Prof. Dan Peer

Molecular Cell Biology and Bio
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Prof. Dan Peer
Phone: 03-6407925
Fax: 03-6405926
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CV

Dan Peer is the Vice President for Research and Development at Tel Aviv University since October 2020.

Prof. Peer is a full Professor and the Director of the Laboratory of Precision NanoMedicine at Tel Aviv University (TAU). He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Translational Medicine and the SPARK TLV program at TAU

Prof. Peer’s work was among the first to demonstrate systemic delivery of RNA molecules using targeted nanocarriers to the immune system and he pioneered the use of RNA interference (RNAi) for in vivo validation of new drug targets within the immune system that has enormous implications in Cancer and inflammation. In addition, his lab was the first to show systemic, cell specific delivery of mRNA molecules.

Prof. Peer and his team have done innovative and groundbreaking work in cancer, mostly in brain tumors (Glioblastoma), Ovarian Cancer, and a set of blood cancers (Mantle Cell Lymphoma, Multiple Myeloma and Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia) and in inflammatory bowel diseases.

His work is published in premier scientific journals and he is the editor and author of several books in the field of nanomedicine. In addition, he is an associate editor of Journal of Controlled Release, and a member of the editorial boards of numerous journals.  He has received more than 40 awards; among them, he was recognized by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation by their Innovator (2010) and Breakthrough (2011, 2012 and 2013) Awards for his pioneering work in inflammatory bowel diseases and by the AAAS and the Untold news breakthrough Award for his development of a targeted platform for cancer therapeutics. In 2017, he received the  2017 Nanos Award for major contribution to the field of clinical nanomedicine in CLINAM 10th, Basal, Switzerland. In 2020 he received the Litwin IBD pioneers Award by the CCFA. In 2021 he  became part of distinguish scientist program, Roche. In 2022 he received the Distinguish research award on Gene editing, by Genescript.  

Prof. Peer has more than 140 pending and granted patents. Some of them have been licensed to several pharmaceutical companies and one is currently under registration (as a new drug in inflammatory bowel disease). In addition, based on his work, five spin-off companies were generated aiming to bring personalized medicine into clinical practice.

Prof. Peer is a past President of the Israeli Chapter of the Controlled Release Society (2014-2016).

In 2014 he was elected  to the  Israel Young Academy of Science.

In 2023 he was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering.

 

 

Research Interests

The Peer’s lab work at the interface of materials science, chemistry, molecular biology, and immunology, to discover and validate novel therapeutic targets at the molecular level, and to develop specific molecular medicines  for therapeutics and disease management. 

The lab is highly dynamic, multidisciplinary, and focuses on developing targeted vehicles for cell-specific delivery of novel molecular medicines (e.g. RNAi , mRNA, saRNA, circRNA, DNA and novel genome editing strategies). The lab goal is to translate academic discoveries into innovative therapeutic modalities. With that in mind, Prof. Peer also founded SPARK Tel Aviv to accelerate cures via academic discoveries. Prof. Peer strives to develop the career of young students and encourage them to fulfill their ambitions and dreams.

Recent Publications

Full list can be found on the personal website

 

