Daniel Saban, PhD

Dr. Saban is an immunologist with a strong background in eye health and disease. He has extensively studied various areas of the visual system to this end, including the retina, anterior chamber, and ocular surface. These sites have served as robust models in elucidating networks that underpin immune cell function in the tissue context. His interests began as a PhD student in immunology at the University of Florida, where he uncovered certain mechanisms that maintain immune privilege in the eye. He then went on to complete a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School, Schepens Eye Research Institute, in Boston. There his work revealed particular immune factors that cause disease in the cornea, work funded by a National Research Service Award from the National Eye Institute. Dr. Saban currently is an assistant professor of ophthalmology and immunology at Duke University. His lab is focused on immune cell cross-talk with tissue cells of the eye, such as photoreceptors, fibroblasts, and epithelial cells. To unravel such interactions at the cellular and molecular levels, his lab implements various approaches, including high-dimensional flow cytometry, intravital imaging, and genetic technologies.