[1] After interning at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, he joined the laboratory of Konrad Bloch at Harvard University and was awarded a Ph.D. degree in 1965.

[1] Early in his career, while studying a vitamin B12-dependent enzyme, Babior recognized that free radicals might play an important role in biologic processes.

[1] He showed that superoxide, a highly reactive oxygen derivative, was produced by white blood cell NADPH oxidase as a mechanism to kill invading bacteria.

[1] Babior received numerous honors, including membership of the American Society for Clinical Investigation.

In 1999 he was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences, one of the very few physicians practicing medicine to achieve this honor.