How desert-based institute became an oasis of discovery
We meet some of the BGU scientists who engage in pioneering research
IT’S LOCATED in the middle of the desert, in an area of brutalist architecture. The walls are grubby, the chairs coffee stained. But what the BenGurion University lacks in aesthetics, it amply compensates in groundbreaking technological and medical research.
Those working in the small white rooms focus on matters such as reducing infant mortality, creating selfdriving vehicles and finding cures for serious diseases, the latest potentially for type one diabetes.
That is down to the research of eminent immunologist Dr Eli Lewis, who has discovered a way to enable sufferers to resume producing their own insulin.
It is achieved through a molecule, Alpha-1 Antitrypsin (alpha one for short), that clears away dead cells. “The molecule addresses many different diseases, all with one thing in common — dying cells,” Dr Lewis explains. “In diabetes, pancreas cells die. in Crohn’s disease, cells in the gut die. There’s n o t h i n g i n medicine to address these dying cells.”
As well a s h e l p - ing diabetes sufferers, alpha one has been used successfully in bone marrow transplants and to erase the scars left by a heart attack. He is confident that in two to three years, BGU will unveil disease-specific alpha one solutions for everything from Crohn’s to chapped lips. “Everyone will want alpha one in one form or another to help their conditions,” he states matter-of-factly. “Almost every drug that’s given to people has side-effects. They elicit or take something from the body that wasn’t there. This molecule is something the body produces when you’re sick, so it only adds strength.” In the field of treating serious diseases, “this is the new way. It is revolutionary.” And in Dr Lewis’s words, “it had to be an Israeli from BGU” who came up with the idea. “Because it’s on the periphery [geographically], you have students and 800 staff who chose to come here as opposed to other, easier places. We have to be more original to be visible. To do that, you do revolutionary science.” Another scient i s t s o l v i n g major medical probl e m s i s Dr Eli Lewis geneticist Professor Ohad Birk, who has identified and found cures for at least two dozen diseases — mostly severe neurological conditions — in his 15 years at BGU.
People thought he was “crazy” for choosing to conduct his research in Beersheva “but realised later that when I came here, it was the right choice.
“Are there temptations to leave, they ask, and I say no. Here is where I want to be. I’m lucky. I work from 4am until midnight every day.”
There is also a local imperative as most of the diseases which he and his team of students have worked to eradicate are found among the 200,000-plus Bedouin population in the area.
Within the 25-tribe community, there is a 60 per cent incidence of marriage between f i r s t or second cousins, meaning that genetic diseases are prevalent — and so can be more easily mapped.
“In some tribes, for certain mutations you have about 10 per cent affected,” Professor Birk explains. “For other tribes it’s one per cent but that’s still a huge number.
“Because they’re so inbred, if three genes need to go wrong in one tribe and two already have, there’s just one variable — one gene.” This scenario has allowed Professor Birk to isolate genes which may hold the key to a range of serious conditions.
“We have a gene associated with psoriasis; another with short-sightedness. We now have preliminary evidence of a gene for ADHD. We’re deep into studies on autism and multiple sclerosis.”
He points out that advances he has made in the past six years alone have contributed to the infant mortality rate among Negev Bedouins falling by 30 per cent, “nearly all through prevention of hereditary birth defects through both genetic testing and ultrasounds.
“Infant mortality in Israel is four per 1,000. It was 17 per 1,000 among Negev Bedouins. I t ’ s now 12 per 1,000 and in the next five years we are hoping to get it down to eight per 1,000.
“The paediatric wards here say they see certain diseases disappearing. We’ve discovered new molecular pathways of major diseases and it’s amazing fun.” As for the 800,000 mostly Sephardi Jews in the area, “in the past five years, we’ve discovered the two most common diseases in Sephardi Jews”. They are types of progressive cerebello-cerebral atrophy (PCCA), causing babies to deteriorate rapidly within their first year. By the age of two they lose contact with their surroundings. PCCA was infecting one-in-40 Sephardim.
“As of 2012,” Professor Birk says proudly, “there is routine free testing for all Sephardi Jews in Israel”.
He marvels at how he can “sit in a small room in the middle of nowhere and run a powerhouse. I can die tomorrow morning, happy. I tell my kids that.”
BGU engineers are also working to reduce road fatalites, developing Auto-mobile: Oded Yechiel ( “We have to be more original to be hardware which can turn any vehicle into a self-driving machine.
In functional surroundings, the university’s Laboratory for Autonomous Robotics team has stolen a march on Google and its competitors with lead engineer Oded Yechiel revealing that “it will take us between one and two years to finish everything to get it to work”.
He claims that by contrast, “Google will take at least five to 10 years until they’ll be able to show that their car is safe, get all the licenses and start driving autonomously on the road.
I sit in asmall room inthemiddle ofnowhere andruna powerhouse
is working on a self-driving device