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Ragon Institute Investigator Awarded Global Health Grant

Jun 27, 2012 Awards

Ragon Institute Research Fellow, Filippos Porichis, Ph.D is one of ten recipients of the 2012 Global Infectious Disease Travel Grant from the Harvard Center for Global Health.   Dr. Porichis’ project was entitled “Immunoregulatory networks governing MTB and HIV-specific T cell function in HIV/MTB co-infection” and he aims to use the grant to support his […]

International Students Visit Ragon

Jun 20, 2012

As part of the Ragon Institute’s ongoing commitment to education, the week of May 14-18 saw Ragon hosting international students from Spain and Chile.   During the week, 8 Masters/PhD students from Spain and 3 high school students from Chile met with Ragon faculty and shadowed postdoctoral fellows.   Three of the eight visiting students […]

K-RITH Student Receives Prize for Conference Research Paper

Jun 12, 2012 Awards

K-RITH sponsored student, Ngomu Akeem Akilimali received 2nd Prize for the Best Research Paper Presentation awarded by Discovery at the 3rd National TB Conference held in Durban June 2012.   His talk focused on how the HIV-induced upregulation of Leukocyte Immunoglobulin (Ig)-Like Receptors (LILRs) is abrogated in individuals co-infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). Much research […]

Natural HIV control may rely on sequence of T cell receptor protein

Jun 11, 2012

BOSTON – The rare ability of some individuals to control HIV infection with their immune system alone appears to depend – at least partially – on specific qualities of the immune system’s killer T cells and not on how many of those cells are produced.  In a Nature Immunology paper receiving advance online publication, researchers […]

Act Locally

Jun 10, 2012

For 15 years, the Ragon Institute has shown their support for those fighting HIV/AIDS locally by raising funds and participating in the annual AIDS Walk Boston.   AIDS Walk Boston is the primary fundraising event for AIDS Action Committee (AAC), the leading provider of HIV prevention and care services in Massachusetts.   Prior to the […]

Altfeld Promoted to Professor of Medicine at HMS

May 28, 2012 Awards

Dr. Marcus Altfeld, Ragon Institute Investigator, has been promoted to Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS).  This appointment comes after many years of distinguished research both in Boston and South Africa.   Dr. Altfeld received his MD and PhD from the University of Cologne, Germany.  In 1999, he started his post-doctoral research work […]

K-RITH/Ragon/CFAR Sponsor Biostatistics Course in South Africa

May 15, 2012

May 7-11, 2012 the KwaZulu-Natal Research Institute for Tuberculosis and HIV (K-RITH), the Ragon Institute of Mass General, MIT, and Harvard, and the Harvard University Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) co-sponsored a biostatistics course in Durban, South Africa for the benefit of African scientists.   Biostatistics is the application of statistics to a wide range […]

Bangsberg Receives Mentorship Award

Apr 26, 2012 Awards

Dr. David Bangsberg receives prestigious A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award from the Harvard Medical School Office for Diversity Inclusion and Community Partnership.

HPP Celebrates Seven Graduates of UKZN

Apr 18, 2012

On Monday, April 16, 2012, the HIV Pathogenesis Programme (HPP) at Doris Duke Medical Research Institute (DDMRI), part of the Nelson Mandela Medical School, University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN) graduated 7 students– 5 PhDs and 2 Masters. It was a day of joyful celebration and great pride for everyone involved.   The partnership between Ragon […]

Alter receives Top 10 Clinical Research Achievement Award

Apr 5, 2012 Awards

Ragon Institute investigator Dr. Galit Alter receives Top 10 Clinical Research Achievement Awards from the Clinical Research Forum (CRF).   “The CRF is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing national leadership in clinical research. Its mission is to generate support for clinical research and promote understanding of its impact on health and healthcare delivery.   […]

Newsletter Vol 8: An Achievable Goal

Apr 1, 2012

The Ragon Institute celebrated three years of innovation and excellence on March 2, 2012. All Ragon Institute faculty and staff and their families and guests, collaborators from multiple continents, as well as donors Terry and Susan Ragon and their family, gathered at Walker Memorial on the MIT campus to mark this anniversary.     In […]

Researchers Find Gene Which Transforms Influenza

Mar 25, 2012

Ragon-affiliated researcher, Dr. Abraham Brass and his team find a gene that can transform mild influenza to a life threatening disease.   “A genetic discovery could help explain why flu makes some people seriously ill or kills them, while others seem able to bat it away with little more than a few aches, coughs and […]

Deeper view of HIV reveals impact of early mutations

Mar 8, 2012

BOSTON – Mutations in HIV that develop during the first few weeks of infection may play a critical role in undermining a successful early immune response, a finding that reveals the importance of vaccines targeting regions of the virus that are less likely to mutate. A new study in the journal PLoS Pathogens, led by […]

Study finds HIV-specific CD4 cells that control viral levels

Feb 29, 2012

A subpopulation of the immune cells targeted by HIV may play an important role in controlling viral loads after initial infection, potentially helping to determine how quickly infection will progress. In the February 29 issue of Science Translational Medicine, a team of researchers from the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), MIT and Harvard […]

New Gates Foundation President of Global Health Visits

Feb 10, 2012

On Monday, February 6, 2012 the new President of Global Health for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Dr. Trevor Mundel, met with investigators from the Ragon Institute to learn about novel and cutting-edge research conducted at Ragon-affiliated laboratories. Prior to this meeting, Drs. Arup Chakraborty and Bruce Walker attended a breakfast with Dr. Mundel […]

Ndung’u Awarded HHM International Early Career Scientist

Feb 4, 2012 Awards

Dr. Thumbi Ndung’u, Ragon Institute Associate Member, is awarded the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Early Career Scientist award. “Growing up in the rural village of Gathugu, Kiambu, in central Kenya, Thumbi Ndung’u routinely saw members of his community fight—and lose—the battle against many preventable diseases. Then AIDS emerged, seemingly out of nowhere, and […]