Early in Gabriel Colodro’s report [1], a bus rolls onto the Weizmann Institute of Science campus in Rehovot under a clear February sky—and past visible damage from an Iranian missile strike that had wiped out dozens of laboratories months earlier, including labs working on cancer and other life-threatening diseases. The scene sets the tone for a weeklong tour that mixed hard realities with a very practical question: how does Israel keep turning research into medicine the world can actually use?
Nearly 40 health executives—investors, founders, advisers, and operators—joined a delegation organized by Israel Tech Mission with 8400—The Health Network, described as Israel’s national HealthTech ecosystem accelerator. The goal wasn’t a demo-day parade; it was a systems tour. Mission founder David Siegel said participants come to understand “how the system works,” while executive director David Nakar argued Israel’s edge is “velocity,” provided there are “channels” that connect founders, researchers, health systems, and capital.
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Dr. Daniel Kraft, founder of Exponential Medicine, framed Israel’s advantage as density: artificial intelligence, digital health, diagnostics, and clinical systems clustered tightly enough to speed iteration. Several participants also described health care as a collaboration zone that can keep moving even when politics do not.
The agenda spanned venture capital, hospital innovation teams, startup builders, and trauma and mental health professionals in the south after October 7—an example of how local pressures can generate exportable solutions. At Weizmann, Professor Ravid Straussman walked through research on bacteria and fungi found inside tumors, work that has already led to three cancer-focused startups.
Others left talking about concrete next steps: Clarivate executive Jonathan Sheffi said he would create a business plan for a translational research platform using Israel’s patient-level data, and biotech leader Michele Holcomb noted she was joining the board of Compugen. Veteran investor Lee Shapiro argued Israel’s longitudinal health records helped seed early breakthroughs—and that the world still underestimates how many everyday medications and tools trace back to Israeli innovation.
Colodro’s takeaway is blunt: Israel isn’t pitching a single product; it’s selling a repeatable pipeline. Read the full piece [1] for the texture—quotes, personalities, and the detailed anatomy of how that pipeline is built.