Wyss Institute
@wyssinstitute
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The Wyss Institute seeks to transform engineering, medicine and the environment by creating new materials and devices using Nature’s design principles.
Harvard University
Joined April 2010
Prior to the Wyss' founding in 2009, a working group at Harvard University assembled envision the future of biomedical engineering. Now, we see the how this foundation led to successful technologies positively impacting human and planet health.
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Researchers at the Wyss have developed cellular "backpacks" for macrophages to release a steady stream of cytokines, keeping them activated against cancer.
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Tumors deactivate the body's sentinel macrophages, which then become part of the tumor and help it grow. @smitragotri's lab at the Wyss has solved this problem by attaching tiny "backpacks" to macrophages, keeping them activated against cancer.
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Move over CRISPR, the retrons are coming. Researchers have harnessed this genetic quirk from bacteria to create a DNA editing tool that allows them to perform and track millions of experiments in a single test tube.
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"The fact that we can now deliver an effective, non-toxic dose of [growth factors like VEGF and IGF-1] directly to target sites could finally break the logjam and allow the creation of truly revolutionary regenerative medicines." -Dave Mooney #regenmed
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|￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣|. BREAKTHROUGH. DISCOVERIES CANNOT. CHANGE THE WORLD. IF THEY DO NOT LEAVE. THE LAB.|＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿| . (\__/) ||. (•ㅅ•) ||. / づ.
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By 2025, data centers will require 20% of the world's electricity. We need a new solution. Wyss researchers are developing integrated information storage technology for writing large amounts of digital information in DNA.
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Lab-grown organs are a big step closer to reality thanks to Wyss & @hseas researchers. Their new co-SWIFT method replicates the double-layered cellular structure of human blood vessels & keeps human heart tissue alive and beating in vitro. @JenniferALewis1.
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They can swim, they can think, & now - they can replicate themselves. Xenobots 3.0, created by @drmichaellevin, @DoctorJosh, @Kriegmerica, and @DougBlackiston, can assemble offspring from hundreds of free-floating stem cells, a behavior never seen before.
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Using a heart-on-a-chip, Wyss and @hseas researchers demonstrated a potential new therapy to not only revive heart cells after a heart attack but keep cells functioning during a heart attack.
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Researchers at the Wyss developed a novel passive directional valve technology, which enables the design and fabrication of microfluidic devices capable of handling real-world samples and reagents within multiple applications. #Microfluidics #NewTech.
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Researchers from the Wyss and @hseas mimicked a heart attack on a chip with human cells and developed a new therapeutic approach to treat it.
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Watch new Wyss employee Lola take on the pawesome honor of demonstrating some LABrador protocols. #AprilFools2021
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Wyss researchers developed a cell therapy innovation to slow tumor growth: cellular "backpacks" or disc-shaped nanoparticles that can stick to a macrophage without being engulfed & release cytokines into their "hosts" to keep them activated against cancer.
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Chemo and immunotherapies have their own benefits & drawbacks for cancer treatment, but a new cancer vaccine from the Wyss and @hseas combines the best of both worlds and effectively treats triple-negative breast cancer in mice. @liuswangustc @alexnajibi
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Organs-on-Chips can reliably recapitulate human physiology in many cases. So why do manuscript/grant Reviewers still require animal models to validate findings? Wyss Founding Director @DonIngber poses this question in Advanced Science:
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Putting humans into suspended animation is still science fiction, but we're working on making it science fact: our Biostasis project officially entered Phase 2 last month! Read more here. @DARPA
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What if your doctor prescribed you bacteria instead of ibuprofen? Thanks to biological engineering, scientists at the Wyss and @harvardmed created strains of bacteria that can “remember” inflammation, setting the stage for microbial medicine.
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Identifying peptides that overcome the blood-brain barrier as a powerful approach to deliver therapeutics to brain cells.
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We have received $16M from @DARPA to use our computational and Organ Chip technologies to find FDA-approved drugs that can be repurposed to treat COVID-19, along with collaborators at @IcahnMountSinai and @UMmedschool.
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Congratulations to Wyss Faculty member @NatalieArtzi on being promoted to Associate Professor of Medicine at @harvardmed!
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Wyss researchers have developed cellular "backpacks" for macrophages. These are disc-shaped nanoparticles that can stick to a macrophage without being engulfed, and release a steady stream of cytokines into their macrophage "hosts" to keep them activated.
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All organs need blood vessels to supply their cells with nutrients, but most lab-grown organoids lack a supportive vasculature. The new SWIFT method from the Wyss & @hseas 3D prints vascular channels into living tissues.
