Todd M Allen

Todd Mackenzie Allen (1970 – 2024) was a Canadian-born immunologist and virologist at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard, and a Professor of Medicine at Harvard University. He was a specialist in HIV vaccine design and the sequence evolution and diversity of HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV). Towards the end of his career, his work was focused on developing novel immunotherapeutic approaches towards a functional cure of HIV, including chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell immunotherapy and gene editing approaches capable of protecting against HIV infection.

Early life and education

Allen, the son of American parents, was born in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. He received his bachelor of science (BSc) in Biochemistry at the University of Waterloo before completing his PhD degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology at the University of Wisconsin – Madison studying T cell responses in the SIV infected macaque model of HIV infection. In 2001, he moved to Boston to join the Partners AIDS Research Center (now the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard).

Research and career

In 2014, Allen was promoted to Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS). His laboratory at the Ragon Institute was focused on identifying protective immunity to HIV and Hepatitis C virus (HCV). He was a faculty member of the Harvard Virology PhD program and in 2013 was awarded the Massachusetts General Hospital Research Scholars Award, providing philanthropic support for his research program. Over the course of his career, he published over 180 peer-reviewed papers on HIV and HCV. His work used humanized mouse models to accelerate development and testing of novel immunotherapies for HIV, including most recently the design of a novel Dual CAR T cell capable of controlling HIV

Death

In September 11, 2024, Allen died from a heart attack.

Selected publications

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