Steven A. Porcelli, M.D., is the new chair of Einstein’s department of microbiology & immunology.

Dr. Porcelli is the Murray and Evelyne Weinstock Chair in Microbiology and Immunology and a professor of medicine at Einstein. He was recruited to Einstein as an associate professor of immunology in 1999. Since 2004 he has served as scientific director of Einstein’s Flow Cytometry Core facility and of FACS (fluorescence-activated cell sorting) resources for the Einstein-Montefiore Center for AIDS Research.

Dr. Porcelli’s work has helped reveal how the immune system responds to tuberculosis infection. His research is supported by four major NIH grants with current annual funding totaling approximately $1.36 million. He is also supported by a $113,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help develop vaccines to prevent HIV infection.

Dr. Porcelli takes over from Arturo Casadevall, M.D., Ph.D., whose Einstein career spanned 26 years, beginning with his infectious-diseases fellowship in 1988 and culminating in his position as chair of the department of microbiology & immunology since 2006. Dr. Casadevall has accepted a position at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health.