U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation - BSF

18/06/2026

You work out consistently. You track your steps, your heart rate, your calories burned. And yet the number on the scale barely moves.

It's not a lack of effort. It may be biology.

A new study published in Communications Medicine - supported in part by a BSF grant to Dr. Yftach Gepner of Tel Aviv University and Dr. Edward Melanson of the University of Colorado Denver - offers the first direct evidence as to why exercise alone so often falls short when it comes to weight loss. And the answer lies inside the body itself.

The research team put overweight participants through a supervised aerobic walking program: four to five sessions a week over 12 weeks. They burned hundreds of extra calories weekly, got fitter, and measurably improved their body composition (less fat, more muscle). But they didn't lose weight.

Why? Because the body adapted.

Participants' resting metabolic rate declined. Their daily movements became more efficient, requiring less energy. And in a finding that surprised even the researchers: the liver and kidneys - two of the body's biggest energy consumers - shrank in volume by about 5%, potentially reducing overall energy expenditure.

And contrary to what many assume, participants did not significantly increase their food intake. The body adapted on its own, pulling energy from internal processes to offset what exercise was spending.

Prof. Gepner puts it in evolutionary context: early humans who hunted and foraged over long distances needed this same mechanism - conserving internal energy to make it home. The body hasn't updated that programming.

The takeaway isn't to exercise less. Physical activity remains one of the most powerful tools for improving fitness, body composition, and overall health. But for weight loss specifically, exercise may work best when paired with appropriate nutrition.

The study was led by Dr. Tzachi Knaan in Prof. Gepner's laboratory and included doctoral researcher Lior Friedmann.

It also reflects what long-term scientific partnerships can produce. Through their ongoing BSF-funded collaboration, Prof. Gepner and Prof. Melanson continue to advance our understanding of some of the most common and challenging questions in human health.

🔗 Read more here: https://english.tau.ac.il/research/exercise-isnt-enough?utm_source=miragenews&utm_medium=miragenews&utm_campaign=news

📖 See Study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43856-026-01502-z

📷 Photo Credit: Tel Aviv University

11/06/2026

An 8-month-old baby with a rare genetic disorder was suffering dozens of seizures a day.

With no approved treatment available, doctors tried something that had never before been attempted for a child with the condition: they delivered a healthy copy of the missing gene directly into his brain.

A month later, the severe seizures had stopped.

The experimental therapy targets WOREE syndrome, one of the most severe forms of genetic epilepsy, and represents the culmination of years of research on the WWOX gene led by Prof. Rami Aqeilan of The Hebrew University.

For nearly two decades, BSF has supported collaborative research involving Prof. Aqeilan and U.S. partners studying this gene, including his current project with Prof. Gary Stein and Prof. Janet Stein of the University of Vermont.

As Prof. Aqeilan put it:

"What began as an effort to understand the biological function of a gene has evolved into a potential therapeutic strategy for children affected by one of the most severe forms of genetic epilepsy."

This achievement is a powerful reminder that breakthroughs often begin with basic research - and that long-term international scientific collaborations can have an impact far beyond their original goals.

BSF is proud to have played a part in supporting the research that contributed to this remarkable achievement.

Congratulations to Prof. Aqeilan and the entire research team on this inspiring milestone.

🔗 Read more: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1131219

📷 Image credits: Aqeilan Lab; Hebrew University and AI

04/06/2026

What do chemistry, cancer biology, and astrophysics have in common this year?

All three fields are represented by the 2026 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in Israel -- and all three laureates are active BSF grantees.

This year’s awardees are Dr. Sergey N. Semenov (Weizmann Institute of Science), Dr. Uri Ben-David (Tel Aviv University), and Dr. Paz Beniamini (Open University of Israel). Each receives an unrestricted US$100,000 prize -- one of the most prestigious honors for early-career scientists in Israel.

🔹 Dr. Sergey N. Semenov, Chemical Sciences Laureate, is collaborating with Prof. Jerome Fox (University of Colorado Boulder) on NSF-BSF supported research into biochemical oscillators and synthetic chemical clocks.

🔹 Dr. Uri Ben-David, Life Sciences Laureate and two-time BSF grantee, is collaborating with Prof. Jason Sheltzer (Stanford University) on research investigating new therapeutic vulnerabilities linked to chromosomal changes in cancer.

