Prof. Kasher is interested in the development of novel membranes for water desalination and treatment. Synthetic-organic chemistry approaches are used to prepare membranes with improved surface properties and solute transport for nanofiltration and reverse-osmosis processes. The aim is to deal with obstacles associated with membrane-based water treatment such as membrane fouling, removal of organic contaminants and membrane stability, while maintaining the salt rejection and flux characteristics of existing membranes.
Establishing a new approach for surface modification of water-treatment membranes, Dr. Kasher is attempting to develop chemical methodologies to connect antimicrobial peptides to reverse-osmosis membranes without loss of peptide activity. The aim of this new approach is to deal with biofouling of reverse-osmosis membranes, which is one of the most severe problems in desalination. In this project, Dr. Kasher is taking advantage of his 10 years of experience in peptide chemistry and peptide synthesis.
Dr. Kasher is studying the mineralization and fouling phenomena of water treatment membranes using novel approach that combines the preparation of unique 'clean' surfaces that mimic RO membrane surface, and evaluating the sorption of organic foulants, with analytical instruments. In collaboration with Dr. Moshe Herzberg correlations with real RO data supply the bases for developing methods for predicting fouling.
Another filed of interest is coping with fouling by graft-polymerization of membranes to alter their physical surface properties; together with Dr. Sophia Belfer a control of surface charge was achieved by use of monomers with oppositely-charged groups, and anti-fouling grafting was performed by use of hydrophilic-PEG functionalized monomers

Postdoctoral fellowship 2000-2003 in the laboratory of Prof. Ephraim Katzir (Department of Biological Chemistry) in collaboration with Prof. Mati Fridkin (Organic Chemistry), Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel.

Research subject: Rational design and synthesis of biologically active peptides: Design and synthesis of peptides with estrogenic activity, and inhibitors of ?-bungarotoxin.


Ph.D. 1993-2000 Department of Organic Chemistry, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Supervisor: Prof. Chaim Gilon.

Thesis title: Design and synthesis of backbone cyclic peptides that mimic proteins.


M.Sc. 1990-1992 Organic Chemistry, cum laude, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Supervisor: Prof. Itamar Willner.
Research subject: Development of photocatalytic systems for electrical communication between enzymes and synthetic polymers.
B.Sc. 1986-1989 Geology and Chemistry, cum laude, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel