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Kwon and Xavier Labs Map How HIV and Antiretroviral Treatment Alter the Gut Microbiome Across Continents

Oct 30, 2025 Features

A large international study, published in Nature Microbiology and led by the Kwon Lab at the Ragon Institute and the Xavier Lab at the Broad Institute, shows that HIV infection and common antiretroviral drugs change the gut microbiome in distinct, geography-dependent ways. These changes notably may help explain ongoing inflammation and heart-disease risk in people living with HIV. The team analyzed […]

Barczak Lab Leads Study Showing Omicron Subvariants Shed Virus for Similar Periods and Symptoms Alone Do Not Signal Safety

Oct 22, 2025 Features

A new JCI Insight study led by the POSITIVES team and the Barczak Lab at the Ragon Institute followed people with mild COVID-19 to see whether newer Omicron subvariants behave differently over time. Despite ongoing viral evolution, the team found core features—how much viral nucleic acid is found in the nose and how long people […]

Scientific Director Facundo Batista, PhD, elected to the National Academy of Medicine

Oct 21, 2025 Features

The Ragon Institute is proud to share that Scientific Director Facundo Batista, PhD, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), one of the highest honors in health and medicine. Election to NAM recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and a commitment to service. Batista is internationally recognized for pioneering research […]

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Ragon–Scripps Collaboration Shows Single mRNA Shot Can Start Several HIV-Blocking Antibody Paths at Once

Oct 20, 2025 Features

A new study co-led by the Batista Lab at the Ragon Institute and Scripps/IAVI shows that a single mRNA-based vaccine mix can jump-start the early steps toward several promising HIV-fighting antibodies at the same time. Because HIV is extremely diverse, a successful vaccine would likely need to train the immune system along multiple routes, not […]

Garcia-Beltran Lab Awarded NIH High-Risk, High-Reward Award to Engineer NK-Cell Therapies for Solid Tumors

Oct 14, 2025 Features

The Garcia-Beltran Lab at the Ragon Institute, led by Wilfredo Garcia-Beltran, MD, PhD, has received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) High-Risk, High-Reward Research (HRHR) Program award to propel a new project that retools natural killer (NK) cells to better locate, enter, and destroy solid tumors. The HRHR program, part of the NIH Common Fund, […]

W.M. Keck Foundation to support Ringel Lab research on healthy aging at MIT – MIT Biology

Oct 10, 2025 Features

A prestigious grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation to Assistant Professor of Biology Alison Ringel will support groundbreaking healthy aging research at MIT. Ringel, also a Core Member of the Ragon Institute, will draw on her background in cancer immunology to create a more comprehensive biomedical understanding of the cause and possible treatments for aging-related decline. “It is […]

Ghebremichael Lab Study Offers a Fairer Way to Judge Medical Tests, Helping Spot Reliable Biomarkers

Sep 29, 2025 Features

A new paper by Ragon Institute biostatisticians in the Ghebremichael Lab introduces and tests a flexible way to grade medical tests like blood-based biomarkers so scientists can more confidently tell which ones truly separate “sick” from “healthy.” That clearer yardstick matters for immunology, where research teams must decide which candidate markers deserve scarce time and funding. Published […]

Ndhlovu Lab Study Maps How HIV Evades Immune Attack in Lymph Nodes

Sep 22, 2025 Features

A new Cell Reports study from the Ndhlovu Lab with partners in South Africa and Malawi explains how HIV survives in lymph nodes during treatment. The team shows that the virus weakens nearby “killer” CD8 T cells right where HIV concentrates most, inside B cell follicles. Researchers examined lymph node tissue from people with and […]

Yu Lab Study Finds Sex-Linked Innate Immunity Shapes HIV Reservoirs During Long-Term Therapy

Sep 17, 2025 Features

A new multi-center study led by investigators at the Yu Lab reports that biological sex influences how the body “selects” long-lived HIV reservoir cells during years of effective antiretroviral therapy. The team finds stronger innate immune pressure in females, offering fresh clues for cure-directed strategies. Published in Science Translational Medicine, the study analyzed more than 4,000 […]

