Professor Dan Peer, Director, Laboratory of Precision NanoMedicine & Founding and Managing Director, SPARK Tel Aviv, Center for Translational Medicine

Turning Academic Discoveries into Novel Therapeutic Modalities

Accumulating work points out relevant genes and signaling pathways hampered in human disorders as potential candidates for therapeutics. Developing nucleic acid-based tools to manipulate gene expression, such as siRNAs, mRNA and genome editing strategies, open up opportunities for personalized medicine. Yet, although major progress was achieved in developing RNA targeted delivery carriers, mainly by utilizing monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) for targeting, their clinical translation has not occurred. In part because of massive development and production requirements and high batch-to-batch variability of current technologies, which relies on chemical conjugation.

Here we present a self-assembled modular platform that enables to construct theoretically unlimited repertoire of RNA targeted carriers. The platform self-assembly is based on a membrane-anchored lipoprotein, incorporated into RNA-loaded lipid nanoparticles that interact with the antibody Fc domain. We show that a simple switch of 8 different mAbs, redirects specific uptake of siRNAs by diverse leukocyte subsets in vivo. The platform therapeutic potential is demonstrated in an inflammatory bowel disease model, by targeting colon macrophages to reduce inflammatory symptoms, and in Mantle Cell Lymphoma xenograft model, by targeting cancer cells to induce cell death and improve survival.

In addition, I will discuss novel approach for delivering modified mRNA to specific cell types in vivo utilizing this platform. This modular delivery platform can serve as a milestone in turning precision medicine feasible.

About Dan Peer
Dan Peer is a Professor and the Director of the Laboratory of Precision NanoMedicine at Tel Aviv University (TAU) funded by the US NIH and by the European Research Council. Prof. Peer is also the Chair of Tel Aviv University Cancer Biology Research Center; the biggest Cancer Center in Israel that includes 17 affiliated hospitals. In 2017, he founded and currently directing SPARK Tel Aviv (Center for Translational Medicine) that includes Tel Aviv University with its affiliated hospitals.

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 blood cancer and inflammation. Recently his lab showed that mmRNA can also be targeted to specific cell types in a very efficient manner.

Prof. Peer received more than 30 awards; among them, he was recognized by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation by their Innovator (2010) and Breakthrough (2011 – 2013) Awards for his pioneering work in inflammatory bowel diseases and by the AAAS and the Untold news breakthrough Award for his development of the Gagomers platform for cancer targeted drug delivery. In 2017, he received the 2017 Nanos Award for major contribution to the field of clinical nanomedicine in CLINAM 10^th, Basal, Switzerland.

Prof. Peer has more than 90 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, four spin-off companies were generated aiming to bring innovative personalized medicine into clinical practice. Three of them are clinical stage companies.

Prof. Peer is a SAB member in more than 10 companies. He is a past President of the Israeli Chapter of the Controlled Release Society, and a Member of the Israel Young Academy of Science.

Host: Associate Professor Ken Howard, Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center, Aarhus University

Coffee, tea and bread will be served from 10:00 in front of iNANO AUD.