Marcelle Machluf

Professor Marcelle Machluf is a member of the Technion Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering and head of the Carasso FoodTech Innovation Center. She is a member of the Affiliate Engineering Faculty of the Technion Integrated Cancer Center, former deputy executive vice president for research for the Technion’s Pre-Clinical Research Authority, and former dean of Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering. She also works closely with the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute at the Technion. 

Prof. Machluf is developing a targeted drug delivery system using modified stem cells called Nano-Ghosts to home in on tumors, unleashing its therapeutic load at the cancer site. She is also developing scaffolding for tissue engineering of the pancreas, heart, and blood vessels, and developing carriers for cell delivery with applications for treating diabetes and more. For 10 years, she also led a laboratory at Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, where she worked on a leading tissue regenerative project.  

Prof. Machluf has authored book chapters and more than 80 peer-reviewed journal papers in leading journals. Her work has been cited more than 2,800 times. She has six national patents and two approved international patents in the fields of drug delivery and tissue engineering. She is the recipient of many honors including the Alon Award for excellence in science, the Gutwirth Award for achievements in gene therapy, the Hershel Rich Technion Innovation Award, and the Juludan Research Prize for outstanding research. In the last two years, Prof. Machluf has established two startup companies based on technologies developed in her lab in the area of cancer targeted drug delivery (NanoGhost) and cultured meat (Meatafora).