Wyss InstituteInflammatory Diseases – Wyss Institute

Toward recreating the brain’s immune system in a dish

Jessica Leff — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 13:55:59 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — Microglia are a specialized type of immune cells that accounts for about 10% of all cells within the brain and spinal cord. They function by eliminating infectious microbes, dead cells, and aggregated proteins, as well as soluble antigens that may endanger the brain and, during development, also help shape neural circuits enabling specific brain functions.

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Reimagining infectious disease treatment for greater health equity: Kwasi Adu-Berchie

Jessica Leff — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 15:00:22 +0000

By Jessica Leff Listen to Kwasi tell his story |Wyss Institute · Kwasi Audu-Berchie Reimagine the World Kwasi Adu-Berchie, traditionally named for the day of the week he was born, came into the world on a Sunday in Koforidua, Ghana. Before he started elementary school, he moved to Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, regarded by many as the cultural capital of Ghana. His father was an…

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Ropirio: Novel Treatments Targeting the Lymphatic System

Mariel Schoen — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 13:56:37 +0000

The human lymphatic system is vast and critical to our health, including the proper functioning of our immune system. Over the last decade, research into the lymph system has revealed its dysfunction in a wide variety of diseases, but development of drugs to directly target the lymph system has lagged, in part because there are few reliable preclinical models of lymph vessels on which to test drug…

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Ropirio launches from Wyss Institute to develop first-in-class lymphatic medicines

Mariel Schoen — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 13:55:12 +0000

By Lindsay Brownell (BOSTON) — The Wyss Institute at Harvard University announced today that Ropirio Therapeutics, Inc. (Ropirio) has secured a worldwide, exclusive license from Harvard’s Office of Technology Development (OTD) and Boston University (BU)’s Technology Development office for novel molecules that activate the lymphatic system – a first in the pharma industry. “There has been a…

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Vinny Chandran Suja on Making Backpacks More Reliable and Predictable

Jessica Leff — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 13:10:41 +0000

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. As a kid, Vinny Chandran Suja had no interest in biology. Instead, his math and science acumen led him to pursue degrees in mechanical and chemical engineering, studying non-living systems.

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Engineered Live Biotherapeutic Product (eLBP) to Protect the Microbiome from Antibiotics

Jessica Leff — Wed, 01 May 2024 14:44:43 +0000

Antibiotics not only kill the pathogenic bacteria causing an infection, they also indiscriminately wreak havoc on the trillions of “good” bacteria making up the human microbiome. Known as “dysbiosis,” this alteration of our gut microbial composition manifests as discomforting diarrhea in up to 35% of patients in the short term, and can take months to resolve, often requiring dietary corrections…

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Cellular “Backpacks” to Fight Cancer, Autoimmune Disorders, and More

admin — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 20:33:51 +0000

Macrophages are the body’s multipurpose defense agents, patrolling for pathogens and engulfing cellular debris, foreign substances, microbes, and even cancer cells. But cancerous tumors have evolved an insidious defense mechanism: they can switch arriving macrophages from an active, pro-inflammatory state to a passive, anti-inflammatory state, in which they actually promote the tumor’s growth.

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eRapid: Multiplexed Electrochemical Sensors for Fast, Accurate, Portable Diagnostics

admin — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 19:58:09 +0000

Handheld electrochemical sensors have revolutionized at-home medical testing for diabetics, but they have not yet been successfully applied to diagnosing other conditions. These sensors are based on the activity of an enzyme, and there are only a limited number of enzymes that can be used to detect biomarkers of human disease. An alternative, much more broadly applicable sensing strategy based on…

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Shining a light on the hidden damage of mild brain injuries

Jessica Leff — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 18:55:15 +0000

By Lindsay Brownell (BOSTON) — Researchers have created a new brain imaging method that allows mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBIs) to be diagnosed, even when existing imaging techniques like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) don’t show any structural abnormalities. The technique involves loading gadolinium, a standard MRI contrast agent, into hydrogel-based micropatches that are attached to…

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A malaria drug treatment could save babies’ lives

Jessica Leff — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 17:55:22 +0000

By Lindsay Brownell (BOSTON) — Wars, drought, displacement, and instability are causing a dramatic increase in the number of pregnant and breastfeeding women around the world who suffer from malnutrition. Without access to sufficient nutrients in the womb, babies born to these women are more likely to die due to complications like pre-term birth, low birth weight…

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