Concerned by low iodine levels in desalinated water, Israel starts nationwide study
Hebrew University tests water supplies after Health Ministry finds iodine concentration among Israelis far below WHO-recommended levels, prompting childhood development worries
Hebrew University develops vintage teff seeds into a commercial crop for farmers
Researchers are bringing teff – the staple food for millions of Ethiopians – to Israel.
Coming Soon: Human Skin You Can Print at Home Revolutionary 3D-printed Second Skin could provide an easier, cheaper alternative for scars and topical wounds, and eventually for skin grafts.
Israeli cultured milk company Wilk (formerly Biomilk) recently nabbed a US patent for its proprietary methods and technologies to produce animal-free cultured milk and cell-based human milk, placing the company firmly on track to scale its development and enter a dairy market that was valued at over $800 billion in 2020, and an infant formula industry that is expected to reach over $100 billion by 2026.
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The exclusive patent, awarded in February by the US Patent and Trademark Office, protects the company’s intellectual property and covers the methods and systems Wilk developed for the cultivation and separation of milk components from cultured cells, as the company now turns its focus on processes that increase production volume, said Wilk CEO Tomer Aizen.
For the animal-derived cultured milk, Wilk uses mammal cells “that are then grown and cultivated” in bioreactors, combined with a “secret sauce,” Aizen told The Times of Israel in a videoconference interview in February, referring to processes based on a decade of proprietary research by Dr. Nurit Argov-Argaman and Maggie Levy of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Sea2Cell, which is developing cultured blue tuna, was founded in September 2021 in the Fresh Start food-tech incubator in Kiryat Shmona by Avishai Levy, Dr. Itai Tzchori, Pablo Resnik, Prof. Berta Sivan and Dr. Orna Harel. The company has raised NIS 3.5 million.
Prof. Sivan came to the fish alternatives sector from the fish industry itself. As a professor of biology at the Hebrew University Faculty of Agriculture she set up a company for accelerating the fish farming process. She was involved in another project in Africa to advance fish farming of carp in pools. But she believes wild fish should be left alone.
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She said, "Fish are the only animals that we still hunt as well as farm, We go out in boats to sea and the oceans and are creating a catastrophe. In the Mediterranean 90% of the fish have disappeared and the situation is not very encouraging in the oceans. Even those who earn their livelihood from fishing understand today that this cannot continue."
Prof. Sivan has gained major knowhow in isolating cells from living tissues of fish in order to raise them. She was approached by Dr. Orna Harel who for years had been thinking about developing cultured fish. They were joined by Dr. Itai Tzchori, an expert in fish stem cells and Pablo Resnik who has been involved in international trade in fish and seafood. They set up the start up in the Fresh Start incubator, a partnership of Tnuva, Tempo, OurCrowd and Finister.
While stem cells of mammals have been produced for many years, partly in research institutes, there are very few fish stem cells produced. Sea2Cell is first of all building a massive stem cell production capacity, which can be transferred under concessions for other companies to manufacture the products. The aim is blue tuna. "Prof. Sivan said, "Even if we prevent the killing of one tuna, we would have achieved something."
Tuna is overfished worldwide and attempts to raise them in captivity have failed.
The burgers are made from a mix of potato, chickpea, and pea protein, according to SavorEat CEO Rachel Vizman, who co-founded the company with Prof. Oded Shoseyov (Chief Scientist), and Prof. Ido Braslavskof The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2018.
