A Rare Genetic Defect May Lead to a New Cancer Drug

Courtesy of israelnn.com

The path to understanding what goes wrong in cancer could benefit from a detour through studies of rare childhood diseases. Dr. Ayelet Erez explains that cancer generally involves dozens – if not hundreds – of mutations, and sorting out the various functions and malfunctions of each may be nearly impossible.

Rare childhood diseases, in contrast, generally involve mutations to a single gene. Erez, a geneticist and medical doctor who treats families with genetic cancer in addition to heading a research lab in the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Biological Regulation Department, says that children with rare genetic syndromes may serve as a “lens” when trying to understand the role of a specific gene in a complex disease such as cancer. She and her team have been focusing their sights on a protein they discovered in this way; promising lab tests indicate that blocking this protein might slow the progression of some cancers.

Her findings place this research in the new field of “cancer metabolism,” which seeks to understand how the aberrant, or uncontrolled metabolic processes in cancers might turned against them to stop their growth.

She and her team studied cells from children suffering from an extremely rare disease, citrullinemia type II, who are missing the gene for a protein called citrin. Clinically, children with this disease tend to be smaller than average, and to avoid candy. Her research revealed that this protein normally helps keep the body supplied with an amino acid called aspartate which is required to produce DNA and RNA in addition to the breakdown of glucose; so deficiency in this protein causes the cells to divide less.

Research into another genetic childhood disease, citrullinemia type I, had already given the team the lens they needed to understand how cancer cells rely on aspartate to divide and migrate. Children born with this disease are missing a gene called ASS1; the lack of ASS1 connects the disease to particularly aggressive, hard-to-treat cancers in which this gene tends to be silenced or mutated. Since this gene also requires aspartate to function, Erez and her team surmised that the silencing had less to do with the gene’s function and more with competition for aspartate and the cancer cells’ craving for ever more of this amino acid to help them divide and spread. Interestingly, the dependence on citrin for aspartate supplementation is seen in cancers both with and without ASS1 expression.

Ayelet and her team realized that citrin – the protein that helps regulate childhood growth – could present a possible target for anticancer therapies. Blocking this protein would hopefully disrupt the cancer’s overactive metabolic cycle, diminish the cancer cells’ aspartate supply and slow their growth, thus making them less aggressive, less likely to spread and possibly more treatable with other, conventional means. To that end, Erez and her group have been developing a molecule to block citrin, and testing it in the lab. Yeda Research and Development Co., Ltd., the technology transfer arm of the Weizmann Institute of Science, is working with Erez to advance her research to the point that it can be developed for biomedical application.

Dr. Ayelet Erez’s research is supported by the Moross Integrated Cancer Center; the Irving B. Harris Fund; the Adelis Foundation; the Rising Tide Foundation; the Comisaroff Family Trust; and the European Research Council. Dr. Erez is the incumbent of the Leah Omenn Career Development Chair.

A JEWISH RENAISSANCE

ZACHARY SILVER

We are still struggling to feel safe and secure and to feel connected to one another.

ULTRA-ORTHODOX STUDENTS study at Jerusalem’s Mir Yeshiva.. (photo credit:REUTERS)

In Judaism, we celebrate beginnings and endings as two sides of the same coin.

On Rosh Hashana we celebrate the end of one year and the beginning of another, eating round challah to symbolize the continuous circle of life. It is with similar joy that we celebrate siyumim to commemorate the completion of a section of Jewish study.

But we do not just celebrate the end of one section, but the anticipation of beginning another and of continuing to add to our growing Jewish education and understanding of the world around us.

For this reason, the more people who participate in a siyum, the more jubilant and triumphant it is. Dirshu’s siyum on June 20 promises to be one of the most jubilant and triumphant in recent memory. Jews from all over will gather in Brooklyn that day to celebrate fiveand- a-half years of the Kinyan Halach Program, which educates thousands of Jews worldwide in Jewish law.
The program is administered by Dirshu, an organization whose mandate is to increase Jewish knowledge and to unite the nation of Israel through Jewish learning.

Thanks to Dirshu, more than 150,000 people across the globe study Jewish law each day. Dirshu’s program of structured lectures and exams has helped to bring about a renaissance in Jewish learning.