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Our sense of hearing is literally a molecular tightrope act. Researchers from the Wyss, @harvardmed and @BostonChildrens have identified tiny filaments on ear cells that work together like trapeze artists holding hands to detect sound.
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Did you know that Wyss researchers have developed a cell therapy innovation that keeps macrophages activated against cancer? @SMitragotri
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As the culmination of years of work developing organs-on-chips, the Wyss describes in 2 new @natBME articles the development of a human body-on-chips platform that quantitatively predicts drug pharmacokinetic parameters in humans. @doningber
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The number 4 news item of the year was about a biomaterial-based cancer vaccine that combined chemotherapy and immunotherapy to treat triple-negative breast cancer in mice.
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The Wyss has launched a bioinspired technology-driven attack to beat back #COVID19. Our researchers are rapidly developing creative solutions to diagnose, treat, and prevent it from spreading further.
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A team led by George Church has developed a CRISPR-Cas9-based strategy that is able to generate and profile hundreds of precise mutations in the genome with high throughput.
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Macrophages are cancer-killing machines, but tumors can "switch" them from an anti-tumor to a pro-tumor state. @Smitragotri's lab at the Wyss and @hseas has created "backpacks" that keep macrophages active against tumors for 5 days in mice's bodies.
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Scientists led by @drmichaellevin created tiny moving "biorobots" from human tracheal cells that can heal "wounds" in neuronal sheets in the lab. One day, these "Anthrobots" could aid in tissue healing & regeneration w/ no need for immune suppression.
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Wise words from Wyss Core Faculty member Dave Mooney:.
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A new method developed by members of the Wyss & @medialab called untargeted expansion sequencing is able to produce nanoscale-resolution maps of RNAs throughout the mouse brain, enabling highly multiplexed mapping of RNAs from nanoscale to system scale.
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Light-Seq technology developed at the Wyss Institute allows for the first time the sequencing of the full transcriptomes of cells selected with light in tissues under the microscope.
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Hansjörg Wyss, who helped create the Wyss Institute with a philanthropic donation in 2009, now pledges donated $1B over the next decade to help accelerate land and ocean conservation around the world.
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Happy #WorldEnvironmentDay! Learn how scientists at the Wyss Institute are taking inspiration from Nature itself to create sustainable solutions to problems that threaten our land, sea, air, and cities.
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Wyss Institute researchers are engineering organoids to recapitulate brain tissue.
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The Wyss' @DonIngber & @NurMustafaoglu collaborated with a multiorganizational team to design binders to the human transferrin receptor, which shuttles back and forth across the blood–brain barrier. Published in @PNASNews. @UWBiochemistry @UWproteindesign
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Have you seen the cover of this issue of @NatureBiotech? It's about the work of Wyss researchers on wearable biosensors that can sense SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogens and toxins. They can be integrated into everyday items, like face masks. Learn more:
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Pancreatic cancer has a few tricks up its sleeve – scientists just discovered that it actively destroys and replaces blood vessels with cancerous cells, explaining why it’s so hard to kill.
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Wyss team is awarded first @ARPA_H agreement with researchers at Harvard University for developing a disease-agnostic novel RNA therapeutic with the potential to treat diverse diseases. @NatalieArtzi @DonIngber @ARPA_HDirector .
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Wyss researchers have found a way to 3D print thick vascularized tissue constructs for applications in organ engineering and regenerative medicine.
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Congrats @romeerizwan on receiving the 2021 grant from the i3 Center at the Wyss. He will develop natural killer cell-based therapies by leveraging biomaterials-based immune cell amplifying and educating approaches and collaborating with Dave Mooney.
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Our Founding Director @doningber has been awarded the prestigious 2021 Wilbur Cross Medal from @Yale in recognition of his groundbreaking work linking tensegrity with cell biology, which led to many important insights in medicine and engineering. Congrats!
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From a tiny risky startup, to an engine for disruptive innovation powered by Biologically Inspired Engineering with people at its heart. 10 years ago this month, the Wyss was founded. Join us throughout January as we look at some of the highlights from the last decade. #WyssAt10
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Congratulations to the Wyss' Alexandra Sontheimer-Phelps, who won the 2020 @AGA_CMGH Trainee Article of the Year for her work using Human Organ Chips, to generate the mucus layer of the colon in vitro, which has never been done before. #InflammatoryBowlDisease
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As we entire the final week of 2021, we're looking back at our Top 5 stories of the year. #5 is, "Face masks that diagnose COVID-19." Researchers developed wearable biosensors that could rapidly detect SARS-CoV-2 and published in @NatureBiotech.
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The Wyss Institute is proud to announce that 11 of our Faculty and Staff members are among the Most Cited Researchers if 2019 - an honor given to the top 0.1% of cited researchers annually.
