The Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (TASMC) wrapped up its 2013 Silicon Valley lecture series season on November 4, 2013 with a program on Parkinson’s.
Addressing a group of over 70 local Israeli and Jewish community leaders was Prof. Nir Giladi, M.D., the chairman of the Neurology department, and Karin Weiner-Lachmi, Ph.D., Managing Director, Western Region, TASMC US.
Prof. Giladi is world-renowned for his ground-breaking Parkinson’s discoveries, and has won numerous prizes and awards from leading organizations, including the Kahn Foundation, the National Parkinson’s Foundation, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, the Sakta-Rashi Foundation, the Israeli Academy of Science Foundation, the Chief Scientist of Israel, the Israeli Ministry of Health, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, and many more.
Prof. Giladi gave a provocative talk on how we can prevent Parkinson’s, and why Israel is the best place to conduct research towards finding a cure. Prof. Giladi showed extraordinary results on methods that can be used to identify the population that is at risk, and potentially detect or even prevent the disease from progressing towards a symptomatic stage.
In an effort to accelerate the push towards finding a cure, we were able to interest donors in helping to fund the purchase of a genome sequencer, that will allow Prof. Giladi to sequence the entire genome of each of his Parkinson’s patients, including patients’ families. Using the sequencer will allow Prof. Giladi to identify additional genes that are associated with the disease, and no less important, to identify protective genes that may be involved in the prevention of Parkinson’s. The sequencer will also facilitate the identification of targets for treatments, and potentially help find a cure for this disease.
Haya Perlmutter, one of our board members, and her spouse, Dadi Perlmutter, together with Julia and Itzhak Agam, have already given very generous donations to TASMC to help fund the purchase of the genome sequencer.
This is a unique opportunity to contribute towards the world-leading Parkinson’s research that is being conducted in Israel. We encourage you to support our noble cause by getting involved and donating towards the purchase of the sequencer.
We would like to express our deep gratitude to all who volunteered in support of this enlightening program and compelling mission, including: Buddy Arnheim from Perkins Coie’s Palo Alto branch for hosting the event in the beautiful venue, to Chami Lerner, who once again photographed the event, and to Daniel Levitt for helping make this event happen.
For more information contact: Dr. Karin Weiner-Lachmi:
karinw@tlvmc.gov.il/telephone: +1-650-283-0391.