During the Holocaust, the great centers of Jewish learning were destroyed and many survivors were cut off from their faith, unable to learn in the same manner in which Jews had been learning for centuries. Our Jewish community- at-large is still working to recover. We are still struggling to feel safe and secure and to feel connected to one another.

These feelings, which have a base in antisemitism, are exacerbated by a decline in Jewish learning.

But Rabbi Dovid Hofstedter refused to let Jewish education continue to wither. The son of Holocaust survivors, the rabbi understands the importance of a strong Jewish education, one that was denied to his parents, and he founded Dirshu to elevate Jewish learning to the level it had been before the Holocaust.

He devised a system of education and testing that has allowed Jews from all walks of life to embrace their heritage and learn our laws. Despite the rigors of Jewish learning, Dirshu’s structure brings success and happiness. Through a well-defined daily learning schedule and tests along the way, each student has the tools necessary to excel, yet is also responsible for their own achievements, leading to a greater sense of accomplishment.

Regardless of one’s Jewish educational background or one’s level of wealth, Dirshu provides the means of attaining a high level of learning, even providing stipends to those who do well to encourage them to continue their studies.

And encouragement is needed, as it can be daunting to devote your spare time to learning. But the benefits far outnumber the sacrifices.

This is why many Jews have been turning to Dirshu later in their lives. As they approach middle age, many become more cognizant of the important things in life, such as having a strong connection to one’s community and one’s heritage – a connection that can be forged by Torah study. This is what Dirshu is all about.

Many are drawn to Dirshu because its mission is to connect the Jewish community. It does not seek to push a political agenda or any one branch of Judaism. All Jews are welcome in the Dirshu family, whether they be Hassidic, Orthodox, Mizrachi, Ashkenazi, Sephardi and more. Dirshu celebrates the differences of its participants, knowing that the Jewish community is an eclectic composition of Jews who observe the laws differently and who hail from around the globe – yet we are all tied together through Torah.

Similarly, Dirshu welcomes Jews of all ages. In some instances, teenagers have begun to learn through Dirshu and have drafted their fathers into the program as well; from there sometimes their grandfathers will join, too. Dirshu has seen three generations of one family study together and pass their exams together. Dirshu is not only strengthening the Jewish community – it is strengthening the Jewish family. What other program allows something like this to take place? It is for these reasons that I look forward to the June 20 siyum. This siyum is not just a celebration of the end of a unit of study. It is a beginning.

It is the beginning of the opportunity to pursue a new unit of study. It is the beginning of a more connected Jewish community.

The author is an MA candidate in international economics and finance at the Brandeis International Business School.

He is the co-founder of Chutzpah on college campuses and the vice president of programming for Brandeis’ TAMID Israel Investment Club.

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US liberal Jews decry ‘slap in the face’ from Netanyahu on Western Wall prayer

AMANDA BORSCHEL-DAN

Conservative and Reform leaders may not be surprised by the latest development – years of experience have taught them better – but the sense of betrayal is powerful, and they’re determined to fight

A group of American Conservative and Reform rabbis and members of the Women of the Wall carry Torah scrolls during a protest march against the government’s failure to deliver a new prayer space, at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City, November 2, 2016. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Leaders of liberal world Jewry were despondent Sunday, but determined to fight, hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet froze plans to dedicate a pluralistic prayer pavilion at the Western Wall.

The announcement, which came in a terse statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, caught the leaders of North America’s Reform and Conservative movements unawares, though it would be a stretch to say they were surprised.

Already on January 31, 2016, immediately after the cabinet passed a decision to construct an egalitarian prayer platform in the southern section of the Western Wall complex, the ultra-Orthodox members of the Knesset vowed that it would not be implemented.

“And now the prime minister with zero leadership and zero backbone is caving to the most extreme members of Israeli society,” Rabbi Steven Wernick, the head of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, said Sunday by phone from California.

For many liberal Jewish leaders who spoke with The Times of Israel, the sense of betrayal was compounded by a bill, also approved Sunday by ministers, that would give the Israeli Chief Rabbinate the sole authority over conversions to Judaism in the country.

