Ragon Institute
Sep 1, 2012
In 1989, Bruce Walker, an infectious disease specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital, sifted through a tall stack of applications for a technician’s job in his lab. He immediately noticed the application from Alicja Trocha, a recent immigrant from Poland who had joined the anti-Communist Solidarity movement as a student in the 1980s. Trocha had worked […]
Aug 23, 2012
“Mice can tell us a great deal about disease. But they’ve been of limited use in AIDS research because only humans get HIV. Now, researchers have transplanted human bone marrow into mice that lack a functioning immune system. The mice then developed a human immune system, according to Ragon Institute immunologist Todd Allen. He and […]
Aug 21, 2012
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded 14 grants totaling $7.8 million in first-year funding for basic research to identify new approaches for designing a safe and effective HIV vaccine. The grants were awarded under the Innovation for HIV Vaccine Discovery (IHVD) initiative, which […]
Aug 20, 2012
Ragon Institute Program Leader Dr. Dan Barouch has been named Director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research (CVVR) in the Department of Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). “This newly created Center represents the merger of the former Division of Viral Pathogenesis and Division of Vaccine Research. Barouch, a Professor […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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.
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]