Principal Investigator
Ayelet David, Ph.D
Ayelet David is a Professor at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Israel. She conducted her PhD studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel jointly with the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT. She obtained a Ph.D degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2002. She did her postdoctoral training at the Weismann Institute of Sciences in Israel, and then spent two years in the biopharmaceutical industry as a Research and Development Manager at Vecta Ltd. Since 2006, she is the head of Drug Targeting and Nanomedicine Laboratory in the Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Pharmacology at Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Her research focuses on the design of biomedical polymers as drug and gene delivery systems for the detection and treatment of cancer. She also develops improved methods for targeting inflamed tissues. She has been publishing her work in high reputed peer-reviewed journals in Chemistry, Biology and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and holds 8 granted patents on her inventions (one licensed to Vaxil Bio Pharmaceutics for further clinical development).
Current
PhD Students
Marie Ruetter
Marie completed her BSc. in Pharmacy in Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität (WWU), Münster, Germany in 2013. She received her MSc in Med. Sci. (2018) and continues now her research as a PhD student, working on the design of new “drug-free” polymer therapeutics for attenuating inflammation at the tumor microenvironment.
MSc Students
Naama Shlush
Marie completed her BSc. in Chemistry with major in Biological Chemistry at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in 2023. She is currently studying for MSc degree in Med. Sci. and working on the design of novel biomedical polymers to control inflammation at the tumor microenvironment.
Postdoctoral Fellows
Prateek Srivastava
Prateek completed his MSc in the Biochemistry from the Kanpur University, India, and obtained his PhD from the Department of Chemistry at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, India, in 2018, on the development of novel mesoporous silica nanoparticles for the doxorubicin delivery to treat colon cancer and the lymphoma. He joined Dr. Ayelet David lab as a post-doc fellow in 2021, working on the stimuli responsive nano-systems to target the cancer cells
M. Gover Antoniraj
Gover Antoniraj completed his Master of Pharmacy (Pharmaceutics) at the Anna University, India in 2010. He received his Doctorate in Pharmaceutical Technology (2018) from Anna University, India. In 2021, he joined Dr. Ayelet David‘s lab as a PBC postdoctoral fellow, working on the stimuli-responsive nanoparticles for targeted cancer therapy
Research Technician
Dr. Yvonne Ventura
Yvonne completed her PhD studies at the Department of Biology in BGU. In 2018 she joined the lab as lab Technician, working on the synthesis, characterization and biological evaluation of the new polymer-peptide conjugates for cancer therapy.
Alumni
PhD Students
Yosi Shamay
Yosi obtained his bachelor degree in Chemistry at BGU. He completed his MSc (2008) and PhD (2012) under the supervision of Prof. Ayelet David jointly with Prof. Gonen Ashkenasy from the department of Chemistry, while working on the design of ‘Polymer-peptide conjugates for targeting drugs to tumor vascular endothelium’. Yosi was selected to represent Israeli Universities at the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in 2010 on Lake Constance. He was also the recipient of the “Best Student Presentation Award” in two bi-annual meetings of the Israeli Chapter of the Controlled Release Society (ICRS) in 2010 and 2012.
Michal Mendelson-Jaron
Michal is a Med. Lab. Sci. graduate from BGU. She completed her PhD in 2013 while working on ‘Characterization of carbohydrate involvement in the interaction of NKp46 with viral and cellular ligands: emphasis on influenza and beta-islet cells‘, under supervision of Prof. Ayelet David jointly with Prof. Angel Porgador at the department of Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Genetics.
Michal Zaiden
Michal obtained her bachelor degree in Chemical Engineering from BGU and MSc at the Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Pharmacology in BGU. She completed her PhD in 2018, working on the development and assessment of “Laminin-derived peptide polymer-drug conjugate for targeting CD44-overexpressing cancer cells”.
Nenad Milosevic
Nenad graduated with MSc in Pharmacy from the University of Belgrade in Serbia. He joined the lab in October 2016, and started to work on vascular-targeted polymer therapeutics. Nenad adapted a novel in vivo model of liver inflammation, the NIAAA model of chronic and binge ethanol feeding and is currently evaluating the anti-inflammatory activity of "drug-free" copolymers in this model.