🔹 Dr. Paz Beniamini, Physical Sciences & Engineering Laureate and two-time NSF-BSF grantee, is leading a multi-university collaboration studying signals from neutron star and black hole mergers -- making history as both the first laureate from the Open University of Israel and the first astrophysicist recognized by the Blavatnik Awards in Israel.

We're proud to support researchers of this caliber -- and to see U.S.-Israel collaboration reflected in this year's honorees.

Congratulations to all three laureates. 👏

🔗 Read more: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1126803

📷 Image credit: Blavatnik Awards / The New York Academy of Sciences

31/05/2026

Imagine looking in a mirror and discovering that your reflection obeys different physical laws than you do.

That, researchers say, is essentially what happens with “chiral” molecules - mirror-image molecular forms that were long assumed to behave identically.

For more than 150 years, scientists have known that life on Earth consistently favors one molecular “handedness” over the other. Proteins, for example, are built almost exclusively from left-handed molecules, while DNA and RNA rely on right-handed ones. Why nature made that choice has remained one of biology’s deepest mysteries.

Now, a new study published in Science Advances offers a compelling clue.

BSF-supported researchers Prof. Ron Naaman of the Weizmann Institute of Science and Prof. Yossi Paltiel of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, alongside an international team, discovered that the difference between these mirror-image molecules only emerges once electrons begin moving through them.

As the electrons travel, they experience different magnetic forces depending on the molecule’s orientation - creating a subtle asymmetry that may have helped one molecular form gain an advantage on the early Earth.

The findings support a provocative idea: that magnetized mineral surfaces may have acted as a kind of molecular filter billions of years ago, helping determine the “handedness” that became the foundation of life itself.

The implications extend far beyond the origins of life.

In chemistry and medicine, choosing the wrong molecular mirror image can make a compound ineffective - or even harmful. The researchers say their findings could eventually help scientists more precisely control which molecular forms are produced, opening the door to safer drugs and more efficient chemical processes.

The work also connects directly to a joint NSF-BSF collaboration between Prof. Naaman, Prof. Paltiel, and Prof. David H. Waldeck of the University of Pittsburgh, exploring how these same magnetic and electronic effects could eventually be harnessed to better control complex chemical and biological processes.

🔗 Read the study here: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aec9325

24/05/2026

For millions of people living with kidney disease, the body’s ability to repair damaged kidney tissue is frustratingly limited. Once key filtering structures are lost, they generally do not grow back - leaving many patients facing dialysis or transplant.

Now, a new U.S.-Israel study points to a possible new path for regeneration.

Researchers from the University of Washington and Sheba Medical Center found that early-stage kidney cells transplanted after just four days of development were able to integrate into damaged kidneys in mice and form new filtering structures. They outperformed larger, more mature lab-grown kidney organoids - tiny models of kidney tissue.

The timing turned out to matter. By transplanting the cells at this very early stage, the team preserved important early cell populations that later developed into specialized support cells known as mesangial cells - a milestone not seen in previous kidney implant studies.

The findings suggest that transplanting cells earlier in development may produce more robust and complex grafts inside the body than using more mature tissue models.

The work, published in the journal The Innovation, was led in part by BSF collaborators Dr. Benjamin Freedman of the University of Washington and Prof. Benjamin Dekel of Sheba Medical Center through a U.S.-Israel BSF grant.

While much more research is needed before this could reach patients, the study offers an intriguing glimpse into how regenerative medicine may one day help restore key kidney structures rather than simply treat their decline.

🔗 Read more here: https://newsroom.uw.edu/news-releases/youth-triumphs-in-test-to-regenerate-kidney-tissue/

📖 See study: https://www.cell.com/the-innovation/fulltext/S2666-6758(26)00028-7

University of Washington The Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer

17/05/2026

People with obsessive-compulsive disorder often understand that their repetitive behaviors are irrational. What they cannot easily do is stop them.

A new U.S.-Israel study published in Nature Communications may help explain part of the reason.

Researchers discovered that a small group of brain cells can directly trigger serotonin release inside the striatum - a brain region deeply involved in habits and action control.

The finding caught scientists by surprise. These cells, which release a chemical called acetylcholine, were already known to influence dopamine, the brain’s reward messenger. But scientists did not realize they could also directly control serotonin activity in nearby brain circuits.

That matters because serotonin plays a central role in mood and behavior, and many psychiatric medications - including common treatments for OCD - work by altering serotonin signaling throughout the brain.

