Industrial societies losing healthy gut microbes

Eat more fiber!

20-Mar-2024 - Everyone knows that fiber is healthy and an important part of our daily diet. But what is fiber and why is it healthy? Fiber is cellulose, the stringy stuff that plants are made of. Leaves, stems, roots, stalks and tree-trunks (wood) are made of cellulose. The purest form of cellulose is the ...

Shrimp from Finding Nemo could help keep your white bread white

Ben-Gurion University researchers discover new principle in optics

01-Jun-2023 - The Pacific Cleaner Shrimp may hold the secret to keeping white bread white. Inorganic nanoparticles such as titanium dioxide and zinc oxide are widely used as whitening agents in foods, cosmetics, and paints. However, due to health concerns, there is currently an intensive search to find ...

Researcher Develops One Minute Coronavirus Test

COVID-19 samples can be collected using a simple breath test or throat and nose swabs

15-May-2020 - Ben-Gurion University of the Negev's Prof. Gabby Sarusi has developed and is now validating a test that identifies carriers of the COVID-19 virus in less than a minute with greater than 90% accuracy and at a dramatically lower price than any other method available. Clinical trials in conjunction ...

How antibiotic resistance persists thanks to selfish genetic elements

Research team shows mechanisms which enable bacteria to maintain resistance, even under non-selective conditions

17-Jun-2019 - Parts of the genetic information of many microorganisms are located on so-called plasmids. These are genetic elements which consist of a single DNA ring, and can reproduce independently of their host. Most bacteria carry plasmids as they enable them to acquire new genetic information by a process ...

Researchers discover new genetic mutation that causes male infertility

11-Aug-2017 - Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Soroka University Medical Center in Beer-Sheva, Israel have discovered a new genetic mutation that prevents sperm production. Five percent of men suffer from infertility and approximately one percent suffer from azoospermia, which is a ...

BGU and University of Colorado Researchers Develop Novel “Smart” Drug that Targets and Reduces Site-Specific Inflammation

23-Jul-2015 - Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and University of Colorado researchers have used a highly novel approach to create a dynamic ‘smart’ drug that is attentive to the degree of the inflammation. The three describe a novel creative development of an anti-inflammatory engineered protein in the ...

Increased levels of carbon dioxide could threaten zinc and iron levels in plants

Study by BGU researcher and colleagues on most significant health threat from climate change featured in Nature

02-Jun-2014 - Crops that provide a large share of the global population with most of their dietary zinc and iron will have significantly reduced concentrations of those nutrients at the elevated levels of atmospheric CO2 anticipated by around 2050, according to research published in Nature. Given that an ...

BGU researchers have discovered how prolonged exposure to stress can increase the risk of autoimmune diseases

03-May-2013 - Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researchers have proven that chronic stress increases the susceptibility to an autoimmune disease similar to multiple sclerosis, which is characterized by damage to the nervous system in the brain. The researchers, Dr. Idan Harpaz and Prof. Alon Monsonego, in ...

Researchers from BGU have generated a promising drug candidate for the treatment of Psoriasis

27-Feb-2013 - Researchers from the Department of Life Sciences and the National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in collaboration with Teva pharmaceutical industries LTD. have engineered a natural immune system receptor into a promising drug candidate for the ...

New research shows promise killing leukemia cells

BGU’s Prof. Ilana Nathan and her team explore novel treatments for leukemia

19-Feb-2013 - Ben-Gurion University of the Negev’s Prof. Ilana Nathan and her team are interested in cell death. Specifically, they investigate all sorts of chemical compounds that can kill leukemia cancer cells by taking a ‘WISE’ investigational approach. What’s unique about the research is that she and her ...