Depression and chronic stress are conditions that affect nearly 10 percent of the global population, and until now, most conventional treatments have proven ineffective. Researchers from the Weizmann Institute have discovered how and why depression develops, and believe that new and simpler ways to treat and detect depression may be fruits of their labor.

American philanthropists Nancy and Stephan Grand have given the Weizmann Institute $50 million gift, to go towards the National Center for Personalized Medicine. The donation will enable the center to be at the forefront of the future of medicine.

Researchers anticipate that adult and embryonic stem cells will soon be able to treat some of the world's most serious diseases. However, embryonic stem cells are still a controversial matter. An Israeli team has found a way to improve the production of new stem cells significantly.

Studies on the way the brain navigates on a plain have so far focused on two dimensions. Now researchers at the Weizmann Institute in Israel set out to get a better understanding of how the brain processes 3D environments – using fruit bats.

Many mammals, such as cats, rabbits and rats, use whiskers to sense their surrounding environment. Even though humans have no whiskers, scientists at the Weizmann Institute have recently learned that you can teach humans to "whisk" with artificial whiskers. The result may help introduce new tools for the blind.

Israeli Researchers have discovered a protein named MTCH2, which is central to delaying cell death. The study suggests that the protein could be the basis of future anti-cancer therapies, in cases where the mechanism of natural cell death is not working properly.

Israeli scientists tried to find an explanation to the recurrence of cancer after chemotherapy and found that the source of returning leukemia is a set of unique cells that do not proliferate as quickly as regular cancer cells and are able to survive chemotherapy. The findings may have important implications for the future of cancer treatment.

For years it was believed that the immune system has a negative role in the recovery from neurodegenerative diseases, such as strokes. Now, a research team led by scholars from Sweden and Israel and backed by the EU, is reexamining this assumption.

Scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel are developing a vaccine that can potentially help treat autoimmune diseases, such as Rheumatoid Arthritis and Chrohn’s disease. The vaccine has not yet been tested on humans.

Israeli Researchers discovered that the sense of smell, just like our other senses, has a distinct organizational principle. The meaning: experience of odors is linked to our physiology and not only individual preference.