Dr. Asaf Singer, 41, leads a biological nanoengineering lab in the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering at the Technion, where he develops nanoparticles inspired by the human body to treat a wide range of diseases. His work grew out of a chance encounter at a haircut, when Prof. Avi Schroeder invited him to pursue a master’s degree. Singer later completed a PhD at the Technion and a postdoctoral fellowship at Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas, and he is now a member of the World Young Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
A central focus of his lab is breast milk, especially how its components travel from mother to infant through the digestive system and reach the right place in the body. During the coronavirus pandemic, he noticed that his wife, who was breastfeeding, seemed to affect how their child responded to vaccination. That led to a 2.5 million euro ERC grant to study what really passes from breast milk to babies, including whether RNA and even whole human cells can make the journey. Singer says his group has since shown that RNA can indeed be transferred using milk-inspired structures called milkosomes, tiny lipid-protein particles that can carry drugs across the gut and into target cells.
Singer says the same platform could one day allow oral RNA vaccines and, eventually, milk-based drinks containing hormones, insulin or GLP-1, though that is not yet happening. In mice, his team used a genetically engineered green foster mother and found green cells in pups’ blood and organs after 19 days, evidence that the system survives digestion and reaches the bloodstream. He describes it as an "maternal shield" for infants, while his lab is now trying to adapt the technology for human use. He also wants any future company built around the technology to be based in northern Israel, where he says he wants to help strengthen the region.
Beyond milk, Singer’s lab is split into four themed research areas, breast milk, cancer, proteomics and neurobiology. In cancer, researchers are building nanoparticles that compete with macrophages for binding sites in tumors, reducing tumor growth in animal studies, which Singer calls "immunotherapy without a drug." Another project seeks to develop nanoparticles that treat cancer in pregnant women without crossing the placenta, and a separate collaboration aims to let women test menstrual samples at home for signs of ovarian or uterine cancer. The lab also studies the protein corona around nanoparticles to steer where they go in the body and to help predict brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, while a neurobiology project explores drug delivery to the brain by nasal inhalation and in injured patients.
Singer, who served about 110 reserve-duty days in the Iron Swords war as an armored corps officer and received a unit commendation, says he was motivated by seeing many soldiers suffer brain injury from explosive blasts, for which there is no drug treatment. He also emphasized the human side of his lab, which is staffed mostly by women, and said he prefers to recruit people who are passionate and independent. His group is now preparing a new company and is also involved in a new ERC-backed, million-euro microscope expected to be unveiled in July, which will let researchers watch nanoparticles move inside the body in real time.
