Engineering Meets Medicine for Maximum Impact

Technion researchers have made immeasurable contributions to benefit the world.

By JENNIFER FREY
Updated: NOVEMBER 21, 2018 10:45
The Mazor Robotics Renaissance® Guidance System is the brainchild of Technion Prof. Moshe Shoham (photo credit: TECHNION-ISRAEL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY)
The Mazor Robotics Renaissance® Guidance System is the brainchild of Technion Prof. Moshe Shoham
(photo credit: TECHNION-ISRAEL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY)
Imagine you had a prosthetic hand so lifelike you could feel the grip of a newborn baby. Or a robotic system that could help perform brain surgery with 100% accuracy. Such dreams become realities when engineers and medical researchers put their heads together.
The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology is one of only a handful of universities worldwide that excels in engineering as well as the physical and life sciences—and has its own medical school to boot. Their engineers, researchers and physicians work side-by-side to create amazing medical devices and technologies that impact the lives of people everywhere.
For example, our sense of touch is one we often take for granted, until we are met with a tragedy that takes it away. But a team of researchers led by Chemical Engineering Professor Hossam Haick used nanotechnology to create a flexible, self-healing sensor that could be integrated into artificial skin to become 10 times more sensitive than current e-skin. When scientists are able to attach such skin to prosthetic limbs, burn victims and amputees could once again feel their environment.
Brain and spine surgeries are high-risk procedures that could have dire consequences if the surgeon is even one millimeter off target. Professor Moshe Shoham developed a robotic guidance system that helps perform these surgeries with pinpoint accuracy. The company he founded, Mazor Robotics, has done more than 7,000 successful surgeries and 50,000 implants.
And while battling cancer, Biotechnology and Food Engineering Professor Ester Segal spent endless days hooked up to IVs. We know how to make silicon chips for smartphones, she thought, so why not bring that high-tech know-how to cancer treatment? Working with medical researchers and clinicians in the Technion Integrated Cancer Center, she is developing nano-silicon carriers that could be ingested, injected or implanted to deliver chemotherapy over a period of weeks or months, doing away with IV drips, allowing patients to receive treatment while going about their daily lives.
These are just some of the immeasurable contributions that Technion researchers have made to benefit the world. To learn more about supporting the Technion, or contact us directly at info@ats.org or 212.407.6300.