256 innovations from Bar-Ilan University, available for licensing, co-investment, or spin-out through BIRAD.
Amos Sharoni
This invention discloses the design and operation principles of a new type of chemical power cell, operating on a novel concept, different from other available power sources or power storage devices. We suggest a novel, unexplored concept of electric power generation using new chemistry. This concept can be described as “solution reaction battery” – two specially-designed electrodes, separated by a solution where a unique chemical reaction takes place. The reaction is such that it generates current in the device. Once the reaction is spent, the solution is simply replaced and the “spent fuel” can be sent for recycling. Such a device can generate power continuously, nothing is burned, and there is no need to be connected to a grid. The chemical reaction is based on the recently reported electron-catalyzed-reactions, which we show can be utilized to work as a power-cell.
Popovtzer Rachala
We have recently developed a new imaging technology, which is similar to FDG-PET, yet is cancer specific, and provides the ability to distinguish between cancer and metabolically active inflammatory processes. This novel technology utilizes glucose-functionalized gold nanoparticles (GF-GNP) as metabolically-targeted CT contrast agents. It sensitively discriminates between tumors and inflammation due to the unique biodistribution and pharmacokinetic profile of nanoparticles, and due to dissimilarities in angiogenesis occurring under the different pathologic conditions. Unfortunately, gold nanoparticles are far from being used in clinical trials due to the high risk of accumulation and long-term toxicity. For this reason, an advanced nanocarrier for immediate clinical use must be developed. In the present project, we propose to develop nanocarriers which will be composed of FDA-approved, biodegradable polymeric materials, coated with glucose. By modifying the surface of these nanocarrie
Peer Avraham
A simple technique to generate cluster quantum states of light which are universal resources for quantum computing is disclosed. The technique uses two components. First, a broadband source of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen entangled states, a.k.a. two-mode-squeezed states, generated in an optical frequency comb from a monochromatic pump field. Second, a phase modulator (typically by electro-optic effect) operating at frequencies multiple of the comb mode spacing. Using only these two components, cluster quantum states can be generated that have one-, two-, three-, or higher-dimensional graphs. The unprecedented compactness of this technique paves the way to implementing quantum computing on chip using quantum nanophotonics.
Polat Uri
When there is a deviation between radii of curvature of the cornea or lens a blurred image is obtained on the retina, this phenomenon is known as astigmatism. Traditional vision exams aiming to find the strength and angle of the astigmatism are performed in clinics by an optometrist or ophthalmologist and require full spheric correction of the participant. There are several exams to diagnose the astigmatism (The clock test, Jackson Crossed cylinder, etc.); All these are exams performed from a distance of 20 feet (6 meters). Our innovation: The Radar Test of Astigmatism (RTA) Is an innovative exam for finding the angle and the power of the astigmatism. The advantages of the new method are: 1. It can be performed even when the subject is not optically corrected at all. 2. The test is performed on a computer screen from a short distance (1 meter). 3. The test is easy to operate and is performed independently by the subject himself. 4. The test is very fast. we found a strong correlation between computerized and clinical data (R² = 0.9892).
Moran Dvela Levitt
TMED proteins are implicated as oncogenic proteins in brain tumors and a variety types of additional tumors. We found that inhibition and downregulation of members of the TMED family, pharmacologically through treatment with the preclinical drug BRD4780, or genetically through siRNA or KO exert anti-tumor effect. This includes decrease in growth, migration and aggressiveness and targeting of cancer stem cell self-renewal. Additionally, TMED targeting increases treatment sensitivity to chemotherapy in different types of brain tumors including glioblastoma or pediatric brain tumors such as Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG).
