Barry R. Bloom is Joan L. and Julius H. Jacobson Professor of Public Health, Emeritus in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases and Department of Global Health and Population in the

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school at Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. It was named after Hong Kong entrepreneur Chan Tseng-hsi in 2014 following a US$350 ...

, where he served as dean of the faculty from 1998 through December 31, 2008. As dean, Bloom served as secretary treasurer for the Association of Schools of Public Health. Prior to that he served as chairman of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the

Albert Einstein College of Medicine The Albert Einstein College of Medicine is a Private university, private medical school in New York City. Founded in 1953, Einstein is an independent degree-granting institution within the Montefiore Einstein Health System. Einstein hosts Doc ...

from 1978 to 1990, the year in which he became an investigator of the

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland with additional facilities in Ashburn, Virginia. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American busin ...

, where he also served on the national advisory board. In 1978, he was a consultant to the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

on international health policy.

Education

* A.B. (biology),

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zepha ...

, 1958 * Ph.D. (immunology),

Rockefeller University The Rockefeller University is a Private university, private Medical research, biomedical Research university, research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medical sciences and pro ...

, 1963 * D.Sc. (Honorary),

Early life

Bloom notes that the influence of the numerous physicians in his family led him to believe that he would eventually become a physician practicing clinical medical.

Career

Bloom has been a leading scientist in various areas of

infectious diseases infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable dise ...

vaccines A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verified. A vaccine typically contains an ag ...

, and

global health Global health is the health of populations in a worldwide context; it has been defined as "the area of study, research, and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide". Problems th ...

, and is a former consultant to the

. Most of his research has been as the principal investigator of a laboratory researching the immune response to

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

, a disease that claims more than 1.5 million lives each year. For more than 40 years, Bloom has been extensively involved with the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

. He is currently chair of their Technical and Research Advisory Committee to the Global Programme on Malaria. He has also been a member of their Advisory Committee on Health Research, and chaired their Committees on Leprosy Research and Tuberculosis Research and the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee of the United Nations Development Programme/World Bank/World Health Organization Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases. Bloom serves on the editorial board of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization. Bloom currently serves on the

Ellison Medical Foundation The Ellison Medical Foundation, a 501(c)(3) Private Nonoperating Foundation, was founded in 1997 and is located in Bethesda, Maryland. The foundation supported research in the following discipline areas: biomedical research on aging, age-related ...

scientific advisory board and the

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of Burroughs Wellcome, one of the predec ...

Pathogens, Immunology and Population Health Strategy Committee. He is on the scientific advisory board of the

Earth Institute {{Infobox organization , name = The Earth Institute , image = Ei blue1.gif , map_size = , map_alt = , map_caption = , map2 = , type = , tax_id ...

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

and the advisory council of the Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health Research. His past service includes membership on the national advisory council of the

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID, ) is one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. NIAID's mis ...

, the scientific advisory board of the

National Center for Infectious Diseases National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

of the

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the National public health institutes, national public health agency of the United States. It is a Federal agencies of the United States, United States federal agency under the United S ...

, and the national advisory board of the

Fogarty International Center The John E. Fogarty International Center was founded in 1968 by US President Lyndon Johnson at the National Institutes of Health to support international medical and behavioral research and to train international researchers. History On July 1, ...

at the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...

, as well as the governing board of the

Institute of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), known as the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineerin ...

. Bloom was the founding chair of the board of trustees for the International Vaccine Institute in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

, which is devoted to promoting vaccine development for children in the developing world. He has chaired the Vaccine Advisory Committee of the

Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS; , ONUSIDA) is the main advocate for accelerated, comprehensive and coordinated global action on the HIV/AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus t ...

, better known as UNAIDS, where he played a critical role in the debate surrounding the ethics of AIDS vaccine trials. He was also a member of the US AIDS Research Committee. He serves on the board of the US-China Health Summit. Bloom has offered expert analysis on the Covid-19 pandemic and in the fall of 2020 was asked to serve on the Massachusetts state advisory committee on coronavirus vaccines.

Current research

Bloom researches the mechanisms of immune protection against tuberculosis, as an investigator in a Bill and Melinda Gates Grand Challenge grant with Professor David Edwards the

Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences The Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) is the engineering school within Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, offering degrees in engineering and applied sciences to graduate students admitted ...

, where they study nanoparticle technology to deliver needle-free spray-drying aerosol vaccines against experimental tuberculosis. This vitamin D-dependent antimicrobial killing mechanism is effective against ''

Mycobacterium tuberculosis ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (M. tb), also known as Koch's bacillus, is a species of pathogenic bacteria in the family Mycobacteriaceae and the causative agent of tuberculosis. First discovered in 1882 by Robert Koch, ''M. tuberculosis'' ha ...

'' and is found in human macrophages, and is unrelated to oxygen or nitrogen radicals. This may explain the greater susceptibility of people of African and Asian descent to tuberculosis.

Professional associations

Current service * National Advisory Board,

* Governing Board,

* National Advisory Council,

* Scientific Advisory Board, National Center for Infectious Diseases,

* National Advisory Board,

* Consultant on international health policy,

The White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800 whe ...

, 1978 * Past Secretary Treasurer, Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) (while dean of the faculty at HSPH) * Scientific Advisory Board,

* Pathogens, Immunology and Population Health Strategy Committee,

* Scientific Advisory Board, Earth Institute Center for Environmental Sustainability,

* Advisory Council, Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health Research * Board, US-China Health Summit. Past service * Past President,

American Association of Immunologists American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

* Past President,

Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), based in Rockville, Maryland, is a non-profit organization of scientific societies in the United States. With a focus on the biological and biomedical sciences, the federation ...

* National Advisory Council,

* Scientific Advisory Board, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention * National Advisory Board, Fogarty International Center,

* Governing Board,

Awards

* Past President,

* Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Research in Infectious Diseases (first awardee) * Novartis Award for Clinical Immunology, 1998 (shared) * Robert Koch Medal for lifetime research in infectious diseases, 1999 * Member,

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

* Member,

Institutes of Medicine Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out chemical and phy ...

* Member,

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

* Member,

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

Publications

* A relatively complete list of major publications is found at th
Dr. Bloom's Harvard Catalyst researcher profile
* Bloom, BR, and Bennett B. “Mechanism of a reaction in vitro associated with delayed type hypersensitivity.” Science 153, no. 3731.

External references

Harvard Faculty profile for Barry R. Bloom

Harvard Faculty research profile for Barry R. Bloom

Harvard researcher profile for Barry R. Bloom
– extensive bibliography (290 publications)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bloom, Barry Living people Malariologists Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health faculty HIV/AIDS researchers American immunologists Amherst College alumni Rockefeller University alumni Central High School (Philadelphia) alumni Howard Hughes Medical Investigators Year of birth missing (living people) Fellows of the American Academy of Microbiology Members of the National Academy of Medicine