Hansjörg Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. Having trouble reading this email? View it in your browser. |
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The Wyss Institute was awarded a $12.3 million, four-year grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop a treatment for sepsis, a commonly fatal bloodstream infection. The proposed device will integrate several technologies by Wyss researchers, Don Ingber, Joanna Aizenberg, and George Church, including 
Joanna Aizenberg and collaborators have been awarded $900,000 from the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research. Inspired by nature, both efforts will focus on the creation of new surfaces that are capable of unprecedented adaptive and self-regulating behavior. Marine biofouling is one of the focus applications, where the proposed surfaces would offer a cost effective and environmentally friendly alternative to current toxic treatment methods and would result in lower ship drag and reduced fuel costs.
The Wyss Institute's first workshop on adaptive architecture -- Buildings Inspired by Nature: Inventing the Future Built Environment -- brought together diverse members of the scientific community and the building industry to help set a future course for architecture. Led by Chuck Hoberman, Joanna Aizenberg, and Don Ingber, the event explored bioinspired advances in materials and structures that can address our most pressing building needs. 
We recently initiated a research collaboration with BASF, the world's largest chemical company. The collaboration, headed by George Church, explores use of the Wyss Institute’s Multiplexed Automated Genome Engineering (MAGE) technology as a faster, cost-effective alternative to current metabolic engineering alternatives. This collaboration complements our ongoing efforts using MAGE to explore pharmaceutical and biofuel applications.
Ali Khadem- hosseini has been selected to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers -- the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on young scientists and engineers. President Obama will present the award at the White House.
Shawn Douglas, a Wyss Technology Development Fellow, was one of just ten researchers to receive a 2011 Career Award from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. He plans to use the five-year, $500,000 award to develop new methods and software for creating nanoscale devices from biomolecules.
Peng Yin has received a prestigious Young Faculty Award from DARPA to pursue his work in programmable nano-fabrication using nucleic acids. The $300,000 award is intended to help the next generation of academic scientists, engineers, and mathematicians frame their future research in the context of national security issues.
Dave Mooney has won the 2011 Senior Scientist Award from the Tissue Engineering Regenerative Medicine International Society, North America (TERMIS-NA) in recognition of his significant contributions to the field.
Harris Wang, a Wyss Institute Technology Development Fellow, has received a Director's Early Independence Award from the National Institutes of Health. Wang will use the five-year, $2.1 million funding to pursue his work of transforming common microbes, such as those found in the gut, into tools for good health.
The Anticipatory Medical Device Platform bestowed its inaugural IEEE-EMBS Wyss Award for Translational Research during the 33rd annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society in Boston.
Representatives from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) met with Wyss researchers in Longwood last month to discuss our joint program to develop a "Heart-Lung Micromachine." 
Members of the Hong Kong Biotechnology Delegation to the United States visited the Wyss this summer. 
Hansjörg Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. To view previous issues of this newsletter, visit our archive page |
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