Our lab is studying how to manipulate cells’ functions in order to generate novel strategies to treat inflammatory diseases and cancers. We are combining multidisciplinary approaches including immunology, cell and molecular biology, genetics, protein engineering, material sciences, nanotechnology and computational techniques for drug discovery and potentially for therapeutics. In addition, we are developing nanomedicines by designing highly selective targeting moieties and novel nanocarriers, with an ultimate goal to translate some of our findings into clinical settings.

We are particularly interested in

•  Developing novel strategies for targeted drug delivery.
•  Probing and manipulating the immune system with nanomaterials.
•  Studying the role of cell cycle regulators during inflammatory bowel diseases and blood cancers.
•  Investigating novel cancer multidrug resistance inhibitors.
•  Studying novel approaches to target adult stem cells (hematopoietic; bulge, cancer).
•  Harnessing RNAi as a tool for drug discovery and for therapeutic applications.
•  Developing tools to study immuno-nanotoxicity.
•  Investigating polysaccharides as building blocks for Nanotherapeutics.
  

1. Peer D, and Margalit R (2000). Physicochemical evaluation of a stability-driven approach to drug entrapment in regular and in surface-modified liposomes. Arch. Biochem. Biophys . 383,185–190.

2. Peer D, Florentin A, and Margalit R (2003). Hyaluronan is a key component in cryoprotection and in formulation of targeted unilamellar liposomes. Biochim. Biophys. Acta .1612, 76-82.

3 . Peer D, and Margalit R (2004). Loading Mitomycin C inside long circulating hyaluronan targeted nano-liposomes increases its antitumor activity in three mice tumor models. Inter. J. Cancer . 108, 780-789.

4. Peer D, and Margalit R (2004). Tumor-targeted hyaluronan nano- liposomes increase the antitumor activity of liposomal doxorubicin in syngeneic and human xenografts mouse tumor models. Neoplasia . 6, 343-353.

5. Peer D, Dekel Y, Melikhov D, and Margalit R (2004). Fluoxetine inhibits MDR extrusion pumps and enhances therapeutic responses to chemotherapy in syngeneic and human xenograft mouse tumor models. Cancer Research . 64, 7562-7569.

6. Shimaoka M, Kim M, Cohen E, Yang W, Astrof N, Peer D, Salas A, Ferrand A, and Springer TA (2006). AL- 57, a ligand-mimetic antibody to integrin LFA-1, reveals chemokine-induced affinity up-regulation in lymphocytes. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA .103,13991-13996.

7. Peer D, and Margalit R (2006). Fluoxetine and reversal of multidrug resistance. Cancer Letters . 237,180-187.

8. Klausner EA, Peer D, Chapman RL, Multack RF, and Andurkar SV (2007). Corneal gene therapy. Journal of Controlled Release . 124 ,107-133.

9. * Peer D , Zhu P, Carman CV, Lieberman J, and Shimaoka M (2007). Selective gene silencing in activated leukocytes by targeting siRNAs to the integrin lymphocyte function- associated antigen-1. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA , 104, 4095-4100.

10. Peer D, Karp JM, Hong S, Farokhzad O, Margalit R, and Langer R (2007). Nanocarriers as an emerging platforms for cancer therapy. Nature Nanotechnology . 2, 751-760.

11. * 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.

12. Astrof NS, Peer D, and Shimaoka M (2008). Development & Application of Conformation- Selective Integrin Antibodies. In S. Gad (Editor), Development of Therapeutic Agents . John Wiley & Sons Publishers. In press .

13. Peer D (2008). Fluoxetine and cancer multidrug resistance extrusion pumps. In M. Schwab (Editor), Cancer Encyclopedia . Springer publishing. 1, 1145-1148.

14. Imai Y, Park EJ, Peer D, Peixoto A, Cheng G, von Andrian UH, Carman CV, and Shimaoka M (2008). Genetic perturbation of the putative cytoplsmic membrane-proximal salt bridge aberrantly activates alpha4 integrins. Blood . 112(13), 5007-5015. (Cover feature).

15. Argov M, Kashi R, Peer D, and Margalit R (2009). Treatment of resistant human colon cancer xenografts by a fluoxetine-doxorubicin combination enhances therapeutic responses comparable to an aggressive bevacizumab regimen. Cancer Letters . 274 ,118-125.

16. Peer D, and Shimaoka M (2009). Systemic siRNA delivery to leukocyte-implicated diseases. Cell Cycle . 8, 853-859.

17. Peer D (2009). Nanocarriers delivering RNAi to cancer cells: from challenge to cautious optimism. Therapy . 6(3), 293-296.

18. Ben-Arie N*, Kedmi R *, and Peer D (2009). Integrin-targeted nanoparticles. In Shimaoka M (Editor) Integrins . Methods in Molecular Biology . Humana Press. In press . * denoted equal contribution.

19. Kedmi R, and Peer D (2009). RNAi nanoparticles in the service of personalized medicine. Nanomedicine . 4(8), 853-855.

