Ragon Institute
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, […]
Jul 30, 2024 Features
Moodley with Ndhlovu at the award ceremony The Ragon Institute is proud to recognize Merantha Moodley, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Ragon faculty Zaza Ndhlovu, PhD, who has been selected as one of six recipients of the IAS/ANRS Lange/van Tongeren Prize for Young Investigators. Her exceptional work on the abstract titled “Spatial […]
Jul 23, 2024 Features
In January 2020, two students from across the world met on the “Evolution of an Epidemic” course. Their friendship inspired the creation of a program they hope will benefit African science for years to come. Martin Lubowa was a high school student at the prestigious African Leadership Academy (ALA) when he got an opportunity–the chance […]
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 […]
Jul 9, 2024 Features
González Rubio discusses the circumstances that brought her to the Ragon and how she hopes to grow from it The years immediately after completing a doctorate are one of the most pivotal times in any researcher’s career — a period where they set the course of their research and grow beyond their time as a […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]