Kwon Lab Study Links Gut Immune Cell Metabolism to Barrier Damage in HIV

Sep 11, 2025 Features

A new study led by investigators at the Kwon Lab and collaborators shows how energy use by gut immune cells can weaken the intestinal lining in people living with HIV, even when the virus is controlled by treatment. The work identifies a metabolic switch inside these cells as a promising target to help protect the […]

David Baltimore, Nobel Laureate and Co-Chair of Ragon Scientific Advisory Board, Dies at 87

Sep 8, 2025 Features

The Ragon Institute is deeply saddened by the passing of David Baltimore, PhD, a Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine who served as a co-chair of our Scientific Advisory Board for many years and helped to set the scientific direction of our institutional research. “The passing of David Baltimore, Nobel Laureate, is a seismic loss […]

Moura Silva Lab Student named to 2025 HHMI Gilliam Fellows Program

Sep 2, 2025 Awards

The Ragon Institute congratulates Anika Hutton of the Moura-Silva Lab on her selection to the 2025 cohort of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Gilliam Fellows Program. Hutton, a PhD student advised by Hernandez Moura Silva, joins a national community of emerging scientists committed to impactful research and inclusive training environments. The Gilliam Fellows Program […]

NPR – Whatever happened to … the race to cure HIV? There’s promising news

Aug 27, 2025 Features

In July 2024, we published a story with the headline: “One of the 7 people cured of HIV tells his story. Can his cure work for others.” This summer, at the International AIDS Society conference, came news of an exciting new development in the the ongoing effort to bring the epidemic to an end. This story is […]

Eric Dang Joins Ragon Faculty

Aug 21, 2025 Features

We are excited to announce that Eric Dang, PhD, will be joining the Ragon Institute as a new faculty member, where he will lead the Dang Lab. Eric will serve as a Core Member of the Ragon Institute and will be proposed for an appointment as an Assistant Professor of Immunology at Harvard Medical School. Dang received his […]

Wong Receives Prestigious NSF CAREER Award

Aug 18, 2025 Features

The Ragon Institute congratulates faculty member Harikesh Wong, PhD, Core Member at the Ragon and an Assistant Professor in the MIT Department of Biology, on receiving the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award — the NSF’s most prestigious honor for early-career faculty. The CAREER Award recognizes teacher-scholars who excel in integrating research […]

Phase 1 clinical trial of HIV vaccine starts in Africa to evaluate immune responses to highly networked HIV T-cell epitopes

Aug 4, 2025 Research Highlights

Led by a team of African researchers, first doses of the novel T cell-inducing GRAdHIVNE1 vaccine candidate have been given. Harare, Zimbabwe; Rome, Italy; New York, NY, and Cambridge, MA, USA — August 4, 2025 — The Mutala Trust, ReiThera Srl (ReiThera), the Ragon Institute of Mass General Brigham, MIT, and Harvard (the Ragon Institute), […]

Ragon Institute Welcomes Computational Biologist Eric Sun to Faculty

Jul 31, 2025 Features

The Ragon Institute is pleased to announce that Eric Sun, PhD, will join the institute’s faculty and establish the Sun Lab, dedicated to advancing computational science and deepening our understanding of the biology of aging. Sun will hold dual appointments as a Member of the Ragon Institute and an Assistant Professor in MIT’s Department of […]

Ndhlovu Lab Study Highlights Crucial Genetic Diversity for Effective Vaccine Development in Africa

Jul 23, 2025 Features

A recent study from the Ndhlovu Lab at the Ragon Institute has uncovered significant gaps in global vaccine strategies, revealing that immune system gene diversity in African populations has been widely overlooked in current vaccine design approaches. The study, published in Scientific Reports, investigated high-resolution data on Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) genes in populations from […]

“There’s Still So Much to Be Done” – An Interview with Visiting PhD student Lucia Baquero

Jul 11, 2025 Features

Baquero discusses her HIV research, her time at the Ragon Institute, and the importance of preserving scientific and public health progress in Argentina. Lucia Baquero is a visiting doctoral candidate from Buenos Aires, Argentina, currently conducting research at the Ragon Institute as part of her doctoral work. She’s part of a longstanding collaboration between her […]