Two researchers at the Hebrew University (HU) of Jerusalem have been honored with a prestigious award for their study of the connection between several inflammatory diseases, cancer and bacteria.


HTML clipboard Two plates which were coated with an antibiotic-resistant bacteria called Klebsiella with a mutation called NDM 1 and then exposed to various antibiotics are seen at the Health Protection Agency in north London March 9, 2011. The clear areas in the right half of the left-hand plate show that the Klebsiella with NDM 1 was sensitive to the antibiotic tigecycline (manufactured by Pfizer under the trade name Tygacil). For decades scientists have managed to develop new medicines to stay at least one step ahead of the ever-mutating enemy, bacteria. Now, though, we may be running out of road. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as MRSA, alone is estimated to kill around 19,000 people every year in the United States -- far more than HIV and AIDS -- and a similar number in Europe, and other drug-resistant superbugs are spreading.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
Medical faculty members, Dr. Eli Pilarsky and Prof. Sigal Ben- Yehuda, won this year's Sir Zelman Cowen Universities Fund prize that recognizes significant achievement in the field of medicine.


The prize committee noted the impressive contributions of Pilarsky and Ben-Yehuda in understanding complex diseases like cancer and antibiotic-resistant infections, and, in a first, decided to award the two scientists this year.


Pilarsky told Xinhua that his research deals with the connection between chronic inflammatory diseases like hepatitis, and the development of cancer cells.


"The relevance of this discovery is that we were able to establish the link between the molecules secreted with such inflammations and the proliferation of cancer cells," Pilarsky explained, noting that "we discovered that the inflammation favors the cancer cells' growth, and now we are trying to find a way to manipulate these molecules to stop the cancer cells from appearing. "


"The importance of these findings lies in the fact that 20 percent of the world's cancer cases are attributed to inflammation processes," Pilarsky pointed out.


VietNamNet/Xinhuanet