Facundo D. Batista

Facundo Damian Batista is a professor of biology at MIT, the chief editor of the EMBO Journal,^. and an associate director, scientific director, and principal investigator at the Ragon Institute of Mass General, MIT, and Harvard. An expert in B cells and antibodies, he studies their fundamental biology and their applications to immunology and vaccine development.

Raised in Argentina, Batista developed a passion for molecular biology at the University of Buenos Aires. He earned his Master of Science degree in biology in 1993 and a Ph.D. in biology in 1995 from the International School of Advanced Studies in Trieste.

From 1996 to 2002, Batista trained with Michael Neuberger as an EMBO Postdoctoral Fellow at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. There, Batista and Neuberger researched the relationship between B cell responses and antigen affinity, publishing their findings in Immunity and Nature.

Joining the Ragon Institute in 2016, Batista established a research group that studies the mechanisms of B cell activation, which helps support vaccine development. In 2017, Batista helped create a technique for developing human antibodies in the laboratory. The method helps accelerate the process of developing therapeutic antibodies. It also supports vaccine development, allowing researchers to test them in artificial immune systems before clinical trials.

Batista’s work at the Ragon Institute developed technical innovations for the genetic engineering of mice with humanized B cell receptors. The resulting animal models enable researchers to test vaccines.^. The technique also led to a new HIV vaccine design strategy and could support the development of vaccines against the flu, dengue, malaria and hepatitis C. Batista and the team published their findings from this line of research in The EMBO Journal and Science.