Dennis Kasper

Kasper's study of Bacteroides fragilis was fundamental to developing the understanding of relationship between gut microbiota and the immune system. His work on exploring the links between the two led to Kasper's election to the National Academy of Medicine in 2001, the American Academy of Microbiology in 2005, and the National Academy of Sciences in 2018.

Kasper was director of the Channing Laboratory at Brigham and Women's Hospital from 1996 to 2012, and has been William Ellery Channing Professor of Medicine and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Harvard Medical School since 1989. He was also the scientific director at the New England Center of Excellence in Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases at Harvard Medical School until 2014. Between 2002 and 2004, Kasper was President of the International Society of Infectious Diseases, and Kasper was the first chairman of the National Science Advisory Board of Biosecurity from 2005 to 2010. He also served as Chairman of Scientific Counselors at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases between 1989 and 1993.

Dennis Kasper (born February 23, 1943) is an American microbiologist and immunologist, and the William Ellery Channing Professor of Medicine and Professor of Immunology at Harvard Medical School. He leads the Kasper Laboratory within the Blavatnik Institute in the Department of Immunology at Harvard Medical School. He was also executive dean for academic programs at Harvard Medical School and director of the Channing Laboratory Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Kasper was born on February 23, 1943, in Chicago, Illinois to first-generation American parents. He was the first in his family to attend college, going to the University of Illinois, Urbana on a pre-med track, and graduating in 1963 having majored in zoology. Kasper completed his medical training at both the University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago (graduating in 1967), New York Hospital  (Cornell Medical Center) and Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (Brigham and Women's Hospital at Harvard Medical School). He began his research career at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research from 1969 to 1972. He became an Albee Fellow at Harvard Medical School in 1973, and from 1979 to 1985 was an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. He later received an honorary Master's of Arts degree from Harvard University in 1986.