Faculty

Martin Blaser
M.D. New York University
NYU School of Medicine-Professor of Internal Medicine & Microbiology;
Chairman of the Department of Medicine
Course: Infectious Disease Epidemiology

Martin J. Blaser, M.D. has been Chair of the Department of Medicine, Frederick H. King Professor of Internal Medicine, and Professor of Microbiology at NYU School of Medicine since 2000. A physician and epidemiologist, Dr. Blaser is interested in understanding the relationships between persistently colonizing bacteria and their multicellular hosts. His work over the past 30 years has largely focused on Helicobacter pylori and Campylobacter species, which are important as pathogens and as model systems. Recent approaches have dealt with genetic and mathematical analyses of population diversity and structure. Particular emphasis has focused on signal transduction pathways affected by intracellular delivery of H. pylori virulence-proteins (CagA and VacA). H. pylori interactions with humans have become a model for understanding interactions with other commensals in the human body. He is actively studying the relationship of the human microbiome to health and disease. Over the past 25 years, Dr. Blaser has served as the advisor for a large number of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, and is actively involved in numerous scientific and professional organizations. He is Past President of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and serves on the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Cancer Institute.