Sigma-Tau Industrie Farmaceutiche Riunite SpA

Democratization of access will accelerate technological advancement, from bio-molecular drug and crop research to nuclear waste reduction TAU's revolutionary laser-driven plasma accelerators will speed up breakthroughs and industrial applications in a smaller, more affordable, and more sustainable footprint Room-sized accelerators to become available to buy or access through service center model for applications in biotech, energy, agriculture, and nuclear waste reduction Serial tech investor, Lukasz Gadowski, leads initial financing round to commercialize the technology AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Up to now high-energy particle accelerators have been the exclusive domain of countries and governmental organizations. Due to their enormous size and very high cost, access for engineers and biotech professionals is severely limited. TAU Systems is poised to bring particle accelerators to a multitude of users by harnessing the latest laser technology to make electrons surf on three-dimensional plasma waves and accelerate them to ultra-high energies. Continue Reading CEO and founder Dr. Bjorn Manuel Hegelich aligning laser beams within a laser system at TAU's facility in Austin, Texas. The laser-driven particle accelerators and X-ray Free-Electron Lasers (XFEL) developed by TAU Systems will give unprecedented access to a world of ultra-small objects evolving ultra-fast under ultra-powerful conditions – TAU's team calls it the Ultraverse and speaks in terms of angstroms, attoseconds and petawatts. TAU Systems' business model is two-pronged: the company will offer beamtime, data acquisition and analysis as a full-service supplier as well as complete laser-driven accelerators and XFEL systems for sale, to, e.g., pharma and bio tech, battery and solar technology, and other material-science driven markets. The company is currently building academic and industrial partnerships to develop the ultimate laser technology and leverage the most recent scientific and technological advances. It aims to offer its first products for sale in 2024, have an XFEL service center operational by 2026, and start selling full XFEL systems by 2027. TAU Systems was founded in 2021 by Bjorn Manuel Hegelich, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and a prominent expert in laser plasma interaction who has also led laser-acceleration physics research at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The company is rapidly growing its team including experts from the Stanford Linear Accelerator, the Laboratory for Laser Energetics at the University of Rochester, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Along with a seed investment of $15M, the founding investor, Lukasz Gadowski, is bringing his experience and expertise in spearheading frontier technologies, being an early investor in advanced air mobility, including Volocopter and Autoflight in Europe and Archer Aviation in the USA. He has a remarkable track record in founding and growing companies, such as Delivery Hero, a company worth ~$10 Bn today and listed on the German stock exchange. Bjorn Manuel Hegelich vividly remembers the experiment which convinced him to start TAU Systems. With his team at the University of Texas at Austin, he was implementing a novel technique for laser-driven particle acceleration, hoping to increase the energy of the accelerated electrons by 50% over the state-of-the-art at the time. The experiment demonstrated a 500% improvement, ten times more than expected. This remarkable result made the laser-driven particle accelerator technology reach at once the level of performance of the largest accelerator facilities in the world, but within the confines of a single university building. Since achieving this seminal result, the TAU Systems team is fully energized and focused on delivering this revolutionary technology. "Until now, the world's most powerful accelerators have simply been too large and too expensive to be a realistic tool for the vast majority of scientific and corporate users. We believe that access to our machines will have transformative impacts across almost every industry and the economy." said Bjorn Manuel Hegelich, CEO of TAU Systems. "By exploring, developing, and benefiting from the Ultraverse, TAU Systems will greatly accelerate the future solutions to our biggest global challenges – human and planet health." For more information on TAU Systems' solutions and services, visit . About TAU Systems TAU Systems is an Austin, Texas-based deep-tech company developing the first compact particle accelerators and specialized X-ray free-electron lasers that combine the capabilities of large accelerators with a small footprint to provide easy and affordable beam-time access for industry users. Led by premier experts in laser-driven particle accelerators, TAU is democratizing access for the progress of biotechnology, nuclear and more. Learn more at . Media Contact: Jerome Paye TAU Systems [email protected] SOURCE TAU Systems

