Ragon Institute

Batista Lab

B cells, antibodies, preclinical vaccinology

Lab Overview

The Batista lab studies the fundamental biology of the immune system to develop the next generation of vaccines and therapeutics. Our targets include HIV, malaria, influenza, and SARS-CoV-2, and our approach focuses on B cells, a critical component of the immune system responsible for producing antibodies.

The Batista lab investigates how, where, and when B cells are activated, with the goal of rationalizing the development of vaccines. Historically, our lab has focused on understanding B cell receptor (BCR) function, including BCR signaling dynamics, inhibitory and stimulatory regulation by co-receptors, and interactions with the cortical cytoskeleton. More recent projects investigate the role of B cell metabolism (e.g., autophagy and mitochondrial flux) in driving humoral immunity. The lab’s applied immunology work primarily consists of the creation of new mouse models for the preclinical testing of immunogens and vaccination strategies; we use these models to assess the effectiveness of immunizations in recruiting B cells to germinal centers, inducing B cell receptor mutations, and producing high affinity antibodies.

Facundo's MIT Faculty Page

Facundo Batista, PhD

Principal Investigator

Affiliation

  • Associate Director and Scientific Director, Ragon Institute of Mass General, MIT, and Harvard
  • Phillip and Susan Ragon Professor, MIT Biology

About

Dr. Facundo Batista was a tenured Member of the Francis Crick Institute and a Professor at Imperial College London. He received his PhD from the International School of Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy, and his undergraduate degree from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Facundo is a recipient of the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit and EMBO Young Investigator Awards. He is an elected member or fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, the Academia de Ciencias de América Latina (ACAL), the UK Academy of Medical Science, and the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO); he also serves as the current Chief Editor for The EMBO Journal.

Recognition & Honors

  • The Batista Lab has received funding from a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant, and NIAID grants in basic B cell biology. They have also been awarded a grant for translational vaccinology.
  • Dr. Batista is the co-lead PI of the Scripps Consortium for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Development (CHAVD) Scientific Research Support Unit and co-lead of the publicly available MIT course, "COVID-19, SAR-CoV-2, and the Pandemic."

Related Research Foci

  • Fundamental Immunology
  • Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
  • Computational Science

Related Areas of Study

  • Coronaviruses
  • HIV
  • Malaria
  • Infectious Disease
  • Influenza
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Looking for Collaboration?

Contact Us

Selected Publications

mRNA-LNP HIV-1 trimer boosters elicit precursors to broad neutralizing antibodies

Xie Z, Lin YC, Steichen JM, Ozorowski G, Kratochvil S, Ray R, Torres JL, Liguori A, Kalyuzhniy O, Wang X, Warner JE, Weldon SR, Dale GA, Kirsch KH, Nair U, Baboo S, Georgeson E, Adachi Y, Kubitz M, Jackson AM, Richey ST, Volk RM, Lee JH, Diedrich JK, Prum T, Falcone S, Himansu S, Carfi A, Yates JR 3rd, Paulson JC, Sok D, Ward AB, Schief WR, Batista FD.

Science. 2024 May 17;384(6697):eadk0582.

May 17, 2024
PMID: 38753770
Read on Journal Site

Antibody production relies on the tRNA inosine wobble modification to meet biased codon demand

Giguère S, Wang X, Huber S, Xu L, Warner J, Weldon SR, Hu J, Phan QA, Tumang K, Prum T, Ma D, Kirsch KH, Nair U, Dedon P, Batista FD.

Science. 2024 Jan 12;383(6679):205-211.

January 12, 2024
PMID: 38207021
Read on Journal Site

Antibodies from primary humoral responses modulate the recruitment of naive B cells during secondary responses

Tas JMJ, Koo JH, Lin YC, Xie Z, Steichen JM, Jackson AM, Hauser BM, Wang X, Cottrell CA, Torres JL, Warner JE, Kirsch KH, Weldon SR, Groschel B, Nogal B, Ozorowski G, Bangaru S, Phelps N, Adachi Y, Eskandarzadeh S, Kubitz M, Burton DR, Lingwood D, Schmidt AG, Nair U, Ward AB, Schief WR, Batista FD

Immunity. 2022 Oct 11;55(10):1856-1871.e6.

