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Announcing the Penny Talks

May 7, 2013

The  Ragon Institute is proud to launch the Penny Talks, a monthly seminar featuring Ragon/MGH faculty explaining, in layman’s terms, the vision behind their work.   Few who met and worked with Penny Campbell could have forgotten her!  Penny started at Ragon (then Partners AIDS Research Center) in 2001 as Grant Administrator to Drs. Walker and […]

HPP Graduates Four PhD and Five Masters Students

May 6, 2013

On April 18, 2013, the HIV Pathogenesis Programme (HPP) graduated nine students from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) graduate program. Over the past recent years, the HPP program has consistently had students mentored by HPP and Ragon faculty represented in the UKZN College of Health Sciences graduation program, a culmination of a productive education partnership […]

Ragon Scientists Awarded $12 Million for HIV Vaccine Research

Apr 25, 2013 Awards

A team of researchers led by Dr. Todd Allen of the Ragon Institute of Mass General, MIT, and Harvard was recently awarded a 5-year, $12.4 million HIV Vaccine Research and Design (HIVRAD) award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  The Ragon Institute is one of the institutions making Boston– with total grants of $1.78 […]

Hacking HIV

Apr 23, 2013

On a May afternoon in 2008, Bruce Walker and Terry Ragon [MIT Class of ] ‘71 paid a recruiting visit to MIT. Walker is a Harvard Medical School physician who has studied HIV for three decades; Ragon, the founder and CEO of a software company called InterSystems, was about to bankroll a new $100 million […]

New funding opportunities for African Scientists

Apr 9, 2013

Budding African scientists have an exciting new avenue through which they can enhance their research careers and further equip themselves to tackle the scientific challenges of our times, including two of the world’s most daunting public health challenges: TB and HIV.     This week the KwaZulu-Natal Research Institute for TB and HIV (K-RITH), Massachusetts […]

Study Offers New Way to Discover HIV Vaccine Targets

Mar 25, 2013

“Decades of research and three large-scale clinical trials have so far failed to yield an effective HIV vaccine, in large part because the virus evolves so rapidly that it can evade vaccine-induced immune responses.   Researchers from the Ragon Institute of Mass General, MIT, and Harvard University have now developed a new approach to vaccine […]

Microsoft Research and Ragon honored for HIV Research

Mar 21, 2013 Ragon Culture

IDG’s Computerworld has honored Microsoft Research for their innovative approach to HIV research, applying the same high-powered computation systems which are used in spam filters to the problem of HIV.   This work is a collaboration between Microsoft Research Distinguished Scientist, David Heckerman and Ragon Institute Director, Dr. Bruce Walker.  In November 2011, Heckerman and […]

AIDS Center’s New Labs Debut

Mar 12, 2013 Ragon Culture

The Boston Globe today featured the Ragon Institute’s new lab space and highlights the potential impact of cuts in federal funding on HIV research:   “A leading AIDS research center unveiled its new $30 million laboratory building in Cambridge Monday, where it aims to push ahead with efforts to develop an HIV vaccine and to […]

Baby HIV ‘Cure’ Promising For African Countries

Mar 4, 2013

Recent news has reported a Mississippi child who was apparently “cured” of HIV by receiving treatment shortly after birth.  Two years later, the child’s viral loads are undetectable, despite being off treatment for almost a year.   Ragon Institute Principal Investigator Dr. Brian Zanoni speaks to NPR about what could have caused this and what […]

An Interview With Bruce Walker, MD

Feb 19, 2013 Ragon Culture

Ragon Institute Director, Dr. Bruce Walker, talks to Robert Tomsho and answers questions about the progress of HIV/AIDS research, three decades after the disease was first discovered.  Dr. Walker addresses the value of philanthropy and how his work in South Africa has affected him.   “… there’s a sense that the AIDS problem has been […]

Tools in the Toolbox

Feb 12, 2013

Studying infectious diseases has long been primarily the domain of biologists. However, as part of the Ragon Institute, MIT engineers and physical scientists are joining immunologists and physicians in the battle against HIV, which currently infects 34 million people worldwide.   The mission of the Ragon Institute — launched jointly in 2009 by Massachusetts General […]

Ragon Institute Has Moved

Jan 31, 2013 Ragon Culture

This week the Ragon Institute has completed its move to 400 Technology Square, Cambridge.   This new building space increases Ragon lab and office space significantly, providing a critical step forward in the research and recruitment capabilities of the Institute.  Researchers, staff and collaborators will be housed in three and a half floors of office, […]

Dinter Awarded Schering Foundation Fellowship

Dec 18, 2012 Awards

Ragon Institute graduate student, Dr. Jens Dinter, is one of five recipients for the Schering Foundation PhD fellowship.   The Schering Foundation awards 2-year fellowships to outstanding graduate students who work in internationally leading research institutes and aims to support young scientists in their early careers.   Jens Dinter’s PhD thesis project in the Le […]

Of Mice and Men

Dec 5, 2012

Will those hard-working humanized mice help get us to an AIDS vaccine? Scientists are sounding more optimistic.   “Allen led a recent study that caused a small stir in AIDS vaccine research circles. He and his colleagues found that BLT mice infected with HIV mounted cellular immune responses that closely mirrored those observed in HIV-infected […]

World AIDS Day Celebrated at the Prudential

Dec 1, 2012 Ragon Culture

Ragon Institute Director, Dr. Bruce Walker, along with AIDS Action’s President & CEO, Rebecca Haag and a large group of supporters from the Ragon Institute, were present for flipping the switch to turn the lights of the Prudential Building red in honor of World AIDS Day, December 1.   images courtesy of AIDSAction/photographer Marilyn Humphries […]

Newsletter Vol 9: Ragon Institute Nears Completion of New Office and Lab Space

Nov 30, 2012

For the past year, Ragon Institute faculty and staff have anticipated the completion of the renovation of five floors of research space at 400 Technology Square, Cambridge. Over the past few months considerable progress has been made, from cutting a hole in three floors to create a dramatic open staircase, to final painting and decorating […]