A scientific breakthrough may facilitate speedy, objective and accurate diagnosis of people suffering from PTSD using saliva samples. As part of the study, the researchers characterized the psychological, social and medical conditions of about 200 participants, while at the same time collecting saliva samples from them. A scientific breakthrough from the Tel Aviv and Haifa Universities may facilitate speedy, objective and accurate diagnosis of people suffering from PTSD using saliva samples. As part of the study, the researchers characterized the psychological, social and medical conditions of about 200 participants, while at the same time collecting saliva samples from them. The findings of this study show a typical microbial picture in the saliva of veteran soldiers who had experienced combat stress-related reactions (from the first Lebanon War) and are currently suffering from post-trauma. According to the researchers, these results may help in the future to reach an accurate and objective diagnosis of people suffering from post-trauma, and to develop microbiotic-related medications (associated with the body's microbial ecology). This study was published in Nature's Molecular Psychiatry journal. The study was a joint effort by eminent scholars from various fields. It was led by Professor Illana Gozes and included Professor Noam Shomron, Dr. Shlomo Sragovich and Ph.D. student Guy Shapira, (all from TAU's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and Sagol School of Neuroscience) as well as Prof. Zahava Solomon from TAU's Gershon Gordon Faculty of Social Sciences, and Prof. Abraham Sagi-Schwartz and PhD student Ella Levert-Levitt from the Center for the Study of Child Development and the School of Psychological Sciences at Haifa University. The participants in the study came from a larger cohort of subjects from a comprehensive four-decade-long study of veterans by Prof. Solomon. This study was also supported by IDF's Medical Corps Department of Health and Well-Being and Dr. Ariel Ben Yehuda, former chief of the above Department and currently, a Department Manager in the Mental Health Medical Center in Shalvata, Clallit Health Services. The study also involved collaboration with the Charité University Medicine in Berlin and its microbiology experts Dr. Markus M. Heimesaat and Professor Stefan Bereswill, as well as with the University of Hong Kong, which is studying the effects of air pollution, Professors Victor Li and Jacqueline Lam. The researchers tested a unique group of about 200 Israeli veteran soldiers who had fought in the first Lebanon War in 1982. The test covered various psychological aspects, including sleep, appetite disorders, guilt, suicidal thoughts, social and spousal support, hostility, satisfaction with life, as well as issues of demographics, psychopathology, welfare, health and education. Comparing the results of the subjects' microbial distribution to the psychological results and their responses to the welfare questionnaires, the researchers from the universities of Tel Aviv and Haifa found that people with PTSD and high psychopathological indications exhibit the same picture of bacteria in the saliva (a unique oral microbiotic signature). According to the researchers, this study is significant in that for the first time, we might be able to diagnose post-trauma by objective criteria and not just behavioral ones. It is interesting to note here that the saliva bacteria of those exposed to air pollution showed a correlation to the picture with PTSD, while the number of years of education showed a protective influence and a reverse picture of the microbial ecology in the saliva. Prof. Illana Gozes: "To the best of our knowledge, this is the first depiction of a microbial signature in the saliva among veteran soldiers with PTSD. We were surprised to discover that about a third of the PTSD subjects had never been diagnosed with post-trauma, so they never received any recognition from the Ministry of Defense and the official authorities. It must be stressed that until now, post-trauma diagnosis has been based solely on psychological and psychiatric measures. Thanks to this study, it may be possible, in the future, to use objective molecular and biological characteristics to distinguish PSTD sufferers, taking into account environmental influences. We hope that this new discovery and the microbial signatures described in this study might promote easier diagnosis of post-traumatic veteran soldiers so they can receive appropriate treatment."

