First Scientific Agreement Between Japan and Israel

Technion and Japanese Researchers Will Develop Jointly a Platform for Creating Blood Vessels and Blood Cells from Embryonic Stem Cells

Technion and Japanese researchers will develop jointly a platform for creating blood vessels and blood cells from embryonic stem cells, as wells adult cells that will undergo conversion to embryonic cells. This the first scientific agreement signed between Japan and Israel.

Prof. Joseph Itskovitz-Eldor of the Technion’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and researchers from Rikan Research in Japan received a $600,000 joint grant from the Japanese and Israeli ministries of science for developing the unique platform. Prof. Itskovitz-Eldor said that this is an historic scientific agreement and he hopes that it will lead to many more agreements in its wake. “Japan is a superpower in the field of stem cell research and conversion of adult stem cells to embryonic cells,” he stressed. “Its scientists lead the world in this field and the unique platform that we are developing together with Japanese scientists will, in the future, enable innovative use of human stem cells.”