Benjamin D. Singer, MD, is the Lawrence Hicks Professor of Pulmonary Medicine and Associate Professor of Medicine (Pulmonary and Critical Care) & Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Singer earned his MD from the Feinberg School of Medicine, where he also completed residency and chief residency in internal medicine. He then undertook fellowship training in pulmonary and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine before returning to Feinberg as a faculty member in the Departments of Medicine & Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics.

Dr. Singer’s laboratory asks a key question that took on added importance during the COVID-19 pandemic: How can we promote resolution of lung inflammation and repair of lung damage? His research program is thematically centered on how epigenetic mechanisms control the immune response to pneumonia-induced lung injury. His work leverages emerging disruptive technologies, including machine learning/AI methodologies, to probe multi-omics data sets. He has found how a subset of T cells known as regulatory T cells orchestrates resolution and repair, discovering epigenetic mechanisms—chiefly those that involve DNA methylation—that govern regulatory T cell identity and function. His studies led to clinical trials for patients with severe COVID-19 and other inflammatory disorders, and he has gone on to apply his findings to the fields of aging, metabolism, autoimmunity, immunodeficiency, and cancer. He has published high-impact papers in the JCI, Nature, etc. while at the same time maintaining a translational focus in critical care medicine, caring for patients with life-threatening conditions in the ICU. He also specializes in medical diagnostic challenges as the leader of Northwestern Medicine’s Difficult Diagnosis Service (The Socrates Project). Finally, Dr. Singer is a passionate educator, serving as director of the Department of Medicine’s Physician-Scientist Training Program.