Dan Barouch


Daniel Hung Barouch is an American physician, immunologist and virologist, who studies the pathogenesis and immunology of viral infections and works on the development of global vaccine strategies.
He authored multiple research and review articles on infectious diseases, viral pathogenesis, immune responses, and vaccine development. Research from Barouch's lab was used in the development of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. He also worked on vaccine candidates for HIV, Zika, influenza, tuberculosis, and monkeypox.

Early life and education

Barouch was born in Göttingen, Germany to an Israeli Jewish father and a Chinese mother, and raised in Potsdam, New York. He enrolled at Harvard College at 16, earning a B.A. in biochemistry summa cum laude in 1993, and a Ph.D. in immunology from Oxford as a Marshall Scholar in 1995. He received his M.D. summa cum laude from Harvard Medical School in 1999, followed by residency and fellowship training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital. In 2002, he launched his research lab at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School.

Research and career

In 2012, Barouch was named the founding director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He was appointed the William Bosworth Castle Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in 2020. 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 is also affiliated with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery.

HIV research

Barouch began developing vaccine candidates for HIV and other infectious diseases during graduate and medical school, focusing on adjuvanted DNA vaccines and novel adenoviral vectors, including Ad26.
In 2000, during medical school, he began researching HIV vaccines and demonstrated that vaccines could reduce viral loads in preclinical models, although immune escape remained a significant challenge. In 2002, he published that an HIV vaccine could suppress the virus for two years in lab animals. By 2006, he had developed adenoviral vectors that avoided suppression by existing immunity. Barouch's lab developed adenoviral vectors and mosaic proteins that were later incorporated into Johnson & Johnson's HIV vaccine studies.
From 2015 to 2018, Barouch co-led the APPROACH study of the Ad26/Env mosaic vaccine in humans and progressed to global efficacy trials in collaboration with partners such as the NIH, the Gates Foundation, and Janssen.
He also explored HIV cure strategies, demonstrating in 2016 and 2018 that combining therapeutic vaccines or broadly neutralizing antibodies with immune activators, also known as the "shock and kill" method, had the potential to be effective.

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 in collaboration with Johnson & Johnson and developing a COVID-19 vaccine. It underwent rapid preclinical testing and advanced into initial clinical trials by July 2020, after which tested in a large international phase three efficacy trial. The resulting vaccine, known as the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, or Ad26.COV2.S, was approved by WHO 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. Its utilization was lower than mRNA vaccines in the western world, but deployed extensively in developing countries, given its efficacy, durability, and stability without freezing. With over 200 million doses distributed, it has been credited with saving nearly one 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 the protective mechanisms by COVID-19 antibodies, based on blood samples provided by 4300 employees of SpaceX.
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 variant|Omicron]-like wave of COVID. In 2024, he demonstrated the importance of mucosal immunity for improving vaccine protection against COVID-19.

Societies and awards

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