In mouse models of OCD-like behavior, where acetylcholine activity becomes unusually high, researchers observed massive serotonin surges - effectively allowing the acetylcholine system to “take the wheel” of serotonin signaling. The localized overactivity may help explain why compulsive behaviors can become so hard to stop.

The findings could also point toward more targeted treatments. Rather than broadly altering serotonin activity across the brain, future therapies may eventually focus on the specific circuits where this overactivity occurs.

The study is the latest milestone in a longstanding collaboration between Prof. Joshua Goldberg of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Dr. Joshua Plotkin of Stony Brook University . Supported in part by the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF), the pair are now embarking on their third BSF-funded grant together - a perfect example of how sustained international collaboration drives medical discovery.

🔗 Read more here: https://www.psypost.org/scientists-discover-how-local-brain-cells-hijack-serotonin-signaling/

👉 See study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-70359-6

📸 Image courtesy of Prof. Joshua Goldberg.

06/05/2026

Three hundred million words. More than 130,000 texts. Eighteen centuries.

That’s the scale of a new U.S.-Israel research project asking a deceptively simple question: how does knowledge spread?

Backed by a joint grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) - and part of the first cohort under a new partnership between the two organizations - the project brings together Dr. Michael Satlow (Brown University), Dr. Binyamin Katzoff and Prof. Maayan Zhitomirsky-Geffet (Bar-Ilan University), and Prof. Jonathan Schler (Holon Institute of Technology).

Using AI adapted for historical Hebrew and Aramaic, the team will analyze more than 130,000 texts - one of the longest continuous traditions of written scholarship in human history - from ancient legal texts and correspondence to biblical and Talmudic commentary.

Their goal is to map networks of citation and influence across time and place, tracing how ideas spread, evolved, and took on new meaning across communities.

It’s a shift from reading individual texts to seeing an entire ecosystem of knowledge - and uncovering connections that were previously invisible.

Beyond Jewish studies, the project points to something bigger: how AI can open new ways of understanding the movement of ideas across the humanities.

Congratulations to the full U.S.–Israel research team on this award, and to all involved in launching this new NEH-BSF partnership - an important step in advancing collaborative humanities research.

🔗 Read more here: https://www.brown.edu/news/2026-02-04/jewish-texts-ai-grant-satlow

Supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, Brown University scholar Michael Satlow will use cutting-edge computational techniques to analyze 18 centuries of traditional Jewish texts.

27/04/2026

Can sharpening your kitchen skills be the clinical key to keeping weight off?

A new study led by Dr. Rani P***k (Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Sheba Medical Center), in collaboration with his BSF partner, Prof. Amir Tirosh (Sheba Medical Center), suggests that lasting health may depend less on restrictive diets - and more on how people learn to cook and apply nutrition in daily life.

Supported by the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF), this randomized controlled trial was recently recognized as an Editors’ Choice article in Obesity, the flagship journal of The Obesity Society.

The researchers focused on a practical question: can people achieve sustained weight loss by learning to apply nutrition principles in their own kitchens? Comparing a remote culinary medicine program with standard dietary counseling, the one-year results showed:

✔︎ Sustained success: Participants in the culinary group achieved an average of 4.3% weight loss, significantly outperforming the 0.4% seen in the traditional counseling group.

✔︎ Scalable delivery: A remote format that translates clinical guidance into everyday habits from any kitchen, anywhere.

✔︎ Skills over prescriptions: By focusing on "how" to cook rather than just "what" to eat, the study highlights a practical, partnership-driven model for long-term health management.

Bringing together clinical expertise from both the U.S. and Israel, Dr. P***k and his team have built a scalable framework for lasting health. BSF is proud to have supported this collaborative effort.

🔗 Read the full study in Obesity: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.70193

📸 Photo credit: Dr. Rani P***k

22/04/2026

To our friends and colleagues in Israel - wishing you a meaningful Independence Day.

Over the years, these U.S.-Israel collaborations have become more than shared research. They’re built on relationships, trust, and a genuine sense of partnership.

It’s something we’re proud to be part of at the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation - and something that continues to move science forward in real and lasting ways.

With hope for a peaceful year ahead, and for continued shared work and discovery.

01/04/2026

From all of us at BSF, wishing you a Happy Passover and Easter holiday.

May this be a season of renewal and the warmth of family and friends, bringing new opportunities and meaningful discoveries - and hope for quieter, more peaceful days ahead.

Happy Easter | חג פסח שמח