David Hafler, MD

David A. Hafler is the Edgerly Professor and chairman of neurology and professor of immunobiology at the Yale School of Medicine. He had joined the Harvard faculty in 1984 and later became the Breakstone Professorship of Neurology and a founding associated member of the Broad Institute at MIT. In 2009, he moved to Yale as Neurology Chair. As a preeminent physician-scientist, Hafler has made seminal discoveries defining the pathogenesis of MS including identification of human autoreactive T cells and the mechanisms that underlie their dysregulation. His work also includes the discovery of human regulatory T cells and genetic variants causing MS.

Dr. Hafler is among the most highly cited living neurologists; he was a Jacob Javits Merit Award Recipient from the NIH, awarded the Dystel Prize for MS research from the AAN and the Raymond Adams Prize from the ANA. Hafler has been elected to membership in the AOA, ASCI, and the National Academy of Medicine.