Univeristy of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, United States
Technion, Israeli Institute of Technology, Haifa BSc 06/2002 Quality Engineering in Bioprocesses
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem MS 02/2005 Polymer Chemistry and Drug Delivery
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem PHD 06/2011 Polymer Chemistry and Drug Delivery
University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE Postdoctoral Fellow 07/2012 Theranostic Remotely Actuated Drug Delivery Systems
During last years I have acquired strong experience and expertise in the polymeric based delivery systems for drug delivery and imaging including polymeric micelles for drug delivery. I have extensive experience in synthesis and characterization of polymers, nano-assembly and manufacturing of drug delivery systems, characterization techniques, colloidal stability evaluations, drug release studies both in vitro and in vivo, pharmacokinetics and efficacy studies which are key research areas for this application. Most recently, I focused on drug delivery to brain tumors, specifically medulloblastoma. We have already shown that polyoxazoline (POx) nanoparticles improve treatment outcomes in many cancers including breast, ovarian and lung. We have further shown that co-loading of the micelles with the synergistic combinations of drugs improves drug release profiles, enhances each drug tumor accumulation and in vivo efficacy. Specifically, we have demonstrated the efficacy of the POx micelles loaded with SMO inhibitor vismodegib in the treatment of medulloblastoma as well as the therapeutic benefits of the CDK4/6 inhibitor palbociclib in combination with mTOR inhibitor sapanisertib and in a mouse model of SHH-driven medulloblastoma.