A new study identifies risks in the use of CRISPR therapeutics -- an innovative, Nobel-prize-winning method that involves cleaving and editing DNA, already employed for the treatment of conditions like cancer, liver and intestinal diseases, and genetic syndromes. A new study from TAU identifies risks in the use of CRISPR therapeutics -- an innovative, Nobel-prize-winning method that involves cleaving and editing DNA, already employed for the treatment of conditions like cancer, liver and intestinal diseases, and genetic syndromes. Investigating the impact of this technology on T-cells -- white blood cells of the immune system, the researchers detected a loss of genetic material in a significant percentage -- up to 10% of the treated cells. They explain that such loss can lead to destabilization of the genome, which might cause cancer. The study was led by Dr. Adi Barzel from the School of Neurobiology, Biochemistry and Biophysics at TAU's Wise Faculty of Life Sciences and Dotan Center for Advanced Therapies, a collaboration between the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov) and Tel Aviv University, and by Dr. Asaf Madi and Dr. Uri Ben-David from TAU's Faculty of Medicine and Edmond J. Safra Center for Bioinformatics. The findings were published in the leading scientific journal Nature Biotechnology. The researchers explain that CRISPR is a groundbreaking technology for editing DNA -- cleaving DNA sequences at certain locations in order to delete unwanted segments, or alternately repair or insert beneficial segments. Developed about a decade ago, the technology has already proved impressively effective in treating a range of diseases -- cancer, liver diseases, genetic syndromes, and more. The first approved clinical trial ever to use CRISPR, was conducted in 2020 at the University of Pennsylvania, when researchers applied the method to T-cells -- white blood cells of the immune system. Taking T-cells from a donor, they expressed an engineered receptor targeting cancer cells, while using CRISPR to destroy genes coding for the original receptor -- which otherwise might have caused the T-cells to attack cells in the recipient's body. In the present study, the researchers sought to examine whether the potential benefits of CRISPR therapeutics might be offset by risks resulting from the cleavage itself, assuming that broken DNA is not always able to recover. Dr. Ben-David and his research associate Eli Reuveni explain: "The genome in our cells often breaks due to natural causes, but usually it is able to repair itself, with no harm done. Still, sometimes a certain chromosome is unable to bounce back, and large sections, or even the entire chromosome, are lost. Such chromosomal disruptions can destabilize the genome, and we often see this in cancer cells. Thus, CRISPR therapeutics, in which DNA is cleaved intentionally as a means for treating cancer, might, in extreme scenarios, actually promote malignancies." To examine the extent of potential damage, the researchers repeated the 2020 Pennsylvania experiment, cleaving the T-cells' genome in exactly the same locations -- chromosomes 2, 7, and 14 (of the human genome's 23 pairs of chromosomes). Using a state-of-the-art technology called single-cell RNA sequencing they analyzed each cell separately and measured the expression levels of each chromosome in every cell. In this way, a significant loss of genetic material was detected in some of the cells. For example, when Chromosome 14 had been cleaved, about 5% of the cells showed little or no expression of this chromosome. When all chromosomes were cleaved simultaneously, the damage increased, with 9%, 10%, and 3% of the cells unable to repair the break in chromosomes 14, 7, and 2 respectively. The three chromosomes did differ, however, in the extent of the damage they sustained. Dr. Madi and his student Ella Goldschmidt explain: "Single-cell RNA sequencing and computational analyses enabled us to obtain very precise results. We found that the cause for the difference in damage was the exact place of the cleaving on each of the three chromosomes. Altogether, our findings indicate that over 9% of the T-cells genetically edited with the CRISPR technique had lost a significant amount of genetic material. Such loss can lead to destabilization of the genome, which might promote cancer." Based on their findings, the researchers caution that extra care should be taken when using CRISPR therapeutics. They also propose alternative, less risky, methods, for specific medical procedures, and recommend further research into two kinds of potential solutions: reducing the production of damaged cells or identifying damaged cells and removing them before the material is administered to the patient. Dr. Barzel and his PhD student Alessio Nahmad conclude: "Our intention in this study was to shed light on potential risks in the use of CRISPR therapeutics. We did this even though we are aware of the technology's substantial advantages. In fact, in other studies we have developed CRISPR-based treatments, including a promising therapy for AIDS. We have even established two companies -- one using CRISPR and the other deliberately avoiding this technology. In other words, we advance this highly effective technology, while at the same time cautioning against its potential dangers. This may seem like a contradiction, but as scientists we are quite proud of our approach, because we believe that this is the very essence of science: we don't 'choose sides.' We examine all aspects of an issue, both positive and negative, and look for answers."