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“A Two-Way Opportunity” — An Interview with Youry Kim, A Visiting Doherty Institute Exchange Fellow from Australia

Aug 20, 2024 Features

Kim discusses her journey to the Ragon Institute and her aspirations for the future Exchange programs and global collaboration play a vital role in advancing scientific research, allowing researchers to share knowledge, resources, and expertise across borders — a philosophy the Ragon Institute is deeply committed to. For Youry Kim, PhD, the Ragon offered an […]

A common fatty acid may help restore healthy vaginal bacteria after infection

Aug 19, 2024 Features

Treatments using oleic acid, a naturally occurring oil used in cells, could improve treatment of  recurrent bacterial vaginosis infections. More than half of women globally experience bacterial vaginosis (BV) — an imbalance of naturally occurring microbes in the female genital tract — at least once in their life. The condition can cause painful symptoms and […]

FORBES – This Secretive Billionaire Thinks He Can Cure HIV. Here’s Why.

Aug 8, 2024 Features

The Ragon Institute is delighted to have been featured in this Forbes profile of Phillip Ragon, who helped create the Ragon Institute and whose commitment to advancing medical research drives our mission forward. We are proud to share his story and the impact of his legacy on global health (Subscription required): https://www.forbes.com/sites/katiejennings/2024/08/07/this-secretive-billionaire-thinks-he-can-cure-hiv-heres-why/

Alex Shalek Appointed Director of IMES at MIT

Jul 30, 2024 Features

We are thrilled to announce that Ragon faculty member Alex Shalek, PhD, has been appointed as the new Director of the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES) at MIT, effective August 1, 2024. Shalek joined the Ragon Institute a decade ago, playing a pivotal role in advancing our mission. His innovative work spans genomics, […]

Evavold Presents at RCCHU Seminar

Jul 16, 2024 Features

On July 9, Ragon faculty member and Early Independence Fellow Charles Evavold, PhD, participated in a special seminar as part of the Science Seminar Series @RCCHU titled “Synthetic Biology Strategies for Human Health: From Yeasts to Immune Cells.” Hosted by the Real Colegio Complutense at Harvard (RCCHU) and Harvard Medical School, this seminar explored innovative […]

Ragon Study Reveals Critical Insights into RSV Immunity in Infants

Jun 27, 2024 Features

Researchers at the Ragon Institute’s System Serology Lab have conducted a comprehensive study on how infants develop immunity to Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). Postdoctoral fellow Nadège Nziza was the first author of the study, published in Immunity, which explores how the immune responses of infants to RSV change over time. The paper, titled “Longitudinal humoral […]

Charles Evavold Awarded Karin Grunebaum Cancer Research Foundation Faculty Research Fellowship

Jun 25, 2024 Features

Ragon faculty member and Early Independence Fellow Charles Evavold, PhD, has been selected as the recipient of the prestigious 2024-2025 Karin Grunebaum Cancer Research Foundation Faculty Research Fellowship at Harvard Medical School. The fellowship selection committee was deeply impressed by Evavold’s accomplishments and his potential for leadership in cancer research. Evavold was also invited to […]

Research shows early life immunity increases HIV cure/remission in male infants

Jun 10, 2024 Features

New research published today by scientists at the Ragon Institute of Mass General Brigham, MIT and Harvard, the University of Oxford, the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the African Health Research Institute in South Africa, shows that male infants are more likely to achieve HIV cure/remission than females. The peer-reviewed study, published by Nature Medicine, assessed […]

New target in sight for HIV vaccine development

May 30, 2024 Features

Batista Lab postdoctoral fellow Rashmi Ray, PhD, was the first author of the paper published in Nature. Decades into the HIV epidemic, there is as yet no effective vaccine to prevent new cases. In a recent Nature Immunology article (Ray et al.), the Batista lab of the Ragon Institute has preclinically validated a new HIV […]

Alejandro Balazs Receives NIH Avant Garde Award for Innovative HIV and Substance Use Disorder Research

May 28, 2024 Features

Ragon faculty member Alejandro Balazs, PhD, has been awarded a prestigious Avant-Garde Award for HIV and Substance Use Disorder Research from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This award is part of the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award mechanism, which supports individual scientists of exceptional creativity who […]

Ragon Grad Student Awarded Jeffery Modell Prize

May 23, 2024 Features

We are proud to recognize Sophie Giguere, PhD, a Batista Lab graduate student who has been honored with the prestigious 2023 Jeffrey Modell Prize. This award, conferred jointly by the Jeffrey Modell Foundation and the Harvard Medical School Graduate Committee of Immunology, recognizes HMS graduates for outstanding achievements in their doctoral research and overall excellence […]

A boost for HIV vaccine research

May 20, 2024 Features

HIV has proven a hard target for vaccine design. The most promising approach, germline-targeting (GT), proposes a series of immunizations: a first shot to activate inexperienced B cells—antibody-producing white blood cells—followed by a sequence of immunogens that are more and more like the HIV Envelope (Env) protein. The ultimate goal of GT immunization is to […]