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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 […]

Ragon Faculty Present at 2024 ATI Consensus Workshop

May 10, 2024 Features

The second installment of the event aimed to create new guidelines for ATIs, including pediatric ATIs In a significant follow-up to the groundbreaking 2018 Consensus Symposium on HIV Analytical Treatment Interruption (ATI) hosted at the Ragon Institute, several faculty members helped organize and participated in the 2024 ATI Consensus Workshop held this week in Nairobi, […]

Ragon Faculty Study Identifies Novel Immunization Strategy for Broad Influenza Protection

Apr 29, 2024 Features

Researchers at the Ragon Institute have developed a novel immunization strategy that shows promise for protecting against both group 1 and group 2 influenza A viruses. The strategy, detailed in their recent study, relies on eliciting a single amino acid change in antibodies to generate broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs). Ragon faculty members Daniel Lingwood, PhD, […]

Ragon Study Finds Key Mechanism of Immune Evasion by SARS-CoV-2

Apr 23, 2024 Features

A collaborative research study led by Ragon Institute faculty member and Early Independence fellow Wilfredo F. Garcia-Beltran, MD, PhD, and Ragon Biosafety Level 3 Core co-director Julie Boucau, PhD, has uncovered a critical mechanism by which SARS-CoV-2 evades one of the body’s key immune responses, providing new insights that could lead to novel treatments. Their […]

Ragon faculty sheds light on intricate functions of Resident Tissue Macrophages (RTM’s) which extend beyond immune defense

Apr 15, 2024 Features

The lab of the Ragon Institute faculty member Hernandez Moura Silva, PhD, recently published a review in Science Immunology regarding resident tissue macrophages (RTMs), shedding light on their multifaceted roles in organ health.  RTMs, integral components found abundantly across various organs, have traditionally been recognized for their immune defense functions. However, this review highlights their contributions extend […]

Brandon DeKosky one of five MIT faculty members awarded by Cancer Grand Challenges

Mar 29, 2024 Features

The team will receive $25 million to work towards treatments for cancer Ragon core member and MIT associate professor of chemical engineering Brandon DeKosky, PhD, was one of five MIT faculty members recently awarded $25 million to take on Cancer Grand Challenges. Cancer Grand Challenges announced five winning teams for 2024, which included DeKosky and […]

PRESS RELEASE – Ragon faculty study finds combination of two drugs increases the vulnerability of HIV-1 reservoir cells to the immune system.

Feb 29, 2024 Features

Ragon faculty Mathias Lichterfeld, MD, PhD, and Xu Yu, MD, have co-authored a paper published in Cell which found evidence that a combination of two drugs increases the vulnerability of HIV-1 reservoir cells to the immune system — which shows promising results in targeting and reducing the HIV-1 reservoir in people living with HIV. Using […]

REITHERA SRL, THE RAGON INSTITUTE AND IAVI ANNOUNCE COLLABORATION TO ADVANCE HIGHLY NETWORKED T CELL HIV VACCINE CANDIDATE TOWARDS PHASE I CLINICAL EVALUATION

Feb 5, 2024 Features

Novel HIV vaccine candidate based on Gorilla adenoviral vector (GRAd-HIV) funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to alleviate the disease burden and improve the lives of the millions who lack access to prevention options ReiThera Srl, the Ragon Institute of Mass General, MIT, and Harvard, and IAVI are pleased to announce a collaboration […]