October 11, 2022
PMID: 35987201
Read on Journal Site

mRNA-LNP prime boost evolves precursors toward VRC01-like broadly neutralizing antibodies in preclinical humanized mouse models

Wang X, Cottrell CA, Hu X, Ray R, Bottermann M, Villavicencio PM, Yan Y, Xie Z, Warner JE, Ellis-Pugh JR, Kalyuzhniy O, Liguori A, Willis JR, Menis S, Rämisch S, Eskandarzadeh S, Kubitz M, Tingle R, Phelps N, Groschel B, Himansu S, Carfi A, Kirsch KH, Weldon SR, Nair U, Schief WR, Batista F

Sci Immunol. 2024 May 10;9(95):eadn0622

May 10, 2024
PMID: 38753808
Read on Journal Site

Membrane-bound mRNA immunogens lower the threshold to activate HIV Env V2 apex-directed broadly neutralizing B cell precursors in humanized mice

Melzi E, Willis JR, Ma KM, Lin YC, Kratochvil S, Berndsen ZT, Landais EA, Kalyuzhniy O, Nair U, Warner J, Steichen JM, Kalyuzhniy A, Le A, Pecetta S, Perez M, Kirsch K, Weldon SR, Falcone S, Himansu S, Carfi A, Sok D, Ward AB, Schief WR, Batista FD

Immunity. 2022 Nov 8;55(11):2168-2186.e6

November 8, 2022
PMID: 36179690
Read on Journal Site

Vaccination in a humanized mouse model elicits highly protective PfCSP-targeting anti-malarial antibodies

Kratochvil S, Shen CH, Lin YC, Xu K, Nair U, Da Silva Pereira L, Tripathi P, Arnold J, Chuang GW, Melzi E, Schön A, Zhang B, Dillon M, Bonilla B, Flynn BJ, Kirsch KH, Kisalu NK, Kiyuka PK, Liu T, Ou L, Pancera M, Rawi R, Reveiz M, Seignon K, Wang LT, Waring MT, Warner J, Yang Y, Francica JR, Idris AH, Seder RA, Kwong PD, Batista FD

Immunity. 2021 Dec 14; 54(12):2859-2876

December 14, 2021
PMID: 34788599
Read on Journal Site

Multiplexed CRISPR/CAS9-mediated engineering of pre-clinical mouse models bearing native human B cell receptors

Wang X, Ray R, Kratochvil S, Melzi E, Lin YC, Giguere S, Xu L, Warner J, Cheon D, Liguori A, Groschel B, Phelps N, Adachi Y, Tingle R, Wu L, Crotty S, Kirsch KH, Nair U, Schief WR, Batista FD

The EMBO Journal. 2021; 40(2):e105926

January 1, 2021
PMID: 33258500
Read on Journal Site

A generalized HIV vaccine design strategy for priming of broadly neutralizing antibody responses

Steichen JM, Lin YC, Havenar-Daughton C, Pecetta S, Ozorowski G, Willis JR, Toy L, Sok D, Liguori A, Kratochvil S, Torres JL, Kalyuzhniy O, Melzi E, Kulp DW, Raemisch S, Hu X, Bernard SM, Georgeson E, Phelps N, Adachi Y, Kubitz M, Landais E, Umotoy J, Robinson A, Briney B, Wilson IA, Burton DR, Ward AB, Crotty S, Batista FD, Schief WR

Science. 2019; 366(6470):eaax4380

January 1, 2019
PMID: 31672916
Read on Journal Site
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Lab Members

Madhav Akauliya

Research Fellow

Ali A. Albowaidey

Research Technician I

Maria Bottermann

Senior Research Scientist

Gordon Dale

Research Fellow

Abigail Esposito

Research Technician I

Amrit Raj Ghosh

Research Scientist

Keran Han

Graduate Student

Aubrey Happel

Research Technologist

Myriam Ortiz Isuiza

Research Technician I

Brendon Kelley

Research Technician I

Ye-Ji Kim

Research Fellow

Ja-Hyun Koo

Research Fellow

Jonathan Lam

Research Fellow

Xiaotie Liu

Senior Lab Manager

Paula Maldonado

Research Fellow

Hannah Naili

Research Technician I

Usha Nair

Senior Research Scientist

Shivang Parikh

Research Fellow

Manfredo Perez

Senior Research Lab Assistant

Raphael Reyes

Research Fellow

Jacqueline Ming Shen

Graduate Research Assistant

Maria Ssozi

Research Technician II

Xuesong Wang

Research Scientist

John Warner

Research Scientist

Stephanie Weldon

Program Manager

Zhenfei Xie

Research Scientist

Liling Xu

Senior Research Scientist

Yu Yan

Research Scientist

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