Dr. Yasmine Belkaid is a Distinguished Investigator at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. She obtained her Master in Biochemistry at the University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediene in Algiers, Algeria, and her Ph.D. from Pasteur Institute in Paris, France. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the NIH on immune regulation during infection, she started her research program at the Children’s Hospital Research Foundation in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 2005, she joined the NIH and NIAID and was appointed senior scientist in 2008. Her laboratory explores fundamental mechanisms that regulate tissue homeostasis and host immune responses and uncovered key roles for the microbiota and dietary factors in the control of immunity and protection to pathogens. Dr Belkaid is the Chief of the Laboratory of Host Immunity and Microbiome, the Director of the trans NIH Center for Human Immunology, and is the Founder and Director of the NIAID Microbiome Program. Dr Belkaid is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the recipient of numerous awards including the Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences, the Emil von Behring Prize, the Sanofi-Institut Pasteur Award, the Robert Koch Award, and the AAI Excellence in Mentoring Award.