Selective publications

  1. PEER D. Karp JM, Hong S, Farokhzad OC, Margalit R, Langer R. (2007). Nanocarriers as an emerging platform for cancer therapy. Nature Nanotechnology 2(12):751-60. * The highest cited nanomedicine paper (> 9400 times).
  2. PEER D., Park EJ, Morishita Y, Carman CV, and Shimaoka M (2008). Systemic leukocyte-directed siRNA delivery revealing cyclin D1 as an anti-Inflammation target. SCIENCE. 319, 627-630.  * The first example of in vivo, cell specific, drug discovery in immune cells using RNA interference. 
  3. Kedmi R. Ben-Arie N and PEER D. (2010). The systemic toxicity of positively charged lipid nanoparticles and the role of Toll-like receptor 4 in immune activation. Biomatrials 31(26):6867-75. * The mechanism by which cationic lipids induced inflammation.
  4. Ramishetti S, Kedmi R, Goldsmith M, Leonard F, Sprague AG, Godin B, Gozin M, Cullis PR, Dykxhoorn DM, PEER D (2015). Systemic Gene Silencing in Primary T Lymphocytes Using Targeted Lipid Nanoparticles. ACS Nano 9(7):6706-16.* The first T cell specific delivery of therapeutic RNA.
  5. Weinstein S., Toker I.A., Emmanuel R., Ramishetti S., Hazan-Halevy I., Rosenblum D., Goldsmith M., Abraham A., Benjamini O., Bairey O.,  Raanani P., Nagler A.,  Lieberman J. and PEER D (2016). Harnessing RNAi based Nanomedicines for Therapeutic Gene Silencing in B Cell Malignancies. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 113 (1), E17-25.* The first therapeutic gene silencing in blood cancers.
  6. Kedmi R., Viaga N. Ramishetti S, Goldsmith M, Rosenblum D, Dammes N, Hazan-Halevy I, Nahary L, Leviatan-Ben-Arye S, Harlev M, Behlke M, Benhar I, Lieberman J, and PEER D (2018). A modular platform for targeted RNAi therapeutics. Nature Nanotechnology.   13(3):214-219.  * A universal, cell specific platform for RNAi therapeutics.
  7. Veiga N., Goldsmith M., Granot Y. , Rosenblum D.,  Dammes N.,  Kedmi R.,Ramishetti S. , and PEER D (2018). Cell Specific Delivery of Modified mRNA Expressing Therapeutic Proteins to Leukocytes. Nature Communications. Oct 29;9(1):4493. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-06936-1.* The first systemic, cell specific mRNA delivery in an animal.
  8. Rosenblum D, Joshi N, Tao W, Karp JM, PEER D (2018). Progress and challenges towards targeted delivery of cancer therapeutics. Nature Communications. 9(1):1410. * Comprehensive review of the field of targeted nanomedicine in cancer. Cited > 1692 times.
  9. Ramishetti S., Hazan-Halevy I., Palakuri R., Chatterjee S., Naidu Gonna S., Dammes N., Freilich I., Kolik Shmuel L., Danino D., PEER D (2020). A Combinatorial Library of Lipid Nanoparticles for RNA Delivery to Leukocytes. Advanced Materials, 30:e1906128.* (Cover) Novel Ionizable lipids for RNA delivery and genome editing. Some lipids have been licensed to BioNtech now in clinical development; Roche, Merck, NeoVac, RiboX Therapeutics and Geneditor Biologics to name a few.
  10. Rosenblum D., Gutkin A., Kedmi R., Ramishetti S., Veiga N., Jacobi A.M, Schubert M.S, Friedmann-Morvinski D., Cohen Z.R, Behlke M.A, Liberman J, PEER D (2020) CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing using targeted lipid nanoparticles for cancer therapy. SCIENCE Advances, 6:EABC9450, pp.1-12. (Cover)* The first systemic, cell specific therapeutic genome editing in cancer.
  11. Dammes N., Goldsmith M., Ramishetti S., Dearling J.L.J., Veiga N., Packard A.B., PEER D (2021). Conformation-sensitive targeting of lipid nanoparticles for RNA therapeutics. Nature Nanotechnology., doi: 10.1038/s41565-021-00928-x. * The first conformation sensitive targeting approach for RNA payloads.
