The study was published in Nature Medicine this week and was the product of a collaboration between Professor Varda Shalev, who is the head of the Kahn-Sagol-Maccabi Research and Innovation Institute and Technion researchers Professor Roy Kishony and Dr. Idan Yelin.

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One of the challenges modern medicine faces is coping with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics. It is estimated that some 3,000 to 5,000 Israelis die each year in hospitals after being infected by antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

The overuse of antibiotics can also lead to bacteria developing new resistance to antibiotics, and lose their effectivity. One way to prevent the development of resistant bacteria is to reduce the repetitive use of antibiotics in medical treatments. Infections caused by antibiotic overuse may not only develop resistance but may become "treatment-resistant and deadly," the study said.

By using artificial intelligence along with patient data, scientists would be able to engineer specific antibiotics, catering them to each patient's needs.

"It is now possible to computationally predict the level of bacterial resistance for infection-causing bacteria," Yelin said. "This is done by weighing of demographic data, including age, gender, pregnancy … together with levels of resistance [which are] measured in the patient's previous urine cultures as well as their drug purchase history."

This unique breakthrough in Israeli medicine will also pave the way for additional artificial intelligence use in medical fields.

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Talia Golan, head researcher at the Sheba Medical Center Pancreatic Cancer Center, has been testing the safety and efficacy of a new treatment regimen based on olaparib tablets, a medication which attacks a certain enzyme important for the cell development of several forms of cancer.

The study was conducted among 154 patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer who also carried the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic mutations, which seriously elevate the risk of breast and ovarian cancers in women.

The research found that those with the mutations lived an average of 7.4 months without pancreatic cancer progression, compared to 3.8 months in the placebo group. The scientists said the results provide "potential hope" for this specific subset of pancreatic cancer patients.

Median survival in the two groups was not drastically different – 18.9 months in the test group versus 18.1 months in the placebo group.

Golan presented her findings at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual conference on Sunday in Chicago, the same day the findings were published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death, with a five-year survival rate of 9%.

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