Jewish torate in molecular genetics at TAU’s diseases.