256 innovations from Bar-Ilan University, available for licensing, co-investment, or spin-out through BIRAD.
Noked Malachi
Na4Fe3(PO4)2(P2O7) is an emerging cathode material for next-generation Na-ion batteries owing to its environmentally benign nature, cost-effectiveness, and optimal operating potential. However, the sluggish Na-ion kinetics and poor electronic conductivity have hampered its commercialization. This study aims to address these setbacks through a medium-entropy dual-ion doping strategy, in which both cations (V3+, Mn2+) and anions (F–, SO42–, BO33-) are doped via a scalable sol-gel synthesis, forming Na3.64Fe2.94V0.03Mn0.03(PO4)1.94F0.03(BO3)0.03(P2O7) (NFPP-ME-BO3) and Na3.61Fe2.94V0.03Mn0.03(PO4)1.94F0.03(SO4)0.03(P2O7) (NFPP-ME-SO4). Herein, transition-metal (TM) doping enhances electronic conductivity by reducing the gap between the valence and conduction bands, while poly-anion dopants (BO33-, SO42-) act as pillars, improving structural stability and expanding the diffusion channel, thereby facilitating Na-ion diffusion. To demonstrate its practical relevance, full cells were fabricated against hard carbon and Fe3O4 as the anodes.
Shor Joseph
A new concept for Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs), the Mirror PUF, is proposed. The Mirror PUF can be applied to existing preselected PUF circuits and has the potential to double the number of effective bits, with no additional area at the bit-cell level. The Mirror PUF utilizes a preselection test, which measures the amount of mismatch within the PUF cell. This data is generally used to determine the mask for a conventional PUF. Here, it is used as an entropy source that is not correlated to the original response of the PUF. Bit-cells with low mismatch are considered as a ‘0’ and cells with high mismatch as a ‘1’. A systematic method is shown for identifying unstable bits in the Mirror PUF response. It classifies the cells to ‘low’, ‘medium’ and ‘high’ mismatch, such that medium mismatch bits are considered as unstable and masked from the response. The concept was applied to a 65nm Si implementation of the Capacitive Tilt PUF [1]. All of the unstable cells of the Mirror PUF, except for 0.03%, were identified and masked, with only 0.0003% erroneous responses. The application of the Mirror PUF to the Capacitive tilt PUF increased the number of stable response bits by 63%. No observable correlation was found between the responses of the original PUF and the Mirror PUF.
Aurbach Doron
Full details available on request
Salomon Adi
We report that Para-Red, a long known azo dye not previously recognized as forming a nonlinear optically (NLO) active crystal, exhibits strong second harmonic generation (SHG) when crystalized in an appropriate morphology. Using a controlled vapor-deposition process, we obtain plate-like crystals of the Pn polymorph that expose the (020) plane, whose orientation lies close to the molecular packing axis associated with the dominant hyperpolarizability direction. In contrast, the traditionally solution grown needles of the same polymorph expose planes nearly orthogonal to the optical axis and therefore appear NLO-inert. The vapor-grown plates produce clean and robust SHG without the need for cutting or polishing and can be exfoliated into thin layers suitable for integration. These results reveal a previously hidden NLO response in Para-Red and demonstrate that morphology-controlled crystal growth can enable NLO in other previously discarded organic materials.
Lindell Yehuda
Multiparty Computation Method
Shamay Meir
Distal cis-regulatory elements, such as enhancers and silencers, dictate tissue-specific complex transcriptional repertoire in an orientation- and position-independent manner. Herpesviruses show programmed latent and lytic gene expression based on the infected tissue and physiological cell state. In a recent study we systematically identified the enhancers within the Kaposi’s Sarcoma-associated Herpesvirus (KSHV) genome. Here, we present ENHAvir, an NLM-based tool that can successfully predict the enhancers in a viral genome. We used the DeBERTa v3 language model56 in our framework. DeBERTa v3 is an encoder-style language model, making it a suitable candidate for extracting representations that could be used for new tasks. ENHAvir successfully identified known and novel enhancer elements in the herpesviruses, namely, EBV, HSV1, HSV2, VZV, HCMV, HHV-6, HSV-7, and MHV68. ENHAvir learned the minute patterns of previously published KSHV enhancers and their adjacent sequences responsible for enhancer looping. The activity of the predicted enhancers was validated by cloning the ENHAvir predicted sequences on the EBV genome downstream to the luciferase gene in a reporter plasmid with a weak promoter and performing dual-luciferase reporter assays in EBV-infected and uninfected cell lines. Interestingly, ENHAvir also precisely identified enhancers with the human genome, and examples for Fos, Jun, DPPA3, and Myc genes are presented. The ability of ENHAvir to predict both viral and cellular enhancers, provides an additional layer to the complex gene regulation via viral enhancers but also points out the evolutionary conservation of enhancer micro-signatures between a virus and its host.
