David Peeler, an assistant professor in the Department of Bioengineering, has received $100,000 in research support from the Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Foundation. The award will fund the development of targeted therapies programming the innate immune system to fight cancer and infectious disease.

Established in 1959 by Delia Baxter in memory of her husband, Donald, an accomplished physician and engineer who developed the first commercially prepared intravenous solutions — the Baxter Foundation award supports early-career faculty members with promising research programs and helps them build the momentum needed to pursue ambitious, high-risk work.

Researchers in Peeler’s Biomaterial Research for Immunomodulation, Drug delivery, and Genetic Engineering (BRIDGE) Lab, study the physical and immunological barriers to drug delivery and use chemical engineering to overcome and interface with them. Before joining the Knight Campus in early 2026, Peeler worked as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Oxford and Imperial College London.