Glickman, Oren
We offer a low-cost, relatively small-size device based on imaging and AI technology that enables assessing key quality indicators of tomato fruits (fruit size, weight, and firmness, as well as total soluble solides (TSS), pH, acidity, Vitamin-C, and lycopene contents in the fruit) without having to collect the fruits and take them to the lab for analyses or even touch the fruits. Moreover, the device can provide quality indicators for many fruits simultaneously from a single shot in a speedy process. The latter feature enables the assessment of quality indicators in many tomato fruits in a very short time. It can be used by (1) various food industry companies that want to use a cheap and speedy process to classify their post-harvest fresh produce per their quality or select the most suitable fruits for their specific purposes (products). The device can also be used by (2) farmers to improve the quality of their fruits by tracking changes in quality indicators along the ripening stages and taking specific actions to influence such quality changes or by just integrating the device into autonomous systems (robots that are being implemented in the agricultural sector these days to make the harvest process an automatic process) for smart harvest by tracking the right stage, according to quality indicators, to pick the fruits. Since our offered solution is relatively cheap, we also see a potential use of this device by (3) consumers and markets that want to know the quality of the fruits they are buying/selling. Finally, since tomato has been employed as a model fruit for the scientific community, particularly in the studies on fruit development, (4) the scientific community dealing with fruit quality can also benefit from such a device because it allows assessing quality indicators in many fruits in a cheap and fast way while the fruits are still on the plant (can be used to study fruit quality changes throughout the ripening process, which is of great interest for many researchers studying environmental and meteorological effects on fruit quality indicators).
Shai Rahimipour
There is still an urgent need for effective and accessible treatments for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Soluble Aβ oligomers have been identified as the most neurotoxic species in AD and tested as potential targets for antibody-based drug development to prevent cognitive decline in patients. However, controversy exists concerning their efficacy and safety. We propose an alternative approach to inhibit the formation of the most neurotoxic Aβ oligomers through the targeted oxidation of specific amino acids to prevent the aggregation and toxicity of Aβ. The selective oxidation is obtained by exploiting reactive singlet oxygen locally produced by the interaction of biocompatible and blood brain barrier permeable multicomponent nanoscintillators with X-rays. We demonstrate that surface-modified nanoscintillators interact selectively with Aβ and upon irradiation with X-ray inhibit the formation of neurotoxic Aβ aggregates both in vitro and in vivo. Feeding transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans expressing human Aβ with the surface-modified nanoscintillators and soft X-ray irradiation reduced Aβ oligomer levels, prolonged lifespan and recovered memory and behavioral deficits, thus warrant further development of X-ray based therapy of AD to reach the clinical trial stage.
Elbaz Alon Lior
We developed a new family of catalysts and supports for electrolyzers, based on aerogel chemistry. Transition metals such as Ni, Fe, Co, Ti, Cu, and others have been used to synthesized single, double and triple metal oxides in high surface area morphology called aerogel. This allows high catalyst utilization and synergistic effect between the metal to achieve significantly better performance in electrolyzers to produce green hydrogen.
Lior Klein
Under some condictions it is possible to induce and control the magnitude and orientation of pependicular magnetization at the interface of a heavy metal and a ferromagnet by changing the orientation of the in-plane magnetization in the ferromagnetic fi lm. We have indications that it happend due to Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI) which can be controlled with strain engineering.
Fridman Mordechai
We suggest a spectrometer based on temporal optics. The spectrometer will enable spectral measurement of ultrafast signals and CW signals. Our spectrometer will provide the spectrum of single-shot input signals even when they have a high repetition rate.
Kanter Ido
An underlying mechanism for successful deep learning (DL) with a limited deep architecture and dataset, namely VGG-16 on CIFAR-10, was recently presented based on a quantitative method to measure the quality of a single filter in each layer. In this method, each filter identifies small clusters of possible output labels, with additional noise selected as labels out of the clusters. This feature is progressively sharpened with the layers, resulting in an enhanced signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and higher accuracy. In this study, the suggested universal mechanism is verified for VGG-16 and EfficientNet-B0 trained on the CIFAR-100 and ImageNet datasets with the following main results. First, the accuracy progressively increases with the layers, whereas the noise per filter typically progressively decreases. Second, for a given deep architecture, the maximal error rate increases approximately linearly with the number of output labels. Third, the average filter cluster size and the number of clusters per filter at the last convolutional layer adjacent to the output layer are almost independent of the number of dataset labels in the range [3, 1,000], while a high SNR is preserved. The presented DL mechanism suggests several techniques, such as applying filter’s cluster connections (AFCC), to improve the computational complexity and accuracy of deep architectures and furthermore pinpoints the simplification of pre-existing structures while maintaining their accuracies.
Frenkel-morgenstern Milana
Full details available on request
