type of news item
Faculty Scientists Led by Prof. Dani Zamir Develop Drought-Resistant Tomatoes
AFHU, April 19th 2023
New variety can grow with half as much water; study comes as tomato prices expected to surge
Israeli researchers have developed a new variety of tomato that is more resistant to drought conditions and could help farmers cope with the destructive impact of climate change.
An in-depth genetic analysis led by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Shai Torgeman and Professor Dani Zamir identified interactions between two areas of the tomato’s genome that lead to increased yield and resistance to dry conditions.
The resulting new tomato variety, which has yet to be named, can cope with extreme weather conditions. The study’s findings were published on Monday in the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) journal.
“Commercial tomato breeds grown in open-field conditions and that you find in supermarkets on average require 317,000 gallons per acre each season,” Shai Torgeman, a doctoral candidate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told The Media Line. “In our study, we cut this water amount in half and got great results.”
To achieve this, scientists crossbred two species of tomatoes – a wild variety that comes all the way from the deserts of western Peru, with a common commercial cultivar that is widely available.
FoodTech Conference Highlights Companies
New Therapeutic Nutrition Clinic
Milk from Lettuce
NoCamels, Sep 1st 2022
Pigmentum, a startup based in Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel, plants GM lettuce in hi-tech greenhouses, cultivates it with special fertilizers and harvests the crop when it’s ready, a little over three weeks later.
It then squeezes out the juice – over 90 per cent of lettuce is liquid – adds natural ingredients to give it a milk-like taste and smell, and has a product which is ready to drink, pour on your breakfast cereal or add to your coffee.
“Lettuce is green and leafy and doesn’t look the sort of thing you’d make cheese from,” says Tal Lutzky, CEO of the company. But as he explains, they use lettuce as an organism for growing many things, including casein.
He and co-founder Amir Tiroler both studied agronomy at Hebrew University’s Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, with Prof. Alexander Vainstein, a world leader in genetic engineering in plants, and a member of their team.
Lutzky and Tiroler came up with the idea of using lettuce as a platform to grow a range of pigments, such as anthocyanin (the purple found in blueberries and raspberries) and vanillin, which makes vanilla, as well as aromas and other compounds used in the food industry, that are otherwise very costly or hard to produce.
They genetically modify romaine lettuce, then irrigate or spray it with a special fertilizer that triggers the growth of whatever they’ve encoded into its genes.
“We engineer the lettuce to produce whatever we want in very, very high yields, in this case casein, to make milk,” says Lutzky.
Ordinary lettuce contains no casein at all. It’s only by genetically modifying it that they have been able to turn ordinary-looking lettuce becomes a platform or a vehicle for casein production.
New Biological Sensor Detects Hidden Disease in Potatoes
Israel’s Hebrew University & Volcani Institute Team Up to Prevent Looming Global Food Crisis:
(Jerusalem, August 23, 2022)-- Despite advances in increased food production, half of all world’s harvested food is lost due to שבrots caused by microorganisms. Plants emit various volatile organic compounds into their surrounding environment, which can be monitored for early detection of plant disease and prevent food loss.
Desert Regions May Predict Climate Change in Wetter Areas
(Jerusalem, August 16, 2022)—When it comes to the world’s climate, in the past decade, planet Earth keeps sending us its summer siren’s call. According to NASA, nineteen of the hottest years have occurred since 2000, with 2016 and 2020 tied for the hottest on record. This summer is already making worldwide headlines, with England scorching beyond 40 degrees Celsius.
New study to test for low iodine in desalinated water
Hebrew University tests water supplies after Health Ministry finds iodine concentration among Israelis far below WHO-recommended levels, prompting childhood development worries
Gluten-Free Superfood From Ethiopia Is Coming To Israel
Researchers are bringing teff – the staple food for millions of Ethiopians – to Israel.
Kaye Innovation Award to Prof Zvi Hayouka
Random Antimicrobial Peptide Mixture to Tackle Bacterial Contamination in Various Technologies
Faculty Researcher Targets Mosquitos
By Isabel Engel, NoCamels June 08, 2022
3D-printed Skin for Scars and Topical Wounds
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.
By Abigail Klein Leichman JUNE 10, 2022, 8:40 AM
Cannabis Strain with 20% More THC
A WORLD FIRST: Hebrew University Engineers Enhanced Cannabis Strain with 20% More THC
Findings will Help Develop New Strains for Medical Cannabis Users and Increase Crop Yields
(Jerusalem, May 31, 2022)—Throughout the world, the cannabis plant is gaining in popularity and legitimacy as a medical treatment for a broad range of illnesses. Now, researchers at the laboratory of Professor Alexander (Sasha) Vainstein at the Hebrew University of Jerusalerm (HU)’s Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, in partnership with and funding from Mariana Bioscience Ltd, have successfully engineered a cannabis plant with higher levels of medically-important substances, such as THC.
The researchers successfully increased the level of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the main psychoactive component in cannabis, by close to 17%, and the level of CBG (cannabigerol), often referred to as the mother of all cannabinoids, by close to 25%. Further, Vainstein and his team were able to increase the ratio of terpenes, which are responsible for maximizing the euphoric effects of cannabis, by 20–30%.
The stated goal of their study was to find a way to intervene in the biochemical pathways in the cannabis plant in order to increase or decrease the production of active substances. The researchers accomplished this by manipulating a plant-based virus, that had first been neutralized so that it could not harm the plant, and then manipulating it to express the genes that influence the production of active substances in the cannabis plant. “This represents an innovative use of these tools, which were constructed using synthetic biology tools,” explained Vainstein. “Next, we developed an innovative technology based on infection with an engineered virus to facilitate chemical reactions that increase the quantities of desired substances. In collaboration with Mariana Bioscience Ltd., we examined the infected plants and found that the levels of the substances in question had indeed risen.” This is the first time that researchers have succeeded in performing such a feat with cannabis plants.
Currently, there is a great deal of research activity aimed at identifying additional substances and medical treatments that can be derived from the cannabis plant, in addition to the more than 200 active ingredients that have already been identified. Until now, there had been no way to tailor strains to produce certain cannabis substances or to alter the ratio between them. According to Vainstein, “These study results will be valuable both to industry—to increase the yield of active substances, and to medical researcher—to cultivate and develop new strains for medical cannabis users.” Vainstein added that more extensive experiments with the engineered plant are currently underway and should be available to cannabis industry leaders and medical research in the next few months.
Wilk to produce animal-free cultured and breast milk
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.
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.
Startups tackle fish alternatives
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.
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.