Seldin-Smith Physician-Scientist Lecturer

Benjamin Izar, M.D., Ph.D.
Vivian and Seymour Milstein Family Associate Professor
Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology & Oncology
Director, Human Immune Monitoring Core
Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons

Benjamin Izar, M.D., Ph.D., will deliver the Seldin-Smith Physician-Scientist Lecture at the Seldin Symposium, "Waking up with a Sting: Immune Evasion During Metastatic Reactivation from Dormancy."

Dr. Izar received his MD/PhD at Justus Liebig University in Giessen, Germany, where he graduated summa cum laude. He completed internal medicine residency training at Massachusetts General Hospital and medical oncology training at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, followed by his first faculty position at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He then obtained postdoctoral research training in cancer immunology at Dana-Farber and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

He focuses on understanding metastasis to the brain and cancer immune evasion. Dr. Izar and his team have led several landmark studies using single-cell genomics that have been published in Nature, Cell, and Science, most recently a study resolving brain metasteses in melanoma and lung cancer. His lab has established novel humanized models to study brain metastasis in the context of an adoptive immune system. 

In addition to several awards he received during his training, Dr. Izar is the recipient of multiple national awards, including an NIH/NCI K08 Award and the Burroughs Welcome Fund Career Award for Medical Scientists, and he was selected as a NextGen Star of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Dr. Izar is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, and the Society for Melanoma Research.