Where Behavior and Brain Intersect

TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY REVIEW
Summer 2010
emerging technology that can be
morphed into a threat. “A particularly
interesting trend is ‘swarm robotics,’
whereby, inspired by the behavior of
swarms in nature, large numbers of
robots are programmed to coordinate
their activities with one another,” says
Dr. Hauptman, who notes that robots
could become a standard terrorist
weapon, even replacing the suicide
bomber.
In the coming months, FESTOS
will survey international experts in
the fields of interest in order to identify
areas of concern and create a model
for monitoring scientific advancements.
One long-term objective of
the program is to produce a database
of ongoing scientific developments
and potential future risks. According
to Dr. Sharan, “this database will not
only act as an ‘early warning system’
which identifies potential threats to
society, but it will also help assess preventative
measures that might keep
valuable information from those who
seek to harm society, aiding in the
creation of future EU security policy.”
Targeting
Cancer Cells
TAU researchers uncover
cancer-killing properties of an
anti-stroke drug
TAU scientists have tapped into a promising
new cancer treatment through research
involving a decade-old drug. Prof. Malka
Cohen-Armon of TAU’s Sackler School of
Medicine and her team of researchers have discovered
a new use for a compound that was
originally developed to prevent nerve cells
from sustaining damage from stroke. Prof. Cohen-Armon has found
that the drug is effective in killing cancer cells, while leaving healthy
cells undamaged.
Prof. Cohen-Armon was researching this anti-stroke drug to determine
its effect on signal transmission within the cell nucleus, and decided
to examine the compound’s effect on cell division.
Experimentation showed that the compound blocks cell multiplication
in both normal and cancer cells. However, healthy cells are able
to recover, while cancer cells die out. “We’ve found a molecular triggering
mechanism in cancer cells that, when set off, causes the cancer
cells to die – they just stop multiplying,” explains Prof. Cohen-Armon.
“Normal, healthy body cells are only temporarily arrested by the same
mechanism. They overcome this cell cycle arrest within 12 hours and
continue to proliferate.”
Prof. Cohen-Armon says that many human cancer cells the team has
tested in the lab were eradicated by this compound, including breast,
lung, colon, pancreas and ovary cancers. This discovery could lead to
an entirely new class of cancer treatment. “If we can specifically target
cancer cells, we will be able to produce a drug that destroys these cells
without worrying about harming the patient’s normal tissue.”
Prof. Cohen-Armon’s team was joined in this research by Asher
Kastiel, a PhD student in Prof. Shai Izraeli’s team at the Department of
Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry at the Sackler School of
Medicine and the Institute for Cancer Research at the Sheba Medical
Center.
Prof. Malka
Cohen-
Armon
Foreign Minister Golda Meir
speaking with participants
from Africa and Asia in a
Gadna course, 1961.
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