Arup Chakraborty
· John M. Deutch Institute Professor Professor of Chemical Engineering, Physics, and ChemistryMassachusetts Institute of Technology · Physics
Active 1993–2024
About
Arup K. Chakraborty is an Institute Professor at MIT, holding the John M. Deutch Institute Professorship, and serves as a Professor of Chemical Engineering, Physics, and Chemistry. He is one of the 12 Institute Professors at MIT, the highest faculty rank, and has served as the founding Director of MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science. Chakraborty is also a founding member of the Ragon Institute of MIT, MGH, and Harvard. His research focuses on bringing together approaches from statistical physics, immunology, and virology to understand the mechanisms underlying the immune response to pathogens, with applications in vaccine development and gene regulation. His interests include T cell signaling, development of the T cell repertoire, virus evolution, antibody responses, and the role of phase separation in gene regulation. Chakraborty has made seminal contributions to applying statistical physics to immunology, developing predictive theoretical frameworks that elucidate the physical principles governing adaptive immune responses across scales, and informing rational vaccine design. He is a member of all three branches of the US National Academies—National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, and National Academy of Engineering—and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. His numerous honors include the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, the E. O. Lawrence Medal, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Max Delbruck Prize in Biological Physics. Chakraborty has received multiple awards for his classroom teaching and is a co-author of the book “Viruses, Pandemics, & Immunity.” His work spans statistical mechanics, molecular and cellular immunology, and vaccine research, contributing significantly to the understanding of immune mechanisms and vaccine design.
Research topics
- Medicine
- Biology
- Cancer research
- Chemistry
- Internal medicine
Recent grants
NIH · $262k · 2006
Frequent coauthors
- 50 shared
Susan E. Bates
James J. Peters VA Medical Center
- 50 shared
Robert W. Robey
- 49 shared
Kenneth Steadman
- 49 shared
Suresh V. Ambudkar
Center for Cancer Research
- 49 shared
Suneet Shukla
- 49 shared
Poonkuzhali Balasubramanian
Christian Medical College & Hospital
- 49 shared
Erin G. Schuetz
- 49 shared
Susan L. Holbeck
Awards & honors
- 2026 International Prize in Biophysics (Laureates of the Tel…
- 2025 Alpha Chi Sigma Award for Chemical Engineering Research
- 2023 Miegunyah Distinguished Visiting Fellow, University of…
- 2023 James Swan Outstanding Graduate Faculty Award, Chemical…
- 2023 Gubbins Lecture, North Carolina State University
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