Ragon Institute Ming Tao
Lab Manager
Gaiha Lab
T cells, Vaccines, Immune Control
Lab Overview
The overarching goal of the Gaiha Lab is to translate insights from successful human T cell responses into effective T cell-based vaccines for infectious disease and cancer.
The Gaiha Lab is working to establish a T cell vaccine platform that incorporates target epitope identification, HLA-epitope stability assessments, T cell immunogen design, viral vector production, and iterative testing in small animal models. We work with a structure-based network analysis technology, which integrates network theory with protein structure data to define topologically important and mutationally constrained regions of viral proteins. We utilized this approach to identify key targets of CD8+ T cells in individuals who spontaneously control HIV (Gaiha et al., Science 2019) and, more recently, identify mutation-resistant epitopes in SARS-CoV-2 (Nathan, Rossin, et al., 2021). The overarching goal is to integrate these technologies towards developing prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines for HIV and SARS-CoV-2 and ultimately for broad translation to infectious diseases and cancer.
Lab WebsiteBoston Globe RecognitionGaurav D. Gaiha, MD, DPhil
Principal Investigator
Affiliation
- Principle Investigator, Ragon Institute of Mass General, MIT, and Harvard
- Associate Professor, Harvard School of Medicine
About
Dr. Gaiha received his D.Phil in Biochemistry from Oxford University as a Clarendon Scholar and his MD magna cum laude from the Health Sciences and Technology (HST) program at Harvard Medical School and MIT. He trained in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology at MGH before completing his post-doctoral research fellowship at the Ragon Institute.
Recognition & Honors
- Awarded the NIAID New Innovators DP2 Award
- Recognized as a Gilead HIV Research Scholar
- Named a Burroughs Wellcome Career Award for Medical Scientists
- Awarded the CHAVD (NIH) and CAVD (Gates Foundation) New Investigator Awards
- Awarded the NIDA Avant-Garde DP1 Award
- Awarded the Howard M. Goodman Fellowship
Related Research Foci
- Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
- Cancer Immunology
- Computational Science
- Fundamental Immunology
- Global Health
- Mucosal Immunology
- FRESH
- Infectious Disease Pathogenesis
- Immune Monitoring
Related Areas of Study
- Hepatitis
- Human papillomavirus
- HIV
- Infectious Disease
- Coronaviruses
- Epstein-Barr virus
- Cancer
- Colon cancer
- Monkeypox
Looking for Collaboration?
Contact UsSelected Publications
Deep learning enhances the prediction of HLA class I-presented CD8+ T cell epitopes in foreign pathogens
Nat Mach Intell. 2025;7(2):232-243
January 28, 2025
T cell reactivity to the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant is preserved in most but not all individuals
Cell, 185(6), 2022
January 1, 2022
Structure-guided T cell vaccine design for SARS-CoV-2 variants and sarbecoviruses
Cell, 184(17), 2021
January 1, 2021
T cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination are elevated in B cell deficiency and reduce risk of severe COVID-19
Sci Transl Med . 2023 Nov 29;15(724):eadh4529
November 29, 2023
Structural topology defines protective CD8+ T cell epitopes in the HIV proteome
Science, 2019. 364, 480-484
January 1, 2019
Lab Team
Zhe Hu
Postdoctoral Fellow
Aljawharah Alrubayyi
Postdoctoral Fellow
Matt Getz
Postdoctoral Fellow
Charlie Crain
Research Technician I
Alton Gayton
Graduate Student
Anusha Nathan
Graduate Student
Fernando Senjobe
Graduate Student
Esther Jeon
Research Technician
Hsinyen Huang
Research Technician
Subeksha Ravi
Research Technician
Sam Maldonado
Postdoctoral Fellow
Aarthi Vijayakumar
MD Student
Ryan Yim
Research Technician
Anna Traunbauer
Graduate Student
Luis A. Montalvo Riveira
Research Technician
Amir W. Ledbetter
Research Technician
Emma Richards
Research Technician
Matthew Yarnall
Graduate Student
Laura Schmidt-Hong
Graduate Student
Ghada Abdallah
Project Coordinator