Wyss InstituteRobots – Wyss Institute

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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DNA Nanoswitches: “Lab-on-a-Molecule” Drug Discovery

Mariel Schoen — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 12:55:42 +0000

Current approaches in compound screening are often limited in either throughput – the simultaneous investigation of large numbers of chemical or biological compounds for a specific biological target – or in the ability to screen for the complex ways disease-relevant molecules can be functionally affected by drugs. This can make it challenging to discover new therapeutics that modulate proteins’…

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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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Scientists build tiny biological robots from human cells

Jessica Leff — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 20:00:32 +0000

Mike Silver / Tufts University Communications (MEDFORD, Mass.) – Researchers have created tiny biological robots, called Anthrobots, from adult human tracheal cells that can move across a surface and encourage the growth of neurons in a lab dish. The multicellular assemblies, ranging in size from the width of a human hair to the point of a sharpened pencil, are designed to carry out tasks…

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Wyss Institute’s Lab-on-a-Molecule Drug Discovery Project Receives Funding from Northpond Labs

Jessica Leff — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 12:57:31 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) – The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Northpond Labs, the research-and-development affiliate of Northpond Ventures, entered into an agreement today, whereby Northpond Labs will support the Institute’s “Lab-on-a-Molecule” project. This is the third Wyss project to which Northpond Labs has…

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Clearing a path for non-invasive muscle therapy for the elderly

Jessica Leff — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 17:57:17 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — Mechanotherapy, the concept of using mechanical forces to stimulate tissue healing, has been used for decades as a form of physical therapy to help heal injured muscles. However, the biological basis and optimal settings for mechanotherapies are still poorly understood, especially with respect to elderly patients. Given the well-known decline in healing ability…

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Manufacturing Mini Surgical Robots

Jessica Leff — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 15:29:21 +0000

Surgical robots have revolutionized procedures for patients around the world, making them more precise and less invasive than earlier tools. But most surgical robots are massive devices that can take up an entire room and cost millions of dollars. And the surgical tools themselves that enter the patient’s body are currently too large to access certain organs and tissues.

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Wasting muscles built back better

Mariel Schoen — Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:55:28 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — Muscles waste as a result of not being exercised enough, as happens quickly with a broken limb that has been immobilized in a cast, and more slowly in people reaching an advanced age. Muscle atrophy, how clinicians refer to the phenomenon, is also a debilitating symptom in patients suffering from neurological disorders, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)…

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Reimagining Robots to be Smaller, Softer, and Safer

Jessica Leff — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 20:39:16 +0000

Wyss Associate Faculty members, Conor Walsh and Rob Wood, discuss their visions for the future of bio-inspired soft robotics. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University…

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Wyss Technologies Top Harvard’s 2022 President’s Innovation Challenge

Seth Kroll — Mon, 09 May 2022 15:20:43 +0000

(BOSTON) – Students and selected alumni competed over the course of seven months for a share of $510,000 in the 2022 Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge (PIC). On May 5, two teams won top prizes for technologies developed at the Wyss Institute. Benjamin Freedman, Ph.D. and the Limax Biosciences team won the $75,000 first-place prize in the Health & Life Sciences Track for their Tough…

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