Principal Investigator
Ayelet David, Ph.D
Prof. Ayelet David is a Full Professor and Head of the Drug Targeting and Nanomedicine Laboratory in the Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Pharmacology at Ben‑Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. She has served as Chair of the Department since August 2025.
Prof. David earned her M.Sc. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI) and completed her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the HUJI jointly with the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT. She then pursued postdoctoral research at the Weizmann Institute of Science and worked in the Israeli Pharma Industry before joining Ben‑Gurion University of the Negev.
Her research focuses on designing bioactive polymers, polymer–drug conjugates, and targeted nanomedicines for precision therapy of cancer, cardiovascular, and liver diseases. By integrating polymer chemistry, bioconjugation, and disease biology, her group develops smart therapeutic polymers and drug-delivery systems that modulate pathological pathways and enhance treatment selectivity, bridging fundamental science and translational nanomedicine.
Prof. David is the author of more than 50 peer‑reviewed articles, numerous review papers and book chapters, and is named as an inventor on over 10 patents, several of which have been licensed to biopharmaceutical companies. From 2023 to 2025 she served as President of the Israeli Chapter of the Controlled Release Society (ICRS).
Lab Members
Research Technician
Dr. Yvonne Ventura
Yvonne completed her PhD studies at the Department of Biology in BGU. In 2018 she joined the group as a lab Technician, working on the synthesis, characterization and biological evaluation of the new polymer-peptide conjugates for cancer therapy.
M.Sc Students
Stav Levi
Stav earned her B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering cum laude from Ben-Gurion University in 2025, and now conducts her M.Sc. research, where she is designing polymer–peptide conjugates to selectively modulate T‑cell responses in the tumor microenvironment.
Ron Rainisch
Ron earned her B.Sc. in Medical Laboratory Sciences from Ben-Gurion University in 2025 and is now pursuing her M.Sc. thesis, focusing on the design of polymer-based bioactive nanomaterials for cancer immunotherapy.
Rakefet Shulami Hochner
Rakefet earned her B.Sc. in Life Sciences from Ben-Gurion University in 2026. She began her research in our lab as an undergraduate and now continues developing polymer–peptide conjugates to inhibit cancer cell migration, focusing on targeted polymeric systems for cancer therapy.
Shaked Gonen
Shaked Gonen recently completed her bachelor degree in Biotechnology Engineering at Ben-Gurion University. She will join the laboratory to work on the development of polymer-peptide conjugates as immunomodulatory platforms to support cancer therapy and limit metastatic progression.
Posdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Ilya Eydelman
Ilya earned his Pharmacy degree in 2005 and an M.Sc. on arylethylene derivatives in mantle cell lymphoma. His Ph.D. focused on drug-delivery and nanomedicine platforms to overcome the blood–brain barrier for treating inflammation and neurodegenerative disease. Since joining the lab in March 2026, he has been developing targeted polymeric micelles for cancer immunotherapy.
Alumni
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‘
Nenad Milosevic
'Vascular-targeted "drug -free" polymer therapeutics for treating liver and kidney inflammation'
Michal Zaiden
“Laminin-derived peptide polymer-drug conjugate for targeting CD44-overexpressing cancer cells”
Marie Ruetter
Polymer-drug conjugates and “drug-free” macromolecular therapeutics to prevent cancer metastasis,
MSc Students
Dana Israeli-Kapp
“Low MW hyaluronan-HPMA copolymer conjugates for targeting drugs to ovarian carcinoma”
Lily Bass-Adar
“Targeting the tumor vascular endothelium by using polymer-NGR conjugates”
Inga Kogan-Zviagin
“Polymeric imaging probes for cancer diagnosis following intra-colonic administration”
Erez Berman
"Polymers for targeting surface markers on B- and T-lymphocytes"
Lior Raviv
“Mannosylated block copolymer micelles for targeting genes into antigen-presenting cells”
Gal Journo-Gershfeld
“Polymer-drug combination Therapy for Targeting Ovarian Cancer”
Lina Shpirt
"Laminin-derived peptide-polymer drug conjugates for cancer therapy”
Shaked Bornstein
"Novel polymer-drug conjugates with improved cell penetration activity"
Eva Kopansky-Groisman
“A non-invasive method to visualize solid tumors in the gastrointestinal tract”
Adi Golani
"Peptide-decorated polymeric micelles for targeting genes into antigen-presenting cells”
Maria Minkov
“Polyion complexes for targeting dendritic cells”
Ilana Teboul
"Development of polymeric probe for Acute Rheumatic Fever serum biomarker detection"
Naama Shlush
"Designs polymer-peptide conjugates to inhibit CCR2-mediated interactions"
Postdoctoral Fellows
Moran Golan
"Polyion complexes for miRNA/siRNA delivery to cancer cells"
Dalia Tyomkin
“E-selectin-binding polymer for targeting inflamed vascular endothelial cells in the cardiovascular system”
Prateek Srivastava
"Dendritic Cell-Targeted Nanoparticles to Enhance T Cell Activation and Immune Checkpoint Modulation"
Rinku Biashya
"Polymer-drug conjugates for treating prostate cancer tumors and bone metastasis"
M. Gover Antoniraj
"Novel polymeric micelles for targeted cancer immunotherapy"
Visiting Students
Elishka Bohemova
Czech Republic, 2017
Maytal Bowman
The Pennsylvania State University, 2018
Project Students
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2006- 2007: Zoya Vidiborsky
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2007- 2008: Yonit Moshenberg
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2008-2009: Gal Journo
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2011-2012: Igor Smechenko
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2015-2016: Inbar Angel Levi; Nahali Haver
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2016-2017: Ilana Gontmakher; Yaffa Khaimov
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2022-2023: Eden Roytman, Rawaa Khutaba
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2023-2024: Mor Sarig, Libat Tatero
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2024-2025: Veronika Schnaiderman
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2025-2026: Rakefet Shulami-Hochner, Inbar Babai, Maya Droby
High School Students
2020-2021: Nitzan Achitov, Alfa project student