Dr. Robert Samstein is a distinguished radiation oncologist and physician-scientist dedicated to bridging the gap between basic scientific discovery and clinical cancer care. He currently serves as an Associate Professor within both the Department of Radiation Oncology and Department of Immunology and Immunotherapy at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where he leads an independent translational research laboratory.

Dr. Samstein graduated summa cum laude from Yale University before earning his dual MD and PhD degrees through the Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program (Weill Cornell Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and The Rockefeller University). He completed his doctoral work under the mentorship of Dr. Alexander Rudensky, focusing on the foundational development and function of regulatory T cells (Tregs). He later completed his internship and radiation oncology residency at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, conducting advanced laboratory research under the American Board of Radiology Holman Research Pathway in the lab of Dr. Timothy Chan.

As a clinician, Dr. Samstein specializes in radiation oncology with a particular focus on thoracic malignancies, including lung cancer. In the laboratory, his research investigates the complex interplay between the host immune system and tumor microenvironments. The Samstein Laboratory focuses heavily on how DNA damage repair (DDR) and response pathways dictate a tumor's immunogenicity, aiming to identify novel strategies to overcome immunotherapy resistance and expand the efficacy of checkpoint inhibitors. More recently, the lab has developed a focus and expertise in studying tumor immunosurveillance and the contribution of immunity to cancer risk and prevention.