Jerry Silverman, CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, at the 2012 General Assembly in Baltimore, Maryland (photo credit: JFNA/JTA)

“At a time where we should be coming together as a Jewish people, Israeli and Diaspora Jewry, these types of messages from the government create more of a divide than unity,” said Jerry Silverman, president of the Jewish Federations of North America. “The conversion bill changes the status quo of conversion globally,” he said, citing a JFNA study of the bill with three independent lawyers.

Independent conversions — whether through liberal Jewish conversion courts or Orthodox, halachic batei din — would be considered invalid according to the bill.

“There were promises not kept after progress on certain key issues,” said Rabbi Philip Scheim, the Toronto-based president of the Rabbinical Assembly, the international association of Conservative rabbis. “Along with our deep love and sense of commitment, there is also a sense of hurt. Why shouldn’t we have the ability to have our space, our converts recognized as Jews when we come to Israel?”

Rabbi Steven Wernick, the chief executive officer of umbrella body USCJ. (Ethan Weg)

Between the conversion bill and the abortive Western Wall initiative, “Israel is basically declaring it is not the Jewish homeland because not all Jews have the right to be Jewish according to their understandings of Jewish practice and history. Israel is now only the Jewish state for some Jews,” said Wernick.

“It’s a sad day. The government has formally slapped Diaspora Jewry on the face. It’s not good for Israel, and not good for people who actually believe in klal Yisrael [the Jewish collective],” he added.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the head of the North American Reform Movement, had just gotten off the plane at Ben Gurion Airport when he received word that the Western Wall plan had been suspended.

read more: US liberal Jews decry….

Amanda Borschel-Dan
is The Times of Israel’s Jewish World editor.

Palestinians Praise Terror Attack

Bassam Tawil

• President Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority (PA), which is funded by Americans and Europeans, has once again chosen to maintain silence following a terror attack perpetrated by Palestinians. This silence of Abbas and his PA leadership, specifically their refusal to condemn the terror attack, can only be interpreted as an endorsement of the killing of Jews.
• This is the twisted logic of Abbas and his people: How dare Israeli police officers shoot terrorists armed with knives and a submachine gun and prevent them from killing more Jews?
• One wonders: how does this public endorsement of the Jerusalem terror attack and the terrorists stand up to Abbas’s promise to President Trump to stop anti-Israel incitement and “promote a culture of peace” among Palestinians?

For many Palestinians, the stabbing murder of a 23-year-old Israeli Border Police officer in Jerusalem on June 16 is an act of “heroism” that proves that the “revolution against the Zionist entity will continue until the liberation of Palestine, from the (Mediterranean) sea to the (Jordan) river.”

For many Palestinians, the three terrorists who murdered the young woman, Hadas Malka, are “heroes” and “martyrs” who will be rewarded by Allah in Paradise.

President Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority (PA), which is funded by Americans and Europeans, has once again chosen to maintain silence following a terror attack perpetrated by Palestinians. This silence of Abbas and his PA leadership, specifically their refusal to condemn the terror attack, can only be interpreted as an endorsement of the killing of Jews.

The silence of Mahmoud Abbas following the Jerusalem terror attack, specifically his refusal to condemn the attack, can only be interpreted as an endorsement of the killing of Jews. (Photo by Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images)

Moreover, in a move reminiscent of a demented Alice in Wonderland, Abbas’s ruling Fatah faction, which is often described by Westerners as “moderate” and “pragmatic,” publicly blasted Israel for killing the three terrorists who murdered the policewoman and wounded several others.

In a statement published in Ramallah shortly after the terror attack, Fatah “condemned the Israeli occupation forces for killing three young Palestinian men in East Jerusalem.” It said that the killing of the three terrorists “proves that the Israeli government is pursuing its policy of escalation.” Fatah called on the international community to “seriously look into providing protection for the defenseless Palestinian people.”

The Fatah statement failed to mention that the three Palestinian “young men” were armed with knives and a homemade submachine gun. Nor did Fatah mention a word about the Border Police officer who was stabbed to death in the terror attack.

Such a statement could never have been published without the approval of Abbas and his top cronies in Ramallah. They even seem to have endorsed the Fatah communiqué by publishing it on the website of the PA’s official news agency, Wafa. This agency is managed and funded by the PA, which also appoints the editors and journalists working there.

