Benjamin H Singer, MD, PhD

Dr. Benjamin Singer is an Associate Professor in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan. He received his undergraduate degree in mathematics at the University of Michigan in 2002. Dr. Singer completed his medical training and PhD in Neuroscience through the Medical Scientist Training Program, and subsequently completed residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship training in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, all at the University of Michigan.

Approximately half of patients who survive an episode of critical illness experience long term brain dysfunction, in the form of anxiety, depression, post traumatic stress, or cognitive impairment. Dr. Singer’s research focuses on basic and translational studies of long-term brain injury after critical illness, with a focus on sepsis. These studies utilize animal models of sepsis and patient autopsy specimens to examine the immune and vascular responses to sepsis in the brain that persist for weeks to months after the outward signs of illness have resolved.

In related work, his laboratory is interested in how sepsis survival reprograms the immune system and leads to increased risk of recurrent organ injury in other organs, such as the lungs and liver. Through collaboration with Katsuo Kurabayashi, PhD (formerly of UM CoE, now at New York University) he is active in the development of improved measurement technologies to more effectively measure immune activation in acutely ill patients.

Areas of special clinical focus include the care of patients with advance neuromuscular disease or lung disease requiring chronic assisted ventilation. He is the medical director of the inpatient Medicine Pulmonary service.