Researcher

Nir Hacohen

Profile

Nir Hacohen is a Professor at Harvard Medical School and core member of the Broad Institute, where he directs research at the intersection of genomics, immunology, and cancer biology. His laboratory pioneered the use of functional genomic screens — including CRISPR and RNA interference — to systematically dissect antigen presentation pathways, innate immune signaling, and cancer immune evasion mechanisms. Hacohen's group developed some of the earliest personalized neoantigen cancer vaccines, work that directly seeded the founding of Neon Therapeutics (now acquired by BioNTech). He has been instrumental in applying single-cell genomics to characterize tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and dendritic cell biology in human patients, generating datasets that have informed multiple clinical trials. His research requires substantial investment in next-generation sequencing infrastructure, high-content imaging systems, flow cytometry platforms, and computational resources — making him a key decision-maker and influencer for laboratory equipment procurement at a major research institute. Hacohen has published nearly 280 papers, holds eight patents, and has received NCI Outstanding Investigator Awards and the Sanofi Prize.

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