Past events
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Israel National Masterplan on Aging. Initial Congress
Tue, Mar 14, 2017 12:00 AM — Tue, Mar 14, 2017 12:00 AM Event is ended.On March 14, 2017, there took place in Rehovot in the ”House of the People” Hall the initial congress for the National Masterplan on Aging. This congress initiated the campaign to create the National Masterplan on Aging in Israel. Leaders of many public associations working for the benefit of the elderly took part in the congress, as well as members of the Knesset and representatives of the government. -
Mixiii Biomed 2017: 16th National Life Sciences & Technology Week
As the leading event of Israel’s life science industry, MIXiii-BIOMED has positioned itself throughout the years as the main annual meeting place for players of Israel’s healthcare industry with their colleagues from around the globe. The conference attracts visitors from around the world who come to explore the various innovations and experience firsthand the entrepreneurial spirit which is a basis of Israel’s vibrant life science community. The Conference hosts over 6,000 senior executives, scientists, and engineers, including approximately 1,000 participants from over 45 countries and in excess of 4,500 one-on-one meetings.
A focus on aging: That year, aging and age-related diseases were the central themes of the conference, which was dedicated to diseases affecting the elderly population such as chronic diseases, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes and more. Looking at the future of the healthcare system, participants addressed ways to monitor, diagnose and treat elderly patients by utilizing new methods and innovations in fields such as precision medicine, genetics, personal diagnostics and more, as well as explore how digital health and health IT address these fields. Additional fields that play a crucial role in aging individuals are medical robotics, regenerative and cell therapies, and longevity. All these and more were presented and discussed as part of the growing interest and resources invested by healthcare systems in addressing issues of aging populations. -
42nd Febs Congress. From Molecules to Cells and Back
The Israeli Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology held the 42nd Congress of The Federation of the European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) on September 10–14th, 2017. This Congress was held in the multi-cultural and historical city of Jerusalem at the well-known international convention center "Binyane Hauma". The 2017 FEBS Congress, entitled "From molecules to cells and back", covered the entire spectrum of molecular life sciences with symposia including: Cancer biology, Chromatin structure and epigenetic modifications, Molecular neuroscience, Mechanisms for protein homeostasis, Medicinal chemistry, Metabolomics and signaling, Molecular machines in action, Protein degradation, Signaling across membranes: receptors, channels and transporters, Systems biology, Structural computational biology.
Pioneers and leading researchers from all aspects of molecular life sciences participated. In addition, there were early-bird practical sessions, and discussion sessions on topics such as science and society, careers and education. Furthermore, the FEBS Young Scientists’ Forum (YSF) promoted interactions between pre- and post-doctoral scientists. The Congress offered unique opportunities for scientific interactions, which facilitated the initiation of friendships, collaborations, and joint projects. -
Pathways to Healthy Longevity
Bar Ilan University’s Faculty of Life Sciences, in cooperation with the Israeli Longevity Alliance, Vetek (Seniority) Association, and American Federation for Aging Research, held an international conference on Pathways to Healthy Longevity, which focused on pioneering Israeli research on the biology of aging and its implications for extending a healthful lifespan by preventing age-related diseases. The conference also awarded excellence prizes to young researchers in the field.
The conference emphasized that less than 1% of government budgets for scientific research is allocated to the study of old age, and argued that the low level of funding discourages researchers from going into this difficult and expensive field. -
Technologies for Aging Well
The world is facing a wave of aging populations that will face challenges in various areas. One of the solutions that can help us as a society to deal with these challenges is the technological solution. That's why there is a strong need that developers and entrepreneurs become familiar with the characteristics of the aging population, its needs, and the characteristics of the array of services and marketing challenges. On the other hand, professionals, caregivers and service providers should be familiar with the entrepreneurial community and technological developments and future trends. This conference not only brought the technological innovation and exposes the leading start-ups and project teams for the year 2017, but its purpose was to serve as a meeting place for mutual fertilization between professionals and caregivers, entrepreneurs and policymakers. -
Healthy Aging Symposium 2018
The goal of the "Healthy Aging" Symposium was to present and discuss the aging phenomena broadband aspects in the various relevant research area, towards joint efforts in national and international collaborations. The necessity of investigating the mechanisms of aging as well as of solving unique old-age problems is a multidisciplinary challenge, and involves a wide array of scientific pursuits. As the proportion and impact of elderly members in society surge, the need to understand the vast phenomena of aging in both their healthy and unhealthy manifestations is ever growing. The number of older people (over the age of 65) has increased in an unprecedented manner. Thus, since the middle of the last century, the proportional increase in the older population of Israel has been twofold the increase in the general population. In 2018 life expectancy for those who reached the age of 65 approximated 20 more years with a higher survival rate for women over men. Furthermore, the growth rate of those over 80 years of age (“the old-old”) in Israel was especially high compared to western countries.
