Ragon Institute Mary Carrington
Impact of immunogenetic variation on disease outcome
Lab Overview
The Carrington Lab studies the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I and class II genetic loci.
The Carrington Lab posits that, while HLA allele disease associations are often attributed to variation at positions that determine specificity for antigenic peptides, there are other mechanisms by which HLA polymorphism influences the immune response. These include HLA class I interactions with innate immune receptors such as KIR and LILR, cell surface expression levels of HLA class I and class II, and allele-specific variation in HLA dependency on tapasin, a key component of the peptide loading complex. Our studies have identified novel HLA associations in a relatively large number of different types of human disorders, including infectious diseases, cancer, autoimmunity, reproductive diseases, and transplantation outcome.
Mary Carrington, PhD
Affiliation
- Steering Committee, Ragon Institute of Mass General, MIT, and Harvard
- Visiting Professor, Harvard University
- Senior Principal Investigator, Basic Science Program, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research
About
Dr. Carrington obtained her Ph.D. at Iowa State University in the Immunobiology Department. She performed her postdoctoral studies in the departments of Immunology and Microbiology at Duke University and the University of North Carolina prior to her current appointments at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research and the Ragon Institute.
Recognition & Honors
- Recognized as a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology in 2021
- Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Gave the AAI President’s Symposium lecture in 2021 and The Terasaki Lecture BSHI/EFI in Glasgow, UK, in 2021
- Awarded a Visiting Professorship from King’s College, Cambridge University, in Cambridge, the UK in 2018
- Awarded a Visiting Professorship at Kumamoto University from 2017-2019
- Awarded a Newton Abraham Professorship at Oxford University, Oxford, UK, from 2015-2016
- Awarded the 2009 Rose Payne Award in 2009
- Awarded the Cecil and Ida Green Visiting Professorship, Green College, the University of British Columbia in 2006
- Awarded the Ceppellini Award, from the European Federation for Immunogenetics in 2005
Looking for Collaboration?
Contact UsSelected Publications
HLA class I signal peptide variation predicts strength of NKG2A⁺ NK cell response to missing-self and risk of human disease
Nature Immunology, 2026
Impact of HLA class I functional divergence on HIV control
Science volume 383, issue 6680, pages 319–325 (2024)
HLA class I signal peptide polymorphism determines the level of CD94/NKG2–HLA-E-mediated regulation of effector cell responses
Nature Immunology volume 24, pages 1087–1097 (2023)
Prediction of differential Gag versus Env responses to a mosaic HIV-1 vaccine regimen by HLA class I alleles
Journal of Virology volume 98, issue 8, e00281-24 (2024)
Genetic variation that determines TAPBP expression levels associates with the course of malaria in an HLA allotype-dependent manner
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA volume 119, issue 29, e2205498119 (2022)