Spotlight
Evogene and Tel Aviv University’s Blavatnik Center for Drug Discovery have announced a strategic initiative to accelerate AI-driven small-molecule drug discovery emerging from Israel’s academic research ecosystem. Facilitated by Ramot, Tel Aviv University’s technology transfer company, the collaboration is designed to support researchers and scientific entrepreneurs working on novel disease targets. The initiative combines the Blavatnik Center for Drug Discovery’s experimental infrastructure and translational drug discovery capabilities with Evogene’s computational chemistry platform, including its ChemPass AI™ generative engine. Selected projects will receive support through an integrated design, make, test, and analyze workflow intended to help move promising biological insights toward viable drug development programs. By bringing together academic science, experimental validation, and AI-enabled molecule design, the collaboration addresses a critical gap in early-stage therapeutic innovation. The initiative reflects the Blavatnik Center’s mission to advance pioneering medical research from the laboratory toward potential patient benefit.
The Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale has announced nine recipients of its 2026 Accelerator Awards, supporting early-stage life science research with strong translational potential. The awards provide funding and mentorship to help Yale researchers generate validation data and advance discoveries toward future development. This year’s cohort spans women’s health, oncology, gastroenterology, immunology, orthopedics, reproductive health, metabolic disease, and regenerative medicine. The projects focusing on women’s health include approaches to continuous estrogen monitoring, endometriosis, post-menopausal osteoporosis, and fertility preservation. Selected through a competitive review and pitch process, the awards help promising faculty move breakthrough ideas closer to practical application. The program reflects the Foundation’s commitment to accelerating scientific innovation and helping university research address urgent health challenges.
A new Stanford Medicine study, partly supported by the Blavatnik Family Fellowship Fund at the Stanford University School of Medicine, suggests that age-related memory decline may be influenced not only by changes in the brain, but also by changes in the gut. Published in Nature, the study found that shifts in the gut microbiome of older mice can trigger gastrointestinal inflammation, disrupting signals sent through the vagus nerve to the hippocampus, a brain region central to memory formation. When young mice were exposed to older microbiomes, they showed declines in memory and navigation; when researchers restored gut-brain communication in older mice, memory performance improved. The findings identify a pathway linking gastrointestinal aging, immune response, vagus nerve activity, and hippocampal function. Although the research was conducted in mice, it points to new ways of understanding cognitive decline through the gut-brain connection.
Award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns joined TODAY to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States and reflect on the enduring significance of the American Revolution. In the segment, Burns discussed his PBS documentary series The American Revolution, directed with Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt, which explores the people, events, and ideas that shaped the nation’s founding. Supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation, the six-part series presents the Revolution as a complex human story, drawing on extensive historical research and voices often underrepresented in traditional accounts, including African Americans, Native Americans, women, and others whose lives were profoundly affected by the founding era. Through its support, the Foundation helps advance public understanding of history and expand access to high-quality educational storytelling.
Providing many of the world's best researchers, scientists, and universities with support, and funding to discover breakthroughs that solve humankind's greatest challenges.
The Foundation contributes to renowned institutions that showcase the breadth of arts and culture, including performance, exhibition and education.
The Blavatnik Archive is a nonprofit foundation dedicated to preserving and disseminating materials that contribute to the study of 20th-century Jewish and world history, with a special emphasis on World War I, World War II, and Soviet Russia.
