AUTHOR: Nick Kolev

A gift establishing the Romero Foundation TB Research Fund will help Dr. Bryan Bryson incorporate Peruvian genetic diversity into his search for a global tuberculosis vaccine.

A gift from the Romero Foundation has established the Romero Foundation TB Research Fund at the Ragon Institute, giving the Bryson Lab dedicated support to pursue a more globally representative tuberculosis vaccine. The fund will contribute to the work of Bryan Bryson, PhD, a core member of the Institute and associate professor of biological engineering at MIT, whose lab is developing a vaccine designed to protect people worldwide.

Tuberculosis remains one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases. For more than a century, the only widely used vaccine has been BCG, which protects young children but does not sufficiently protect adolescents and adults against the most common form of the disease. 

The Bryson Lab combines approaches in microbiology, immunology, and bioengineering to understand how the immune system controls Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes TB. A key part of that work is accounting for human genetic diversity. The immune molecules that display bacterial targets vary widely from person to person, which means any two people can have vert different immune responses. To protect communities globally, a vaccine has to work across that diversity. 

The Romero Foundation TB Research Fund directly supports that goal. It will allow Bryson’s team to incorporate Peruvian genetic diversity into its vaccine research, with the aim of reducing the burden of TB around the world, including in Peru, which has the highest incidence of TB in the Americas. By grounding global vaccine development in the genetics of specific populations, the work moves toward a vaccine that can protect communities often underrepresented in research.

The fund reflects a shared commitment between the Romero Foundation and the Ragon Institute to prevent future generations from contracting tuberculosis, with the hope that people in Peru will directly benefit from the research it makes possible.

The Romero Foundation (Fundación Romero) is the philanthropic arm of Grupo Romero, one of Peru’s largest business conglomerates founded in 1888. It is dedicated to driving educational equality, entrepreneurship, and humanitarian relief across vulnerable communities in Peru.