Not accepting graduate students for the 2026-2027 Academic Year.
Humans have an adaptive immune system which is remarkable in that it enables us to mount pathogen – specific responses against a diverse and evolving world of pathogens. The central focus of our group is to understand the mechanistic underpinnings of the adaptive immune response to pathogens, and harness this understanding to help design better vaccines and therapies. Our work represents a crossroad of the physical and life sciences. The adaptive immune response is mediated by collective dynamic processes with many participating components. These collective processes span a spectrum of scales, from molecules to the scale of the organism (a human), and are inherently stochastic in character. We work on developing and applying theoretical and computational approaches (rooted in statistical physics) to study these processes. A hallmark of these efforts is the close synergy and collaboration between our theoretical/computational studies and experimental investigations in leading immunology laboratories and by clinicians in medical schools. Current interests can be divided into three broad categories. We are interested in understanding the molecular interactions that enable T cells, orchestrators of the adaptive immune response, to translate engagement of surface receptors to pathogens in to function. We are interested in how T cell development in the thymus results in T cells that are specific for unknown and emerging pathogens. We work on understanding the human immune response to HIV, with the goal of aiding efforts to design a vaccine against this scourge on the planet. Our group is also interested in cell membrane biophysics.
Arup K. Chakraborty is one of the 12 Institute Professors at MIT, the highest rank of a MIT faculty member, which is awarded jointly by the faculty and administration. He holds the John M. Deutch Institute Professorship. He is also a Professor of Chemical Engineering, Physics, and Chemistry at MIT. He served as the founding Director of MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, and he is a founding member of the Ragon Institute of MGB, MIT and Harvard. For over 26 years, Chakraborty’s work has largely focused on bringing together approaches from statistical physics, computation, immunology, and virology to understand how the immune system functions. This fundamental knowledge can be harnessed to advance health. His interests span T cell signaling, development of the T cell repertoire, a mechanistic understanding of antibody responses and learning in the immune system, the interplay between physiological adaptation to perturbation and immune responses, and virus evolution. Since 2016, Chakraborty has also been interested in the role of non-equilibrium regulation of phase separation in transcription. Chakraborty is one of less than 30 individuals who are members of all three branches of the US National Academies – National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, and National Academy of Engineering. He is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and has received many other honors including the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, the E. O. Lawrence Medal (DOE), a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Max Delbruck Prize in Biological Physics from the American Physical Society, the Tel Aviv University International Prize in Biophysics, the Colburn, Professional Progress, Alpha Chi Sigma and Prausnitz Institute Lectureship from the AIChE, and three honorary doctorates. Chakraborty has received 7 awards for his classroom teaching based on student input. He is the co-author of the book, Viruses, Pandemics & Immunity, and the author of the soon to be published book, Physical Concepts in Immunology.