Dr. Douglas Kwon is a physician scientist and Director of Clinical Operations at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard. He has a clinical practice in the division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital. The focus of his current research is understanding the role of mucosal tissues in HIV acquisition and disease progression. This includes a detailed analysis of the host-microbial interactions in the gut and female genital tract in HIV-infected individuals in resource rich locales and resource poor settings in sub-Saharan Africa. His lab is involved in developing and applying new technologies to overcome the technical barriers that have impeded our understanding of mucosal immunity to date. This includes the application of novel techniques and functional assays to assess HIV-specific immune responses and the microbiome at mucosal sites.