FEBRUARY 22ND GALA TO FEATURE PHOTO EXHIBITION

2012 Gala Co-Chairman Ari Rifkin is an exceptional photographer who is once again donating the sale of photographic prints from her recent travels in Israel and Africa to ICA USA. Gala guests will be able to purchase enlarged prints of compelling photographic vistas of Israel by Ari Rifkin and Ferenc Illenyi, and panoramic African landscape and candid wildlife images by Ari Rifkin and Eric Zvenieks, during the welcoming cocktail reception. A Musical Interlude by Violinist Ferenc Illenyi, dinner and dancing to Soul Survivors will follow the exhibition.

The Gala, "Israel – A Place in Our Hearts", will be held Wednesday, February 22 at The Breakers. Read More...

PALM BEACH VISIT BY NOBEL LAUREATE SCIENTIST

RAISES FUNDS FIVE CANCER RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS

Nobel Laureate Scientist Dr. Aaron Ciechanover, an Israel Cancer Association (ICA) funded researcher, recently presented two scientific presentations in Palm Beach while on a fundraising trip to support cancer research fellowships. These fellowships will be awarded to distinguished Israeli scientists in ICA’s fight to find a cure for cancer. Israel Cancer Association USA (ICA USA) Board President Bruce Koppel said “We were so pleased to have had Dr. Ciechanover in Palm Beach to meet our donors and discuss Israel’s groundbreaking research.” ICA cancer research fellowships are $22,000 each, over two-years. ICA USA is a unique non-profit in that every dollar raised goes directly to research by Israel’s brilliant scientists.

 Dr. Ciechanover addressed private gatherings of donors in Palm Beach homes on the topic of ‘Cancer therapy and personalized medicine – there is hope at the end of the tunnel’. The events were hosted by Nancy and Peter Brown and by Jane and Richard Karp.

Dr. Aaron Ciechanover, along with Drs. Avram Hershko and Irwin Rose, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2004. Their renowned research ultimately became an important platform for drug development, including a vaccine that protects young women the world over from HPV-induced uterine cervical carcinoma.Read More...

ICA USA funded scientist identifies protein that may slow down pancreatic cancer

Dr. Ido Wolf, an ICA USA funded scientist, and his team have discovered a protein that seems to prevent the growth of pancreatic cancer. The protein, klotho, could possibly be effective against other aggressive cancers, as well.

Researchers at the Cancer Research Center at Sheba medical Center studied the behavior of klotho, a natural hormone emitted by the brain and kidneys that is known to retard the aging process. When the protein was injected, cancerous growths stopped spreading and began to shrink. The researchers first noticed that healthy pancreatic cells contained klotho, whereas cancerous cells did not. Researchers hope that testing pancreatic cells for klotho may provide an earlier indication of the presence of cancer.

Dr. Wolf is head of Sheba Medical Center’s oncology department and one of the labs at the Cancer Research Center. On his research team were Dr. Lilach Abramovitz and Dr. Tami Rubinek. His study was funded by Nancy and Peter Brown.

ICA USA funded scientist demonstrates why DNA breaks down in cancer cells

In laboratory work carried out at the Hebrew University, Professor Batsheva Kerem of the Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences and her Ph.D. student Assaf C. Bester demonstrated that abnormal activation of cellular proliferation driving many different cancer types leads to insufficient levels of the DNA building blocks (nucleotides) required to support normal DNA replication.

Then, using laboratory cultures in which cancerous cells were introduced, the researchers were able to show that through external supply of those DNA building blocks it is possible to reactivate normal DNA synthesis, thus negating the damage caused by the cancerous cells and the cancerous potential. This is the first time that this has been demonstrated anywhere.

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