Mass General Brigham has officially named Ragon faculty member Gaurav Gaiha, MD, DPhil, as the 2026 Giammaria and Sabrina Giuliani MGB Research Scholar, as part of the inaugural class of MGB Research Scholars. This award recognizes work that represents the very best of innovation, rigor, and promise across the MGB research community. He will hold the title for the next five years, in recognition of the philanthropic support that makes the award possible.

Gaiha leads a laboratory at the Ragon focused on understanding how the immune system controls infectious pathogens. His work centers on the role of CD8+ T cells in recognizing and destroying infected cells, and on identifying the specific viral targets that the most effective immune responses recognize. By defining these targets, his lab is then able to  design vaccines capable of generating durable, protective immunity against viruses that have long evaded conventional approaches.

This research has already led to GRAdHIVNE1, an investigational HIV vaccine that entered Phase 1 clinical trials in South Africa and Zimbabwe in 2025, developed in partnership  with ReiThera, IAVI, ACRN, and the Gates Foundation. His lab is also developing vaccines for human papilloma virus (HPV) and alphaviruses, and is also establishing a universal T cell vaccine strategy. 

The MGB Research Scholars Program is the institution’s premier awards program for research, having launched initially as the MGH Scholars program in 2011. It supports early- to mid-career investigators with flexible, unrestricted funding to pursue innovative ideas, including those often considered too risky or unconventional for traditional funding sources. Since its inception, the program has supported more than 90 investigators across the system’s academic medical centers. 

Ragon faculty member Daniel Lingwood, PhD, was named a 2025 MGH Research Scholar and holds the title of Phillip and Susan Ragon MGH Research Scholar for 2025-2030. Lingwood’s lab studies the molecular basis of broadly protective antibody responses, with a focus on vaccine design for influenza, HIV, and other viral pathogens.

Caroline Mitchell, MD, MPH, an associate member of the Ragon and a physician-scientist in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at MGB, was also named to the 2026 MGB Scholars class.