Assistant Professor, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Drexel University
-University of Notre Dame, MS Chemical Engineering, 2016
-University of Dayton, BS, Chemical Engineering, 2012
Peter Deak, PhD obtained his PhD from the University of Notre Dame in 2017 under the direction of Dr. Basar Bilgicer. Growing up with food allergies, Peter was fascinated by how seemingly innocuous compounds can illicit strong immune responses. Combining this fascination with a love of problem solving and optimization and you have an immunoengineer! Under Dr. Bilgicer, Peter designed novel diagnostic platforms and IgE targeting therapeutics for allergies. Here he fostered his love of using chemistry to solve complex immunological problems. During his postdoc under Dr. Aaron Esser-Kahn, Peter studied innate immune cells, specifically dendritic cells, and used microparticles to isolate and characterize a small sub-population of dendritic cells that are responsible for the initial inflammatory signaling. During his postdoc, Peter also discovered that combinations of inflammatory and inhibitory signaling can modulate dendritic cell phenotypes to become more tolerizing. In his own lab, Peter is working to expand this concept, using synergistic combinations of inhibitory/activating drugs on innate immune cells to drive antigen specific tolerance. This has a wide application in autoimmune and transplant rejection. Peter is also interested in developing targeted adjuvants for chronic viral infections and autoinflammatory diseases.