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The Sheba Medical Center in Israel announced this week a major collaborative agreement with Thomas Jefferson University in the United States to advance neuroscience research and clinical care.
A joint state-of-the-art neuroscience center will be built on the Sheba campus in Ramat Gan, a district of Tel Aviv, and is expected to launch in late 2024.
A memorandum of understanding signed between the two institutions outlines their collaboration in the key areas of research, innovation, and clinical care. Sheba and Thomas Jefferson will combine their respective expertise and knowledge in neuroscience to develop the new treatments of tomorrow.
“When research becomes global, there are always advantages. Sheba and Jefferson are in the process of setting up a program that incorporates their respective areas of specialization with the goal of stepping up the care for patients with neurological diseases. Combining different cultures, different diagnostic procedures and different approaches to treatment represents a real benefit for patients,” Professor Michal Schnaider Beeri, director of the Joseph Sagol Neuroscience Center in Sheba, told i24NEWS.
Schnaider Beeri said the integration of knowledge and expertise between the two institutions will be instrumental in assuring medical care of the highest quality.
“We have developed a technology at Sheba that allows highly focused access to the blood-brain barrier in order to deliver treatments directly into the brain. We have very great capabilities in understanding the workings of the blood-brain barrier. In addition, Jefferson has important knowledge concerning the synapses which ensure the interaction between two neurons allowing the passage of a signal,” Beeri added.
The Sheba and Jefferson teams meet regularly to compare their studies and put them to use. In addition, they are currently working on a new joint scientific research program that will compete in the international market.
Their neuroscience center will focus on a range of brain diseases, including epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, movement disorders, stem cell research, and behavioral disorders. In addition to making the most advanced technologies and treatments available to Israeli patients, it will also serve as an academic research center and become the permanent office of Thomas Jefferson University in Israel.
Sheba, Israel’s largest hospital, was ranked as one of the top 20 hospitals in the world by Newsweek this year.
Published September 16, 2022, i24NEWS
