Wyss InstitutePersonalized Medicine – Wyss Institute

Next-Gen Toxicology: Inside the Organ Chip Revolution with Donald Ingber

Jessica Leff — Wed, 06 May 2026 17:06:35 +0000

In this episode of ToxChats, hosts Lauren Walker and Sarah Benjamin sit down with the groundbreaking Donald Ingber—visionary scientist, engineer, and Founding Director of the Wyss Institute. Ingber shares how his unique path through medicine, biology, and design converged to spark breakthroughs such as human Organ Chips—systems that are redefining toxicology, drug development, and disease modeling.

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Ultrasensitive test detects biomarkers for specific form of dementia

Mariel Schoen — Tue, 05 May 2026 13:55:08 +0000

By MGB Communications (BOSTON) — Dementia affects over 57 million people worldwide, a number expected to nearly double in the next 20 years. This permanent loss of cognitive abilities affects daily function and can be caused by multiple brain pathologies, including well known ones like Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Right now, biomarkers permit diagnosis of AD but not rarer pathologies like…

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Wyss Institute technologies enable breakthrough in astronaut health research aboard NASA’s Artemis II mission

Jessica Leff — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 14:55:20 +0000

By Alexandra Jirstrand (BOSTON) – Launched on April 1, 2026, Artemis II is a historic, approximately 10-day lunar flyby mission that is sending four astronauts farther into space than any humans have traveled since the Apollo era, marking a critical step toward sustained lunar exploration and future missions to Mars. The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard…

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Toward autonomous self-organizing biological robots with a nervous system

Mariel Schoen — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 18:30:42 +0000

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 cells. Originally developed in the laboratories of Wyss Institute Associate Faculty member and Tufts University Professor Michael Levin, Ph.D. and his collaborators at University of Vermont…

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Transforming cancer treatments through bioinspired engineering and translation

Jessica Leff — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 14:59:03 +0000

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…

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A CRISPR fingerprint of pathogenic C. auris fungi

Jessica Leff — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 13:45:36 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — Infection with the pathogenic yeast fungus Candida auris (C. auris) can wreak havoc on the health of hospital patients and residents of nursing homes, especially those who are already weakened by other illnesses. The pathogen easily spreads and colonizes surfaces and objects where it can survive for weeks to months, and is often resistant to standard…

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Prapela: from understanding infant breathing rhythms to treating newborn babies

Jessica Leff — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 17:50:12 +0000

Part of the Wyss Institute’s series on the positive, life-altering impact of federal research funding By Jessica Leff About half of premature infants suffer from sleep apnea, which involves pauses in their breathing. Apnea of prematurity can be life-threatening, as it lowers heart rates to dangerous levels, and can even be a risk factor for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Conversely…

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Biomaterial vaccines to make implanted orthopedic devices safer

Jessica Leff — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 19:55:42 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — Patients with implanted medical devices like orthopedic joint replacements, pacemakers, and artificial heart valves run a small but significant risk that these devices get infected with bacterial pathogens. This starts them on a burdensome path requiring “redo” (revision) surgeries, prolonged antibiotic treatments, or in severe cases amputation.

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Recapitulating egg and sperm development in the dish

Jessica Leff — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 17:55:46 +0000

By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) — More than one-sixth of adults around the world experience infertility in their lifetime. There is a high unmet need not only for increased access to affordable, high-quality fertility care for those in need but, importantly, also for new biomedical solutions that can address the root causes of infertility. Some of the earliest causes of infertility go back to…

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Blood Clot Dx

admin — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 17:00:40 +0000

Blood clots can arise anywhere in the body, blocking blood flow and causing pain and other symptoms. The most serious types of clots, called deep vein thrombosis (DVT), typically form in the veins in the legs, and can break off and become lodged in a lung. This can cause a pulmonary embolism (PE), which is when blood flow to the lungs is prevented and can be fatal. The symptoms of PE resemble…

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