The president of Ben-Gurion University announced the willingness of international businessmen to establish an investment fund in the Negev in the amount of half a billion dollars according to the Irish format centered on tax benefits over 10 years
The president of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Prof. Avishai Braverman, announced the willingness of a number of international businessmen, led by Jewish-Swiss banker Edgar De Picciuto, to establish a fund for investments in the Negev, to the extent of half a billion dollars, conditional on a complementary government investment plan According to the Irish formula, centered on tax benefits over 10 years. Braverman announced this as part of the Ben-Gurion Day events at the university, which was preceded by the international conference "Biotechnology: From Basic Research to Application".
Prominent researchers from Israel and abroad participated in the conference, which was held in honor of Edgar De Picciuto, a banker who contributes a lot to the development of the field of biotechnology at Ben-Gurion University. Among the participants in the conference: two Nobel laureates Prof. Aaron Chachanover, and Sir Aaron Kellogg from the University of Cambridge, England, Prof. Raymond Dweck, Head of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford, President of Teva, Eli Horvitz, businessman Maurice Kahn and the bride of Peres Israel, Prof. Yehudit Birak. Also participating in the conference were the Director General of the Ministry of Science, Tali Rosenbaum, and Prof. Philip Needleman, Vice Dean for Special Projects of the School of Medicine at the University of Washington, who developed the drug "Celebrax" for the treatment of arthritis (without side effects caused by the use of drugs others).
One of the studies whose findings were presented at the conference revolved around the success of the university researcher, Dr. Angel Forgador and a researcher from the Hebrew University and Dr. Ofer Mendelboim, in creating "cancer-killing" molecules that are designed to identify cancer cells and "intercept" them without harming the normal cells. Technique This innovation makes it possible to avoid the side effects of current treatments through chemotherapy, which, despite its effectiveness in the fight against cancer cells, often destroys healthy cells in the process as well. These molecules are derived from natural killer receptors found on the surface of natural killer cells that have evolved to recognize foreign patterns and act against them. In this case, these are patterns that represent malignancy or infection by viruses.
As part of the Ben-Gurion Day events, the university awarded honorary doctorate degrees to the Nobel Prize laureate, Prof. Aharon Chachanover, the ambassador Thomas Pickering, the writer Eli Amir and the donor Arnold Simon. Two other personalities were crowned with the letter "Dearest of the Negev": Moshe Olnik and Dr. Viola Turk.
Tomorrow a conference in Ben Gurion: "Biotechnology - from basic research to application"
21/11/04
Prominent researchers from Israel and abroad will participate in a special international conference on the topic: "Biotechnology - from basic research to application", which will be held at Ben Gurion University on Monday, November 22, as part of the events of the 31st anniversary of the death of David Ben Gurion.
The conference, initiated by the president of the university, Prof. Avishai Braverman, is being held in honor of Edgar de Picciuto, a Swiss banker, who contributes greatly to the development of the field of biotechnology at Ben Gurion University. , senior vice president of the American "Pharmacia" company and president of the company for research and development, which developed the drug "Celebrex", for the treatment of arthritis (without side effects caused by the use of other drugs). Also, two Nobel laureates will participate in the conference: Prof. Aharon Chechenover, and Sir Aron Kellogg from the University of Cambridge, in England; Prof. Raymond Dweck, Head of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford, President of the 'Teva' company, Eli Horvitz, businessman Maurice Kahn and Israel Prize winner, Prof. Judith Birak.
