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Wyss Institute-enabled Organ Chip “avatars” will provide insights into astronaut health risks and provide a tool for future discovery of countermeasures necessary for travel to the Moon and beyond

Wyss Institute at Harvard University Endometriosis affects millions worldwide. Diagnosis can take 7 to 10 years and often relies on invasive surgery. The FemSmaht Research Team at the Wyss Institute is working to change that. We are conducting a study to develop a non-invasive method for detecting endometriosis and we are looking for menstruating individuals (endometriosis-positive and those with…

Scientists engineer a recombinase-based synthetic circuit that enables “quantitative” control of cellular differentiation and population composition By Jia LIU, Chinese Academy of Sciences Edited by Karen Pepper (BEIJING) – Cellular differentiation and a division of labor are essential to living systems as distinct cell types performing specialized functions arise in defined proportions and spati…

The Humans of the Wyss (HOW) series features members of the Wyss community discussing their work, the influences that shape them as professionals, and their collaborations at the Wyss Institute and beyond. Katharina Meyer is exceptionally welcoming in both her personal and professional life. At home, this takes the form of studying and improving hosting skills by experimenting with cooking and ba…

How the Wyss Institute is advancing targeted therapies, early diagnosis, and collaborative models to confront neurodegenerative disease, mental illness, and brain cancer For decades, some of the most urgent challenges in brain health have resisted progress across both academia and the pharmaceutical industry. At the Wyss Institute, we are tackling them head-on. A central focus is overcoming one o…

Through the Wyss Institute Spark Awards, individual donors and families help advance breakthroughs that the world urgently needs A one-time gel that could help stop brain cancer In contrast to advances made in other types of cancer, brain cancer survival rates remain little-changed despite years of research. Only a handful of treatments have been approved for the more than 100 types of brain tumo…

In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers demonstrate that functional nervous systems can form within self-organized living cellular robots, conferring complex movement patterns and distinct gene expression profiles By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — Biobots, whose growing line of variants started with Xenobots, are fascinating tiny self-powered living robots built exclusively using frog embryonic c…

Wyss Institute’s DoriVac combined vaccine and adjuvant technology uses nanoscale precision enabled by DNA origami to induce broad immunity against infectious viruses By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — The COVID-19 pandemic brought messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines to the forefront of global health care. After their clinical trial stages, the first COVID-19 mRNA vaccine was administered on 8 December 202…

Meet some of the incredible women at the Institute who are having a positive impact on the world through their work You’ve probably heard of Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, and Thomas Edison, some of the most famous scientists and engineers who have transcended their respective fields and gained notoriety for their work. While their impact is obviously important, they only paint one specific pic…

The Humans of the Wyss (HOW) series features members of the Wyss community discussing their work, the influences that shape them as professionals, and their collaborations at the Wyss Institute and beyond. What do pottery and materials science have in common? Namrata Ramani used to think they were worlds apart. Then, as she honed her skills on the wheel and at the bench, she realized there are co…

A conversation with Associate Faculty member Ellen Roche, Ph.D., about all things heart By Jessica Leff There is no Wyss faculty member more qualified to discuss matters of the heart than Ellen Roche, Ph.D., who has been working on developing cardiac devices since she was an undergraduate student. During her Ph.D. work, which was co-advised by Wyss Faculty members David Mooney, Ph.D., and Conor W…

Field-deployable CRISPR-based biosensing platform could enable facile, real-time monitoring of marine barometer species and ecosystems

Despite major advances in personalized medicine, targeted drugs, and immunotherapies, many cancers remain difficult – or impossible – to treat. Even when therapies work, they can trigger serious secondary health risks that may themselves become life-threatening. Wyss Institute researchers are tackling these challenges head-on by developing new therapies that more powerfully activate the immune… S…

Newly developed method to fabricate perfusable collecting ducts of the human kidney opens the door to disease modeling, drug testing, and organ engineering

The Mentor Hive, which has welcomed four new members, remains an essential part of the Wyss’ technology translation pipeline, with Mentors sharing invaluable advice and experience

The Humans of the Wyss (HOW) series features members of the Wyss community discussing their work, the influences that shape them as professionals, and their collaborations at the Wyss Institute and beyond. Russell Gould wants to know why. Seeking a flexible, open career path after serving in the military, he gravitated toward science, where he was encouraged to ask questions about the unknown. So…

Celebrating members of the Wyss community who turn bold ideas into real-world impact through entrepreneurship and innovation

Highly multidisciplinary, multi-institutional team of world-leading experts to build technological foundation for liver transplants that could save thousands of patients

Precision diagnostic platform integrating CRISPR and single-molecule technology with AI enables rapid and accurate detection of drug-resistant C. auris pathogens

Viewpoint From our Founding Director