News

FDA Approves Israeli Cancer-Freezing Technology

IceCure’s cancer-freezing technology relies on an innovative process referred to as cryoablation therapy.

Published

7 months ago

April 8, 2021

Joanna

fda approves israeli cancer-freezing technology

Shutterstock

Israeli healthtech companies and researchers have developed many life-saving technologies, some of which are now used in hospitals around the world. One highly promising medical technology has just been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after demonstrating its ability to eliminate tumors using new cancer-freezing technology.

The groundbreaking technology comes from a healthtech company called IceCure. The company was founded in 2006, and it’s currently headquartered in the coastal city of Caesarea, Israel.

IceCure’s cancer-freezing technology relies on an innovative process referred to as cryoablation therapy. The goal of cryoablation is to insert a hollow needle into the breast until the tumor is reached. Liquid nitrogen is then precisely applied directly into a tumor to kill the abnormal tissue by freezing it at a very low temperature of -170°C (-274 F).

“We are basically covering the tissue with an ice ball. No tissue can survive such a low temperature,” explained Tlalit Bussi Tel-Tzure, vice president of business development and global marketing at IceCure. “Once the tissue is dead, it will dissolve in the body in a natural process and be absorbed in the body in a couple of weeks.”

The technology has already proved to be extremely successful when it comes to destroying kidney tumors, demonstrating perfect efficiency. Its main advantage is the fact that it can be carried out either at a doctor’s office or an outpatient facility thanks to its minimally invasive nature. The entire procedure can take less than one hour from start to finish, and it doesn’t leave any lasting physical mark on the body.

Also Read: Israelis Have Successfully Grown Mouse Embryos In Artificial Wombs

“Our main vision is to become the gold standard in breast cancer treatment,” said Eyal Shamir, CEO of IceCure Medical. “Most of the cases where you have good early detection are small tumors, considered early stage, and the only treatment available today is surgery.”

IceCure isn’t the only company exploring the application of cryoablation for treating breast cancer. There’s also California-based Sanarus Technologies, which has recently completed a clinical trial in the United States.

News

Facebook Will Create 10,000 Jobs In The EU To Build Its Metaverse

Facebook decided to invest in the EU because the company believes that European talent is world-leading, supported by first-class universities.

Published

1 day ago

October 21, 2021

David

facebook will create 10,000 jobs in the eu to build its metaverse

Getty Images

Facebook has announced that it wants to create 10,000 jobs in the European Union (EU) to build its metaverse, a virtual reality space in which users can interact with a computer-generated environment and other users.

The concept of the metaverse can be traced to Neal Stephenson’s 1992 cyberpunk novel Snow Crash. In the novel, the metaverse is a virtual shared space that appears to its users as an urban environment. This space is accessed through personal terminals connected to virtual reality goggles.

Sound familiar? That’s because the metaverse is quickly becoming a reality thanks to companies like Oculus, a subsidiary of Facebook, and the combined effort of developers and content creators from around the world.

By creating thousands of new high-skilled jobs within the EU over the next five years, Facebook wants to accelerate the development of the metaverse to usher in a new phase of interconnected virtual experiences, enabled by technologies like virtual and augmented reality.

“At its heart is the idea that by creating a greater sense of ‘virtual presence,’ interacting online can become much closer to the experience of interacting in person,” said Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice-president of global affairs. “The metaverse has the potential to help unlock access to new creative, social and economic opportunities”.

According to the official announcement, Facebook decided to invest in the EU because the company believes that European talent is world-leading, supported by first-class universities. Facebook also mentioned the role European policymakers are playing in shaping the internet, so it’s likely that the investment has a political dimension to it.

Also Read: How To Lock Your Facebook Profile (From Mobile & Desktop)

Aware of its tarnished reputation, the social media giant stressed that no single company would own and operate the metaverse — just like no single company owns the internet today. Of course, that doesn’t change anything about the fact that Facebook wants to play a huge role in it.

Earlier this year, Mark Zuckerberg told his employees that Facebook is becoming a metaverse company with the goal of building a set of connected social apps and supporting hardware. The recently released Horizon Workrooms remote collaboration app for the Oculus Quest 2 headset can be seen as an early piece of the much larger puzzle the metaverse will become in the future.