He is known for his work on the pathogenesis and immunology of viral infections and the development of vaccine strategies for global infectious diseases.
[17] Barouch grew up in Potsdam, New York, in an academic family with his mother, a biochemist; his father, a professor of mathematics and computer science; and his sister, now a cardiologist.
[19] A scholar and a violinist,[20][19] Barouch's time at Oxford University under the mentorship of Sir Andrew McMichael shaped his interests in virology and immunology.
[27][28] He was appointed the William Bosworth Castle Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in 2020.
[33] In 2002, he published that a candidate HIV vaccine can suppress the virus in preclinical studies for a period of two years.
[38] From 2015 to 2018, Barouch co-led the HIV-V-0004 APPROACH study, testing the mosaic Ad26/Env vaccine in human subjects.
[41] In 2016 and 2018, he demonstrated the potential of combining therapeutic vaccines or broadly neutralizing antibodies with immune activators, also known as the "shock and kill" strategy.
This vaccine underwent rapid preclinical testing [47] and advanced into initial clinical trials by July 2020.
[50] The utilization of this vaccine was lower than the mRNA vaccines in the western world, but it was deployed extensively in the developing world, given its efficacy, durability, and stability without freezing, with over 200 million doses distributed and has been credited with saving nearly 1 million lives in 2021.
In February 2021, Barouch co-authored a paper on how a certain level of COVID-19 antibodies may provide lasting protection against the virus.
[53][54] In 2021 and 2022, he also co-authored papers exploring how COVID-19 antibodies protect based on blood samples provided by 4300 employees of SpaceX, together with CEO Elon Musk.
[55] Throughout the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and boosters in the United States, Barouch reported the immune kinetics and durability induced by mRNA and Ad26 vaccines and the impact of viral variants in evading antibody responses while preserving T cell responses.
[61] In 2023, Barouch served as part of a panel of experts advising the Biden administration on the potential risk of another Omicron-like wave of COVID-19.