Last February, philanthropists Phillip and Susan Ragon pledged $100m to create the Ragon Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital (in collaboration with MIT and Harvard), specifically aimed at creating new approaches in immunology, and particularly for HIV research.  On June 12, this Institute held its first symposium on computational immunology where physical scientists, engineers, virologists and immunologists discussed recent work in developing modeling techniques that predict vaccine-induced immune responses in people.  This approach also is being applied to the evolution of pathogens and antibodies.      MORE