H eadlines
IIA, Jefferson Team Up for Biotech Contest
L O CAL
JESSE BERNSTEIN | JE STAFF
THOMAS JEFFERSON
University is partnering with
the Israel Innovation Authority
(IIA) on a competition for
Israeli biotech and life science
companies that will provide $1
million in total prizes to be
devoted toward research and
development for four winning
applicants, according to a joint
announcement on Feb. 12.

The competition will seek
out Israeli companies focused
on new, innovative technolo-
gies in areas like virtual reality,
artificial intelligence, wearable
tech and more.

“This is something that we’ve
been bringing together for six,
eight years,” Zvi Grunwald said.

Grunwald, an Israeli citizen
born to Holocaust survivors,
has been at Jefferson for more
than 20 years, serving as a pro-
fessor of anesthesiology and
as chair of that department
within the Sidney Kimmel
Medical College; as of last
July, he is now the James D.

Wentzler professor and emer-
itus chair, along with his post
as the executive director of the
Jefferson Israel Center.

This new project, he said,
is not only emblematic of the
relationship that Jefferson con-
tinues to foster with medical
students and professionals
in Israel, but “is itself part of
a much larger vision of the
global Jefferson that we are cre-
ating now.”
The Jefferson Israel Center
was launched in June, the
third such international center
founded by the Philadelphia
medical center. According to
a press release then, the goal
was to “expand collaborative
research ties with more Israeli
academic centers, encompassing
all of its medical schools, as well
as the forefront Israeli biomedi-
cal innovation incubators.”
At the time, the announce-
ment also pledged to “scale-up
joint ventures with Israeli
companies, by leveraging
Jefferson’s unique co-develop-
ment business model and the
substantial scale of its rapidly
growing clinical care footprint
and clinical trials consortium.”
Besides the general desire
for greater global reach and
collaboration, Grunwald said,
it is Israel in particular that
provides enticing opportuni-
ties to Jefferson.

“Israel today is what Silicon
Valley was in the late 1990s. It’s
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8 FEBRUARY 21, 2019
JEWISH EXPONENT
From left: Mark Tykocinski; Ami Appelbaum, chairman of the board of
the Israel Innovation Authority; and Zvi Grunwald, executive director of
the Jefferson Israel Center
Photo provided
Israel today is what Silicon Valley was in the
late 1990s. It’s an ecosystem of innovation.”
MARK L. TYKOCINSKI
an ecosystem of innovation that
has more technology startups
per capita than anywhere in the
world right now,” said Mark L.

Tykocinski, provost and execu-
tive vice president at Jefferson
and the Anthony F. and
Gertrude M. DePalma Dean
of the Sidney Kimmel Medical
College, at the announcement
of the Jefferson Israel Center
last June. “In an increasingly
global academic ecosystem, the
opportunities are unbounded
for leveraging international
institutional partnerships to
innovate science and profes-
sional training, and in so doing,
to give life to our vision for
‘redefining humanly possible.’”
This partnership between
Jefferson and Israeli medical
professionals has been build-
ing for some time, according
to Grunwald.

In the past, he said, “this
relationship materialized in
many areas — computational
biology, cancer research and
other areas. Jefferson scientists
worked together with Israelis
in order to develop new areas
of research, apply for grants,
receive their grants in dollars,
and eventually ended up pub-
lishing the fruits of the com-
bined research in elite journals
in the life sciences area.”
He stressed that he sees this
work as real-life practice of the
ideas discussed in books like
the famous Start-Up Nation.

The IIA, under the purview of
the Ministry of Economy, is tasked
with fostering scientific research
and development in Israel.

“We are delighted to collabo-
rate with a leading academic and
medical center such as Jefferson,”
said Ami Appelbaum, chairman
of the IIA. “The combination of
Israeli innovation and Jefferson’s
clinical experience, expertise and
facilities will enable the creation
of cutting-edge solutions that
will prove instrumental in laying
the groundwork for the future of
health care and providing supe-
rior personalized medical care.”
Applicants have until March
28 to submit their expression
of interest. Winners will be
announced in December. l
jbernstein@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM