In Israel, unlike the rest of the world almost all research in the field of molecular medicine is conducted within universities and the Weizmann Institute of Science. No governmental institutes (NIH-like, CNRS-like) no private institutes (such as the Max Planck institutes, Salk Institute, Scripps, Dana-Farber, Sloan-Kattering, etc.) exist. Israel even lacks private or governmental foundations to support research in specific areas (i.e., cancer, allergy, muscular dystrophy) or general aspects of ‘Molecular Medicine’. Many such institutes and foundations exist in the developed world and even in Asia.

The activity in some universities is dramatically biased towards some disciplines (for example neurobiology, with special wide emphasis on brain research) whereas less or no activity exists in other fields (e.g., enzymology, biological chemistry, and biophysics). We think that these deficiencies are not planned, but result from the lack of rational academic policy. We also think that some of the disappearing fields are most fundamental and critical for the vitality of the entire field of ‘Molecular Medicine’ and should be therefore nurtured.

The portal Founder and co-manager – Prof.Alexander Levitzki – from the Unit of Cellular Signaling, Department of Biological Chemistry in the Hebrew University, initiated the project under the  mission of establishing  virtual institute of molecular medicine, such that all research groups can interact with each other over the internet.

Over the last few years the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities has been supporting the operation of the portal.

The portal will display all important events such as meetings, lectures, advanced schools and workshops in the various disciplines of molecular medicine. The portal will allow registered researchers to easily communicate with each other. For example, one would be able to identify researchers according to a specific scientific question as well as specific research reagents or research protocol, needed for a specific research.

This document further elaborates on the Israel Molecular Medicine Portal, its establishment, mission and vision.