Dr. Hani Harb is Junior Professor of Infectious Immunology and head of the Infectious Immunology Laboratory at the Institute for Medical Microbiology and Virology, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden. Trained as both a pharmacist and immunologist, he holds a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacy, a Diploma in Human Biology with a focus on Immunology and Microbiology, and a PhD in Immunology from Philipps University Marburg, Germany. His international trajectory includes four years at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, where he advanced from postdoctoral fellow to junior group leader in the Department of Immunology. Dr. Harb’s laboratory investigates how environmental stressors, metabolic disease, and microbial factors reshape the immune system across organs and across generations. Ongoing projects span particulate-matter–driven One Health effects, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), long-COVID, and the immunology of chronic inflammatory and infectious diseases. Beyond his lab, Dr. Harb is deeply engaged in academic diplomacy and capacity building. He is founder and president of the German-Syrian Research Foundation, which builds bridges between German and Syrian universities, supports young researchers, and helps rebuild research and higher-education ecosystems in crisis-affected contexts.
