American Friends of Bar-Ilan University will sponsor a discussion on “Israel’s Brain Power—Breaking the Codes of Childhood Diseases” on Thursday, May 4, at 8:30 p.m. This event will be hosted by Shelly and Noam Sokolow, and include cocktails and a dessert reception.

The event will feature Dr. Ayal Hendel, principal investigator and a senior lecturer in the Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. Hendel’s research focuses on developing genome editing as a curative therapy for childhood disorders. Genome editing allows scientists to make precise edits to DNA, which could lead to gene correction and treatments for genetic diseases.

Many Northern New Jersey communities are unfortunately faced with an alarming rate of serious early childhood illnesses. Dr. Hendel’s specialty may help bring about treatment options for children with childhood diseases such as sickle-cell anemia, cancer and such immune diseases as the “Bubble Boy” syndrome.

In his presentation, Dr. Hendel will review how genome editing works and how his lab at Bar-Ilan University focuses on developing this technology as a therapeutic treatment for children with genetic diseases.

Dr. Hendel received his B.A. with high honors from Hebrew University of Jerusalem in biology and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from Weizmann Institute of Science. He carried out post-doctoral research at Stanford University School of Medicine in the U.S., where he was part of a team that achieved therapeutically relevant genome editing frequencies in human stem cells confirming the potential of this technological breakthrough.

Please RSVP to [email protected]. Space is limited.