Chemotherapy, while considered an effective cancer treatment, also brings debilitating side effects such as nausea, liver toxicity and a battered immune system.

A new way to deliver this life-saving therapy to cancer patients has been developed by researches at Tel Aviv University. Dr. Dan Peer of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Cell Research and Immunology and Prof. Rimona Margalit of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology led the research.

The breakthrough technology consists of a nano-sized vehicle with the ability to deliver chemotherapy drugs directly into cancer cells while avoiding interaction with healthy cells, increasing the efficiency of chemotherapeutic treatment while reducing its side effects.

Dr. Peer explained the vehicle is very similar to a cluster bomb. Inside the nano-vehicle itself are tiny particles of chemotherapy drugs. When the delivery vehicle comes into contact with cancer cells, it releases the chemotherapeutic payload directly into the cell. According to Dr. Peer, the nano-medical device can be used to treat many different types of cancer, including lung, blood, colon, breast, ovarian, pancreatic, and even several types of brain cancers.

The finding was recently reported in the journal Biomaterials.

A Sweet Payload to Trick Cancer: The key to the drug delivery platform is the molecule used to create the outer coating of this cluster nano-vehicle, a sugar recognized by receptors on many types of cancer cells.  When the nano-vehicle interacts with the receptor on the cancerous cell, the receptor undergoes a structural change and the chemotherapy payload is released directly into the cancer cell which leads to more focused chemotherapeutic treatment against the diseased cells.

Because the nano-vehicle reacts only to cancer cells, the healthy cells that surround them remain untouched and unaffected by the therapy. The nano-vehicle itself, is made from organic materials which fully decompose in the body once it has performed its function, making the treatment safer than current therapies.

Clinical Trials Coming Soon: This drug will be an improvement on anything currently on the market. Delivering chemotherapeutics directly into cancerous cells themselves is not only more potent, but also much safer. Drs. Peer and Margalit are working with ORUUS Pharma in California, which has licensed the “cluster bomb” platform from the university and can ensure a quick transition from the lab to clinical trials, which should begin in two years or less.

Archaeologists working in Jerusalem have uncovered the most ancient written document ever found in the city.

A tiny clay fragment dating from the 14th century B.C.E., that was found in excavations outside Jerusalem’s Old City walls contains the oldest written document ever found in Jerusalem, stated researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The find, believed to be part of a tablet from a royal archives, further testifies to the importance of Jerusalem as a major city in the Late Bronze Age, long before its conquest by King David, they say.
The clay fragment was uncovered recently during sifting of fill excavated from beneath a 10th century B.C.E. tower dating from the period of King Solomon in the Ophel area, located between the southern wall of the Old City of Jerusalem and the City of David to its south. Details of the discovery appear in the current issue of the Israel Exploration Journal.

Excavations in the Ophel have been conducted by Dr. Eilat Mazar of the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology. Funding for the project has been provided by Daniel Mintz and Meredith Berkman of New York, who also have provided funds for completion of the excavations and opening of the site to the public by the Israel Antiquities Authority, in cooperation with the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the Company for the Development of East Jerusalem. The sifting work was led by Dr. Gabriel Barkay and Zachi Zweig at the Emek Zurim wet-sieving facility site.

Israeli archaeologist Eilat Mazar holds a fragment bearing an ancient form of writing, in Jerusalem, 12 Jul 2010

The fragment that has been found is 2×2.8 centimeters in size and one centimeter thick. Dated to the 14th century B.C.E., it appears to have been part of a tablet and contains cuneiform symbols in ancient Akkadian (the lingua franca of that era).

The words the symbols form are not significant in themselves, but what is significant is that the script is of a very high level, testifying to the fact that it was written by a highly skilled scribe that in all likelihood prepared tablets for the royal household of the time, stated Prof. Wayne Horowitz, a scholar of Assyriology at the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology. Horowitz deciphered the script along with his former graduate student Dr. Takayoshi Oshima, now of the University of Leipzig, Germany.

Tablets with diplomatic messages were routinely exchanged between kings in the ancient Near East, Horowitz stated, and there is a great likelihood, because of its fine script and the fact it was discovered adjacent to in the acropolis area of the ancient city, that the fragment was part of such a “royal missive.” Horowitz has interpreted the symbols on the fragment to include the words “you,” “you were,” “later,” “to do” and “them.”

The tiny clay fragment – dating from the 14th century B.C.E. – found by Hebrew University archaeologists in excavations outside Jerusalem’s Old City walls contains the oldest written document ever found in Jerusalem. (Photo: Sasson Tiram)

The most ancient known written record previously found in Jerusalem was the tablet found in the Shiloah water tunnel in the City of David area during the 8th century B.C.E. reign of King Hezekiah. That tablet, celebrating the completion of the tunnel, is in a museum in Istanbul. This latest find predates the Hezekiah tablet by about 600 years.

The fragment found at the Ophel is believed to be contemporary with the some 380 tablets discovered in the 19th century at Amarna in Egypt in the archives of Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten), who lived in the 14th century B.C.E. The archives include tablets sent to Akhenaten by the kings who were subservient to him in Canaan and Syria and include details about the complex relationships between them, covering many facets of governance and society. Among these tablets are six that are addressed from Abdi-Heba, the Canaanite ruler of Jerusalem. The tablet fragment in Jerusalem is most likely part of a message that would have been sent from the king of Jerusalem, possibly Abdi-Heba, back to Egypt, stated Mazar.

Examination of the material of the fragment by Prof. Yuval Goren of Tel Aviv University, shows that it is from the soil of the Jerusalem area and not similar to materials from other areas, further testifying to the likelihood that it was part of a tablet from a royal archive in Jerusalem containing copies of tablets sent by the king of Jerusalem to Pharaoh Akhenaten in Egypt.

Mazar stated this new discovery, providing solid evidence of the importance of Jerusalem during the Late Bronze Age (the second half of the second century B.C.E.), acts as a counterpoint to some who have used the lack of substantial archeological findings from that period until now to argue that Jerusalem was not a major center during that period. It also lends weight to the importance that accrued to the city in later times, leading up to its conquest by King David in the 10th century B.C.E.”

An ancient Egyptian biblical city from 3,500 years ago has been discovered by radar. The ancient city flourished – at the height of the Hebrew Jewish People’s presence there. The city is believed to be Avaris, the summer capital of the Hyksos people, foreign occupiers who ruled Egypt for about a century, beginning around the mid-17th century BCE. It was during that time that the Nation of Israel began their sojourn in Egypt, which continued later with a “new king who did not know Joseph” (Exodus 1:8).

The Egyptian Ministry of Culture stated Austrian archaeologists used radar imaging to find the underground outlines of the city, located in the now densely-populated Nile Delta area. The radar images show the outlines of streets and houses underneath what are now green farm fields and modern towns. Austrian archaeological team head Irene Mueller stated,”The aim of the geophysical survey, was to identify the size of the ancient city. The mission also identified one of the Nile river tributaries that passed through the city, as well as two islands.”