Masters Students
Dana Israeli-Kapp
Dana obtained bachelor degree in Chemistry at the BGU. She pursued for MSc in Ayelet David lab working on “Low MW hyaluronan-HPMA copolymer conjugates for targeting drugs to ovarian carcinoma”. She completed her MSc studies in 2009.
Eva Kopansky-Groisman
Eva obtained bachelor degree in Pharmacy in 2008 from BGU. She completed her MSc in 2010 while researching “A non-invasive method to visualize solid tumors in the gastrointestinal tract”. Eva won the 3rd Prize for best poster presentation in the 2009 Israeli Chapter of the Controlled Release Society (ICRS) Meeting.
Lior Raviv
Lior is a biomedical Engineering graduate from BGU. He completed his MSc studies in 2010, working on the design of “Mannosylated block copolymer micelles for targeting genes into antigen-presenting cells”. Lior received the 3rd prize for best poster presentation award in the bi-annual meeting of the Israeli Chapter of the Controlled Release Society (ICRS) in 2009.
Lily Bass-Adar
Lily obtained bachelor degree in Pharmacy at BGU. She completed her MSc in 2010, working on “Targeting the tumor vascular endothelium by using polymer-NGR conjugates”.
Gal Journo-Gershfeld
Gal is a Med. Lab. Sci. graduate from BGU. She completed her MSc, working on “Polymer-drug combination Therapy for Targeting Ovarian Cancer”. Upon graduation (2011) she studied BSc. in Pharmacy at BGU.
Inga Kogan-Zviagin
Inga obtained bachelor degree in Med. Lab. Sci. from BGU. She completed her MSc in 2012, working on “Polymeric imaging probes for cancer diagnosis following intra-colonic administration”.
Adi Golani
Adi is a Med. Lab. Sci. graduate from BGU. Adi’s MSc project aimed at designing “Block copolymer micelles for targeting genes into antigen-presenting cells”. She obtained her MSc degree in 2013.
Maria Minkov
“Maria obtained her bachelor in biomedical Engineering from BGU. She completed her MSc studies in 2013, working on “Polyion complexes for targeting dendritic cells”.
Lina Shpirt
Lina obtained bachelor degree in Chemistry from BGU. During her MSc studies she designed “Laminin-derived peptide-polymer drug conjugates for cancer therapy”. Lina graduated in 2013.
Erez Berman
Erez obtained bachelor degree in Pharmacy in 2014 from BGU. He received his MSc in Med. Sci. in BGU under supervision of Prof. Ayelet David jointly with Prof. Alon Monsonego at the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Genetics, working on new biomedical polymers for targeting T-cells. Erez graduated in 2017.
Shaked Bornstein
Shaked graduated from the State University of New York at Albany in December 2014 with B.Sc. in Human Biology. She worked in Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in the Leukemia department as a Research Study Assistance, responsible for 4 phase I/II studies. She is currently pursuing her MSc in Med. Sci., working on the design of new polymer-drug conjugates with improved cell penetration activity.
Postdoctoral Fellows
Dr. Moran Golan
Moran completed her PhD studies at the Department of Pharmacology in BGU. In 2012 she joined the lab as a posdoc fellow and conducted her research as part of the RIMONIM consortium. Moran's research focused on the use of polyion complexes for miRNA/siRNA delivery into cells at the tumor microenvironment. From 2014-2016 worked in the lab as a Research Technician.
Dr. Dalia Tyomkin
Dalia obtained her PhD degree in Biochemistry in 2006 at Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Life Science, Tel-Aviv University. From 2012-2015 she did a postdoctoral training in the lab, working on the “Biomedical polymer for targeting inflamed tissues in the cardiovascular system”.
Dr. Rinku Biashya
Rinku completed his PhD in Pharmacy in the CSIR- Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata, India. He joined the lab in 2017 as a postdoc fellow, evaluating the use of polymer-drug conjugates for treating prostate cancer tumors and bone metastasis.
Visiting Students
Elishka Bohemova
Elishka is a PhD student under the supervision of Tomáš Etrych at the Department of Bio-medicinal Polymers Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Praha, Czech Republic, studying the characteristics of polymer-oligopeptide conjugates with varying cell penetration peptide (CPP) sequences. Elishka spent two months in the lab (2017).