Shuki Wolfus
State-of-the-art receivers in wireless charging for electric vehicles consist of horizontal coils (where the coil plane is parallel to the road). We propose a revolutionary coil configuration which maximizes flux collection in the receiving coils. This configuration consists of coils vertically situated to the magnetic flux with a ferromagnetic core within the coils. The magnetic core on which the vertical coils are wound, support the enhancement of flux collection while keeping the height of the coils limited as required. This innovation has been proved for its feasibility and advantageous in simulation based studies as well as in downscaled experimental model.
Ozana, Nisan
Vocal fold paralysis (VFP) is characterized by impaired vocal fold movement, commonly resulting from nerve damage during surgical procedures. Current diagnostic methods rely on endoscopic examinations requiring specialized physicians, reducing accessibility and potentially delaying treatment. We propose a non-contact optical sensing method using speckle pattern analysis for VFP identification. Our approach uses external laser illumination and a camerathatcapturesspecklepatterns,providinganon-invasiveandreal-timeassessment. The techniqueusesspectralanalysisenhancedbyslidingwindowscanningtoextractamplitudepeaks across vocal fold regions.
Asharov, Gilad
The present disclosure relates to non-interactive zero-knowledge proof systems, and more particularly to non-interactive zero-knowledge proof systems that provide meaningful notions of privacy and soundness even when the common reference string is maliciously generated.
Qvit Nir
Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) play a key role in a variety of critical processes and in many human diseases including cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and are therefore highly relevant potential therapeutic targets. Peptides have emerged as a promising approach to targeting PPIs, as they demonstrate more rapid clearance than antibodies and higher specificity than small molecules. Recently, mitochondrial dysfunction has emerged as one of the main pathogenic mechanisms underlying an increasing number of diseases, including CVDs. The membrane-associated RING-CH-type finger (MARCH) 5, a mitochondrial ubiquitin ligase plays a crucial role in mitochondrial homeostasis. However, its significance in cardiomyocytes under physiological and pathological conditions remains unclear. MARCH5 was demonstrated to interact with and ubiquitinate mitofusin2 (Mfn2) which is thought to be involved in its intracellular localization and/or activation. To further determine the significance of MARCH5/Mfn2 PPI significant in mitochondrial quality and function, we: (1) Developed a peptide, CVP-220, that targets MARCH5/Mfn2 PPI; (2) Demonstrated that the peptide is specific to MARCH5/Mfn2 PPI and does not inhibit other MARCH5 PPIs; and (3) Shown that CVP-220, is cardioprotective in cardiomyocytes. Taken together, our findings suggest that CVP-220 might be a promising lead for the treatment of diseases with mitochondrial dysfunction.
Fischer Bilha
Calcium pyrophosphate deposition (CPPD) is associated with osteoarthritis and is the cause of a common inflammatory articular disease. Nucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase1 (eNPP1) is the major ecto-pyrophosphatase in chondrocytes and cartilage-derived matrix vesicles (MVs). Thus, eNPP1 is a principle contributor to extracellular pyrophosphate levels and a potential target for interventions aimed at preventing CPPD. Recently, we synthesized and described a novel eNPP1-specific inhibitor, SK4A, and we set out to evaluate whether this inhibitor attenuates nucleotide-pyrophosphatase activity in human osteoarthritis cartilage. Cartilage tissue, chondrocytes and cartilage-derived MVs were obtained from donors with osteoarthritis undergoing arthroplasty. OA chondrocytes express eNPP1 in early passages. Similarly, significant nucleotide-pyrophosphatase activity was detected in early-passage chondrocytes. The eNPP1 inhibitor, SK4A, was not toxic to chondrocytes and stable in culture medium and human plasma. SK4A effectively inhibited nucleotide-pyrophosphatase activity in whole cartilage tissue, in chondrocytes and in cartilage-derived MVs and reduced ATP-induced CPPD formation, as visualized and quantified with Alizarin red S staining. Next we developed second generation drug candidates exhibiting improved NPPase inhibition in human chondrocytes.
Cohen Cyrille
We have developed an improved T-cell receptor targeting the NYESO1 antigen to generate a T-cell based therapy for cancer.
