# Dan Barouch

Dan Hung Barouch is an American physician, immunologist, and virologist. He is known for his work on the pathogenesis and immunology of viral infections and the development of vaccine strategies for global infectious diseases. His research led to the development of vaccine candidates for HIV, Zika, influenza, tuberculosis, monkeypox, and COVID-19, including the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. He was named the founding director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and is a founding member and a steering committee member at the Ragon Institute.
Barouch is director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the William Bosworth Castle Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is also affiliated with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery.
Barouch has authored over 400 original peer-reviewed research articles and 50 review articles on infectious diseases, viral pathogenesis, immune responses, and vaccine development. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2020 and received the King Faisal Prize in Medicine in 2023 for his work.

## Early life and education

Barouch grew up in Potsdam, New York, in an academic family with his mother, a biochemist; his father, a professor of mathematics and computer science; and his sister, now a cardiologist.
He attended Harvard College at the age of 16. Barouch received his B.A. in biochemistry from Harvard University summa cum laude at the age of 20 in 1993. In 1995, at the age of 22, he received his Ph.D. in immunology from Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar.
A scholar and a violinist, Barouch's time at Oxford University under the mentorship of Sir Andrew McMichael shaped his interests in virology and immunology. Barouch returned to Boston in 1995 and attended Havard Medical School.
In 1999, he received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School with highest honors summa cum laude. He completed clinical residency training in internal medicine and fellowship training in infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
In 2002, he established his independent research laboratory at age 29 at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

## Personal life

Barouch is married to Fina C. Barouch, M.D., an ophthalmologist and vitreoretinal surgeon. They have two daughters, Susanna and Natalie, and reside in Newton, Massachusetts.

## Research and career

Barouch is a professor of medicine and professor of immunology at Harvard Medical School. In 2012, he was named the founding director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He is also a founding member and a steering committee member at the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard University. He was appointed the William Bosworth Castle Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in 2020.

## HIV research

Barouch started to develop vaccine candidates against HIV and other infectious diseases while in graduate school and medical school. He launched his independent research laboratory at age 29. His early work involved the creation of vaccine platform technologies, including adjuvanted DNA vaccines and novel adenoviral vectors, including Ad26.
In 2000, while still in medical school, Barouch started researching the development of an HIV vaccine. He reported that HIV vaccines reduced viral loads in preclinical studies but that viral escape from immune responses could undermine immune control. In 2002, he published that a candidate HIV vaccine can suppress the virus in preclinical studies for a period of two years. In 2006, he developed adenovirus vaccine vectors that evaded suppression by baseline vector immunity. His research provided the scientific foundation for the Johnson & Johnson HIV vaccine candidate, including the creation of a set of "mosaic" proteins with Bette Korber, which improve immune responses against multiple strains of the virus.
Barouch was promoted to professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in 2010. Two years later, in 2012, he became the founding director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
From 2015 to 2018, Barouch co-led the HIV-V-0004 APPROACH study, testing the mosaic Ad26/Env vaccine in human subjects. This vaccine was then advanced into clinical efficacy trials in Africa, North America, South America, and Europe with the National Institutes of Health, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Janssen, and others.
Barouch has also worked on immunologic strategies to cure HIV infection. In 2016 and 2018, he demonstrated the potential of combining therapeutic vaccines or broadly neutralizing antibodies with immune activators, also known as the "shock and kill" strategy. Barouch has also discussed his research and has commented on the research of others in the media.

## Zika research

In 2016, Barouch developed and tested the first Zika vaccines in preclinical studies. These vaccines entered first-in-human trials later that year.

## COVID-19 research

In January 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Barouch began studying the immunology and pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 infection and developing a COVID-19 vaccine in collaboration with Johnson & Johnson. This vaccine underwent rapid preclinical testing and advanced into initial clinical trials by July 2020. Subsequently, this vaccine was tested in the large international phase 3 efficacy trial ENSEMBLE and showed efficacy in humans. The resulting vaccine, known as the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, or Ad26.COV2.S, was approved by WHO, FDA, and multiple countries throughout the world and commenced global distribution in February 2021. This vaccine was the third COVID-19 vaccine authorized for use in the United States and the first vaccine deployed in South Africa, as reported in the SISONKE study in healthcare workers. The utilization of this vaccine was lower than the mRNA vaccines in the western world, but it was deployed extensively in the developing world, given its efficacy, durability, and stability without freezing, with over 200 million doses distributed and has been credited with saving nearly 1 million lives in 2021.
Barouch's research also involved studying the immunology of SARS-CoV-2 infection, the immunogenicity and durability of mRNA vaccines and boosters, and the impact of SARS-CoV-2 variants on immune escape and vaccine efficacy. He also defined immune correlates of protection for COVID-19 vaccines. In February 2021, Barouch co-authored a paper on how a certain level of COVID-19 antibodies may provide lasting protection against the virus. In 2021 and 2022, he also co-authored papers exploring how COVID-19 antibodies protect based on blood samples provided by 4300 employees of SpaceX, together with CEO Elon Musk.
Throughout the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and boosters in the United States, Barouch reported the immune kinetics and durability induced by mRNA and Ad26 vaccines and the impact of viral variants in evading antibody responses while preserving T cell responses. In 2022, he reported that the bivalent ancestral+BA.5 mRNA boosters were limited by immune imprinting to the ancestral strain, which contributed to the FDA decision in 2023 to remove the ancestral strain for the XBB.1.5 mRNA booster. In 2023, Barouch served as part of a panel of experts advising the Biden administration on the potential risk of another Omicron-like wave of COVID-19. In 2024, he demonstrated the importance of mucosal immunity for improving vaccine protection against COVID-19.