This is the twisted logic of Abbas and his people: How dare Israeli police officers shoot terrorists armed with knives and a machinegun and prevent them from killing more Jews?

Fatah spokesperson Osama Qawassmeh went as far as accusing Israel of committing a “war crime” by killing the terrorists and thwarting a bigger attack. He called on the international community to condemn Israel for the “cold-blooded” killing of the three terrorists in Jerusalem, dubbing it a “cruel crime.” Qawassmeh, who is considered a trusted advisor and confidant of Abbas, seized the opportunity to heap praise on the terrorists, describing them as “martyrs.” Palestinians, he added, should remain faithful to the “blood of the martyrs” by “holding on to their lands and holy sites and defending them.”

One wonders: how does this public endorsement of the Jerusalem terror attack and the terrorists stand up to Abbas’s promise to US President Donald Trump to stop anti-Israel incitement and “promote a culture of peace” among Palestinians?

This is but further proof in an endless string of damning evidence concerning the ‘peace lies’ spouted by Abbas and his PA. The PA president is always among the first to denounce terror attacks around the world, including Britain, France and Germany. Yet when Palestinians murder Israelis, they suddenly become “heroes” and “martyrs.”

How would the British government and public have reacted had someone condemned the British police for killing the three terrorists who carried out the recent London Bridge attack?

How would the British government and public have reacted had the international media run headlines such as, “British policemen kill three Muslim men in London attack?” This is precisely how Abbas’s media outlets — and the BBC — reported on the Jerusalem terror attack: “Israeli policemen shoot dead three Palestinians in Jerusalem” and “Three Palestinian youth martyred at the hands of Israeli occupation policemen.”

It is no wonder, then, that many Palestinians have been celebrating the terror attack in Jerusalem. If these are the messages Abbas and his PA and Fatah cronies are sending to their people, why should it come as a surprise that many Palestinians have been glorifying the terrorists and calling for more attacks against Jews?

Hamas, notably, was the first party to applaud the Jerusalem terror attack, saying it proves that the Palestinian intifada was continuing and would escalate.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Marxist Palestinian terror group, also joined the chorus of those heaping praise on the terrorists for murdering the Israeli policewoman. Hamas and the PFLP have claimed responsibility for the “heroic operation” and dismissed as “false” a statement by ISIS taking credit for the attack.

To be clear: the two terror groups are furious with ISIS for attempting to rob them of the “honor” of murdering a young policewoman on the streets of Jerusalem. This is the surreal reality in the Middle East today.

Not to be left behind in the promotion of Jew-killing, Palestinians across the political spectrum took to social media to applaud the latest terror attack and express their jubilation over the murder of the policewoman.

In innumerable postings on Facebook and Twitter, dozens, if not hundreds, of Palestinians praised the terrorists, describing them as “heroes” and “martyrs.” They particularly expressed excitement over the use of a homemade submachine gun (often referred to as a “Carl Gustav”). This type of weapon is often produced in workshops in various parts of the PA-controlled territories in the West Bank.

The Palestinians also expressed deep satisfaction that the terrorists chose to carry out their attack during the holy month of Ramadan. They pointed out that the three terrorists, who were fasting, had chosen to carry out their attack during Ramadan because this was the surest and fastest path to Paradise. “There is nothing more pure and sacred than killing the infidels and Jews than when one is fasting during Ramadan,” remarked some of the Palestinians.

There is documented, widespread jubilation in the Muslim world about this and other terror attacks perpetrated not only by Palestinians against Israelis, but — contrary to the statements of many in the West — by many Muslims against all “unbelievers”: if “infidels” are murdered during Ramadan, their killers expect to be “doubly rewarded in Paradise.”

In Israel, this joy over Jew-killing does not emerge from nothing. It can be traced directly to the Palestinian leadership, beginning with President Abbas and his Palestinian Authority friends. When he and the PA leadership next mouth their lies about a “culture of peace,” perhaps the world will pause for a moment, not just to think of a murdered young woman, Hadas Malka, but also of what the Palestinian leadership really wants.

Bassam Tawil is a Muslim based in the Middle East.