Rehovot's Kaplan Medical Center's Emergency Medicine Department Named in Ilan Ramon's Memory

A Jewish astronaut asked Ilan Ramon's widow for mementos from the late Israeli astronaut to take on a shuttle mission in 2007.

Garrett Reisman, 38, will fly to the International Space Station in 15 months.

He underwent training and became friends with Ramon, who died in the Columbia shuttle crash in 2003.

At Rona Ramon's invitation, Reisman attended a ceremony Tuesday in Rehovot, Israel, naming the Kaplan Medical Center's new emergency medicine department in Ilan Ramon's memory.

It was so incredibly tragic, Reisman told the Jerusalem Post.

Ilan had a great sense of humor and worked very hard to represent not only Israel but every Jew in the world.
Source: Jewish astronaut asks for Ramon mementos. JTA News (30 June 2006) [FullText]

Rehovot and Mazkeret Batya Apartments Sold

Second-hand apartments sold

Tel Aviv and central region
Rehovot: A 90-sq.m. three-room apartment on Hakerem St. was sold for $104,000. A renovated 140-sq.m. four-room apartment on Rozansky St. was sold for $140,000. A 90-sq.m. three-room apartment on Yavne Rd. was sold for $117,000. A five-room apartment with a storeroom and parking on Mordei Haghetta¦ot St. was sold for $225,000. A very old house on a 300-sq.m. lot on Brosh St. was sold for $240,000 (Anglo-Saxon).

Mazkeret Batya: A five-room house in need of renovation on a half-dunam (eighth-acre) lot was sold for $250,000.

Ramat Hasharon: A 140-sq.m. five-room house on a 200-sq.m. lot in the Neve Rassco neighborhood was sold for $430,000. A 100-sq.m. four-room apartment on Ussishkin St. was sold for $175,000. An 80-sq.m. four-room apartment on Yehuda St. was sold for $170,000. A 110-sq.m. four-room apartment on Ussishkin St. was sold for $220,000 (Anglo-Saxon).

Modi'in: A four-room apartment on Emek Zvulun St. was sold for $181,000. A four-room garden apartment on Nahal Yarmuch St. was sold for $230,000. A five-room apartment on Yirmiyahu Hanavi St. was sold for $235,000 (Anglo-Saxon).

Rentals

Tel Aviv and central region

Ramat Hasharon: A 10-room 500-sq.m. luxury house on a one-dunam (quarter-acre) lot on Habanim St. was leased for $5,000 a month. A 120-sq.m. four-room apartment in the Neve Rassco neighborhood was leased for $850 a month (Anglo-Saxon).

Modi'in: A four-room garden apartment on Emek Ha¦Ela St. was leased for $630 a month. A six-room house on Reuven St. was leased for $830 a month (Anglo-Saxon).

Source: Guy Yamin. Apartments sold and rented. Globes.co.il (18 June 2006) [FullText]

Rehovot Discovery News: The evolutiopn of Smell

Our hominid and ape ancestors actually had more keen noses, since they relied more upon their sense of smell for mating, socialising, detecting predators, finding food and other tasks.

Scientists at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, have found that many genes for smell in humans were turned off permanently over the course of our evolution, although the DNA continues to exist as inactive "pseudogenes".

Ruiz and his team suggest that the electronic nose will return some of these smelling skills to us.

The invention may even improve upon nature, at least in terms of precision and reliability.

"We think that a commercial prototype could be available in between five and 10 years, although there are still some important issues to be solved," he says.

"Initially we expect that the devices will work with body fluids like urine or blood."

Source: Discovery News: The evolution of smell (19 June 2006) [FullText]

Rehovot youth arrested after making girl swallow pills

Rehovot Police arrested an 18-year-old over Tuesday night suspected of attacking his girlfriend and forcing her to swallow sleeping pills with the intent of killing her. The girl claimed that it wasn't the first time that her boyfriend had tried to get her to swallow the pills.

According to the girl, she swallowed two of the pills. When she started to feel sick, she was taken to Kaplan Hospital in Rehovot. The boy was arrested and taken for investigation.

He is set to be taken on Wednesday morning to the Rishon Letzion Magistrate's Court to extend his remand.

Source: Rehovot youth arrested after making girl swallow pills. Jpost.com (21 June 2006) [FullText]

Who will protect the patients from illegal experimentations at the Rehovot's Kaplan Hospital?

"Dozens of illegal experiments and studies were performed on hundreds of elderly patients at the Kaplan Hospital in Rehovot and the Hartzfeld Geriatric Hospital in Gedera. This is just one of the conclusions reached by a Health Ministry inquiry committee (Ran Reznick, Haaretz, June 12). According to the inquiry, the experiments were conducted over the past decade by specialists in geriatrics at both hospitals, including both residents and senior physicians. The doctors exploited the patients' poor cognitive state, which did not enable them to truly object to the experiments performed on their bodies.

The Health Ministry investigation did not end with the doctors; it also revealed unprecedentedly grave deficiencies in the conduct and functioning of the hospital administrators - Dr. Joseph Bar-El, director of Kaplan-Hartzfeld, and Dr. Shmuel Levy, the hospitals' deputy director, who is responsible for Hartzfeld. The inquiry found that both of them acted in a manner inappropriate to a doctor and director of a medical establishment, and the committee will ask that steps be taken against them. The inquiry also leveled harsh criticism against the functioning of Kaplan's committee for approving medical experiments on human beings (the Helsinki Committee), as well as against the Clalit health maintenance organization, which owns both hospitals.

