Saef Izzy

Associate Professor of Neurology; Director, Immunology of Brain Injury Program

Saef Izzy is a neurologist and clinician-scientist, Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and a physician in the Division of Neurocritical Care and Cerebrovascular Diseases at Brigham and Women's Hospital, where he heads the Immunology of Brain Injury Program at the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases. He graduated from the University of Baghdad College of Medicine in 2003, completed neurology residency training at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and a neurocritical care fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital. He is board certified in neurology and in neurocritical care. His NIH-funded laboratory studies the immune mechanisms that shape recovery after stroke and acute brain injury and how modulating the neuroinflammatory response can improve functional outcomes, including work on a nasal anti-CD3 antibody to reduce neuroinflammation. His research appears in The Lancet Neurology, Nature Neuroscience, Nature Communications and JAMA Network Open, and has been cited more than 6,000 times. He received the 2024 Stepping Strong Breakthrough Award and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and the Neurocritical Care Society.