Sam Behar, PhD
Principal Investigator
After graduating from UC Berkeley (Chemistry), I attended the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where I earned my M.D. and Ph.D. (Cell Biology). Afterwards, I came to Boston to pursue clinical training at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. There, I completed my Residency in Internal Medicine and Fellowship in Rheumatology and trained in cellular immunology in the lab of my mentor Michael Brenner. During the next years, I practiced Rheumatology and established my lab, which focused on immunity to tuberculosis. After 23 years, I joined the UMass Chan Medical School, where I am currently Professor of Microbiology and Physiological Systems.
My lab has made important contributions to our understanding of immunity to tuberculosis, particularly in the context of how the immune response is coordinated and integrated in vivo. Our interests span the early events following Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection of macrophages, to T cell priming, acquisition of effector function, and memory responses. Our ultimate goal is to determine the immunological basis for protective immunity so it can be leveraged in vaccine design and the development of novel vaccine strategies.
I am proud of the scientists in my lab, both the current team and past alumni. I am gratified by their commitment to the process of science and the projects we are engaged in. Many of them feel strongly about global health and health equity. I believe that serving as their mentor is among my most important responsibilities and it is a commitment that I embrace. My trainees have gone on to a variety of careers and several are faculty at major academic medical centers, have prominent positions in industry, and serve in the publishing industry.