The findings about the experiments at Kaplan and Hartzfeld were exceptional in their severity and scope. But according to the State Comptroller's Report published in May 2005, the practice itself is not at all unusual: Many Israeli hospitals conduct experiments that grossly violate both patients' rights and the law. In his report, the comptroller exposed a long list of grave deficiencies and negligence in the Health Ministry's supervision over the performance of thousands of experiments at hospitals. According to the report, the Health Ministry ignores its legal and public obligation to maintain ongoing supervision over this sensitive field. It also turns a blind eye to some of the information it receives about cases of death or other unusual events that occurred while experiments were being performed, or about experiments that were approved illegally. The comptroller's report even stated that illegal experiments at Kaplan and Hartzfeld caused the death of three patients.

In other affairs investigated by the Health Ministry in recent years, relating to gross violations of patients' rights and injury to patients, both the ministry's management and the hospitals' managements refrained from taking genuine steps against the hospital directors who were responsible for these events.

We must insist that senior officials at both the Health Ministry and the Clalit HMO, which is responsible for about half of all hospital beds in Israel, take vigorous steps against the heads of Kaplan and Hartzfeld, against those responsible for the illegal experiments and against those who conducted them. They must also take action against those who failed in supervising the conduct of experiments at these hospitals. The need for closer supervision over experiments on human beings is urgent and critical, inter alia, in order to restore patients' faith in their doctors."

Source: Haaretz Editorial. Who will protect the patients? Haaretz.com (15 June 2006) [FullText]

Man, 50, Stabbed to Death in Public Park in Lod near Rehovot

In the most serious of four separate stabbing incidents over the weekend, a Lod resident, 50, was mortally wounded Sunday morning in a public park in the town.

He was taken in critical condition to hospital, where he died.

Police say he was probably a homeless person and that circumstances surrounding the incident are at present not clear.

Three stabbings in north

On Friday night, a 20-year-old was stabbed in the abdomen in Kiryat Bialik, apparently in the course of a gang fight.

He was taken in moderate condition to Rambam Medical Center, where he is still receiving treatment. Another person involved in the incident has been arrested. He is currently not cooperating with police.

No further suspects have been detained.

In Haifa, a soldier, 20, was stabbed after an argument broke out between him and gang members. The soldier, who was slightly injured after being stabbed in the waist, was released from hospital on Saturday. The incident was reported to police some time after it occurred, and no suspects have been detained so far.

In the most serious of the incidents, a 19-year-old was stabbed and seriously wounded in Afula early on Sunday.

Passersby found him bleeding, and summoned an ambulance, which took him to Haemek hospital in the city for treatment.

Police Officer Attacked

An Afula police officer was slightly wounded Saturday night when a detainee at the police station threw boiling water at him during a confrontation between the two.

The officer was taken to hospital for medical treatment. The detainee has been charged with assault of a police officer.

Source: Tomer Levi. Man, 50, stabbed to death in public park in Lod (9 April 2006) Haartez.com [FullText]

To be made in Rehovot: SciGen to set up $30m facility in Rehovot

SciGen Israel will develop a hepatitis-B vaccine based on molecules bought from BioTechnology General.

Singapore generic giant SciGen Ltd. (ASX:SIE) will set up an R&D and manufacturing facility in Rehovot at an investment of $30 million over three years. The facility will be called “SciGen Israel”. SciGen had $4.87 billion in sales in 2005.

Singapore businessman Saul Mashaal is the founder, executive vice chairman and CEO of SciGen. The Investment Promotion Center, which sought to bring Mashaal to Israel, declined to comment on the precise size of the investment, but industry sources predict that Mashaal will make additional investments in Israel.

SciGen Israel will develop vaccinations against hepatitis-B based on molecules SciGen bought from their discoverer BioTechnology General. BioTechnology General, which was the global biologics manufacturing business of Savient Pharmaceuticals, was acquired by Swiss company Ferring in July 2005.

SciGen Israel will handle the R&D for the jaundice vaccine, which will be produced both in Israel and by SciGen’s Chinese plant.

Two years ago, Serono (NYSE: SRA; SWX: SEO) closed its Rehovot facility, InterPharm Laboratories Ltd., which developed multiple sclerosis drug Rebif (interferon beta-1a).

Investment Promotion Center and Invest in Israel director Rachel Roei said Mashaal had considered investing in Singapore, India and Israel. She said Israel’s human resources were the deciding factor in the final decision, and that the salaries of Israeli manufacturing workers were not a factor. SciGen Israel will rely on Israeli manpower, generating dozens of jobs.

The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor and the Office of the Chief Scientist have declared biotechnology as a preferential target for R&D grants. Biotechnology companies will be eligible for grants covering 50% of approved plans, compared with 30-50% for grants in non-preferential sectors. The purpose is to encourage local investment, and, more importantly, to attract foreign investment in the sector.

Economic Mission of Israel in Singapore commercial attache Anat Katz said Mashaal told her that, although the Rehovot location would render SciGen ineligible for substantial benefits and grants (because Rehovot is not an outlying area), its human resources tipped the scales in favor of investment proximate to the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Founded in 1988, SciGen is a biotechnology company that specializes in endocrinology and immunology.

Source: Hadas Manor. SciGen to set up $30m facility in Rehovot (29 May 2006) [FullText]