David Fajgenbaum

David C. Fajgenbaum (born March 29, 1985) is an American immunologist and author who is currently an assistant professor at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania. He is most well known for his research into Castleman disease. David C. Fajgenbaum was born and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, on March 29, 1985, to a physician father and a stay-at-home mother. Fajgenbaum played football at Ravenscroft School and aspired to play college football growing up.

He was recruited to Georgetown University to play football. Soon after arriving at college, his mother was diagnosed with glioblastoma. She died in October 2004. Fajgenbaum started Actively Moving Forward in memory of his mother to support other grieving college students at Georgetown. In 2005, Fajgenbaum co-founded Actively Moving Forward to support students on college campuses across the nation.

He received a B.S. from Georgetown University and graduated Omicron Delta Kappa in 2007, an M.Sc. from the University of Oxford, an M.D. from the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania, and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He volunteered as executive director of the Actively Moving Forward Support Network during college and graduate school. While in graduate school, he married his wife, Caitlin; the couple has two children.

While in medical school, Fajgenbaum became critically ill with idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease. Following his third relapse in 2012, Fajgenbaum co-founded the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network and began conducting research into idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease. In 2015, Fajgenbaum joined the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania as an assistant professor of medicine and associate director of the Orphan Disease Center, where he remains today.

Fajgenbaum has been a pioneer in the field of Castleman disease, most widely known for the identification of a new treatment approach. In 2014, he discovered increased mTOR signaling in idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease and began testing an mTOR inhibitor on himself to assess its efficiency.

In 2015, Fajgenbaum co-authored and wrote his first book; We Get It: Voices of Grieving College Students and Young Adults. A unique collection of 33 narratives by bereaved students and young adults, We Get It aims to help young adults who are grieving and provide guidance for those who seek to support them.

In September 2019, Fajgenbaum's second book, Chasing My Cure: A Doctor's Race to Turn Hope Into Action, was published. Chasing My Cure is a memoir describing Fajgenbaum's work to spearhead the search for a cure for his disease.