Heller Institute of Medical Research

The Heller Institute of Medical Research was founded in 1961 and was named in memory of Prof. H. Heller in 1967. The Institute is affiliated with Tel Aviv University Sackler School of Medicine. The integral parts of the Heller Institute are: the Institute of Military Physiology of the IDF and the Environmental Physiology Division.

• The Institute's research activities follow four main lines

• Basic and applied research in military physiology.

• Basic and applied research in environmental physiology;

• Basic research in the metabolism of amyloidosis.

• Clinical research of Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF).

The activities of both the institute of military physiology and the environmental physiology division are world wide recognized for their basic and applied research of heat related illnesses, fluid and electrolyte balance, exercise physiology, stress fractures, nutrition and molecular biology.

Clinical research in amyloidosis involves biochemical studies which are aimed

• To elucidate the chemical structure of different amyloid proteins derived from FMF patients and amyloid nodules in skin.

• To investigate the amino-acid sequence of different AA proteins;

• To investigate the amyloid enhancing factor (AEF) in an experimental mice model.

Clinical research in FMF includes a follow-up of thousands of patients who are under continuous colchicines treatment. Researchers from the FMF division were the first to clone the gene responsible for the FMF disease.