Benjamin Izar, MD, PhD

Benjamin Izar, MD, PhD is an assistant professor of medicine at the Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons in the division of Hematology/Oncology and a member of the Tumor Biology and Microenvironment Program at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Izar’s clinical practice focuses on melanoma and cancer immunotherapy. In his lab, Dr. Izar studies interactions between cancer cells and cells of the tumor-microenvironment, and how these define metastatic niches, response and resistance to cancer immunotherapies.  His lab develops and uses cutting-edge single-cell genomics and genome-editing tools to study patient tumors and models at unprecedented resolution

Dr. Izar received his MD/PhD at Justus Liebig University in Giessen, Germany, where he was graduated summa cum laude. He completed his internal medicine residency training at Massachusetts General Hospital and medical oncology training at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, followed by his first faculty position at Danna-Farber Cancer Institute. He completed post-doctoral research training in cancer immunology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

In addition to several awards he received during his training, Dr. Izar is the recipient of multiple national awards, including a NIH/NCI K08 Award (2017) and the prestigious Burroughs Welcome Fund Career Award for Medical Scientists (2018), and he was selected as a NextGen Star of the American Association for Cancer Research (2019). In 2020, he was selected as a Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. Scholar and a Velocity Fellow by Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Izar is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, and the Society for Melanoma Research.