Wyss InstituteGenome Engineering – Wyss Institute

The Dish Live with special guest George Church

Jessica Leff — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 15:24:53 +0000

In this very special live taping of “The Dish,” host Johannes Fruehauf sits down with renowned geneticist and Wyss Core Faculty member, George Church, Ph.D. Widely known for discovering the first direct genomic sequencing method, Church has reshaped the world of genetics. A professor at Harvard and MIT and a founding professor at the Wyss Institute, Church has co-founded over 50 startups—15+ of…

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SeqVerify: A New Easily Accessible Tool for Comprehensive Cell Line Quality Assessment – The Stem Cell Report

Jessica Leff — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 16:54:17 +0000

During the last decade, advances in genome editing and pluripotent stem cell (PSC) culture have let researchers generate edited PSC lines to study a wide variety of biological questions. However, abnormalities in cell lines such as aneuploidy, mutations, on-target and off-target editing errors, and microbial contamination can arise during PSC culture or due to undesired editing outcomes.

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CRISPR’s Impact, Today

Mariel Schoen — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 12:00:08 +0000

By Seth Kroll (BOSTON) — In the not-so-distant past, CRISPR, the revolutionary gene-editing technology, was discovered as a defense system protecting bacteria against viruses. Today, with the persistence and ingenuity of many scientists, it is no longer just the subject of fascinating academic research papers and speculative discussions on its future usefulness for medicine.

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Preventing pollution with bioinspired solutions

Jessica Leff — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 21:14:47 +0000

By Lindsay Brownell In honor of Pollution Prevention Week, we’re highlighting three Wyss projects that are taking on the formidable problems of PFAS and plastic – persistent and toxic pollutants that threaten the health of humans, animals, and ecosystems. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), or “forever chemicals,” are toxic substances that increase the risk of many health…

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A model of Collaborative Ethics to guide translational research from fundamental discoveries to real-world applications

Jessica Leff — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 14:55:06 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — In sciences, disruptive research that is breaking new ground often raises new and not-yet-explored ethical questions. Although new scientific breakthroughs can have the power to change how we understand and live in the world, the ethical implications of technologies that will emerge based on these new insights can affect an emerging field’s public acceptance and…

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The Wyss Institute’s 2024-2025 Validation Projects

Jessica Leff — Wed, 29 May 2024 14:55:23 +0000

Every year the Wyss Institute names a class of Validation Projects whose teams receive dedicated funding, business development support, and other resources to advance their promising technologies towards commercialization. They also collaborate with key opinion leaders, investors, and potential customers to de-risk their innovations and speed their progress to the market. This year…

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Ichor: Reversing Aging

Jessica Leff — Wed, 01 May 2024 10:47:33 +0000

More than 150,000 people die each day across the globe, about two-thirds of them from age-related causes like cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and cardiovascular disease. If the process of aging could be slowed or reversed, the incidence of these conditions would be dramatically reduced, and more humans would live longer, healthier lives. However, aging is a complex process involving multiple…

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Solving Sustainability with Synthetic Biology

Mariel Schoen — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 12:58:58 +0000

By Lindsay Brownell As humans, we like to think that we are the smartest animals on planet Earth. After all, no other species has invented smartphones, heat pumps, or jet engines. But for all our innovations, we have also created problems on a global scale. Take plastic, for example. Humans invented plastic scarcely more than a century ago, but we now produce more than 350 million…

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Plastic Degradation Company, Breaking, Emerges from Stealth with Naturally-Derived Solution to Degrade Multiple Plastics with $10.5M in Seed Funding

Jessica Leff — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 14:00:50 +0000

(Boston, MA and Dallas, TX) – Breaking, a plastic degradation and synthetic biology company, gestated at Colossal Biosciences based on a core discovery out of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, launches today with the announcement of their discovery, X-32, which they will develop to address the global plastics crisis. In its natural state…

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In a first, genetically edited pig kidney is transplanted into human

Mariel Schoen — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 21:16:08 +0000

By Mass General Brigham Communications In a first-of-its-kind medical procedure, Harvard Medical School physician-scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital have transplanted a genetically edited pig kidney into a human. While many unknowns remain about the viability of the newly transplanted organ and the patient’s long-term health, the procedure — made possible in part by scientific…

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