Wyss InstituteMicrotechnology – Wyss Institute

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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Paper-Based Diagnostics

admin — Wed, 01 May 2024 00:34:41 +0000

With the imminent threat of new pandemics and frequent disease outbreaks exemplified by the recent Ebola and Zika epidemics, there is a growing need for low-cost, easily deployable and simple-to-use diagnostic tools. The Wyss Institute has developed paper-based synthetic gene networks as a next generation diagnostic technology for use in global healthcare crises and patient care. This new type of…

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Passive Directional Valve Technology: Towards More User-friendly and Accessible Microfluidic Devices for Diagnostic and Research Applications

Jessica Leff — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 17:42:46 +0000

Automated fluid-transporting and processing systems that function on the scale of micrometers (microfluidic systems) are becoming increasingly important for advancing various diagnostic, drug fabrication and delivery, and tissue engineering applications. Efforts to create smaller microfluidic devices with functionalities realized at larger scales rely heavily on valves to enable the regulated…

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The Vagina Chip: A New Preclinical Model for Research on Vaginal Epithelium Microbiome Interactions

Jessica Leff — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 19:33:14 +0000

The Vagina Chip allows researchers to study a human model of the vaginal microbiome and develop new treatments for bacterial vaginosis and other conditions that threaten women’s health. Credit: Research Square…

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A breakthrough in bacterial vaginosis treatment for women’s health

Mariel Schoen — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 18:56:46 +0000

By Lindsay Brownell (BOSTON) — The human microbiome has been a hot topic over the last decade, with research pointing to disrupted bacterial communities as culprits for a host of maladies including irritable bowel syndrome, eczema, and autoimmune diseases. Most studies have focused on the microbiome within the human gut, but there is growing recognition that another oft-ignored bacterial…

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New portable diagnostic detects SARS-CoV-2 RNA and antibodies at the same time

Jessica Leff — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 14:58:32 +0000

By Lindsay Brownell (BOSTON) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has run its course, the questions we have been asking ourselves have evolved: from “How do I know if I’m infected?” to “How strong is my immunity?” to “Which strain of the virus do I have?” And, as new variants continue to emerge, it’s likely that we’ll keep asking ourselves those questions, often at the same time. Now, there’s a way to…

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Cantex licenses intellectual property from Harvard University to develop repurposed drug identified by Wyss Institute to treat inflammatory lung diseases including COVID-19

Jessica Leff — Wed, 23 Feb 2022 15:57:42 +0000

By Lindsay Brownell (BOSTON, MA and WESTON, FL) – Cantex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company based in Weston, FL, and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University announced today that Cantex has secured a global license from Harvard University’s Office of Technology Development (OTD) to develop azeliragon, a small-molecule drug in…

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Predicting influenza virus evolution in a human Lung Airway Chip

Jessica Leff — Mon, 20 Sep 2021 13:19:07 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) – Influenza virus was the cause of the flu pandemic of 1918 that killed over 20 million people world-wide, and different variants continue to cause new epidemic flu outbreaks every year that threaten the health and livelihoods of many. The Centers for Disease Control and Intervention (CDC) estimate that influenza has resulted in between 9 million and 45 million…

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Single-Cell Encapsulation for Improved Cell Therapies

admin — Mon, 26 Jul 2021 21:09:20 +0000

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are valued for their ability to secrete compounds that modulate the body’s immune system, making them an attractive solution for existing problems with cell therapies including host-vs-graft disease and organ transplant rejections. However, MSCs are rapidly cleared from the body and can come under fire from the immune system. Efforts to address these issues by…

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Of mice and men and leveraging their different tolerance to pathogens

Jessica Leff — Mon, 15 Mar 2021 18:20:59 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — Trillions of commensal microbes live on the mucosal and epidermal surfaces of the body and it is firmly established that this microbiome affects its host’s tolerance and sensitivity to a variety of pathogens. However, host tolerance to infection with pathogens is not equally developed in all organisms. For example, it is known that the gut microbiome of mice…

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