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Honored and excited to win #DesignoftheYear 2015 for Human Organs-on-Chips by @DesignMuseum! http://t.co/gvlehNVnXO.
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A new paper in @natBME from @SMitragotri's team at the Wyss and @hseas has used the body's own red blood cells to deliver an immune-restoring chemokine to lung metastases, treating them & preventing recurrence. #cancer.
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Eight Wyss faculty members were among the most cited highly-cited researchers between 2006 and 2016. This honor was given by @webofscience.
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On #InternationalWomensDay meet some of the extraordinary women at the Wyss Institute who are changing the world.
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New in @naturematerials, Wyss Postdoc @Irene_dLz & Core Faculty member Dave Mooney discuss why cancer nanomedicines have failed to live up their potential & present strategies the field is exploring to help cancer nanomedicines overcome their limitations.
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We’re excited to welcome @NatalieArtzi as a new member of the Wyss Associate Faculty. Her interdisciplinary experience developing nanomaterials for diagnostic and therapeutic applications will help us continue to develop disruptive solutions for healthcare
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Attempts to use macrophages as a cell therapy have largely failed due to cancerous tumors' ability to "trick" them into being pro-cancer. Wyss researchers have created a cell therapy innovation that keeps macrophages activated against cancer.
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Geckos have sticky feet, so why can't robots? The new HAMR-E robot from the Wyss Institute and @hseas has special foot pads that let it scale walls and walk upside-down just like its lizard inspiration.
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As we age, we’re often afflicted by several diseases at once. A new combination gene therapy developed by the Wyss Institute and @harvardmed was able to dramatically improve the health of mice with various age-related conditions.
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Congrats to @NatalieArtzi for her induction into the 2024 Class of the @aimbe College of Fellows. She is honored for her contributions to understanding interactions of nanostructures w/ the immune system and engineering of disease-responsive biomaterials for diagnosis/therapy.
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Researchers are generating implantable & injectable biomaterials to trap disease-related T cells #immunotherapy
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Better vaccines are in our blood: a team from @smitragotri's lab at the Wyss and @hseas has harnessed red blood cells to deliver antigens to immune cells in the spleen, creating an immune memory against cancer in mice without an adjuvant.
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We're proud that 10 of our faculty are on this year's Highly Cited Researchers list & 3 are Top Translational Researchers of 2019. Congrats, Drs. Aizenberg, @geochurch, Collins, @doningber, @JenniferALewis1, @smitragotri, Mooney, Weitz, Whitesides, & Wood!
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Researchers at the Wyss developed 2 methods for building arbitrarily shaped nanostructures using DNA, with a focus on translating the technology towards nanofabrication and drug delivery applications. #DNA #DrugDelivery #Nanofabrication .
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The Blood-Brain Barrier (BBB) is the major obstacle preventing drugs from reaching their targets in the brain in the treatment of diseases. A Wyss team created an enhanced human BBB on a microfluidic chip that better recapitulates drug transport ex vivo.
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CRISPR – it’s not just for genes anymore. New research from the Wyss Institute and @MIT shows that CRISPR can be used to make biomaterials that respond to a variety of signals, greatly expanding the repertoire of DNA-based technologies.
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"I prefer to think that, to the extent that we’ve been successful, it’s because we do stuff that’s simple and useful and solves problems.” -Associate Faculty member George Whitesides.Learn more about Whitesides in this interview from @Harvard.
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We are honored today to receive our third gift from our founder Hansjörg Wyss, which will help us continue our mission to change the world though disruptive innovations in health and sustainability. Here’s to the next 10 years! @WyssCampaign @Harvard
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Dendritic cells are crucial actors in the body's immune response. Now, for the first time, scientists can label, track, and control them in the body, and even used them to treat and prevent cancer in mice. @hseas
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What if we could address age-related diseases by making old cells young? Wyss-developed Ichor is using high-throughput genetic screening to identify networks of genes strongly implicated in aging processes and develop RNA-based therapies to do just that.
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This image shows nanoparticles attached to red blood cells (RBCs), which avoid immune recognition in the body & exhibit enhanced circulation as well as targeting to organs of interest. Credit: Aaron Anselmo / Samir Mitragotri
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Wyss researchers have developed a new kind of gene regulator, a Toehold Switch. These nanodevices can sense environmental stimuli and produce proteins for diagnostic and other synthetic biology applications.
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Today, @Harvard announced Hansjörg Wyss has given $350 million to support the continued mission of the Wyss Institute to transform healthcare and the environment by developing innovative technologies and accelerating their translation. @WyssCampaign
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We proudly promote @NatalieArtzi to its Core Faculty and appoint Di Feng as an Associate Faculty member.