This is the theme of this Symposium – a cross-disciplinary ongoing brainstorming for the best benefit of society. -
The Biannual Congress of the Israel Gerontological Society 2018
The Israel Gerontological Society (IGS) has been established in 1956 in order to face the challenge of an Israeli aging population. IGS is a voluntary organization which is serving as a framework for research and academic institutions, organizations, services, and agencies dealing with the subject of aging in Israel.
Ongoing activities of IGS include biannual IGS meetings (since 1976) that also host guests from abroad. In February 2018, the IGS held its 22nd biannual congress entitled “The Understandings of Aging (Tovanot Hazikna). Active Aging in the time of economic abundance and social gaps”.
This conference, which served as the main meeting for all those involved in the field of aging, including researchers, policymakers and practitioners, took place in the midst of a dramatic social change affecting the Israeli society - the challenge of aging. Is the Israeli society prepared to deal with what this change brings with it? What can be learned from what is happening in the planning rooms of the government ministries? Does gerontological and geriatric research contribute to coping with the needs of the aging society? -
Special Discussion of the Knesset Committee on Science and Technology
On July 9, a special session of the Knesset committee on Science and Technology was dedicated, for the first time, to strengthening biomedical R&D for healthy longevity, under the title “Strengthening the research and development for improving the quality of life and longevity and prevention of aging-related diseases”. The meeting was held as a part of the special “Day of Senior Citizens” in Knesset, and as a part of the preparation of the “National Master Plan on Aging” led by Member of Knesset Tali Ploskov. The discussion co-organizers were the Disabled, not Half a Person association, and Vetek (Seniority) - the Movement for Longevity and Quality of Life. Leading scientists in the field in Israel participated, as well as representatives of relevant ministries, members of the Knesset and other key officials and stakeholders.
As a follow up, on December 24, 2018, there took take place in Knesset a special hearing of the Knesset Committee on the National Masterplan on Aging, to discuss the subject of “Research, Development and Education for the Promotion of Healthy Longevity and Prevention of Aging-related Diseases”. This pioneering discussion addressed aging-related diseases as manifestations of unhealthy aging and proposed a detailed program to combat degenerative aging processes, in order to postpone by a number of years, and in some circumstances even prevent, aging-related diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Dementia, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer and others. -
UK-ISR Precision Medicine and Ageing; Birax Conference
British Council Israel and the UK Science and Innovation Network (SIN) hosted the Joint Conference on Precision Medicine and Ageing and the BIRAX Ageing conference at King’s College London. This academic conference represents one of the British Council’s priority areas of scientific research in Israel for the coming years and was attended by leading researchers from the UK and Israel. The conference was the first Britain Israel Research and Academic Exchange (BIRAX) conference that focused on the ageing process and its impact on human health.
There were two main objectives:
To provide a platform for scientists involved in Precision Medicine and Ageing to share ideas and best practice that could help address the current scientific and clinical developments.
To establish and strengthen scientific partnerships between leading British and Israeli researchers, including links that could translate into submissions to the next bilateral BIRAX Ageing Call that focuses on Ageing (including Precision Medicine). -
Promoting Longevity: Targeting Aging & Age-Related Diseases
The conference “Promoting Longevity: Targeting Aging and Age-related Diseases” was co-sponsored by the Sagol Institute for Longevity Research of the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Chorafas Institute for Scientific Exchange. It included cutting edge topics in longevity science, such as clinical application of senolytic drugs, harnessing the immune system to target Alzheimer’s disease, regulatory RNA insufficiency in neurodegeneration, prion-like spread of protein aggregates in the aging vertebrate brain, neuroprotective function of histone deacetylase, epigenetic stress responses in stem cell aging, targeting senescent cells in aging and age-related diseases, rewiring the old metabolome by sirtuin 6, the role of proprioceptive system in maintaining joint health, and others, with leading researchers in the longevity field from Israel and abroad.
For the future, a large conference “International Perspectives in Geroscience – Israel” will take place in the Weizmann Institute of Science, on September 4-5, 2019. The aim of the conference is to promote geroscience and biomedical research on aging and aging-related diseases, to improve healthy and productive longevity for the elderly population. The conference is part of a large-scale multi-site international effort, which also includes geroscience meetings in the US, Australia, Singapore, Spain, Chile and China. Israel hosts one of these meetings, showing confidence in the development of the field in the country.
