Dr. Dhabhar is Associate Professor of Psychiatry, and a member of the Cancer Institute, Immunology Institute, and Neuroscience Program at Stanford University. He specializes in studying the effects of stress on immunity and health. He was the first to discover mechanisms by which short-term stress physiology enhances the body's immune defenses to increase protection during a fight-or-flight response. He has proposed that fight-or-flight stress is generally “good” stress and represents one of Mother Nature's fundamental but under-appreciated survival systems. He is working on harnessing this system clinically to boost protective immune responses during surgery, vaccination, and cancer. Dr. Dhabhar also investigates mechanisms through which long-term or chronic stress increases chronic inflammation, accelerates immune cell aging, and has harmful effects on brain and body.