Lab members

Principal Investigator

Ayelet David, Ph.D

Ayelet David is a Full Professor and Chair of Clinical Biochemistry and Pharmacology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), and President of the Israeli Chapter of the Controlled Release Society (ICRS). She conducted her PhD studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel jointly with the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT. She did her postdoctoral training at the Weismann Institute of Sciences in Israel, and worked in industry before joining BGU.

Prof. David heads the Drug Targeting and Nanomedicine Lab, developing therapeutic polymers and nanomedicines for cancer, cardiovascular, and liver diseases. She has been publishing her work in high reputed peer-reviewed journals, holds over 10 patents (one licensed for clinical development), and has supervised students now working in academia and industry.

Research Technician

Dr. Yvonne Ventura

Yvonne completed her PhD studies at the Department of Biology in BGU. In 2018 she joined the lab as a lab Technician, working on the synthesis, characterization and biological evaluation of the new polymer-peptide conjugates for cancer therapy.

Research Fellow

Dr. Marie Ruetter

Marie earned her Pharmacy degree (cum laude) from the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany, and joined the lab in 2016 as a master’s student. Her PhD focused on “drug-free” macromolecular therapeutics to prevent cancer metastasis, building on her earlier work with polymer–drug conjugates for targeted drug delivery. She now designs polymers that activate immune cells against cancer.

MSc Students

Naama Shlush

Naama obtained her bachelor degree in Chemistry. In her MSc project she designs polymer-peptide conjugates to inhibit CCR2-mediated interactions.

Ilana Teboul

Ilana is a Med. Lab. Sci. graduate from BGU. Her research thesis focused on the development of polymeric probe for Acute Rheumatic Fever serum biomarker detection.

Former Students

PhD Students

Yosi Shamay

‘Polymer-peptide conjugates for targeting drugs to tumor vascular endothelium and manipulation tumor drug penetration’

Eliya Yishay-Safranchik

"Self-assembled peptide hydrogels for controlled drug release"

Michal Mendelson-Jaron

‘Characterization of carbohydrate involvement in the interaction of NKp46 with viral and cellular ligands: emphasis on influenza and beta-islet cells‘