Wyss InstituteMechanobiology – Wyss Institute

Wyss Institute promotes Natalie Artzi to its Core Faculty and appoints Di Feng as an Associate Faculty member

Jessica Leff — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 13:15:25 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — Natalie Artzi, Ph.D., joined the ranks of the Wyss Institute’s now 12 Core Faculty members after only two years as an Associate Faculty member. Artzi’s promotion reflects her exceptional commitment to the Institute’s mission and the deep engagements and collaborations she has initiated within its technology development community. The Wyss Institute also warmly…

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Human cervix modeled in microfluidic organ chip fills key women’s health gap

Jessica Leff — Fri, 31 May 2024 14:55:29 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) has been identified as one of the many unmet needs in women’s health and affects more than 25% of reproductive-aged women. It is caused by pathogenic bacteria that push the healthy microbiomes in the female vagina and cervix – the small gatekeeper canal that connects the uteruns and vagina – into a state of imbalance known as dysbiosis.

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Expanding a lymph node, boosting a vaccine

Jessica Leff — Mon, 06 May 2024 09:15:39 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — Each one of us has around 600 lymph nodes (LNs) – small, bean-shaped organs that house various types of blood cells and filter lymph fluid – scattered throughout our bodies. Many of us have also experienced some of our LNs to temporarily swelling during infections with viruses or other pathogens. This LN expansion and subsequent contraction can also result from…

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MyoExo: Wearable Muscle-Centric Sensors for Improved Assessment of Neurological Disorders

Jessica Leff — Wed, 01 May 2024 14:00:27 +0000

Abnormal changes in muscle function are hallmarks of a collection of neurological disorders, including Parkinson’s Disease (PD), essential tremor, epilepsy, certain sleep disorders, and others. For example, patients with PD can have slowed movements (bradykinesia), tremors, and muscle stiffness (rigidity) – doctors need to detect at least two of the three signs for a positive diagnosis.

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Repairing patients’ dura more durably

Jessica Leff — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 17:55:14 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — The dural membrane (dura) is the outermost of three meningeal layers that line the central nervous system (CNS), which includes the brain and spinal cord. Together, the meninges function as a shock-absorber to protect the CNS against trauma, circulate nutrients throughout the CNS, as well as remove waste. The dura also is a critical biological barrier that…

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Soft robotic, wearable device improves walking for individual with Parkinson’s disease

Jessica Leff — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 14:21:45 +0000

By Leah Burrows / SEAS Communications (CAMBRIDGE, Mass.) — Freezing is one of the most common and debilitating symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that affects more than 9 million people worldwide. When individuals with Parkinson’s disease freeze, they suddenly lose the ability to move their feet, often mid-stride, resulting in a series of staccato stutter steps that…

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The Wyss Institute’s 2023-2024 Validation Projects

Seth Kroll — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 14:47:13 +0000

Each year we name a class of Validation Projects whose teams receive dedicated funding, business development support, and additional resources to advance their technologies towards commercialization. Over the course of the year, project teams pursue initial use-cases for their technologies that have the potential for significant positive impact. They also collaborate with key opinion leaders…

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Adding immunity to human kidney-on-a-chip advances cancer drug testing

Seth Kroll — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 14:57:37 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (Boston) — A growing repertoire of cell and molecule-based immunotherapies is offering patients with indomitable cancers new hope by mobilizing their immune systems against tumor cells. An emerging class of such immunotherapeutics, known as T cell bispecific antibodies (TCBs), are of growing importance with several TCBs that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)…

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Bridging science, engineering, and art: from mechanobiology to Human Organs-on-Chips

Jessica Leff — Thu, 27 Jul 2023 17:49:31 +0000

In this Marsilius Lecture, Wyss Founding Director Don Ingber shares his personal path from a serendipitous experience in an undergraduate art class that led to his discovery of how living cells are constructed using “tensegrity” architecture and how this contributed to the birth of the field of Mechanobiology to his more recent work on human Organ Chips, which offer the possibility of replacing…

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Wearable Technology for True Movement Quantification

admin — Wed, 19 Apr 2023 20:47:43 +0000

Athletes undergoing daily training and patients undergoing physical therapy, often do not have a way to quantitatively assess their progress or obtain actionable insights that help to enhance performance or avoid injuries. There are vast options for wearable devices and activity monitors, however, those are generally limited to tracking cardiovascular activities and heart-related data.

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