Massachusetts General Hospital has received a $200 million gift — the largest in its history – to support the 10-year-old Ragon Institute.
Phillip and Susan Ragon initially founded the center in 2009 with a $100 million gift, which was the biggest in the history of MGH at that time. The center is aimed at finding ways to cure and prevent “some of the world’s most complex and burdensome diseases” using the immune system.
The initial gift allowed for the creation of teams of immunologists, physicists, engineers, biologists, geneticists, chemists and vaccinologists who work together on innovative new approaches to disease.
A large trial of an AIDS vaccine, developed by scientists at the institute, is now underway in Africa, according to MGH. Ragon scientists have also applied the knowledge from the work on HIV to tackle other diseases including tuberculosis, influenza, Zika and others.
Phillip Ragon, an MIT graduate, founded a Cambridge software firm, InterSystems Corp., in 1978. The company allows hospitals and banks to analyze big data.
According to Forbes, Ragon has a net worth of $2.5 billion.
Total 2017 net patient service revenue
| Rank | Prior Rank | Hospital/Prior rank (*unranked in 2017)/ |
|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Massachusetts General Hospital |
2 | 3 | Brigham and Women's Hospital |
3 | 2 | UMass Memorial Medical Center |
