Blossom Damania, Ph.D. is the Boshamer Distinguished Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill and also serves as the Vice Dean for Research in the UNC School of Medicine. Her research focuses on how viruses are detected by the immune system and how they evade host immunity. She studies how human tumor viruses cause cancer and investigates novel therapeutics to treat these virus-associated cancers. Damania co-founded the global viral oncology program at UNC-Chapel Hill Lineberger Cancer Center to address the increasing disparities in treatment of infection-associated cancers in low- and middle-income countries.
 
Damania received her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School prior to joining UNC-Chapel Hill. Damania has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigator award in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease, the American Association for Cancer Research Gertrude Elion Scholar award, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Scholar award, the V Founder Cancer Research award and the Society for Leukocyte Biology Dolph O. Adams Award.
 
Damania is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, American Academy of Arts & Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences. Damania also serves on multiple national and international scientific advisory boards.