Seldin-Smith Physician-Scientist Lecturer

Benjamin Izar, M.D., Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Medicine,
Division of Hematology & Oncology,
Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons

Benjamin Izar, M.D., Ph.D., will deliver the Seldin-Smith Physician-Scientist Lecture at the Seldin Symposium.

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 is a member of the Tumor Biology and Microenvironment Program at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, where he focuses his clinical practice on melanoma and cancer immunotherapy. In his lab, Dr. Izar studies interactions between cancer cells and cells of the tumor-microenvironment, and how these define metastatic niches, response and resistance to cancer immunotherapies. His lab develops and uses cutting-edge single-cell genomics and genome-editing tools to study patient tumors and models at unprecedented resolution.

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.