Application Area: Cancer

Technologies 15

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• ReConstruct: Vascularized tissue for breast reconstruction
  ReConstruct is a platform for growing, vascularizing, and implanting patient-derived tissues that enable safer breast reconstruction after cancer surgery.
• AminoX: Making Biologics Safer with Synthetic Biology and Advanced Chemistry
  AminoX enables protein drugs to only become active in the tumor microenvironment and not elsewhere in the body to avoid immune-related adverse effects in the body. By designing and building non-standard amino acids into strategic positions of protein drugs, AminoX provides tumor-specific, and longer-lasting target inhibition.
• Metabolically Labeled CAR-T Cells Against Cancer
  Through a simple and effective metabolic labeling approach, patient-derived T cells engineered to carry immune-enhancing cytokines on their surfaces could help expand adoptive T cell therapies to treatment of solid tumors and improve blood cancer therapies.
• DoriVac: Boosting Antigen-specific Immune Responses with DNA Origami-Based Vaccines
  Personalized cancer and infectious disease vaccine platform harnessing DNA nanotechnology to control the co-delivery and co-presentation of tumor antigen and adjuvant ligands to immune cells with nanoscale precision. This approach has potential to trigger enhanced immune responses against tumors and infectious pathogens.
• SomaCode: Getting Cell Therapies Where They Need to Go
  SomaCode is solving the problem of cell therapy delivery by identifying unique molecular “zip codes” for disease and engineering cells to home to those zip codes, making cell therapies safer and more effective.
• Cellular “Backpacks” to Slow Tumor Growth
  A cell therapy innovation that keep macrophages activated against cancer. Macrophages are like little soldiers in our bodies that help fend off diseases like cancer. Our cellular “backpacks” are disc-shaped nanoparticles that can stick to a macrophage without being engulfed, and release a steady stream of cytokines into their macrophage “hosts” to help them fight against cancer.

Collaborations 1

• i3 Center: Biomaterials to Create T Cell Immunity
  Cancer immunologists and biological engineers are developing new biomaterials-based approaches to develop new anti-cancer immunotherapies for treatment-resistant cancers.

News 115

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• Press Release
  
  Adding immunity to human kidney-on-a-chip advances cancer drug testing
  August 23, 2023
• Press Release
  
  Moving the needle on monitoring skin cancer
  August 21, 2023
• Press Release
  
  Wyss Institute promotes Christopher Chen to a Core Faculty member and appoints Ellen Roche and Michael Springer as new members of its Associate Faculty
  July 31, 2023

Multimedia 38

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  Video/Animation
  ReConstruct – 3D Bioprinted Vascularized Fat Tissues for Breast Reconstruction
  Breast cancer affects 15% of all women. Current options for breast reconstruction are insufficient and have poor patient outcomes. A research team at the Wyss Institute is addressing this clinical need by fabricating vascularized adipose tissue flaps for therapeutic use. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University

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  Video/Animation
  How can we train the immune system to fight cancer?
  The implantable cancer vaccine is a biomaterial that recruits and reprograms a patient’s own immune cells on-site to kill cancer cells. This revolutionary immuno-material technology was tested in a Phase I clinical trial with promising results and is currently licensed by Novartis as an immunotherapy to treat specific tumor types. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard...

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  Video/Animation
  Metabolic T cell Labeling: simple and effective enhancement of therapeutic T cells with immune-stimulating cytokines
  This animation shows how the surface of patient-derived T cells is metabolically labeled with azido-sugar molecules that then can be used to attach immune-enhancing cytokines with the help of click chemistry. The approach could help expand adoptive T cell therapies to treatment of solid tumors. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University

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  Video/Animation
  DoriVac: Square Block DNA Origami Vaccine
  This animation explains how DoriVac leverages DNA origami nanotechnology and immune activators to stimulate stronger and long-lasting immune responses against cancer and potentially infectious diseases. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University

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  Video/Animation
  Eliminating brain cancer at its source | Natalie Artzi | TEDxMIT
  Glioblastoma is a lethal, aggressive brain cancer with a dismal median overall survival rate of 15 months, a number that has remained unchanged for decades. Treatment for this devastating disease involves surgical resection followed by chemotherapy and radiation therapy; however, tumor recurrence is inevitable as it is impossible to eliminate all tumor cells with current...

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  Video/Animation
  SomaCode: GPS for Cell Therapy
  Just like zip codes help drivers navigate to specific addresses using a GPS system, the molecular ‘zip codes’ identified via the SomaCode platform can be used to deliver cell therapies to their specific targets in the human body, increasing the therapies’ efficacy and reducing side effects. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University