20. Kim S-S*, Peer D*, Kumar P*, Subramanya S, Wu H, Asthana D, Habiro K, Yang Y-G, N.
Manjunath, Shimaoka M and Shankar P (2010). RNAi-mediated CCR5 silencing by LFA-1-targeted nanoparticles prevents HIV infection in BLT mice. Molecular Therapy . 18, 370-376. * denotes equal contribution.

21. Weinstein S, and Peer D (2010). Systemic siRNA Delivery: A Progress Report. Nanotechnology Law & Business . 6(4), 454-466.
 

22. Dearling JLJ, Voss S, Dunning P, Park EJ, Fahey F, Treves T Solapino S., Shimaoka M, Packard AB, and Peer D (2010). Detection of Intestinal Inflammation by microPET Imaging Using a 64Cu-Labeled Anti-b7 Integrin Antibody.Inflammatory bowel diseases. 16(9):1458-66.

23. Weinstein S., and Peer D (2010). RNAi Nanomedicines: challenges and opportunities
within the immune system. Nanotechnology. 21(23), 232001, 1-13.

24. 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. Biomaterials 31, 6867-6875.

25. Rivkin I, Cohen K, Koffler J, Melichov D., Peer D*, and Margalit R* (2010). Paclitaxel-clusters coated with hyaluronan as selective tumor-targeted nanovectors. Biomaterials 31, 7106-7114.

26. Peer D (2010). Induction of therapeutic gene silencing in leukocyte-implicated diseases by targeted and stabilized nanoparticles: A mini-review. Journal of Controlled Release In Press.

27. Cohen-Kupiec R, Weinstein S, Kantor G, Peer D, Weil M. (2010). IKAP/hELP1 downregulation in neuroblastoma cells causes enhanced cell adhesion mediated by contactin overexpression.  Cell adhesion & migration Oct 8;4(4).

28. Elfakess R. and Peer D. (2010). Overcoming RNAi transduction in leukocytes using targeted and stabillized nanoparticles. IDrugs Sep 13(9):626-31.

29. Drug E, Landesman-Milo D, Belgorodsky B, Ermakov N, Frenkel-Pinter M, Fadeev L, Peer D, Gozin M (2011). Enhanced Bioavailability of Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons in the Form of Mucin Complexes. Chemical research in toxicology. 24(3):314-20.

30. Kim SS, Subramanya S, Peer D, Shimaoka M, Shankar P. (2011). Antibody-Mediated Delivery of siRNAs for Anti-HIV Therapy. Methods in molecular biology 721:339-353.

31. Bachar G, Cohen K, Hod R, Feinmesser R, Mizrachi A, Shpitzer T, Katz O, Peer D. (2011). Hyaluronan-grafted particle clusters loaded with Mitomycin C as selective nanovectors for primary head and neck cancers. Biomaterials Jul;32(21):4840-8

32. Peer D, Lieberman J. (2011). Special delivery: targeted therapy with small RNAs. Gene therapy Dec;18(12):1127-33.

33. Mizrahy S, Raz SR, Hasgaard M, Liu H, Soffer-Tsur N, Cohen K, Dvash R, Landsman-Milo D, Bremer MG, Moghimi SM, Peer D. (2011). Hyaluronan-coated nanoparticles: The influence of the molecular weight on CD44-hyaluronan interactions and on the immune response. Journal of Controlled Release. 2011 Dec 10;156(2):231-8.

34. Breiner-Goldstein E, Evron Z, Frenkel M, Cohen K, Nir Meiron K, Peer D, Roichman Y,Flescher E, and Fridman M (2011). Targeting Anthracycline-resistant Tumor Cells with Synthetic Aloe-emodin Glycosides. ACS Medicinal chemistry letters, 2, 528-531.

35. Ben-Arie N, Kedmi R. and Peer D (2012). Integrin-Targeted Nanoparticles for siRNA Delivery. Methods Mol Biol .757, 497-507.

36. Moghimi SM, Peer D, Langer R (2011). Reshaping the Future of Nanopharmaceuticals: Ad ludicium. ACS Nano. Nov 22;5(11):8454-8.

37. Mizrahy S, Peer D (2011). Polysaccharides as building blocks for nanotherapeutics. Chem Soc Rev. [Epub ahead of print].

38. Solmesky LJ, Shuman M, Goldsmith M, Weil M, Peer D (2011). Assessing cellular toxicities in fibroblasts upon exposure to lipid-based nanoparticles: a high content analysis approach. Nanotechnology. 2011 Nov 21;22(49):494016.

39. Goldsmith M, Mizrahy S, Peer D (2011). Grand challenges in modulating the immune response with RNAi nanomedicines. Nanomedicine (Lond) . 2011 Dec;6(10):1771-85.

40. Srinivasan C, Peer D, and Shimaoka M (2009). Integrin Targeted Stabilized Nanoparticles for an Efficient Delivery of siRNAs in vitro and in vivo. Methods in Molecular Biology . 2012;820:105-16.

* See also commentaries:

• siRNA delivery to activated leukocytes (2007). Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 104, 3669

3670.

• The art of assembly (2008). Science . 319, 578-579.

• siRNA nanoparticles, fully loaded (2008). Nature Chemical Biology . 4, 167.

• Escorting siRNA (2008). Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology . 9, 189.

• siRNA with Guts (2008). Nature Biotechnology . 26, 403-405.