Isaac Chiu

Professor of Immunology,
Harvard Medical School
Department of Immunology
Boston, MA | USA

Dr. Isaac Chiu is a Professor of Immunology at Harvard Medical School. He received his PhD in Immunology at Harvard Medical School, where he worked with Dr. Michael Carroll on the role of innate and adaptive immunity in the neurodegenerative disease ALS. He completed postdoctoral fellowships with Dr. Tom Maniatis in the Harvard Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, and with Dr. Clifford Woolf in the FM Kirby Neurobiology Center at Boston Children’s Hospital. He started his lab at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Immunology in 2014, promoted to associate professor in 2021, and full professor in 2024.

Dr. Chiu’s research focuses on defining interactions between the peripheral nervous system and immune system. His lab has discovered mechanisms by which bacterial pathogens activate sensory neurons through secreted toxins and proteases to produce pain and itch. These neurons release neuropeptides like CGRP, which communicate with immune cells at barrier sites like the skin, gut, and lungs, mediating host defense and inflammation. Dr. Chiu has been awarded several honors and awards, including the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Ben Barres Early Career Award, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease Award, and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation Innovator Award.