My long-term research interests focus on engineering nanotechnologies and clinical platforms to enhance our understanding of diseases such as cancer, inflammation, and metabolic disorders while providing innovative tools for improving patient care. During my Ph.D. in Prof. Avi Schroeder's lab at the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, I developed a personalized medicine technology using barcoded nanoparticles for in vivo screening of anti-cancer drugs, enabling tailored cancer treatment strategies (Yaari et al.,
Nature Communications, 2016).
As a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Daniel Heller's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center lab, I advanced diagnostic technologies for early ovarian cancer detection. This included platforms for biomarker monitoring in biofluids using artificial intelligence (Yaari et al.,
Science Advances, 2021), implantable devices for in situ monitoring, and enzymatic sensors with high sensitivity for detecting enzymatic activity (Yaari et al.,
Nano Letters, 2020). These technologies can potentially transform clinical practice by improving diagnosis and treatment precision.
In July 2022, I joined the School of Pharmacy at the Hebrew University as an assistant professor, establishing the Lab for
Sensing Nanomaterials & Controlled Release Technologies. My lab adopts a multidisciplinary approach to develop optical biosensors for real-time monitoring of disease biomarkers and controlled-release platforms, aiming to address critical challenges in diagnosing and treating human diseases.
We developed a nanosensor platform that uses DNA-wrapped carbon nanotubes to detect protein biomarkers. The sensors are exposed to a sample, and their optical signals are analyzed using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy. Machine learning processes the data to identify specific proteins, offering a powerful tool for detecting and monitoring biological changes. (Yaari et al., Science Advances, 2021)
We developed a method to predict the effectiveness of cancer drugs using barcoded nanoparticles. These nanoparticles, loaded with different drugs, were injected into mice with breast cancer tumors, and their accumulation in tumor cells was analyzed after 48 hours. By examining the barcodes in live and dead tumor cells, we determined the potency of each drug, enabling the design of personalized treatment protocols based on their effectiveness. (Yaari et al., Nature Communications, 2016).