  12. Elia U, Ramishetti S, Rosenfeld R, Dammes N, Bar-Haim E, Naidu GS, Makdasi E, Yahalom-Ronen Y, Tamir H, Paran N, Cohen O, PEER D (2021). Design of SARS-CoV-2 hFc-Conjugated Receptor-Binding Domain mRNA Vaccine Delivered via Lipid Nanoparticles. ACS Nano. 15(6):9627-9637. * The first mRNA design with hFc for improve COVID 19 vaccine.
  13. Yong SB, Ramishetti S., Goldsmith M., Diesendruck Y., Hazan-Halevy I., Chatterjee S, Gonna SN, Ezra A, PEER D (2022). Dual-Targeted Lipid Nanotherapeutic Boost for Chemo-Immunotherapy of Cancer. Advanced Materials e2106350. doi: 10.1002/adma.202106350. (Cover). * A single targeted nanoparticle that acts in boosting immunotherapy and chemotherapy.
  14. Kon E., Levy Y., Elia U., Cohen H., Hazan-Halevy I., Aftalion M., Ezra A., Bar-Haim E., Naidu GS, Diesendruck Y, Rotem Y., Ad-El N., Goldsmith M., Mamroud E.,  PEER D.*, Cohen O (2023). A Single Dose F1-Based mRNA-LNP Vaccine Provides Protection Against the Lethal Plague Bacterium. SCIENCE Advances 9(10):eadg1036* The first bacterial mRNA Vaccine.
  15. Chatterjee S., Naidu GS., Hazan-Halevy I., Grobe H., Ezra A. Sharma P., Goldsmith M., Ramishetti S., Sprinzak D., Zaidel-Bar R., PEER D (2023). Therapeutic Gene Silencing of CKAP5 leads to lethality in genetically unstable cancer cells. SCIENCE Advances 2023. 9(14):eade4800 * A new potential therapeutic target in genetically unstable cancers.
  16. Elia U, Kon E, PEER D (2023). CRISPR editing in the lung with novel lipids. Nature Biotechnology. 41(10):1387-1388.
  17. Naidu GS, Yong SB, Ramishetti S, Rampado R, Sharma P, Ezra A, Goldsmith M, Hazan-Halevy I, Chatterjee S, Aitha A, Peer D (2023). A Combinatorial Library of Lipid Nanoparticles for Cell Type-Specific mRNA Delivery. Advanced Science (Cover) 10(19):e2301929. * Novel thermostable lipids for mRNA delivery.
  18. Tarab-Ravski D, Hazan-Halevy I, Goldsmith M, Stotsky-Oterin L, Breier D, Naidu GS, Aitha A, Diesendruck Y, Ng BD, Barsheshet H, Berger T, Vaxman I, Raanani P, PEER D (2023). Delivery of Therapeutic RNA to the Bone Marrow in Multiple Myeloma Using CD38-Targeted Lipid Nanoparticles. Advanced Science (Cover) 10(21):e2301377* The first cell specific delivery of therapeutic RNA into the bone marrow.
  19. Granot-Matok Y, Ezra A, Ramishetti S, Sharma P, Naidu GS, Benhar I, PEER D (2023). Lipid nanoparticles-loaded with toxin mRNA represents a new strategy for the treatment of solid tumors. Theranostics (Cover). 13(11):3497-3508. * The first bacterial mRNA toxin for cancer Therapeutics.
  20. Kon E, Ad-El N, Hazan-Halevy I, Stotsky-Oterin L, PEER D (2023). Targeting cancer with mRNA-lipid nanoparticles: key considerations and future prospects. Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology.  (Cover) 20(11):739-754. * Comprehensive invited review on the field of mRNA-LNPs in cancer therapeutics.

 

COMMENTARIES
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1. MacLachlan I (2008) siRNAs with Guts. Nature Biotechnology 26, 403 – 405. 
2. Mullard A (2008) Escorting siRNA. Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 9, 189. 
3. Szoka F (2008) The Art of Assembly. Science 319 (5863), 578-579. 
4. Weintraub K (2013)  The New Gold Standard. Nature 495, S14-S16. 
5. Sarmento B, Das Neves J,  Santos HA,  Santos L, MitragotriS, Little S,  Peer D, Amiji  MM, and Alonso MJ (2019) On the issue of transparency and reproducibility in nanomedicine. Nature Nanotechnology 14, 629–635. 
 
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