## Mpox

Barouch led a comparative evaluation of approved and experimental mpox vaccines in preclinical studies and showed that antibodies were correlates of protection against mpox. He also reported rapid waning of antibody responses following MVA-BN vaccination in humans.

## Media Exposure

Barouch's work on COVID-19 vaccines and variants has led to more than 40 national and international television appearances from 2020 to 2024. These appearances include interviews on CNN with Anderson Cooper, Jake Tapper, John King, Brianna Keilar, and Wolf Blitzer, CBS Evening News with Norah O'Donnell, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir, ABC Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, MSNBC Live with Chuck Todd, and NBC Meet the Press with Chuck Todd.
In addition to television appearances, Barouch has been featured in several documentaries and books. He was featured in the PBS NOVA documentary in 2020 “Decoding COVID-19” and the HBO documentary in 2022 “How to Survive a Pandemic,” directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker David France. Barouch played himself in the HBO documentary, earning him a citation on IMDb. Barouch was also featured in the 2021 book “A Shot to Save the World” by Gregory Zuckerman.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Barouch has been quoted and profiled in hundreds of digital and print news articles, including in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, CBS, NBC, ABC, and CNN, among many others. He helped shape the scientific, policy, and public discussions about the pandemic and vaccines.

## Societies and awards

In 1991-1993, he was awarded the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship at Harvard University.
In 1992, he became a member of Phi Beta Kappa at Harvard University.
In 1993, he received the Lawrence J. Henderson Prize and the Thomas T. Hoopes Prize at Harvard University, and graduated A.B. summa cum laude. He was also named to the All-USA Academic Team by USA Today.
From 1993 to 1995, he held a British Marshall Scholarship from the Marshall Commission.
In 1996, he received a Certificate of Distinction in Teaching from Harvard University.
In 1999, he was awarded the Soma Weiss Research Award and the Leon Reznick Memorial Prize at Harvard Medical School, and graduated M.D. summa cum laude.
In 2002, he received the Partners in Excellence Award from Massachusetts General Hospital.
In 2004, he was awarded the Maxwell Finland Young Investigator Award by the Massachusetts Medical Society.
In 2009, Barouch was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation.
In 2010, he received the William Osler Young Investigator Award from the Interurban Clinical Club.
In 2012, he was awarded the Oswald Avery Award by the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
In 2013, he became a member of the Association of American Physicians.
In 2015, he delivered the Eagleson Lectureship for the American Biological Safety Association, was named a Distinguished Speaker at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, and was recognized as one of the World’s Most Highly Cited Researchers by Thomson Reuters. He also began a tenure as a Highly Cited Researcher with Clarivate Analytics, which continued until 2024.
In 2016, Barouch was named honorary researcher at the centre de Recherche, Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal and was named a Bostonian of the Year by the Boston Globe Magazine.
In 2017, Barouch was named the Investigator of the Year by the Massachusetts Society for Medical Research and received the Drexel Prize in Immunology from the Drexel University College of Medicine.
In 2019, Barouch received the Best Academic Research Team Vaccine Industry Excellence Award at the World Vaccine Congress.
In 2020 he was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.
In 2021, he was awarded the George Ledlie Prize for his work towards the creation of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, and was awarded the Bostonians of the Year Award by The Boston Globe.
In 2022, he delivered the Franklin Epstein Lectureship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the New England Journal of Medicine, the Bernard Fields Lectureship at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, and the Stanley Plotkin Lectureship at Fondation Merieux. He also received the Daniel Jick Excellence in Leadership Award from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
In 2023, he was jointly awarded the 2023 King Faisal Prize for Medicine with vaccinologist Sarah Gilbert.
In 2024, he delivered the Kenner Lectureship at Albright Institute Wellesley College, was named a Highly Ranked Scholar by ScholarGPS, recognized as one of the Best Medicine Scientists by Research.com, and named one of the Top 100 Sustainability Researchers by Cell Press. He was also ranked among the World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University.