Wyss InstitutePhysiology – Wyss Institute

Modeling a devastating childhood disease on a chip

Mariel Schoen — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 14:55:26 +0000

By Lindsay Brownell (BOSTON) — Millions of children in low- and middle-income nations suffer from environmental enteric dysfunction (EED), a chronic inflammatory disease of the intestine that is the second leading cause of death of children younger than five years of age. EED is a devastating condition that is associated with malnutrition, stunted growth, and poor cognitive development…

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CircaVent: A Drug Discovery Platform for Mental Health Conditions

Jessica Leff — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 15:23:42 +0000

Mental illness affects many people around the world, and is often debilitating. Bipolar disorder (BD), for example, afflicts about nine million people in the US, or roughly 2% of the population, and nearly 83% of patients’ illness is classified as “severe,” meaning it dramatically impacts their quality of life. The only drug that is specifically approved by the FDA to treat BD is lithium…

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The immune system is very complicated, but now, it’s on a chip

Jessica Leff — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 17:50:16 +0000

By Lindsay Brownell (BOSTON) — To quote veteran science writer Ed Yong’s simple yet extremely accurate words in The Atlantic, “The immune system is very complicated.” As the COVID-19 pandemic had made abundantly clear, science still doesn’t fully understand the sophisticated defense mechanisms that protect us from microbe invaders. Why do some people show no symptoms when infected with SARS-CoV…

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A personalized exosuit for real-world walking

Jessica Leff — Wed, 10 Nov 2021 19:10:21 +0000

By Leah Burrows/SEAS Communications (CAMBRIDGE, Mass.) — People rarely walk at a constant speed and a single incline. We change speed when rushing to the next appointment, catching a crosswalk signal, or going for a casual stroll in the park. Slopes change all the time too, whether we’re going for a hike or up a ramp into a building. In addition to environmental variably, how we walk is…

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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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Soft Robotic Glove for Neuromuscular Rehabilitation

admin — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 23:34:39 +0000

The majority of people with neurological conditions, such as stroke and spinal cord injury, suffer from loss of motor function in one or both hands, which can greatly reduce their quality of life. Tasks often taken for granted become frustrating or nearly impossible due to tight and spastic muscles, reduced grasping strength, and general lack of coordination in the hand.

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Defects in developing frog brain can be prevented or repaired with bioelectric drugs

Jessica Leff — Thu, 28 May 2020 15:00:21 +0000

By Michael Silver, Tufts University (MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass.) — Researchers led by biologists at Tufts University and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have discovered that the brains of developing frog embryos damaged by nicotine exposure can be repaired by treatment with “ionoceutical” drugs that drive the recovery of bioelectric patterns in the…

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Interrogator: Human Organ-on-Chips

Jessica Leff — Mon, 27 Jan 2020 16:00:40 +0000

This video describes the “Interrogator” instrument that can be programmed to culture up to 10 different Organ Chips and sequentially transfer fluids between their vascular channels to mimic normal human blood flow between the different organs of our body. Its integrated microscope enables the continuous monitoring of the tissues’ integrities in the individual organ chips in long-term studies.

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Human Body-on-Chip platform enables in vitro prediction of drug behaviors in humans

Jessica Leff — Mon, 27 Jan 2020 15:58:57 +0000

(BOSTON) — Drug development is an extremely arduous and costly process, and failure rates in clinical trials that test new drugs for their safety and efficacy in humans remain very high. According to current estimates, only 13.8% of all tested drugs demonstrate ultimate clinical success and obtain approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). There are also increasing ethical concerns…

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Investigating the human intestinal mucus barrier up-close and personal

Jessica Leff — Tue, 03 Dec 2019 15:58:55 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — We have a mutualistic but complicated relationship with the collection of microbes in our gut, known as the intestinal microbiome. This complex community of bacteria breaks down different food components, and releases nutrients such as vitamins and a plethora of other factors that control functions in tissues way beyond the intestinal tract. However…

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