Tag: Wyss Institute

  • Science & Tech

    Face mask can help diagnose COVID-19

    A team of researchers from the Wyss Institute has found a way to embed synthetic biology reactions into fabrics, creating wearable biosensors that can be customized to detect pathogens and toxins and alert the wearer.

    7 minutes
    Young woman wears co
  • Science & Tech

    Human organ chips enable rapid drug repurposing for COVID-19

    A Wyss Institute-led collaboration has used the institute’s organ-on-a-chip technology to identify the antimalarial drug amodiaquine as a potent inhibitor of infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

    12 minutes
    ACE2 receptor protein under a microscope.
  • Science & Tech

    DNA, assemble

    A concept for seeded all-or-nothing assembly of micron-scale DNA nanostructures that could extend nanofabrication capabilities and enable creation of highly specific diagnostics.

    7 minutes
    William Shih.
  • Campus & Community

    Looking back on Harvard’s COVID response one year later

    Health experts, leaders, and staff offered input, helped devise Harvard’s coronavirus policy and procedures.

    11 minutes
    Scientist in a lab.
  • Health

    Turning the problem of cancer metastasis into an opportunity

    Delivering immune-stimulating nanoparticles to the lungs via red blood cells halts tumor growth in mice.

    8 minutes
    Red blood cells.
  • Science & Tech

    Enzymatic DNA synthesis sees the light

    Controlling a DNA-synthesizing enzyme with photolithographic methods from the computer chip industry facilitates multiplexed writing and storage of digital data in DNA.

    7 minutes
    DNA binary.
  • Science & Tech

    Deep learning takes on synthetic biology

    Computational algorithms enable identification and optimization of RNA-based tools for myriad applications.

    11 minutes
    Rendering.
  • Science & Tech

    Putting a crown on OMNIVAX

    A biomaterials-based infection vaccine strategy shows first promise in eliciting immunity against SARS-CoV-2 and could be applied broadly to stave off infectious disease.

    5 minutes
    Omnivax protein.
  • Science & Tech

    7 million face shields and counting

    The Wyss Institute made improvements to its face shields based on recommendations from area hospitals. Joining forces with a Mansfield, Mass.-based manufacturer, the institute’s face shields are now being produced at a rate of 400,000 a day.

    8 minutes
    Dome shield.
  • Science & Tech

    Better vaccines are in our blood

    New platform technology uses red blood cells to generate targeted immune responses in mice

    6 minutes
    Syringe in vaccine bottle.
  • Campus & Community

    ‘The world changed, so we changed with it’

    While the majority of the Wyss Institute is working remotely, a small but dedicated team is still coming into the lab to help treat and cure COVID-19.

    5 minutes
    Woman working in lab.
  • Science & Tech

    The next decade in science

    The Wyss Institute asked its faculty members to predict the biggest scientific advancements in their fields in the next 10 years.

    7 minutes
    Illustration of double helix and test tube.
  • Science & Tech

    Real texture for lab-grown meat

    Researchers are able to build muscle fibers, giving lab-grown meat the texture meat lovers seek.

    5 minutes
    Images of gelatin fibers taken by scanning electron microscopy.
  • Science & Tech

    A reliable clock for your microbiome

    The microbiome is a treasure trove of information about human health and disease, but getting it to reveal its secrets is challenging, especially when attempting to study it in living subjects. A new genetic “repressilator” lets scientists noninvasively study its dynamics, acting like a clock that tracks how bacterial growth changes over time with single-cell…

    7 minutes
    Colonies of bacteria
  • Science & Tech

    Blood-brain barrier chip performs human-like drug and antibody transport

    Wyss Institute scientists have developed chip technology that mimics the blood-brain barrier in humans. The new models will help researchers study drugs to treat cancer, neurodegeneration, and other diseases of the central nervous system.

    7 minutes
    A transparent plastic model of a human skull
  • Campus & Community

    Wyss donates third major gift

    The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University announced today the latest gift of $131 million from its founder, entrepreneur and philanthropist Hansjörg Wyss, M.B.A. ’65.

    9 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    Laying some groundwork for environmental protection

    The Wyss Institute has developed a sheet pile driving robot, Romu, that works in uneven terrain to build metal walls that can act as dams, retaining walls, or building foundations.

    5 minutes
    Romu the robot in the sand
  • Science & Tech

    A step closer to tissue-engineered kidneys

    The Wyss Institute and Roche Innovation Center Basel in Switzerland have teamed up to create 3-D bioprinted proximal tubules beside functioning blood vessel compartments, closely mimicking the kidney’s blood-filtration system that removes waste products while returning “good” molecules, such as glucose and amino acids, back into the bloodstream.

    5 minutes
  • Health

    Harnessing nature to beat cancer

    Every year, more than 18 million people around the world are told, “You have cancer.” In the U.S., nearly half of all men and more than one-third of women will…

    18 minutes
    Nanoparticles
  • Health

    A telephone for your microbiome

    Genetic engineering allows different species of bacteria to communicate with each other in the gut of a living mouse, setting the stage for a synthetic microbiome.

    3 minutes
    plate containing the signaler bacteria S. Typhimurium
  • Science & Tech

    Taking the brain apart to put it all together again

    A new organ chip system from the Wyss Institute allows scientists to make new discoveries about the importance of blood vessels for our mental function.

    6 minutes
    brain-chip-with-blood-vessels
  • Science & Tech

    ‘Aliens’ of the deep captured

    A new device developed by Harvard researchers safely traps delicate sea creatures inside a folding polyhedral enclosure and lets them go without harm using a novel, origami-inspired design.

    5 minutes
  • Health

    Hitchhiking his way to better drug delivery

    Researchers set out to develop a system that could help prevent nanoparticles from being cleared from the blood before they get to their target tissues. Called the “hitchhiking method,” and it’s found to work in human lungs, where a full 41 percent of the nanoparticles introduced into blood were deposited into the lung.

    8 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    Eye-popping arachnids

    Harvard researchers examined mysteries of color in the spider species Phoroncidia rubroargentea.

    6 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Discovering a ‘richness’ in Harvard’s diversity

    Harvard College senior Jacob Scherba’s own health and his sister’s affliction with a rare disorder influenced his merging engineering and medicine.

    5 minutes
  • Health

    Keeping the genetic code clean

    Researchers have taken the first step toward removing unwanted cells by converting the CRISPR/Cas9 genome-engineering system into a genome-surveillance tool that removes newly occurring disease-associated mutations.

    5 minutes
    CRISPR-Cas9
  • Science & Tech

    Onward and upward, robots

    The first article in a series on cutting-edge research at Harvard explores advances in robotics.

    15 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    No harm, no foul

    Researchers at SEAS, the Wyss Institute, and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have developed a nontoxic coating that deters marine life from attaching to surfaces in a breakthrough for maritime travel and commerce.

    10 minutes
  • Health

    Creating a smoking machine

    Researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute have developed an instrument that smokes cigarettes like a human, and delivers whole smoke to the air space of microfluidic human airway chips. The machine may enable new insights into how nonsmokers and COPD patients respond to smoke.

    5 minutes
  • Health

    The first fully 3-D-printed heart-on-a-chip

    A new approach to manufacturing organs-on-chips developed by Harvard researchers could cut the length and cost of clinical trials significantly.

    3 minutes