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We're thrilled that @DonIngber, @geochurch, & David Weitz have been named to the top 2020 translational researchers list & 11 of our faculty members are on this year's highly cited researchers list. Congrats to all! @smitragotri @JenniferALewis .
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New research published in @nature from Wyss Associate Faculty member Chris Chen, "Mechanical regulation of glycolysis via cytoskeleton architecture"
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A new approach to amplify patient-specific T cells outside the body could increase the efficiency of cancer immunotherapies.
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Wyss Institute and @harvardmed researchers have developed a method dubbed SABER-FISH that will allow researchers around the world to visualize multiple DNA sequences and RNA molecules at once in the depth of thick tissues.
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How can we fix the "leaky pipeline" of women leaving STEM? Increase the number & visibility of female leaders in the sciences, & support students at all stages w/ strong mentorship, say Wyss female Faculty. #WomensHistoryMonth @snbhatia @JenniferALewis1.
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A new study published by a team at the Wyss Institute, @hseas and @DanaFarber describes a cancer vaccine approach that uses an injectable scaffold loaded with a selection of tumor-expressed peptides.
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Congratulations to Founding Director @DonIngber on winning the @HumaneSociety’s 2023 Russell and Burch Award for his work advancing alternative methods of research and testing, namely developing Organ Chips. #OrganChips #Award .
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It's #WorldKidneyDay. Wyss researchers help those w/ kidney disease by engineering more mature kidney organoids, which will enable better kidney diseases modeling and renal drug toxicity testing. It's also a step towards renal replacement therapies.
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.@NatalieArtzi's lab developed an adhesive hydrogel that can be sprayed or injected directly into the brain during surgery, enabling the local release of multiple drugs & nanoparticles to activate the immune system. #BrainCancerAwarenessMonth #TEDTalk .
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How can we study diseases affecting women’s reproductive organs in animal models that don’t menstruate? We can’t. In this episode of Innovate and Elevate, Sharon Kedar talks to @DonIngber about more effective Organ Chip models developed in his lab.
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Wyss Faculty member Dave Mooney, together with three colleagues from @MIT, @harvardmed, and @BU_Tweets, respectively, discusses the future of engineered immune cell therapies in an article published in @ScienceMagazine.
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At the Wyss, we take novel ideas, get them over the valley of death, and bring them to the point where they can be translated into commercializable products for healthcare & sustainability. Watch how we’re creating an impact through disruptive innovation.
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Wyss researchers are identifying peptides that overcome the blood-brain barrier as a powerful approach to deliver therapeutics to brain cells.
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A new technique uses patients’ unique genetic variation profiles to aid in personalized medicine.
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Scientists at the Wyss have developed an innovative cell therapy with applications in cancer, autoimmune diseases, tissue regeneration, and vaccines.
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Sometimes our lungs can get leaky, but instead of plugging the leak, all available drugs do is reduce the flow. A study from the Wyss and @BostonChildrens has identified a new potential target to treat lung leaks at their source.
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A new landmark piece of legislation, explored in @ScienceMagazine, says drugs no longer need to be tested on animals to receive @US_FDA approval. Wyss Founding Director @DonIngber points out, "Animal models are wrong more often than they are right." .
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Wyss Associate Faculty member @drmichaellevin on how biology’s software—the rules that enable great plasticity in how cell collectives generate reliable anatomies—is key to advancing tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
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"One of the strong points of this work is that it uses a completely non-genetic approach to dramatically increase cell survival in transplant contexts, where it’s sorely needed." David Mooney on Single-Cell Encapsulation for Improved Cell Therapies
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Research from the Wyss & @hseas has found that whether tissues' local environments are firm like Jell-O or fluid like honey changes how they develop. Further research could reveal how cancer grows based on where it forms. #MooneyLab @NatureMaterials .
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Predicting whether vaccines will produce a strong immune response against pathogens is currently a guessing game. Now, with the Wyss' new lymphoid follicle (LF) Chip, scientists can replicate complex immune responses in vitro and develop better vaccines.
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Bioprinted tubular 3D renal architecture that recapitulates functions of the kidney developed by materials scientists at the Wyss Institute. #SciArt #3DBioprinting
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The rotary actuated dodecahedron (RAD) sampler developed by researchers at the Wyss, @hseas, and @RadInstitute was named one of the 100 greatest innovations of 2018 by @PopSci. This origami-inspired device allows researchers to study deep-sea organisms.
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A new paper authored by independent researchers around the world, including our Founding Director @doningber, affirms that HCQ and CQ do not prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection, and should not be used to treat COVID-19
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