Ragon Institute
Jun 24, 2025 Features
Tomer Milo, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Wong Lab at the Ragon Institute of Mass General Brigham, MIT, and Harvard, has received the esteemed Jane Coffin Childs Fellowship. The fellowship supports promising early-career scientists conducting innovative biomedical research. Milo, who completed his doctoral work at the Weizmann Institute of Science, is recognized for his […]
Jun 11, 2025 Features
In 2022, the Mark and Lisa Schwartz AI/ML Initiative was launched at the Ragon Institute to explore the boundaries of artificial intelligence and machine learning within the context of immunology. Its first major project was the development of the MUNIS epitope predictor by the Gaiha Lab in collaboration with MIT. Now, Ragon faculty member Sophia […]
May 30, 2025 Features
Researchers at the Ragon Institute have made a significant discovery about how antibodies can directly enhance the body’s ability to fight Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the bacteria responsible for tuberculosis (TB). Despite decades of research, TB remains one of the deadliest infectious diseases worldwide, with about 10 million new cases and 1.6 million deaths annually. Currently, […]
May 16, 2025 Features
The Ragon Institute is proud to announce that Gaurav Gaiha, MD, DPhil, has been awarded the prestigious HST Seidman Prize for MD Research Mentorship. Presented annually by the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology (HST) program, this award recognizes a faculty member for their outstanding research mentorship of an HST MD student. Established in 2009 by […]
May 8, 2025 Features
The Ragon is proud to recognize graduate students and alumni Anusha Nathan of the Gaiha Lab and Leonard Nettey of the Shalek Lab, who have each been honored with the prestigious Jeffrey Modell Prize. The ceremony presenting the award was held April 30 on the Harvard campus. This award, conferred jointly by the Jeffrey Modell […]
May 6, 2025 Features
To understand what drives disease progression in tissues, scientists need more than just a snapshot of cells in isolation — they need to see where the cells are, how they interact, and how that spatial organization shifts across disease states. A new computational method called MESA (Multiomics and Ecological Spatial Analysis), detailed in a study […]
Apr 24, 2025 Features
A recent study published in Science Translational Medicine, co-authored by Ragon Institute faculty members Azza Idris, MD, PhD, and Galit Alter, PhD, demonstrates that engineering antibodies to enhance Fc receptor binding can significantly improve their effectiveness against malaria infection. The researchers tested modified versions of human monoclonal antibodies, CIS43LS and L9LS, which target a protein […]
Apr 15, 2025 Features
The Ragon Institute is delighted to congratulate Aaron Schmidt, PhD, a core member at the Ragon and an associate professor of Microbiology at Harvard Medical School, on being selected as one of the honorees of the 2024-25 Everett I. Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award. Presented annually by the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of […]
Apr 8, 2025 Features
The Ragon Institute is proud to announce the launch of our new initiative, the Global Ragon-Africa Scholars Program (GRASP), generously supported by the Virginia Wellington Cabot Foundation. GRASP provides scholarships of up to $5,000 in travel and seed funding, offering Ragon-based graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, research scientists, and administrative staff opportunities to directly engage with […]
Apr 4, 2025 Features
A healthy vaginal environment dominated by Lactobacillus crispatus is associated with a lower risk of HIV acquisition among women. However, only a fraction of women worldwide, and even fewer in Africa, have vaginal microbiomes dominated by Lactobacillus crispatus. Now, a groundbreaking study led by Drs. Anke Hemmerling and Craig Cohen from UCSF’s Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive […]
Apr 3, 2025 Features
The Ragon Institute is proud to announce that faculty member Daniel Lingwood, PhD, has been selected as a 2025 MGH Research Scholar. The MGH Research Scholars program provides exceptional scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital with unrestricted funding, enabling visionary research into new scientific frontiers that traditional funding avenues might not readily support. Funds can be used […]
Mar 17, 2025 Features
Earlier this month, the Ragon Institute welcomed leadership from Biohaven for an insightful visit and discussion with our team. Biohaven CEO Vlad Coric, MD, and board member John Childs toured the Institute and met with Bruce Walker, MD, the Ragon Institute’s founding director, to explore mutual interests and opportunities in the fields of immunology, infectious […]
Mar 14, 2025 Features
The Ragon Institute is pleased to announce the launch of our internal Scientific Editing Platform. Created with the support of the scientific director Facundo Batista, PhD, the platform aims to assist our research community in developing impactful and compelling grant applications. The platform provides scientific editing to enhance our Institute’s grant submissions. The services are […]
Feb 13, 2025 Features
Xu Yu, MD, a faculty member at the Ragon Institute of Mass General Brigham, MIT, and Harvard, and Harvard Medical School, has been selected as a Featured Speaker at IAS 2025, the 13th IAS Conference on HIV Science. This prestigious international event, taking place from July 13–17 in Kigali, Rwanda, brings together leading HIV scientists […]
Feb 12, 2025 Features
Dabbagh discusses her research at the Ragon Institute, the impact of the MIT Ibn Khaldun Fellowship, and her goals for the future. Deemah Dabbagh, PhD, a junior faculty member at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, has spent years studying infectious diseases, with a particular focus on HIV. Through the MIT Ibn Khaldun Fellowship for […]
Feb 11, 2025 Awards
The Ragon Institute is proud to announce that faculty member and Early Independence Fellow Brandon DeKosky, PhD, has been awarded a prestigious AAI ASPIRE Award by the American Association of Immunologists (AAI). This award recognizes outstanding early-career investigators who have made significant contributions to immunology research and demonstrate exceptional promise in the field. The AAI […]