Dan Peer

Dan Peer is a Professor and the Director of the Laboratory of Precision NanoMedicine at Tel Aviv University (TAU). He is also the Vice President for Research and Development at Tel Aviv University, the biggest research university in Israel. In 2017 he co-founded and acts as the Managing Director of SPARK Tel Aviv, Center for Translational Medicine. From 2016-2020 he was the Chair of Tel Aviv University Cancer Biology Research Center.[1] He holds more than 120 pending and granted patents.

Prof. Peer is a scientific advisory board member in more than 15 companies and on the scientific advisory board of 20 journals. He is a past President of the Israeli Chapter of the Controlled Release Society,[2] and a Past Member of the Board of the Israel Young Academy of Science.[3]

Research work

Prof. Peer's work was among the first to demonstrate immunomodulation through a systemic delivery of RNA-loaded targeted nanocarriers. He pioneered the use of RNAi to reprogram immune cells and discover new therapeutic modalities.[4] In addition, his lab was the first to show systemic, cell specific delivery of mRNA to cells. Through this method they have induced therapeutic gene expression of desired proteins (including novel approaches for high efficiency therapeutic genome editing), which has enormous implications in cancer, rare genetic diseases and infection diseases.[5][6]

Research focus

The Peer lab is designing novel methodologies to manipulate cells' function in vivo, using targeted, safe, lipid nanoparticles. They are utilizing nanotechnology tools to generate novel therapeutic strategies for inflammatory diseases, rare genetic diseases and cancers.[7] The lab is combining multidisciplinary approaches including immunology, cell and molecular biology, genetics, protein engineering, material sciences, nanotechnology and computational techniques for drug discovery. In addition, they are designing highly selective targeted nanocarriers able to reprogram cells in a discerning manner, with an ultimate goal to translate the findings into clinical settings.[8][9][10]

Awards
  • 2008 Alon fellowship for outstanding young researchers, awarded by the Israeli Ministry of Education.
  • The 2010 Innovator award in Inflammatory Bowel Disease from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation (CA, USA)[11]
  • Innovator Award on novel Cancer therapeutic strategy (The inaugural Untold News Award, 2014)[12]
  • 2013 Breakthrough Award from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation[13]

References
  1. "Dan Peer Lab, Tel Aviv University - Prof. Dan Peer". Tel Aviv University.
  2. "Dan Peer". Controlled Release Society (CRS).
  3. "TAU professor appointed to Young Academy of Science". Tel Aviv University.
  4. "Beyin kanseri tedavisinde büyük buluş". Şalom (in Turkish).
  5. "New platform based on biology and nanotechnology carries mRNA directly to target cells". Phys.org.
  6. "TAU sets up translational medical research center". Globes (in Hebrew). 30 January 2018.
  7. Shamah, David. "Nano-bullet tech shoots down brain cancer in Tel Aviv U study". The Times of Israel.
  8. Arnold, Janice (5 March 2019). "Cannabis to treat cancer? Israeli scientist thinks so". The Canadian Jewish News.
  9. "Dan Peer: "Mi trabajo es ciencia ficción: trato de hacer realidad ideas locas "". La Nación (in Spanish). 19 August 2019.
  10. "Researchers divided on future of cannabis as a whole plant or isolated medicine". Daily Hive.
  11. "The Kenneth Rainin Foundation 2010 Innovator Awards". Kenneth Rainin Foundation.
  12. Sarah, Viva (4 December 2014). "Three Israeli inventors win Untold News Awards for thinking out of the box". ISRAEL21c.
  13. "Recipients 2013". Kenneth Rainin Foundation.
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